Weathervanes | Department of Visual Arts

Detail from Nathan Holder, im baby, 2026.

March 26, 2026 - April 17, 2026

Cochrane-Woods Art Center, 1st and 2nd floors
Opening Celebration, March 26, 2026 at 5pm

Eleven artists find themselves thrown about by a twenty-first-century storm, distinct in its demands and challenges. Pulled to and fro, they are tasked with renegotiating how we coexist with nature and one another, contending with novel and threatening technological advancements, and reconstructing notions of gender, race, and social understanding. Sensing these changing atmospheric conditions, their varied, imaginative responses point in a multiplicity of directions and towards un-forecasted futures. Weathervanes, the first group show in Chat About's exhibition history, offers a glimpse into the evolving practices of these artists as they navigate the precarity of the current moment.

Here, they confront concepts such as memory, environment, identity, sensation, and political ideology through a variety of physical media. Scholar-written labels deepen these entanglements and tie contemporary theory to contemporary methods. Weathervanes is an exercise in humanistic expression during a time when the political forecast is constantly shifting.

Founded in 2021, Chat About pairs students in the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities and the Master of Fine Arts program in the Department of Visual Arts and provides them with resources for critique, programming, and exhibition. From February through April 2026, Chat About participants will bring the campus community into their process through workshops and lectures. We invite you to join an upcoming event and get pulled in new directions yourself; find the schedule on Instagram @chatabout.uchi or here.

Curators

Weathervanes is curated by Faye Yingfei Liang (MFA'26), Frances Millar (AM'26), and Emily Slavin (AM'26).

Artists

Weathervanes showcases work by Jef Biesinger (MFA'26), Xing Raffaella Chen (MFA'27), Nathan Holder (MFA'27), Hannah Michelle Ivanov (MFA'27), Nikki Kelsay (MFA'27), el n.k. lee (MFA'26), Zihan Qiu (MFA'26), Olivia Isabel Rosato (MFA'26), Kiana Shahnia (MFA'26), Bradley Verhelle (AM'27), and Siwei Simon Xu (MFA'27).

Scholars

Labels featured in Weathervanes are written by Xiyue (Scarlet) Ding (AM'27), Esme Graham (AM'26), Molly Hurley (AM'27), Evan DaYu Ling (AM'26), Eric Liu (AM'26), Anju Lukose-Scott (AB'26, AM'26), Frances Millar (AM'26), Emily Slavin (AM'26), Amanda Sukenick (AM'26), John Xu (AM'27), Henie Zhang (AM'26), and Coco Zhou (AM'27).

Support

CWAC Exhibitions is organized by the Department of Art History’s Visual Resources Center. Additional support provided by the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities, the Department of Visual Arts, and Marz community Brewing Co. Installation support, preparation, and fabrication provided by the curators and artists, Noël Da, Libby Konjoyan, Evan DaYu Ling, and Bradley Verhelle. Special thanks to Jef Biesinger, Carl Fuldner, Erica Warren, and the Chat About Student Advisory Committee, Zac Jones AM'27 and Yanlin Zhu AM'27.