The San José State University (SJSU) Master of Fine Arts 2024-2025 cohort presents their Lift Off 2025 group exhibition at The Institute of Contemporary Art San José, curated by Zoe Latzer. The group exhibition, titled Who ‘am’ I, without you? will be displayed in a two-part exhibition. Part 1 opened on April 4, 2025, at ICA San José, and the second exhibition opened on June 19, 2025.
In addition to their solo thesis exhibitions, SJSU MFA Candidates participate in a group exhibition and collaborate with MA Candidates in Art History and Visual Culture to create the annual Lift Off Catalogue. Hosted in 2025 at the ICA San José, the twelve students showcase a wide range of mediums, including painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, photography, digital art, and multidisciplinary installations.
Part 1: April 4th, 2025 – June 8, 2025
Participating Artists: Andrew Marovich, Chelsea Stewart, Erin de Jauregui, Mary Morse, Samantha Saldana, and Timna Naim. (Profiles in a previous post)
Part 2: June 19, 2025 – August 24, 2025
Participating Artists: Michelle Frey, Xiao Wu, Lisa Heikka-Huber, Mona Farrokhi, Sam Swenor, and Shea Windberg. (Profiles below)
Follow SJSU’s MFA Cohort at: bit.ly/sjsuliftoff | liftoff.sjsu
Follow ICA SJ at: icasanjose.org
Michelle Frey
Michelle Frey is a visual designer, painter, and installation artist working in San José, California, and completing her MFA at San Jose State University. Her provisional pictorial prints and sculptures are gestural extensions of her thoughts in tactile mediums, as well as site-specific exhibits. Frey vacillates between figuration, observation, and abstraction in paint, paper, wood, and pewter. Her work responds to the effects of current events, unseen caregiving, and labor that keep families and the environment functioning. Her current art practice focuses on interactively sharing aesthetic rituals of processing grief and the gravity of loss through various materials.
Follow Michelle’s work:
atelierfrey.com
Instagram: boule_miche
Xiao Wu
Xiao Wu is a digital media artist currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at San Jose State University. His skill set spans various areas, including coding, real-time interactive multimedia programming, web interactions, and AI.
He reflects on subtle changes in societal norms and the impact of technology on daily life. By experimenting with new technologies and aesthetics, he aims to translate his thoughts into tangible objects and spaces while also exploring and redefining the boundaries of digital media.
By integrating cutting-edge technologies into his art, Xiao aims to push the boundaries of digital media and engage audiences in meaningful experiences.
Follow Xiao at xiaoproject.com
Lisa Heikka-Huber
Lisa Heikka-Huber is a transdisciplinary artist working on her MFA in Spatial Art at San José State University. Born in Los Angeles, CA, Lisa comes from a family of accomplished sculptors. She moved to the Washington, D.C. area for high school before returning to California to pursue her studies in glass blowing at Shasta College. She holds a BFA in Sculpture and Small Metals, a BA in Political Science focused on global water policy, a Museum and Gallery Practices certificate, a minor in Art History and in Scientific Diving from Cal Poly Humboldt.
In addition to her MFA studies, Lisa is pursuing an MA in Social Sciences through Cal Poly Humboldt’s Environment and Community graduate program, where she continues to explore the intersections of art, science, and environmental advocacy.
Follow Lisa’s work at:
lisaheikka-huber.com
Instagram: lisaspiecesglass
Shea Windberg
Shea Windberg is a contemporary photographer who engages with an experimental and process-driven approach to the film medium. Blurring the boundaries between photography and abstract painting, Windberg uses analog techniques such as reprinting, re-photographing, burning, and chemical manipulation to create richly textured, highly caustic images that explore memory, anxiety, materiality, and impermanence. Their work challenges traditional notions of photography as a documentary medium, instead emphasizing the transformative potential of material process and the instability of perception. Windberg conveys a chaotic, anxious, and raw condition of being through the deployment of abstracted, deteriorating images that consist of industrial landscapes, fragmented bodies, and a world on the precipice of consuming itself.
Follow Shea’s work:
Instagram: the.smallest.ghost
Sam Swenor
Through digital media, graphic design, and professional knowledge of corporate marketing and communications, Sam Swenor builds graphic systems that take a stand, hold information, educate others, and communicate visual messages through digital and physical touchpoints. Her work operates in the space of institutional critique as it pertains to artifacts that have been displaced through time, with a focus on Hellenic antiquity.
Sam Swenor currently works at eBay as Lead Designer, Global Communications and as a Lecturer at San José State in the Department of Design. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Chapman University in 2017, and she graduated with her Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media Art from San José State University in the fall of 2024.
Follow Sam’s work at:
sswenordesign.com
Instagram: sam_swenor.ai
Mona Farrokhi
Mona Farrokhi is a multidisciplinary artist and designer whose work explores visual noise, sensory distortion, and interactive technology. Trained in industrial design and based in the Bay Area by way of Tehran, she blends procedural visuals, projection mapping, and spatial systems to investigate how perception breaks down—how glitches, hallucinations, and interference shape self-image.
Her installations utilize tools such as TouchDesigner, StreamDiffusion, and Kinect sensors to track bodies, process image data, and fragment reality in real-time. Projects like DOYOUSEEitNOW and The NOISE I See examine neurological and optical phenomena such as visual snow and derealization.
Her approach is both technical and personal—built by hand, wired from scratch, and shaped by feedback, distortion, and the tension between presence and misrecognition.
Follow Mona’s work at:
monafarrokhi.com
Instagram: __pixelpixel__
