After eight years, 18 students' academic and artistic careers culminated in the UMass Dartmouth 2016 MFA Thesis Exhibition.

The exhibition is an annual event showcasing the artwork of graduating students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. The opening reception was held on Saturday, April 2.

It was held at the Star Store Campus in New Bedford and consisted of a wide variety of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, digital and moving images, software application design, as well as intricately made jewelry that utilizes both text and unusual contemporary materials. The range of themes is equally diverse, featuring explorations of personal and cultural identity, feelings of loss, intimacy, memories and dreams as well as examinations of formal and conceptual space.

Eighteen UMass Dartmouth MFA degree candidates in the visual arts field had their works displayed in the exhibition. Those featured include painter Andrew Tedesco. Tedesco has been a student at UMass for eight years, working now towards his Master's degree. Through acrylic and oils paints, Tedesco attempts to intellectualize the loss of his mother.

"Clinical spaces housing mythological features" are recurring motifs in his work, creating "a dead culture within dead space," according to his artist statement.

Artist and teacher Meaghan Gates who specializes in sculptures of fictitious organisms made out of ceramic. Gates' work is inspired by nature.

Sarah Allen Prigodich, also a sculptor, took a less biological approach to her sculptures. Instead, Prigodich's work leans towards the psychological with a heavy focus on the ambiguous nature of memory. She describes her sculptures as a "physical manifestation of our psychological incongruities."

The exhibition is open to public through May 14. Artists Talk is scheduled for Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m. where the artists will delve deeper into their individual works.

Selections from the exhibition will be shown this summer at the Bromfield Gallery in Boston from June 1 to 26, with an opening reception on Friday, June 3, 6 - 8:30 p.m.

Gallery exhibitions are open daily in New Bedford from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The gallery is located at 715 Purchase St., New Bedford.