On May 14, 5-8 pm, everyone is invited to the Opening Reception of the second thesis exhibition by the 2026 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) candidates from the graduate program in Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo. The MFA Thesis exhibitions, presented by the Department and UWAG, give the campus and community-at-large an opportunity to see the end result of two years of intensive research and studio production by emerging visual artists.
This exhibition runs from May 14-30.
James Malzahn
The Victory Box
The Victory Box examines how powerful systems enter everyday life by appearing useful, convenient, entertaining, and reassuring. Presented as a modern domestic device for safety and public information, it carries the appeal of something new: a media object families could watch, gather around, and feel proud to own. While rooted in a mid-century setting, the exhibition speaks to contemporary concerns around artificial intelligence, networked surveillance, and persuasive media: tools with the potential to benefit society, but also to manipulate, misinform, observe, and control when placed in the wrong hands. Through documentary material, archival traces, domestic space, and electronic installation, the work asks how belief is created and how authority becomes part of ordinary life. Rather than treating innovation as inherently dangerous, The Victory Box encourages awareness and critical discussion, inviting viewers to consider how technology, trust, comfort, and convenience shape both private life and public belief.
James Malzahn is an interdisciplinary artist and MFA candidate at the University of Waterloo whose background in technology shapes a practice rooted in the belief that technological systems should benefit humanity. Working across traditional and digital media, installation, custom-built electronics, and code, he creates immersive environments that generate critical conversation about the real and potential misuses of technology and the ways these systems can harm society, perception, and public trust. Artist Website
Image credit: James Malzahn, The Victory Box User Manual, 2026. Image courtesy of the artist.
Elise Popa
A Fallow Year
A Fallow Year tells the story of Popa’s own fallow season, encapsulated through an intuitive skating practice and the building of an ice rink on a farm just outside Stratford, Ontario. The documentation that follows the process of making the rink explores how the physical labour and repetitive maintenance tasks mirror the efforts needed to support the artist’s recovery and self-determination post heartbreak. The performance-for-camera works, in which a first-person body-mounted camera is worn, explores drawing and intuitive movement as a form of embodied agency. Through using the analogy of an agricultural fallow season, the exhibition portrays a regenerative year of self-healing and renewal after loss.
Elise Popa is an interdisciplinary artist and long-time figure skater from southern Ontario. She graduated from Brock University’s Bachelor of Arts Studio Art program in 2022, where she began exploring kinetic art practices. As a Master of Fine Arts candidate at University of Waterloo, Popa has developed her intuitive movement practice while embracing failure as a methodology: creating work that articulates movement on skates (inline or figure) as a form of becoming.
Image credit: Elise Popa, Build 02 (detail), 2026, colour photograph. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo: Paige Smith.
