Work from Home highlights the work of seven Wayne State University MFAs and alumni, ranging from painting and printmaking to photography and fiber. The women explore personal identity, what it means to make art at home, and how to navigate the ever-changing Covid world.

Kristen Canda
Kristen Canda received her BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2017 and is currently an MFA Candidate in Painting at Wayne State University. Canda’s work emphasizes the shape and color relationships of objects she observes in her daily life. By depicting them, she reflects on the items, the places, and the people that have shaped her personal identity. Her work was selected by Michigan’s 2019 Arts in the Legislature where it was displayed in the state capital. Canda’s paintings were also included in Emergence-19, a juried group exhibition highlighting the work of emerging MFA Candidates throughout the state of Michigan, curated by Eastern Michigan University. Canda is currently working on her upcoming Thesis Exhibition scheduled to be at Collected Detroit in April.

Elise Marie Martin
Elise Marie Martin is an inter-disciplinary artist, working primarily in the areas sculpture, fibers, painting and video. She received her BFA from the College for Creative Studies in 2012 and is currently pursuing her MFA from Wayne State University with a focus in Fibers. Martin is an artist in residence at Fortress Studios in Detroit. Her studio practice is complimented by her work in community outreach and art education. She has exhibited work in galleries throughout the USA, as well as in Canada and Germany.

Tia Nichols
Born in Virginia, raised abroad, and now studying in Detroit, Tia Nichols is full of many ideas and new approaches to creating. Much of her work focuses on combining personal interests, research, and daily experiences into new forms that challenge viewers impression of art and information viewing. Taking an interest in printmaking during high school, Tia now studies the many techniques of print media and paper forms at Wayne State University, as a Master of Fine Arts candidate.

Kylen Louanne Palmer
Kylen Louanne Palmer is a photographer based in Detroit, Michigan. She received her BFA with a concentration in Photography from Wayne State University in 2012. Her photography work spans technical product to fashion and creative collaboration to her personal creative practice which is mostly film and experimental. Memory in it’s creation and recollection over time, interconnectedness on micro and macro levels and the photograph in theory as object are overarching, intertwined and ever present themes in her work.

Amelia Novella Rennell
Amelia Novella Rennell was born in 1995 in Detroit, Michigan. In 2018 she received her BFA in Crafts with a specialty in Fiber & Textile from College for Creative Studies. Rennell is currently finishing up two years as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Wayne State University where her interdisciplinary practice continues to revolve around her familial history and the cyclical nature of trauma and is currently concluding her time at Wayne State University as a Thomas C. Rumble Fellow. Rennell has already been included in various shows including “the 19th Amendment at 100: Women’s Voices Then and Now” at The Swords Into Plowshares Peace Center and Gallery and has been recognized with Outstanding Student Awards from organizations like the National Surface Design Association and The International Sculpture Center. Recent exhibitions include the “All Media Exhibition” at the Detroit Artist Market as well as the “Uncommon Threads” at The Scarab Club this past July. Rennell’s work will be showcased in a dual show alongside fellow MFA Candidate Kristen Canda at Collected Detroit this coming April.

Cara Marie Young
Cara Marie Young is an artist from Atlanta, Georgia based in Detroit, Michigan. Her current interdisciplinary painting practice is an evolving response to the human experience, concerned with issues of race in the American landscape and the reality of life in her own skin. The artist seeks to engage with the community around her, recently exhibiting work at the Mbad African Bead Museum, Wayne State University, and The Feminist Art Museum in 2020. She was an exhibiting artist and speaker in the Race Forward Facing Race Conference in Fall 2016 at the Hilton Atlanta, and is currently pursuing a Dean’s Diversity Fellowship and MFA at Wayne State University.

Yan Zhang
Yan Zhang lives and works in Windsor, Canada. She received a BA in Arts Education in 1997 and an MA in Chinese Painting in 2003. She has already been included in various important exhibitions including “Canada International Renowned Chinese Artists Exhibition” at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto, Canada and the “10th National Art Exhibition of China” at Hangzhou World Trade Center, Hangzhou, China. She received several awards including the Silver Prize at the 10th Hubei Province Art Exhibition and Outstanding Works Award at the 10th National Art Exhibition. One of her paintings, “Ups and Downs”, is part of permanent collections of the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto.