Arts & Culture
Reverent ‘Referents’ for the newest art exhibition
The Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery highlights emerging artists
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The 2025 Irwin Scholars Exhibition asks the question ‘How do we fill up space?’ Referents displays works from 12 emerging artists, all of whom were nominated by faculty members for their hard work and excellence in the arts. Starting on May 14, the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery will be open to all to come and enjoy.
The art pieces on display represent spaces before, during, and after humans have interacted with it. The exhibition title, Referents, indicates the allusory aspect of each work and how the art is often referencing outside material. All pieces invite viewers to reflect on their impacts on themselves, each other, and on the natural environment, in various moments of their lives.
The William Hyde and Susan Benteen Irwin Scholarship Fund was established in 1986, and now generates 12 annual merit scholarships to further the education of selected UC Santa Cruz students for proven excellence in the arts. The Irwin Scholarship is the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship in the Art Department. Winners are awarded with $2,500 and a group exhibition at the Sesnon Gallery.
This annual, professionally organized exhibition has become a tradition for the Sesnon Gallery for over 38 years. The gift of the Irwin family has since supported hundreds of University of California, Santa Cruz students since its establishment and shows the far-reaching effects of donor support for the arts.
“There’s a really beautiful combination of creative ideas with a profound excellence in the medium,” says Valeria Miranda, the director of the Sesnon Gallery, of the upcoming exhibition. “Whether the artists are working in installations, two-dimensional or three-dimensional mediums we see a lot of excellence and artistry.”
One of the notable artworks mentioned by Miranda is a tree constructed by Kai Monahan that features audio elements from nature. “It creates somewhat of a liminal space for the audience to occupy through the duration of the experience,” says Monahan, “designed for those that are cut off from the natural world, so they might understand all the things the land can tell us.”
Another notable piece is by Elijah Dalley, who was recently featured in the London Design Festival for his work with making sustainable shoes. For the Irwin Exhibition he hand built a bicycle intended for shoe repair on the go. He views his work as “a vessel for community engagement and involvement with the paths we walk (or bike) through the earth.”
This year’s featured artists include: Jaden Anderson, Nathan Casey, Elijah Dalley, Rory Gershen, Audrey Gilbert, Declan Greicius, Nico Lown Heitz, Sydney Jacobs, Lola Lankford, Dorothy Li, Kai Monahan and Alison Nesbitt.
Many of the artists, like Dalley, are already finding success beyond UC Santa Cruz. Referents is a look into the future of art and artists on a much larger scale. “These are basically the next generation of American artists,” says Miranda. “Looking at this show is looking at who is next in the art scene.”
About the Artists
Jaden Josephine Anderson was born in 1999 and raised in San Jose, California. She is an emerging artist whose work explores liminal spaces through painting. She holds an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts from West Valley College and is currently completing her final quarter at University of California, Santa Cruz with a Bachelor’s degree in Art and minor in Education. Her work has been exhibited in several student showcases starting with the Cilker Art & Design Expo in 2023 and, most recently, her senior show, Doormant in 2025. Jaden is currently living and working in Santa Cruz, California.
Nathan Casey is a Bay Area artist whose work explores themes of family, race, superstition and place. His practice makes use of painting, photography, and printmaking. Currently he is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in art at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has shown work at the UCSC ethnic resource center, the Sesnon Underground, and student held art shows.
Elijah Dalley was born in Seattle, Washington in 2003. His practice focuses on circular shoemaking, and working with communities to bring craft back into the domestic sphere. Utilizing recycled material, he explores our ontological relation to the object and material histories. In shoemaking, this has manifested in Technological PiracyTM, and the confluence and confounding of familiar symbology and branding. His work has been exhibited in the US and abroad, and he sat on a panel in London, England, as a part of a project for London Design Week 2024.
Rory Gershen is a photographer and printmaker from Vallejo California. In an effort to explore the literal visual imagery of his photography, much of his recent work has been in varied photo-based printmaking processes to emphasize the tactility and uniqueness of the printing processes. Much of his work has centered around themes of presence, change and the exploration of built environments and infrastructures, specifically in his hometown of Vallejo.
Audrey Gilbert is a Bay Area born artist who works with print, sculpture, and textile in her wide practice. She has shown work at various shows in Santa Cruz, and has created handmade clothing pieces that are worn around the world. She is currently making work that explores abstraction, and womanhood, out of Santa Cruz, California.
Declan Greicius was born in Palo Alto, California in 2003. Hehas spent time developing his practice in the Czech Republic. He has previously worked in screen print shops in Santa Cruz and Chicago and now works at Minnow Art Gallery and as a bike messenger for Clutch Courier. His work has been shown in the Sesnon Underground Gallery as well as in a number of locally organized exhibitions.
Nico Lown Heitz was born in Mill Valley, California, in 2003. He currently resides in Santa Cruz, where he is pursuing degrees in Art and Philosophy. He has studied art at the Ox-Bow School of Art in Michigan and at the University of Barcelona, Spain. Nico has shown his work at several locally organized community events and Munch Cafe in Santa Cruz. He is a three-time recipient of the Irwin grant for the continuation of artistic projects and a recipient of the John Faulkner Memorial Art Scholarship. Nico primarily works with painting, although he continues to experiment with multitudes of different media, including print, sculpture, digital compositions, paper collage, and music.
Sidney Jacobs, born in Oakland in 2001, is a multimedia artist whose practice centers on photography, alternative process techniques, and experimental dye methods. Rooted in tactile engagement with both image and material, their work explores themes of exploitation and the intimate, often fraught relationship between the body and the land. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions and local art shows across Santa Cruz.
Lola Lankford is a multidisciplinary artist from Sebastopol, California. She is currently completing her final year of undergraduate at University of California, Santa Cruz, double majoring in Art and Education Democracy & Justice. With a focus on photography & alternative printing practices, Lola’s work reflects her diverse artistic interests and a deep curiosity about self, place, and transformation. She currently resides in Santa Cruz with intentions of pursuing her art career in Oakland, California, post-grad. Lola’s artworks have been exhibited in various local art markets and gallery spaces.
LokWai Dorothy Li is a multidisciplinary artist in her final year at the University of California, Santa Cruz, double majoring in Art and Business Management Economics Accounting. As a first-generation immigrant who spent 11 years in both Hong Kong and the United States, her work reflects a deep connection to her cultural roots and the Asian American experience. She explores themes of family, identity, and community through imagery and photography, using printmaking techniques that merge contemporary approaches with abstract and illustrative aesthetics inspired by her diverse cultural background.
Kai Monahan was born on the rural coast of Humboldt County, California and graduated from Arcata Arts Institute in 2021. Monahan’s work has been shown in multiple exhibitions in Santa Cruz. His performance work has extended into multiple UC reserve sites, received a publication in international art journal KERB, and was even featured as a photo in the LA times. His ongoing projects with collaborators have recently received multiple grants for further research from organizations including Museo Eduardo Carrillo, and the Irwin Family. He is currently working and living in Santa Cruz; in the last year of pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at University of California Santa Cruz.
Alison Nesbitt is a visual artist whose practice centers on photography and printmaking born in
Southern California in 2001. She will receive her BA in Studio Art from the University of
California, Santa Cruz in June, 2025. Alison has exhibited her photographs and prints in
independent home galleries, as part of both group and solo exhibitions. In 2023, she was selected for the Weston Portfolio Scholarship within the Social Commentary category. Her photographs have been included in Black Flower Publishing’s Garden of Dreams and Tvergastein Journal’s The Body. With a distinct visual language rooted in personal and familial narratives, she continues to explore the intersections of memory, identity, and place through lens-based media.
May 14, 2025 – May 23, 2025
Tuesday – Saturday, 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Wednesdays, 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Closed Sundays, Mondays
Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
UC Santa Cruz
Baskin Service Road
Santa Cruz, California 95064
Free and open to the public
