MFA.PAINT.2YR - MFA in Painting (2yr)

2025 - 2026 | Curriculum | 2-year program

The MFA program in Painting emphasizes critical and artistic growth through the evolution of a rigorous studio practice. While a shared passion for the history and craft of painting binds the department together, professors are committed to assisting each student in developing their own vision, supporting an enormous diversity of formal and conceptual approaches, painting styles and interests. During two years in residence at RISD, graduate students undertake a serious investigation of the broad range of possibilities and realities presented by contemporary painting.

Learning outcomes

Graduates of the MFA program are prepared to:

• display an understanding of contemporary visual art.

• demonstrate the intention, motivation and tools required to pursue a career as an artist and sustain a rigorous fine arts practice.

• demonstrate the strong visual, verbal and technical skills needed to engage with cutting-edge discourse in contemporary art.

• produce artwork that makes use of the interdependence between content, form, process and context.

• appreciate the material qualities and physical aspects of works not intended exclusively for reproduction.

• display an intimate familiarity with historical and contemporary approaches to visual art and their interrelationships.

• demonstrate enhanced critical reasoning with broad historical overviews and social insight.

• support intellectual and academic freedom.

• deliver discerning critiques of their own work and that of others at a level appropriate to faculty in most collegiate visual arts programs.

• individuate their approaches to visual artmaking and address self-defined research projects with distinct and challenging parameters.