Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition: Faith Allen
THEM (detail), 2022. Faith Allen
In their first exhibition, Faith Allen ’25 (Illustration) went big. The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design sophomore submitted two artworks to the Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition and reveled in the freedom to create the largest pieces they could.
“I wanted to do something bigger because I don’t usually get to work as big as I’d like to,” says Allen on their striking self-portrait titled THEM. “I grabbed the biggest board and said, ‘I’m going to make myself huge!’” Allen worked sprawled out on their living room floor to create these large-scale projects. “I’ve fallen asleep on top of my drawings more than once,” they laugh.
As an artist, Allen focuses on intensely detailed ink illustrations. “I like to zoom in on all of my drawings and do piece by piece,” they say. The repetitive process is calming and almost meditative: “I like to get a pattern and just run with it,” they say. PHRAUG, the second artwork that Allen submitted, consists of thousands of tiny illustrated frogs.
Allen appreciates the freedom and the variety of ways to complete assignments at MIAD. “I am definitely enjoying being able to go outside my creative boundaries here at MIAD,” they say. Despite an increasingly digital environment, Allen admires their professors’ “love for traditional art … practical stuff is still appreciated and I can have fun with that.”
View Allen’s work in MIAD’s Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition, which is open to the public on MIAD’s first floor in the Community Hub (Room 160) and runs until March 1. Keep up with Faith on Instagram and learn more about MIAD’s galleries!
News
Keith Negley: Award-winning illustrator and writer
When award-winning illustrator and author Keith Negley ’00 isn’t completing projects like his most recent book of “forgotten trailblazers,” he’s creating portraits of celebrities like Taylor Swift, Emma Stone and Chelsea Clinton, and doing editorial illustrations on topics like neurodivergence, organ transplants and the opioid crisis.
Two MIAD alumni named Mary L. Nohl Fellows for 2025
Two alumni from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) have received Emerging Artist fellowships from the 2025 Mary L. Nohl Fund for its 2025 cycle: Margaret Griffin ’23 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice) and Open Kitchen, co-founded by Rudy Medina ’12 (Integrated Studio Arts).
FYE Juried Media Arts Festival 2024 celebrates first-year student works
Seven students received awards at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design’s juried FYE Media Arts Festival – an in-house screening and celebration of video, animation and sound design works by current and former First-Year Experience (FYE) students held on November 26. The 56 entries were judged by multimedia and filmmaking professionals Emma B. Barany, Gabe Leistekow and Sara Sowell.
MIAD professor brings love of branding to projects and students
Brian Bowles ’01, professor of Communication Design at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD), finds freelance projects “deeply fulfilling” and beneficial to himself and to his students.
Independence First and MIAD students produce adaptive clothing
Students in a junior-level Fashion and Apparel Design class at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) collaborated with Independence First to design adaptive clothing. Two Independence First employees worked closely with MIAD students on customized outfits specific to their needs and preferences.