Originally from Turkey, Taiwan, Utah, and Philadelphia, the 2006 candidates for a Master of Fine Arts in studio art at UNC-Chapel Hill form a diverse group of women with challenging big ideas. Their work is showcased in the 2006 MFA exhibition New Currents in Contemporary Art. The exhibition will be on view April 14 - May 14, 2006.

Zeynep Cagla Alkan approaches her photography as a filmmaker: building sets, placing dramatic lighting, and staging incidents. She emphasizes the ambiguity of photography, seemingly a window on the real, but calling attention to the pliability of the real in the photographer's imagination.

Expanding on ancient Chinese folk art technique of paper cutouts, Wan Yu Wendy Chien sets up confrontations between Asian and Western culture. Combing Chinese mythological characters with Disney heroes, or hovering in the space between cultures in an airplane, she skewers cultural stereotypes.

Natalie Larsen paints mysterious narratives that question patriarchal authority and family politics in contemporary Mormon culture. Using delectable colors, her jewel-like paintings draw viewers into her imaginary world.

An engagement with environment prompts Lauren Rosenthal to work as an artistic cartographer. Drawing on the wall working with satellite maps, she finds relationships between rivers and neural pathways, lung fibers, or the veins on a leaf, celebrating the interconnectedness of nature.