Art and Art History Research and Creative Works
At Adelphi University, we encourage art and art history students to investigate creativity, culture, and visual expression through studio practice, design, history and critical inquiry.
From your first year, you can engage in hands-on studio practice and creative research in areas such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, animation, graphic design, art history, and visual culture. Students develop technical, creative, and critical thinking skills while creating original work and exploring the historical and cultural significance of art and design.
To receive credit for research:
- Connect with faculty during your first year to explore research interests
- Identify a focus area aligned with your artistic or scholarly goals
- Develop a creative project or research study under faculty mentorship
- Register for independent study or research credits with approval
Students present their work at the Adelphi Scholarship and Creative Works Conference and may also participate in regional and national exhibitions, screenings, publications and other professional opportunities.
Through the SPARK Center (Scholars Pursuing Arts, Research and Knowledge), students can receive funding, mentorship and support for creative projects.
Faculty Expertise and Areas of Focus
Jennifer Maloney is an observational still life painter whose trompe l’oeil work explores memory, everyday objects and autobiography. She paints the humorous and the tragic, the ironic and the iconic, the beautiful and the ugly. Ultimately, she is a consumer, collector, commentator and cataloguer. Her interests include color theory, Renaissance frescoes and the ways ordinary objects can communicate personal and cultural meaning.
Kellyann Monaghan creates contemporary landscape paintings that explore the expansive energy and rhythmic qualities of the landscape. Transitioning from direct observation to media-inspired imagery, she uses expressive, “alla prima” brushwork to capture the unexpected beauty and raw power of extreme weather events. Her work serves as a visual dialogue between traditional landscape techniques and the urgent environmental realities of climate change.
Carson Fox is an artist whose work centers on sculpture, installation, printmaking, and artist books. Her contemporary printmaking practice engages etching, relief printing, and screenprinting, while her sculptural work explores transformation, nature, and materiality through cast resin and organic forms. Her teaching and creative practice also emphasize professional development and emerging artist strategies, and she has lectured widely across the United States and abroad.
Christopher Saucedo is a sculptor and visual artist whose work spans sculpture, papermaking and public art. Influenced by experiences including Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, his research explores community, resilience, and the relationship between people and water through large-scale sculpture and installation.
Hannah Smith Allen works across photography, printmaking, book arts, text and moving image to examine how American history and folklore shape landscapes and communities. Her interdisciplinary work explores politics, place, and memory through photography, collage, video and projection mapping.
Andrew London is a writer, director, and animator whose award-winning independent films have screened at major festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, Annecy, and Ottawa. His work and creative practice explore animation, storytelling, and independent filmmaking through short-form animated films.
David Pierce is an artist and designer whose work investigates wayfinding systems and integrated branding for museums and cultural institutions. His interdisciplinary work combines graphic design, UI/UX, web design, editorial design, creative coding, and experiential design to improve how people navigate and engage with public spaces. His recent work is with the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum and Centro de las Artes de San Agustín, Mexico.
Eva Zak, PhD is an art historian specializing in modern and contemporary art in Russia, France, and the United States. Her research focuses on women and LGBTQIA+ artists, filmmakers, and designers, using interdisciplinary approaches to recover overlooked voices and expand understandings of twentieth-century visual culture.