Image: Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College
'Photo-Design: Persuasion, Critique, Fantasy' runs from October 3, 2026, through January 31, 2027. The event is free and open to the public, with a reception in Loeb’s atrium following the program.
Spanning a century, from the 1920s to the present, the exhibition offers “photo-design” to describe how graphic designers, architects, and artists use photography to imagine new ways of living when the future seems uncertain and not guaranteed. It features experimentation with photography through techniques including collage, montage, and experimental printing.
Elawad is featured in the exhibition and contributed to its design. She is a Sudanese, British-born artist who received her MFA in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art in 2023 and is now based in Brooklyn, NYC.
Her visual practice is collage-like, kitsch, and experimental, encompassing experimental prints, garments, watercolor painting, textiles, video art, installations, and more. The practice also celebrates beauty, love, and her culture, often through explorations of her interpersonal relationships.
The exhibition includes works by Marshall Brown, the Guerrilla Girls, László Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, Eduardo Paolozzi, Jorge Rigamonte, and Grete Stern, among others.
