PITTSBURGH, PA.- The Andy Warhol Museum and Carnegie Mellon University School of Art MFA Program co-present a joint exhibition, Time-Honored Non-Specifics, on view March 27 – April 12, 2026. A public opening reception will take place on March 27 from 5–8 p.m.
Time-Honored Non-Specifics features new works by the CMU School of Art MFA Class of 2026— Naomi Chambers, Bulumko Mbete and Afrooz Partovi, whose studio-based practices span painting, assemblage sculpture, textiles, ceramics, installation, immersive technologies and time-based media. This thesis exhibition is a critical presentation for the MFA candidates, offering them an opportunity to connect their creative practices to a broader cultural discourse in Pittsburgh. In its second year at The Warhol, the exhibition also continues a growing partnership between the museum and CMU, bringing these artists into the legacy of Andy Warhol, one of the School of Art’s most influential alumni.
The exhibition title speaks to the three artists’ shared, though distinctly interpreted, relationships to time, traditions and meaning. Chambers, a Pittsburgh-born painter and assemblage sculptor, roots her work in community histories and Black feminist modes of care, and her practice reflects years of collaboration, mentorship and collective organizing. Mbete, a multidisciplinary artist from South Africa, draws from textile traditions and craft methodologies practiced by women in Southern Africa, engaging them as living archives of generational knowledge and contemporary realities. Partovi, an artist-architect from Iran, explores absence, disappearance and the porous boundaries between physical and digital space, using immersive technologies to surface overlooked histories and intangible forms of memory. Together, their thesis work culminates in an exhibition grounded in three years of intensive critical inquiry within the CMU MFA program.
Andy Warhol (then Andrew Warhola) earned his degree in pictorial design in 1949 from CMU (then the Carnegie Institute of Technology). He struggled in his first-year arts classes and had to take a summer drawing course to improve his skills. Warhol’s drawings of his brother Paul’s produce truck made during that summer of 1946 earned him the Martin B. Leisser Prize and the chance to exhibit in the college’s fine arts gallery. He became a star student who joined several student campus organizations including the modern dance club and was also the editor of the student publication Cano.
“The thesis exhibition is a powerful capstone for these artists, showcasing three years of research, dialogue and experimentation,” said Charlie White, the Regina and Marlin Miller head of school, and professor of art at CMU. “To premiere their work by returning to The Warhol’s galleries this spring feels both meaningful and natural. It’s a privilege to share our MFA candidates’ ambitious work with Pittsburgh in a space that connects our School’s past to the future we’re building.”
“It is an honor to host this special exhibition of the MFA candidates’ work here at The Warhol,” said Mario Rossero, director of The Warhol. “As a space that honors experimentation, pushing boundaries and exploring multiple perspectives, this collaboration is a perfect fit.”
The Carnegie Mellon University School of Art MFA Program is an interdisciplinary, experimental, research-based program that provides students with a challenging and supportive context to expand and develop their work and thinking as artists. As one of the top-ranked graduate programs in the country, CMU views artmaking as a vital social, critical and intellectual pursuit. Graduate students are encouraged to employ a comparative and intersectional approach to critical and cultural theories, and to allow this inquiry to inform and expand what it means to be an artist and to make art within the contemporary condition.
