Tyler is a distinguished, full-time, two-year graduate program designed to cultivate professional painters in a supportive yet rigorous educational environment. Tyler's MFA in Painting emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches guided by conceptual practices.
Painting today is understood as an expansive and materially agile practice. It is no longer confined to canvas or studio walls, nor defined solely by traditional techniques. Painting intersects with installation, performance, digital imaging, social practice, and critical theory.
As a Tyler MFA student, you’ll approach painting as a site of research and provocation, where historical frameworks are revised and new narratives are constructed through material inquiry and conceptual rigor.
In dialogue with a multi-faceted community of faculty and students, you can expect to move between disciplines. Our practices are as likely to unfold in museums and galleries as in community spaces, public sites, or online platforms. At Tyler, painting is a way of thinking critically, engaging the world and imagining its transformation.
The Tyler School of Art and Architecture features its own admissions team, who can provide you with the information you need to make the best decision for your educational and career goals.
The Painting program at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture is a two-year, 60-credit program leading to the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree. The program, which is ranked among the top 15 MFA programs in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, offers students access to unparalleled facilities and strong, personal mentorship.
Painting at Tyler is understood as an open field. You will be encouraged to work across media and disciplines—blending painting with sculpture, video, performance, installation, print, glass, fibers, ceramics and digital technologies. This approach embraces an evolving definition of painting that reflects the complexities of contemporary life and artmaking.
The Painting MFA program emphasizes research-driven practice grounded in theory, history and cultural critique. Through seminars, readings and critique, you will examine the legacies and power structures embedded in image-making, and develop work that is self-aware and intellectually ambitious.
The Tyler MFA program fosters a tight-knit, collaborative environment where dialogue is central. You can expect to engage in intensive critiques with peers and faculty, and connect with visiting artists, curators and critics. This culture of exchange extends into Philadelphia’s vibrant arts community, promoting engagement beyond the university.
You will graduate prepared not just to make work, but to live a life in art. The program supports professional practice through exhibitions, publications, grant writing, pedagogy training and career guidance. Graduates are equipped to navigate the art world as exhibiting artists, educators and cultural workers.
Graduates of Tyler’s MFA in Painting program are distinguished by their expansive approaches to image-making, critical rigor and professional versatility. They emerge as artists deeply engaged with contemporary issues, equipped to navigate diverse contexts—from studio practice to cultural leadership and interdisciplinary collaboration.
The MFA in Painting program at Tyler School of Art and Architecture offers you access to exceptional facilities designed to support both traditional and experimental practices. These facilities are part of Tyler's commitment to providing artists with the space and resources necessary to develop their practice within a supportive and dynamic environment.
MFA ‘20
Julia Clift's paintings and works on paper reflect on mediated perception, American culture, and the implications of the Anthropocene. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and is included in Wythe Hotel’s permanent collection in Brooklyn, NY, as well as Penn Medicine’s Pavilion Collection, curated by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A passionate educator, Julia has taught at The Pennsylvania State University, the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Maryland Institute College of Art, and West Chester University. At Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Julia co-created and continues to teach Visualizing Anatomy, a course that deepens medical students’ understanding of anatomy through visual arts curriculum. In 2023, Julia conceived and curated Seeing the Anthropocene, a multi-venue exhibition in Philadelphia featuring works by over a dozen international artists, scientists, and musicians all grappling with urgent environmental issues. Julia received her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and her MFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University. She additionally studied under the painter Odd Nerdrum from 2009-2010. Her writing has been featured in BOMB, Hyperallergic, and Title Magazine.
MFA ‘21
Naomi Lemus is a Houston native born to Mexican immigrants. Her work focuses on the history of her family, the reality and struggles faced by immigrants. She utilizes materials like fibers, archival documents and found material to explore and emphasize the pain, suffering, as well as achievements she has witnessed as a first generation American. Naomi attended San Jacinto College North from 2013-2016 and received her BFA in Painting at University of Houston in 2018. She also received an MFA from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Philadelphia, PA in 2021 and currently teaches at San Jacinto College.
“While I was enrolled in the MFA Painting program at Tyler, I was also able to take classes in architecture, soil science, collaborative practices, and business. There were faculty members who recognized and validated my need to cultivate a wide range of inquiry, and who supported the expansion of my practice into what it has become today. I feel very lucky and incredibly grateful to have crossed paths with such thoughtful, openhearted mentors during my graduate school experience.”
“I chose Tyler because of the faculty, but their dedication to teaching and their accessibility as mentors exceeded my hopes, during my two years and since. At Tyler, I felt surrounded by ambitious artists who were invested in their own practices as well as those of their students, both graduate and undergraduate. Rather than a tradeoff, my professors made these parallel practices seem genuinely symbiotic. I miss my cohort and the Painting and Fibers facilities, but the commitment and accountability inspired by the faculty is what I value the most from my time at Temple.”
