Irwin Scholars Annual Exhibition

Elijah Dalley was born in Seattle, Washington in 2003. His practice focuses on circular shoemaking, and working with communities to bring craft back into the domestic sphere. Utilizing recycled material, he explores our ontological relation to the object and material histories. In shoemaking, this has manifested in Technological Piracy^TM, and the confluence and confounding of familiar symbology and branding. His work has been exhibited in the US and abroad, and he was a project panelist for London Design Week 2024. You can catch him bumping eclectic tunes in the Studios at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he is in his final year of his studies in Art Practice.

rory gershen-lewis is a photographer and printmaker from Vallejo, California. At the University of California, Santa Cruz he has studied a BA in both Studio Art and Environmental Studies, and has seen these two important topics in life intertwined through his art. In an effort to expand upon the visual literalism of photography, his recent work has been with photo-based printmaking processes such as photo-intaglio, laser-cut woodblocks, and screenprinting. His work focuses on space and use; the varied societal impacts on environments and infrastructures, with an emphasis on the remnants and what remains where humans have left their marks. He is also interested in how this is represented through change, currently focusing on his hometown of Vallejo, and its altering over the course of his lifetime. He plans to continue expanding this exploration through the Bay Area post graduating.

Nathan Casey is a Bay Area artist currently pursuing a BA in Art at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His practice makes use of painting, photography, and printmaking to explore themes of family, race, superstition, and place. He has exhibited at the UCSC Ethnic Resource Ccenter, the Sesnon Underground Gallery, and at student held art shows.

Alison Nesbitt is a visual artist whose practice centers on photography and printmaking, born in Southern California in 2001. She will receive her BA in Studio Art from the University of California, Santa Cruz in June, 2025. Alison has exhibited her photographs and prints in independent home galleries, as part of both group and solo exhibitions. In 2023, she was selected for the Weston Portfolio Scholarship within the Social Commentary category. Her photographs have been included in Black Flower Publishing’s Garden of Dreams and Tvergastein Journal’s The Body. With a distinct visual language rooted in personal and familial narratives, she continues to explore the intersections of memory, identity, and place through lens-based media.

Lola Lankford is a multidisciplinary artist from Sebastopol, California. She is currently completing her final year of undergraduate at University of California, Santa Cruz, double majoring in Art and Education Democracy & Justice. With a focus on photography & alternative printing practices, Lola’s work reflects her diverse artistic interests and a deep curiosity about self, place, and transformation. Lola’s artworks have been exhibited in various local art markets and gallery spaces.

Jaden Josephine Anderson was born in 1999 and raised in San Jose, California. She is an emerging artist whose work explores liminal spaces through painting. She holds an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts from West Valley College and is currently completing her final quarter at University of California, Santa Cruz with a Bachelor’s degree in Art and minor in Education. Her work has been exhibited in several student showcases starting with the Cilker Art & Design Expo in 2023 and, most recently, her senior show, J101 in 2025.

Kai Monahan was born on the rural coast of Humboldt County, California and graduated from Arcata Arts Institute in 2021. Monahan’s work has been shown in multiple exhibitions in Santa Cruz. His performance work has extended into multiple UC reserve sites, received a publication in international art journal KERB, and was even featured as a photo in the LA times. His ongoing projects with collaborators have recently received multiple grants for further research from organizations including Museo Eduardo Carrillo, and the Irwin Family. He is in the last year of pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at University of California Santa Cruz. 

Audrey Gilbert is a Bay Area born artist who works with print, sculpture, and textile in her multi-faceted practice. She is finishing her Bachelor’s Degree in Art at University of California, Santa Cruz in 2025. Audrey has shown work at various shows in Santa Cruz, and has created handmade clothing pieces that are worn around the world. She is currently making work that explores abstraction, and womanhood.

Declan Greicius was born in Palo Alto, California in 2003. He is pursuing a BA in Art at UCSC, and spent time developing his practice in the Czech Republic. He has previously worked in screen print shops in Santa Cruz and Chicago and now works at Minnow Art Gallery and as a bike messenger for Clutch Courier. His work has been shown in the Sesnon Underground Gallery as well as in a number of locally organized exhibitions.

LokWai Dorothy Li is a multidisciplinary artist in her final year at the University of California, Santa Cruz, double majoring in Art and Business Management Economics Accounting. As a first-generation immigrant who spent 11 years in both Hong Kong and the United States, her work reflects a deep connection to her cultural roots and the Asian American experience. She explores themes of family, identity, and community through imagery and photography, using printmaking techniques that merge contemporary approaches with abstract and illustrative aesthetics inspired by her diverse cultural background.

Nico Lown Heitz was born in Mill Valley, California, in 2003. He currently resides in Santa Cruz, where he is pursuing degrees in Art and Philosophy. He has studied art at the Ox-Bow School of Art in Michigan and at the University of Barcelona, Spain. Nico has shown his work at several locally organized community events and Munch Cafe in Santa Cruz. He is a three-time recipient of the Irwin grant for the continuation of artistic projects and a recipient of the John Faulkner Memorial Art Scholarship. Nico primarily works with painting, although he continues to experiment with multitudes of different media, including print, sculpture, digital compositions, paper collage, and music. Even in his painting, he does not limit himself to one medium, moving between and combining watercolor, acrylic, oil, and flashe. He is currently focused on collaging paper painted with watercolor and painting over it with oil.

Sidney Jacobs, born in Oakland in 2001, is a multimedia artist whose practice centers on photography, alternative process techniques, and experimental dye methods. Rooted in tactile engagement with both image and material, their work explores themes of exploitation and the intimate, often fraught relationship between the body and the land. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions across Santa Cruz. She will graduate from UCSC with a BA in Studio Art in June 2025 and plans to continue developing their practice throughout California.