Nicholas (Nick) Roberts

MFA

Nicholas Roberts’ MFA thesis exhibition Within These Walls reflects on his evolving sense of home. Through intaglio printmaking, oil painting, and sculptural installation, Roberts investigates home as both a physical space and an emotional concept. Roberts considers how everyday objects and personal spaces hold memory, invite reflection, and mark moments of transition. The work “explores what it means to outgrow one’s understanding of home and begin to redefine it.”

Originally from southeastern Pennsylvania, Roberts was raised in a working-class family where identity and home were closely tied to labor. This foundation continues to inform his artistic practice, which explores themes of work, memory, and the construction of self-created spaces.

“My thesis work explores the emotional and psychological weight of domestic space, examining how everyday environments function as vessels for memory, self-reflection, and identity formation,” he said.

“Through printmaking and the use of impermanent materials such as paper and temporary installations, my work emphasizes the fragility of memory and our evolving relationship to place over time. As I move through different phases of life, my relationship to domestic space has become increasingly nuanced. No longer rooted in my childhood home and temporarily living in Louisiana, my sense of home has become an ongoing process of self-definition shaped by relationships, memory, and internal states of being. Just as a house requires labor, maintenance, and repair, so too does the formation of self.”

After growing up in the small town of Telford, Pennsylvania, Roberts attended Kutztown University, where he earned a BFA in printmaking and a BS in art education. Before declaring his BFA, his drawing professor, Michael Covello, took Roberts under his wing and introduced him to basic printmaking processes, as well as to printmaking professor Evan Summer. After working with Michael and Evan, along with printmaking professors James Rose and Leslie Friedman, he quickly became entranced with printmaking and its possibilities.

Georges Chair, Mezzotint, 2025.

“I fell in love with the physicality of the medium, as it offered a hands-on, almost sculptural approach to drawing that I never knew I needed,” he said. “Ever since I was introduced to printmaking so early in my college career, I have never looked back.”

After graduating from Kutztown University, he accepted a position teaching middle school art in rural Lancaster, Pennsylvania. At the time, he knew he eventually wanted to attend graduate school to further expand his creative practice, but he wanted to spend some time working in K–12 education to save money and gain life experience. After teaching for a year, one of his undergraduate printmaking professors reached out to tell him about the MFA opportunity at the LSU School of Art.

“After researching the program, I realized LSU would have been one of my top choices whenever I decided to pursue graduate school. Although it was sooner than I originally planned, it felt like the right time to take on the challenge, so I resigned from the teaching position after being accepted into the program. Looking back, I still believe it was one of the best decisions I could have made.”

“I was quickly sold after researching the printmaking department and its facilities. LSU has one of the largest and most well-equipped printmaking departments I have ever seen. I was so thrilled to have access to the equipment, materials, and processes that would have been inaccessible to me otherwise. I was also excited to work with printmaking professors Leslie Koptcho and Lauren Cardenas, especially after viewing the work of the past graduates they mentored.”

Beyond the program itself, he was drawn to the opportunity to move to Louisiana. “Growing up, I had limited opportunities to travel outside of southeastern Pennsylvania, and I saw LSU as a chance to step outside my comfort zone and grow both personally and professionally. The prospect of learning alongside people with vastly different backgrounds and perspectives truly excites me.”

After graduating, he hopes to pursue a career as a printmaking professor, continue his artistic practice, and continue to seek opportunities to learn from those with new and differing perspectives and backgrounds in order to grow as an artist, educator, and person.

Within These Walls is on display and open to the public at the Glassell Gallery from May 2 to May 16, 2026. The exhibition reception will take place on May 9, 2026, from 6–8 p.m.