SCAD Alumni Atelier ambassadors
Fall 2026
Sophia Arguelles
B.F.A., illustration, 2023
Specializing in multimedia illustration, Sophia Arguelles is an artist and woodwright who combines traditional painting techniques with laser cutting and engraving to create bold works that emphasize pattern, texture, and a distinct formal language. Her Hispanic heritage heavily influences her artistic voice, which seamlessly incorporates vibrant colors, cultural themes, and elements from traditional Mexican folk art. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, Arguelles plans to scale her hand-painted, silhouetted woodworks from intimate market objects into immersive, space-activating installations, creating a cohesive series of 15 shaped wooden paintings that function as dynamic murals. Conceptually, the series reinterprets timeless fables and folklore through grand ornamentation, character design, and decorative mark-making. @sophia.celeste.a
Veenal Choudhary
B.F.A., accessory design, 2017
An artist at heart and a designer by profession, Veenal Choudhary is the founder of CARRY, an artisanal leather goods brand based in India. Originally from Indore, she has refined a creative vision profoundly shaped by her global perspective and time spent in more than 22 countries. After honing her craft as an industry designer for two years post-graduation, she launched her own brand to merge her love for travel and structural design. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, Choudhary renourishes her foundational creative freedom, stepping away from day-to-day business operations to focus purely on boundary-pushing product design and development of an avant-garde collection that fuses global inspirations with traditional Indian craftsmanship. Choudhary’s new collection will specifically incorporate Kantha, a centuries-old, sustainable hand-embroidery and upcycling technique from the Bengal region that uses a simple running stitch to layer discarded textiles into highly textured art. @carrytheleatherstudio
Simon Cooper
B.F.A., illustration, 2014
Simon Cooper (b. 1992, Charleston, S.C.) is an American painter based in New York whose practice is deeply shaped by his formative years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a 2015 artist residency in Cádiz, Spain. Currently represented by Memento Gallery, Atlanta, Cooper is known for vibrant work that explores art history, food, and social gathering as essential human connectors in an increasingly digital world. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, Cooper continues an ongoing series of paintings and drawings centered on social life and shared meals, capturing scenes of feasts, dinners, and revelry that draw inspiration from a rich mix of historical and contemporary influences including European painting traditions. By working in an open, accessible setting, the project invites visitors to pass through, observe the art as it develops, and engage with the work in real time. @simoncooperart
Fiona Duffy
B.F.A., fibers, 2023
Fiona Duffy is a fashion and textile designer based in Philadelphia. Inspired deeply by her memory archive — moments with loved ones, travel, and time spent reflecting in nature — Duffy’s garments and fiber work embrace a distinctive tenderness and familiarity. During her time at SCAD, she developed a penchant for antique fabrics, early 20th-century art, and sustainable design practices, such as upcycling worn textiles by adding hand-painted illustrations to create new designs. Following her graduation, she founded her brand Soleil et Amis in 2023 after a formative study abroad trip to the South of France. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, Duffy plans to create a collection of dresses, sets, separates, and pouches that honor slow fashion and her keenly developed aesthetic. @soleiletamis | @fionaduffyart
Monica Farber
M.A., photography, 2011
An American fashion photographer known for cinematic, location-driven images, Monica Farber develops scenes rooted in imagination, memory, and a strong sense of place. Her approach to photography is anchored in character and story, resulting in portraits that read more like a still from a film than a traditional fashion photograph. Working across 35mm film and digital platforms, she draws inspiration from global settings and diverse cultures, frequently exploring the emotional tension between past and present. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, Farber envisions a series of large-scale fashion editorial photographs presented as fictional postcards sent across different American landscapes. Framed vertically, each work displays the photographic front alongside a corresponding back, complete with a stamp, postmark, and handwritten narrative fragment that adds emotional texture. @monicafarber.co
Benny Goldberg
B.F.A., industrial design, 2023
A footwear extraordinaire and apparel designer specializing in one-of-one performance pieces, Benny Goldberg transforms sport into fine art. His portfolio includes more than 150 bespoke designs worn in major sporting events, concerts, and broadcasts. Goldberg has collaborated with high-profile athletes including Canelo Álvarez, Kyrie Irving, Odell Beckham Jr., and Shaquille O’Neal, among others. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, Goldberg seeks a new path with his first original sneaker The Test-Run, designed to challenge our digital dependency and celebrate tangible experiences. Using heat and UV-sensitive leathers, the sneaker’s colors only reveal themselves in the sun, encouraging the scuffs and dirt of a life lived off-screen. Each pair will translate elements of Lacoste into wearable form, capturing the feeling of walking through cobblestone streets, lavender fields, aged architecture, sun-faded surfaces, and the natural landscape of the region. @bennygoldberg
Via Li
M.F.A., illustration, 2023
Via Li is a Chinese-born artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Working primarily through painting and drawing, she explores the relationship between emotion, bodily perception, and psychological space through expressive figuration and abstraction. Li’s work combines gestural mark-making, layered compositions, and an atmospheric palette to investigate tension within internal states of experience. Alongside her studio practice, she works extensively in visual arts education and curriculum development. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, Li anticipates a new series of large-scale paintings and experimental works on paper called Inner Mechanics, a study of human emotion and the invisible ways it shapes our lives. Through fragmented figures, loose charcoal lines, stained surfaces, and shifting fields of color, these works explore how emotional states occupy both the body and surrounding space. @viali_art
Jessica Nash
B.F.A., fashion, 2009
Jessica Nash is a fashion designer specializing in knitwear and luxury garments. After working as an apparel designer and product developer in New York for 16 years, Nash sought to pursue a more personal and meaningful venture focused on upcycling and sustainability. Relocating to Atlanta to reconnect creatively and redefine her artistic vision, she launched The Knitty — a cheeky brand concept centered on playful embroidery inspired by pop culture, humor, and everyday conversation. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, Nash transforms The Knitty from a fresh concept into a robust, scalable business model, combining high-volume digital embroidery techniques and artisanal, hand-guided finishings to develop a curated capsule collection of both apparel and home goods that feature her relatable and chicly comical quips. @the.knitty
Jay Rodriguez
B.F.A., fibers, 2018
Jay Rodriguez is a textile designer and maker from Puerto Rico who combines processes such as weaving, crochet, and sewing to explore the relationship between structural elements and varied material. Working predominantly with cotton, she aims to highlight the value and relevance of traditional textile techniques through a contemporary lens. Rodriguez is particularly drawn to tabby weave for its strength, versatility, and ability to reveal the expressive potential of simple forms. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, she imagines a series of five textile works that investigate weaving and crochet as complementary structural languages. Inspired by the experimental practices of Gunta Stölzl and Anni Albers, this project explores how distinct textile systems can coexist while elevating traditional techniques into sophisticated contemporary art, challenging the historical divide between craft and fine art. @jay_rodriguez_textiles
Morgan Winters
B.F.A., illustration, 2022
A writer, children’s book illustrator, and graphic designer at Carter’s, Morgan Winters grew up with an insatiable curiosity for the world beyond her hometown in North Carolina. A formative trip abroad at age 12 instilled a lifelong admiration for diverse cultures, prompting her creative drive to help kids better understand themselves and the world around them through whimsical stories. For the SCAD Alumni Atelier, Winters proposes a novel set up like a captain’s log, with each chapter representing the entry of a new adventure, with visual storytelling materials interjected throughout. Her signature characters, sprawling maps, spot illustrations, and “copies” of Lacoste-inspired letters and enamel pins add unexpected imagery to keep readers engaged. @morganwintersillu