Location:
WSU ShiftSpace Gallery | Harvester Arts
120 E 1^st St N, Wichita

Branden Lawless presents his Master of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Rat Bastard University: Home Sweet Home.

Lawless is a ceramic sculptor and third-year MFA candidate at Wichita State University. He received his BFA from Kansas State University in 2021 and completed a post-baccalaureate program at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In 2019 he studied abroad at Lorenzo de’Medici in Florence, Italy, and later returned to a short-term residency at Studio Pescarella in Pietrasanta, Italy in 2023.

Working primarily in ceramic sculpture, Lawless is the creator of Rat Bastard University, an ongoing satirical and immersive world that examines identity, love, power, and the absurdities of contemporary life. His practice ranges from large-scale figurative works to ceramic “action figures” and toy-inspired packaging that blur the boundaries between fine art and consumer culture. Through humor, exaggeration, and constructed narrative, his work invites viewers into a universe where contradiction, vulnerability, and rebellion coexist—positioning satire as both critique and self-reflection.

Rat Bastard University: Home Sweet Home is on view Friday, April 3–Friday, April 24, 2026.

Join us for an opening reception on First Friday, April 3, from 6–8 p.m.

Gallery hours:
First Fridays: 6–8 p.m.
Monday: 3–9 p.m.
Tuesday–Friday: 3–6 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

The exhibition is a requirement of the MFA in Studio Art at Wichita State University.