Phaan Howng, who will give the opening reception lecture for the 2025 Senior Show, is a Baltimore-based artist who creates lush paintings and immersive installations that tease a post-human ecology defensively brandishing its landscape–what she calls an “optimistic post-apocalypse.” She applies her own humor and a satirical lens on current cultural trends to create speculative narrative futures, endeavoring to make austere topics around the environment more approachable and relatable. She has shown her work at numerous locations, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Smithsonian Gardens, MoCA Arlington and the 2023 Armory Show in NYC among others. Howng received her BFA from Boston University and her MFA from the Mt. Royal School of Art at MICA.