Alumni Spotlight: Spring 2025
UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni from all four academic departments—Architecture and Urban Design, Art, Design Media Arts, and World Arts and Cultures/Dance—submitted updates about their work and accomplishments since graduating from UCLA. This column features their recent achievements, projects, publications, as well as exhibitions.
Awards, Recognitions, and Residencies
Farooq Ameen M.Arch. '89, Jonathan D. Moody M.Arch. '08, and Pierluigi Serraino M.Arch. '99 (all Architecture and Urban Design) are among the 93 architects elevated to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2025 College of Fellows. AIA Fellows are "recognized for their exceptional work and contributions to architecture and society.”
From left to right, Carolyn Castaño, Coleman Collins, Lucas Blalock, and Mungo Thomson.
Lucas Blalock M.F.A. ’13, Carolyn Castaño M.F.A. ’01, Coleman Collins M.F.A. ’18, and Mungo Thomson M.F.A. ’00 (all Art) were chosen to be part of the 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows. Chosen through a rigorous application and peer review process from a pool of nearly 3,500 applicants, the Class of 2025 Guggenheim Fellows was selected for their prior career achievement and exceptional promise. Each Fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions.”
rafa esparza’s tierra. (Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles)
Zach Blas M.F.A. ‘08 (Design Media Arts), rafa esparza ’11 (Art), and Wu Tsang M.F.A. ‘10 (Art) are included in ARTnews and Art in America’s “The 100 Best Artworks of the 21st Century.” The joy of an epic list like this one is that it can’t encapsulate everything. ARTnews hopes you’ll discover some amazing pieces here, reflect on some that are much-loved already, and debate the merits of others.
Jennifer Bornstein M.F.A. ’96 and T.J. Dedeaux-Norris ‘10 (both Art), alongside Department of Art Professor Andrea Fraser, are recipients of the highly prestigious 2025–26 Rome Prize for Visual Arts. The Rome Prize is awarded annually to American artists and scholars for research and work in the arts and humanities. Each recipient will receive a stipend, workspace, and room and board at the Academy’s 11-acre campus on the Janiculum Hill in Rome, starting this fall.
Photo of Aaron Cayer.
Aaron Cayer Ph.D. ’18 (Architecture and Urban Design) has been awarded a 2025 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship—one of just 26 recipients nationwide and the only Fellow selected from the field of architecture. Often called “the brainy award,” the fellowship recognizes Cayer’s influential work at the intersection of architecture, labor, and politics. The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program provides fellows with a $200,000 stipend to support high-caliber scholarly research focused on the most pressing issues of our time. This year’s cohort will focus on advancing solutions to political polarization in the United States.
Joy Chen on a digital display in New York City's Times Square. (Courtesy of Joy Chen)
Joy Chen ‘23 (Design Media Arts), currently senior designer at soda company Poppi, was named one of AdAge's Gen Zers to Watch in Marketing and Advertising for 2025. Poppi’s viral “Poppi World” activation in New York wouldn’t have grabbed the internet’s attention as much as it did without Chen, who co-led the art direction behind the eye-catching cherry-themed posters, digital displays, and other red and maroon decor covering every surface of the buzzy beverage brand’s pop-up space. Chen created one of the digital designs that appeared across many of the social media posts from the event: a 3D cherry logo spinning on the screen behind rapper 50 Cent during his surprise performance at the pop-up’s opening night.
Ivana Dama ‘21 (Design Media Arts) is a 2025–26 Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program (SVSP) artist-in-resident. This program provides working studio space and community for artists. Artists are selected annually based on merit from a competitive pool of applicants by a professional jury comprised of artists and members of the SWSP Artists Advisory Committee. SWSP is the new face of the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Space Program, developed for artists, by artists in 1991.
Roksana Pirouzmand M.F.A. ’22 (Art) is a 2025 Los Angeles Aradia Awardee. The awards were open to visual artists working in any medium and at any stage in their careers, provided they had been living and working in Los Angeles County for at least two years. Artadia received 497 applications. “Pirouzmand…examines the relationship between material and the human form, exploring themes of memory, connection, and resilience. [S]he delves into diasporic histories, using striking silhouettes to reflect the complexities of exile and enduring bonds,” shared juror Suzy Halajian. “Her practice intertwines fragile materials in precarious compositions, capturing the tension of navigating shifting identities and borders.”
Screenshot of recent work from Henrik Soederstroem. (Courtesy of the artist)
Henrik Soederstroem M.F.A. ’23 (Design Media Arts) has been awarded a 2025 New Works residency at Harvestworks in New York City. Harvestworks was founded in 1977 as a non-profit organization dedicated to helping artists realize works in new electronic media. For the residency, Soederstroem is following lines of inquiry initiated during his time at UCLA and in his thesis work Troubles of Presence I-IV, using 3D modelling and machine learning to critically leverage different processes of assigning and encoding meaning. Henrik is currently working together with Mario Peng Lee ‘24 to complete the project, which will be presented in the Harvestworks exhibition space on Governor Island, New York, on August 30, 2025.
Exhibitions
Installation photo of Living Architecture: Gehry. (Guggenheim Bilbao)
Refik Anadol M.F.A. ’14 (Design Media Arts) debuted Living Architecture: Gehry, the first exhibition in the Guggenheim Bilbao’s new In situ series. Living Architecture: Gehry pays homage to the iconic architecture of Frank Gehry by using Artificial intelligence to reinterpret his archive into a new data universe of AI-generated visuals exploring the relationship between architecture and data. The exhibition is on view through October 19, 2025.
Rachel Berkowitz, left, and one of her paintings. (Courtesy of Rachel Berkowitz)
Rachel Berkowitz ‘16 (Art) had a solo exhibition at Gallery 612 in Santa Monica, Calif., titled Exposing Pasithea. On view from May 9–31, 2025, this new series of oil paintings captures the essence of the goddess Pasithea—embodying tranquility, divine femininity, and the need for rest in a fast-paced world. Set in intimate, nature-rich interiors, each work blends Romanticism with modern symbols of nurturing, inviting viewers into a visual sanctuary for self-care and reflection.
Mitsuko Brooks M.F.A. ‘17 (Art) is included in the group exhibition, Feeling Language, at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, Calif., from May 17, 2025, through August 9, 2025. Curated by Kate Laster and Julio Rodriguez with NIAD Art Center, Feeling Language features new works by over 30 artists, the majority from NIAD Art Center with additional artists from Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program, a free art studio serving low income and unhoused residents in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Feeling Language examines comfort and power in text, writing, reading, sharing and communications.
Installation photo of Through the Descent, Like the Return. (ICA LA)
Jackie Castillo ‘18 (Art) has an exhibition currently on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA). Through the Descent, Like the Return—the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition—considers architecture as a site of memory, holding histories of labor and generations of lived experience in its constitution and its remnants. Made from industrial rebar and repurposed terracotta shingles, the sculptures on view reference the work of re-roofing a home. The exhibition is on view through August 31, 2025.
Detail view of Rachel Hakimian Emenaker's Within a Diasporic Architecture. (Renée Reizman / Hyperallergic)
Rachel Hakimian Emenaker M.F.A. ’24 (Art) had a solo exhibition titled Deep Roots Among Fallen Trees at Grand Central Art Center at California State University, Fullerton. Deep Roots Among Fallen Trees offers a reflection on architecture as a space where loss and regeneration coexist, where memory is both preserved and erased. This installation delves into how diasporic communities continue to develop complex cultural landscapes despite being torn from their roots, forging new identities and histories through the fusion of old and new, memory and materiality. The exhibition was on view from March 1 through May 11, 2025.
Two works by Charles Garabedian M.A. ’61 (Art) are included in L.A. Louver Celebrates 50 Years, currently on view through June 14, 2025. Garabedian’s ambiguous, dream-like Woman in the Bathroom (1973) coalesces many concerns that are central to the artist’s oeuvre: abstract figuration, architectural framing, references to Greco-Roman sculpture, fragmented human forms, and an intermingling of the epic and the intimate. The other work, Jean Harlow (1964), created just after Garabedian completed his graduate degree in painting from UCLA, is a languorously seductive oil painting that shows the artist turning from—though not completely abandoning—the scenic figurative narratives of his early classical training.
Projects
Screenshots of Plaiful's Mana Burn. (Courtesy of Carey Chico)
Carey Chico '94 (Design Media Arts) is the founder of Plaiful, a startup building next-generation game tools and experiences powered by generative AI. Their initial title, Mana Burn, is a fantasy RPG where players co-create the world itself—crafting dungeons, writing quests, and shaping the lore through gameplay. By combining AI-generated narrative systems with procedural design tools, Mana Burn transforms the player into a worldbuilder, not just a hero. The team recently showcased their innovations at the Google Indie Game Accelerator and continues to push the boundaries of player-driven storytelling.
Aerial view 5501 Echo St., which Los Angeles owns. The city plans to sell off such lots to developers. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Emmanuel Proussaloglou M.Arch. ‘23 (Architecture and Urban Design) alongside cityLAB at UCLA have launched Small Lot, Big Impacts, a two-stage initiative to build a path to a better future for Los Angeles—one where a new generation of homeowners has the chance to thrive in more resilient neighborhoods. The recent fires have highlighted the importance of combining public resources with creative ingenuity to address the city’s housing crisis. Thus, in Small Lots, Big Impacts, the City of Los Angeles is leading the way, hosting demonstration projects on its own land that will offer new visions for building housing that can translate to thousands of similar, privately-held lots.
Publications
Cover of The Weight of a Patina of Time, left, with an installation photo Porras-Kim's Fowler exhibition of the same name.
Gala Porras-Kim ‘07 (Art) is the subject of the Fowler Museum at UCLA’s latest publication, The Weight of a Patina of Time. The book focuses on a series of works by Porras-Kim, including her Fowler exhibition of the same name. Her research-based practice looks closely at the layered meaning of ancient objects in the twenty-first-century museum. The essays reflect on Porras-Kim's affinity for fragments, conflicting histories, undeciphered texts, and other instances of uncertainty within the space of the museum.
Cover of We Are Civic Media, co-edited by Sangita Shresthova.
Sangita Shresthova Ph.D. ‘08 (World Arts and Cultures) co-edited, alongside Dan Sinker, Pratik Nyaupane, Sophie Madej, and Colin Maclay, the forthcoming book We Are Civic Media from Northwestern University Press. “Civic media” is the use of contemporary technologies to connect communities, inspire action, build civic capacity, and sustain social change efforts. Written by artists, creators, storytellers, organizers, and others working at the intersections of technology, social justice, and culture, this book summons civic media through the lived experiences of its contributors.
Career Update
Photo of BLIK’s FoldedForms art lenticulars for residential and commercial spaces. (Courtesy of Scott Flora)
Scott Flora M.Arch. '98 (Architecture and Urban Design) and Jerinne Neils founded BLIK in 2002 in Venice, Calif. For over 20 years, BLIK has been the leading designer and maker of innovative self-adhesive, removable surface graphics. They started their journey by developing a simple concept for inexpensive, removable, geometric wall decals designed primarily for adults. Along the way, they have partnered with numerous artists, designers, and brands including Keith Haring, Nintendo, and the estate of Charles and Ray Eames.
Amber Keller '95 (Art) was recently promoted to Head of Exhibitions at the Getty Museum. Keller has worked for the Getty for nearly 30 years.
Cover of Cynthia Winton-Henry's book The Art of Ensoulment.
Cynthia Winton-Henry ’78 (Dance) is celebrating retirement at age 70. She served as an art educator, performer, writer, and cofounder with Phil Porter of InterPlay, an improvisation practice taught in the U.S. Canada, Australia, Europe, Africa, and India. Winton-Henry currently writes The Dancing Center on Substack. Her books explore intersectional experiences of body, soul, and creative practice including Chasing the Dance of Life: A Faith Journey, Dance—A Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as Spiritual Practice, and a book on reawakening the powerful gift of play in Move: What the Body Wants. In 2023, she self published The Art of Ensoulment: A Playbook on How to Create from Body and Soul which maps out her discoveries and initiations as a highly sensitive artist and playful mystic.
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