Alumni Spotlight: Winter 2023
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—and from our Visual and Performing Arts Education minor—submitted updates about their work and accomplishments since graduating from UCLA. This column features their recent achievements, awards, publications, and other honors; as well as upcoming events related to their work.
Achievements
Marbella Allen '14, B.A. World Arts & Culture, received a PhD in Sociology in 2021 and began a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in the VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovations lab. She will begin a tenure track faculty position this Fall in the Sociology department at North Carolina State University.
In “Corpo RanfLA: Terra Cruiser,” artist rafa esparza transformed his body into a lowrider cyborg, inviting people in his community to “ride” him. Here, he appears among his close friends and collaborators — designer Victor Barragán and artists Guadalupe Rosales, Karla Ekatherine Canseco, and Gabriela Ruiz. (Fabian Guerrero / For The Times).
rafa esparza, B.A. Art, was commissioned by Image and Commonwealth and Council to create a performance for Art Basel Miami titled “Corpo RanfLA: Terra Cruiser.” During this performance, esparza transformed his body into a lowrider cyborg and invited people in his community to “ride” him.
Ann Gray '81, M.Arch, Architecture and Urban Design, has been elected President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a 137,000-member global organization of property professionals. She will spend 2023 chairing its Governing Council and engaging with its members worldwide.
Photo courtesy of Safi Alia Shabaik.
Safi Alia Shabaik '95, B.A. Art, in partnership with the Parkinson’s Foundation, is a recipient of a generous Visual Arts grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to exhibit Personality Crash in Los Angeles (Open Mind Art Space, February 18 to March 3, 2023) and Chicago (1100 Florence Gallery, April 1 to 30, 2023. Personality Crash examines the human condition when altered by disease from an intimate perspective.
Upcoming Exhibitions, Events, and Performances
Photographed by: Raymond Joyce Photography
Ramin Abrams '16, B.A. Visual and Performing Arts Education, performed the National Anthem with his brother, Justin Abrams, Cello and Bass Duo instrumental arrangement for the Knicks Vs Bucks basketball game held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Amadour '18, B.A. Art, is a featured artist in the Emma Scully Gallery’s new exhibition titled 'Green World,' serving as a landscape of creativity, desire, magic, and liberation, where characters in literature escape the constraints of civilization to experience growth and change. It is on view from January 12 to March 18, 2023.
Image courtesy Sevil Dolmacı Art Gallery
Michael John Kelly '13, M.F.A. Art, presents his first solo exhibition in Turkey titled “Now What.” The exhibition is on view through January 20, 2023, and includes 20 or so works that the artist produced in Istanbul, as part of Sevil Dolmacı Art Residency.
Ellen Sayers: Collecting Waterfalls.
Sarah May '94, B.A. Art, established the The Shirley Project Space gallery from a series of living room salon events, which now presents its third exhibition from Ellen Sayers Collecting Waterfalls on view from January 20 - February 24, 2023.
Jeremy Jacob Peretz '20, Ph.D. World Arts & Cultures, presented segments of a current film project based in part on his doctoral research at UCLA titled “Just Three People Talking: Film, Ethnography and Environment in Guyana.” The project introduces audiences to Aunty Joan, a person—who in reality may not be just one person—in possession of 357 precious acres of land in the Amazon rainforest.
Image courtesy Job Piston
Job Piston '10, M.F.A. Art, curates The L.A. Theme Show, an international group exhibition which takes its point of departure from the history of The Space Race, a spaceflight rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, and its influence on the Theme Building at the Los Angeles International Airport, designed by Welton Becket and Jin D. Wong, which imagined the art of flight into a utopian future. The next generation of artists from Eastern Europe are joined by Los Angeles artists and beyond to reflect on new beginnings through exploration, human evolution, and parallel universes. It is on view from February 9 - 23, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Installation view of Daylight Studio / Dark Room Studio at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany. Photo by Henning Rogge. Image courtesy of the artist, Bortolami Gallery, New York, DOCUMENT, Chicago, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Paris & Zurich, and Vielmetter Los Angeles.
Paul Mpagi Sepuya '16, M.F.A. Art, presents the second part of his Fall exhibition Daylight Studio / Dark Room Studio, on view at Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany through February 26, 2022. Sepuya’s limited edition book Orifice + Aperture, a new collection of studio studies by Paul Mpagi Sepuya, is available for order.
Damon K Sperber '96, B.A. World Arts & Cultures, was cast in the limited series Daisy Jones & The Six, airing on Amazon in March, 2023. Sperber stars as Frank Jones, the father of Daisy Jones, who, along with her rock band The Six, embark on the '70s LA music scene on their quest for worldwide icon status.
Phoebe Webster '21, M.Arch, Architecture and Urban Design, co-founded an arts and architecture gallery called MODEST common. MODEST common is presenting a new exhibition with Wes Jones titled “Art for Boss Buildings II” on view from January 12 to February 4, 2023.
Awards
Yerba Buena III. Photos by P.J. McMullan
Cory Buckner '00, M.Arch, Architecture & Urban Design, has been awarded the Best Architectural Projects of 2022 from Archello for his work on a private house titled Yerba Buena III in Malibu, California.
Image courtesy Edmund M. Einy and HKS Architects, Inc.
Edmund M. Einy, FAIA '87, M.Arch, Architecture & Urban Design, and his architectural design firm HKS Architects, Inc. has been awarded the Educational Merit Award from the American Institute of Architectes - Los Angeles Chapter AIA, for their conceptual design for the University of California, Riverside Plant Growth Environments building.
NilaA Architecture & Urban Design/ New Delhi
Nishant Lall '02, M.Arch, Architecture & Urban Design, has been awarded the 2022 Merit Award for Urban Design from the American Institute of Architectes - Los Angeles Chapter AIA, for his project Along the Ganges: Patna Riverfront Revitalization along 7km of the City of Patna, India.
SOGO AUD
Akira Sogo '09, M.Arch, Architecture & Urban Design, and their architectural practice Sogo AUD, has been awarded by the Architectural Review for The Group Home on Hilltop project.
Projects
Katherine Camagong '11, B.A. World Arts & Cultures, was the lead for the Generation Jurassic project, a yearlong marketing program that celebrated Jurassic World fandom while supporting new and exclusive products at Target in 2022.
Norell/Rodhe, Marakatt-Labba, Keshavarz, Segerstedt; Eldberget; 2022
Daniel Norell '06, M.Arch. Architecture & Urban Design, and his practice Norell/Rodhe has developed Eldberget ("Fire mountain"), a vision for a new neighborhood around the decommissioned mine Tuolluvaara in the arctic city of Kiruna, Sweden. New buildings are to be constructed solely from reused building elements and materials sourced from the old city center that is currently being demolished due to expansion of the city’s largest mine, Kiirunavaara.
Artwork by Antonio Rael. Assisted by Emilia Garcia. Mural created for VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13. Drag performers pictured are winner Symone, And runner-up Kandy Muse.
Antonio Rael '86, B.A. Art, created a mural on Melrose Avenue for VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 which is nominated for an Emmy.
Publications
Laurah Klepinger. Transnational Yoga at Work: Spiritual Tourism and Its Blind Spots. Hardback, 284pp, July 2022, 6” x 9” Portrait.
Laurah Klepinger '03, M.F.A. Dance, is author of Transnational Yoga at Work: Spiritual Tourism and Its Blind Spots (Lexington Books, 2022), an ethnography about local wageworkers in the Indian branches of a transnational yoga institution and about yoga practitioners and spiritual tourists who visualize peace through yoga.
Priscilla Mars. 90210 Photobook. Hardback, 28pp, 2022, 11” x 7.5” Landscape.
Priscilla Mars '14, B.A. Art, self-published 90210 Photobook, a photographic explorations of Beverly Hills, CA over several years.
Image courtesy Lonnie Millsap
Lonnie Millsap '84, B.A. Art, and his cartoons have been published in the New Yorker Magazine. A selection of his cartoon artwork is also available for purchase at the Condé Nast Store.
Brynn Shiovitz, Ph.D. World Arts & Cultures/Dance, wrote an article for Zocalo discussing how the history of blackface minstrel shows in the United States has embedded itself within popular culture, including a staple of the holiday season – White Christmas.
Interviews
Leila Lujan '00, B.A. Design Media Arts, was interviewed by Adweek to discuss creative production agency Hook’s semester-long Sandbox U program that offers mentorship opportunities with Los Angeles-based Hamilton High School’s Communication Arts Academy.
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