Alumni Spotlight: Winter 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 events and exhibitions.
Awards and Recognitions
Charley Andrews M.Arch. '24 and Jane Wu M.Arch. '24 (Architecture and Urban Design) received top honors in Metropolis magazine's 2024 Planet Positive Awards, with their project "Indigenous Urbanism" earning the Student Work award. "Indigenous Urbanism" centers around a master plan for Coachella Valley's Cathedral City, a proposal that reconnects previously divided land, consolidates the land and sovereignty of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, and delivers a layer of new program comprising housing, commercial space, and amenities like a welcome center.
A photo of SAMMAY. (Marking IV Photography)
SAMMAY Peñaflor Dizon M.F.A. ’23 (World Arts and Cultures/Dance) was honored as a recipient of the 2024 Special Award in the Arts in Dance & Movement by the Gerbode Foundation. The award will support their research and development towards a new work, to premiere at the Magic Theatre in 2027. Dizon also recently culminated a choreographic residency at The Music Center of Los Angeles made possible by the Dance Resource Center's HomeGrown Residency program.
Katie Grinnan M.F.A. ’99 (Art) is a recipient of a 2025 Creative Capital Award. Creative Capital, the nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting individual artists, announced it will award $2.45 million in unrestricted project grants to 55 artists to create 49 new works in Visual Arts, Technology, Performing Arts, Film/Moving Image, and Literature, as well as multidisciplinary and socially engaged forms in all disciplines. Celebrating 25 years, Creative Capital has provided $55 million in grants and services to 1,010 outstanding artists across the United States.
Lance O'Donnell M.Arch. ‘94 (Architecture and Urban Design) founded the firm, o2 Architecture, which was included on Forbes' inaugural “America's Top 200 Residential Architects” list. According to Forbes, “Like the pioneering Modernists who put Palm Springs on the map in the middle of the last century, o2 Architecture designs sleekly seductive houses that respond to the region's climate and relaxed, recreational lifestyle. Founded in 2006, this small firm is known for its low-slung, light-filled homes crowned by broad roofs that seem to levitate atop clerestory windows, framing mountain views without introducing the concomitant heat.”
Roksana Pirouzmand M.F.A. ’22 (Art) was named one of Elephant Magazine’s Artists to Watch in 2025. The editorial team at Elephant scoured the globe to bring you the artists they want you to know about as we begin the new year. In his article for Elephant, Theo Meranze writes of Pirouzmand’s work: “To be in genuine, cognitive recognition with the constancy of this suffering and one’s relationship to it is a challenging, painful responsibility. It is a process of constant mourning, one that puts into question our structures of collective memory and memorialization in the 21st century. Resultantly, amidst the corporatization of the art-world, it’s rare to find art that tackles this challenge without fetishistic nostalgia and with a cerebral openness. Roksana Pirouzmand’s art practice does, and in this way, it is a gift.”
Exhibitions and Performances
Arms Around America by Dan Froot & Company. (Bailey Holiver)
Professor Emeritus Dan Froot M.F.A. ‘00 (World Arts and Cultures/Dance) and his company presented the world premiere of Arms Around America (AAA) at The Nimoy on Nov. 15 and 16, 2024, to sold-out audiences and critical acclaim. AAA is an evening of short plays based on oral histories of diverse families from around the country whose lives have been shaped by guns. AAA will be presented at the Lehman Theatre in Miami on Feb. 20 and 21, The Myrna Loy in Montana on Feb. 27, and the Center for the Arts at Kayenta in Utah on March 21 and 22. Visit danfroot.com for additional details on upcoming events.
A still from a work by Julieta Gil. (Courtesy of the artist)
Julieta Gil M.F.A. ‘15 (Design Media Arts) will present a large-scale installation for Salón ACME during Mexico City's art week, Feb. 6–9. Salón ACME is an art event created by artists for artists that gives visibility to emerging creators who develop their work both in Mexico and abroad. Gil will present a multimedia installation composed of photographic archives collected during her walks around the city. The flowers that form the reliefs and textures of this non-place, situated between landscape and cavern, were documented and later processed into three-dimensional files. Going beyond simulation, these compositions invite us to inhabit new dimensions within nature that we may not yet have perceived.
Zoe Koke M.F.A. ’19 (Art) is part of the exhibition Palingenesis with Ben Borden at Gallery 12.26 in Dallas, Texas. Palingenesis is on view Feb. 15 through March 22. “I collect ephemera,” Koke says of her own work. Like her parents, she studies geology. Whether obliquely referencing agates or the womb of a volcano, Koke’s paintings are like shields in the middle of detonations. The show’s title, Palingenesis, refers to rebirth, or recreation. Sometimes the word is used to denote an exact replication of a previous generation. There's stability even in geological chaos.
A photo of Jessica Lin. (Courtesy of the artist)
Jessica Lin ‘15 (Art) took a break from the arts and pursued a design career after graduation. Lin worked in marketing design from 2015 to 2021, creating campaign visuals at companies like Sephora and Airbnb. However, in 2021, she quit her design career and returned to fine art full time. Since then, she has explored different media, including digital art and NFTs, nail art, and jewelry making. Last year, she picked up her paintbrushes again. Last August, Lin was part of a group show in New York City. This coming February, she will also be in her first art fair in L.A. called The Other Art Fair from Feb. 20–23.
The Hammer Museum at UCLA recently announced the 27 artists participating in the upcoming edition of their acclaimed Made in L.A. biennial. This seventh edition of the biennial continues their commitment to highlighting the diverse and innovative practices of artists working throughout Los Angeles. Artists include alumni Na Mira M.F.A. ’13 (Art), Hanna Hur M.F.A. ’19 (Art), Carl Cheng M.F.A. ’67 (Art), and Beaux Mendes M.F.A. ’19 (Art). On view from Oct. 5, 2025, through Jan. 4, 2026, the exhibition will feature a multigenerational group of artists working across a range of media.
A screenshot from Maya Man’s A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City. (Courtesy of the artist)
The Whitney Museum of American Art recently launched A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City, a new digital art project by artist Maya Man M.F.A. ‘23 (Design Media Arts) commissioned for artport, the Museum’s online gallery space for net art and new media art commissions. Presented hourly on whitney.org, Man’s A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City explores online self-representation, building on the style of a “day in my life” video, one of the most popular formats for short-form content on the Internet. The artist uses text excerpts from thousands of publicly posted TikTok videos to highlight the storytelling components from this genre of online content.
An image from Soft Detour by Priscilla Mars. (Courtesy of the artist)
Priscilla Mars ‘14 (Art) has an upcoming solo photography exhibition, Soft Detour, at Crain Art Gallery at Crowell Public Library in San Marino, Calif. This exhibition of photography was created last year in San Marino. In spring, summer, fall, and winter, she immersed herself in a park and experimented with ultra close ups to document the mutating natural landscape throughout the seasons. Soft Detour opens Saturday, Feb. 8, and will be on view through Friday, March 21.
Henrik Soederstroem M.F.A. ‘23 (Design Media Arts) is one of the 2025 residents at the Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in New York. At Harvestworks, he will develop a new work, tentatively titled No One is There. Building off of his thesis artwork Troubles of Presence I–IV, the new work will be a site-specific audiovisual sculpture installation. The project engages with found objects as a form of site-specific research and draws parallels between the physical and virtual, using aesthetics of horror and the eerie to challenge how economic structures and commodity production shape and are shaped by lived experience. The project is slated to be exhibited in September 2025 on Governor Island, New York.
Publications
Aaron Cayer Ph.D. ‘18 (Architecture and Urban Design) will publish Incorporating Architects: How American Architecture Became a Practice of Empire on Tuesday, June 3, from University of California Press. By the end of the twentieth century, U.S. architecture and engineering firms held more capital than entire countries, employed more people than were housed in most cities, and rented offices in more nations than comprised the U.N. Within them, architects were designing not single buildings but urban systems, including the multinational infrastructures, legal codes, and financial mechanisms on which those systems came to depend. However, despite the extraordinary power of these architects, their histories remain shrouded in myth and concealed—by design. Cayer also won a 2023–24 Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome for the project “Building Legitimacy: Designing, Disseminating, and Preserving a New Religion.”
Drilling for Love by Craig Marshall Smith.
Craig Marshall Smith M.F.A. ‘73 (Art) self-published six novels in 2024. Smith’s books include Drilling for Love, which follows a cynical private detective investigating a mystery that involves a well-known Denver dentist who is convinced his life is in danger. Also published in 2024 was The Eggs Don’t Cry, a supposedly Robert Rauschenberg collage of sentences, paragraphs, and chapters that were deleted during the editing process of the author's twenty-plus novels and presented as a form of scrapbook. However, Smith can't be trusted. Everything included in The Eggs Don't Cry was written specifically for this publication.
Margaret Ann Mendenhall ’97 (World Arts and Cultures/Dance) published her book, Vox Eurydice: The Ascent of the Female Rescuer in German-Language Opera, in December 2024 from Lexington Books. Vox Eurydice is a mythological and depth psychological analysis written from a feminist perspective, on the emergence of the theme of rescue stories, and specifically plots where a female heroine saves a male character, which arose in German-language opera during the roughly one hundred years that spanned the lifetimes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Richard Wagner.
A still from Just 3 People Talking by Jeremy Jacob Peretz and Joan Cambridge-Mayfield. (Courtesy of the artists)
Jeremy Jacob Peretz Ph.D. '20 (World Arts and Cultures/Dance) has a chapbook titled Jombii Jamborii, comprising English and Guyanese Creole poems cowritten and translated in collaboration with Joan Cambridge-Mayfield, forthcoming in Ugly Duckling Presse's Señal series. One of Jeremy and Joan's prior collaborations, Just 3 People Talking, was recognized with the Filmmakers' Choice award at the Timehri Film Festival in Georgetown, Guyana, 2023, as well as other accolades internationally. Their audio-visual work interrogating preternatural aspects of (post)colonial petro-klepto extractive economies in Guyana was also recently featured in Anthropology News.
Archer Porter Ph.D. ‘22 (World Arts and Cultures/Dance) recently published an article, “Sitting Here, Collecting Dance. Choreography’s affect and value in the Crypto Landscape,” detailing the emerging trend of dance-media on the blockchain. The essay explores the emerging phenomenon of dance as a collectible within the crypto landscape, exploring how blockchain technology is reshaping the way dance is valued and experienced. Additionally, Porter's forthcoming monograph, Homebodies: Performance and Intimacy in the Age of New Media, examines the phenomenon of home dance videos on new media to reveal contemporary slippages in privacy and publicity. Homebodies will be published in February 2026 from University of Michigan Press.
The cover of José Gámez's Margin & Text.
José Gámez Ph.D. ’98 (Architecture and Urban Design) recently co-edited a book published by Princeton Architectural Press titled Margin and Text: Amplifying Diverse Voices in Architecture. Margin and Text is a collection of essays, interviews, and personal stories, as well as historical and current writings and lectures, contributed by BIPOC and female practitioners and educators in architecture. The broad range of diverse voices in architecture discuss issues of equity, access, and social justice embedded in and related to the built environment. Each piece offers reflections on architecture’s troubled past, commentary on its fluid present, and visions of possible futures, all set amid today’s context of broad social activism, divisive politics, and the devastating toll of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Career Updates
Ming Chen ’24 (Art) is now Curatorial Assistant and Project Coordinator for a tea-inspired festival whose goal is to build community for AAPI creatives working across architecture, design, and the culinary arts. The Cha Cha Festival in New York City will be open every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. in February 2025. Bruins based in New York are encouraged to see some amazing tea houses inspired by one of the five teas: chai, hojicha, lotus, oolong, and pu-erh as well as try some of the sweet and savory tea-inspired foods made by a curated list of 20 AAPI culinary artists.
A photo of Veronica Peitong Chen at IxDC. (Courtesy of Chen)
Veronica Peitong Chen ‘16 (Design Media Arts and Architecture and Urban Design) recently presented at Adobe MAX, the largest design conference in the U.S., to an audience of over 10,000 attendees. Chen showcased cutting-edge technology developed by her team, with award-winning actress Awkwafina using the tools to design her living room. The presentation received global media coverage, further amplifying the impact of her work across the design and tech industries. Chen also received Top100 International Experience Innovators from IxDC. The award aims to promote and recognize outstanding experience innovations and individuals, advocate for the application of experience innovation to create value for businesses and society, continuously enhance experience innovation capabilities, and lead industry development through design innovation.
In the wake of the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA|LA) has launched the Wildfire Disaster Response Task Force to aid affected communities and advance wildfire resilience strategies. The Task Force will be led by co-chairs: Greg Kochanowski M.Arch. ’99 (Architecture and Urban Design) and AUD faculty member Mohamed Sharif. The objectives of the Task Force are to mobilize AIA|LA members, coordinate volunteer efforts, and develop a comprehensive plan to address immediate needs, advocate for policy changes, and promote sustainable rebuilding practices.
Anna Eliza Pastor ‘13 (World Arts and Cultures/Dance) will graduate this year from the Master of Social Work program at USC and currently works with the Suzanne-Dworak Peck Keck Human Rights Clinic, providing support services and pro-bono psychological evaluations for asylum seekers. As the granddaughter of immigrants, this work is at the heart of Pastor’s values rooted in social justice. It was always a dream of hers to build coalitions, unity, and progress, all the while sharing her passion for dance. Pastor plans to pursue licensure after graduating and use her background in dance to facilitate a somatic approach to therapy for clients.
Projects
North Shore Residence by HEID Architects. (Courtesy of HEID Architects)
Charles Heid M.Arch. ‘12 (Architecture and Urban Design) and HEID Architects recently completed a home modernization and renovation in West Bloomfield, Mich. The home is adjacent to Green Lake and is fully clad in eastern white cedar shingles with white oak fin accents. The existing structure of the home was retained and improved. This is the first completed residential project for HEID Architects. The house was featured in the Winter issue of Detroit Design Magazine for the project's close connections to its context and the biophilic influences of the design. Completed in spring of 2024, Griffith Veterinary Practice is the first of its kind in the midwest. Constructed in the quiet suburb of Westland, Mich., this building uses cross laminated timber roof panels and glue laminated beams and columns. It has been recognized by the city for its community enhancing merits and beautiful design.
Max Loy with the mold for Powell Cat. (Courtesy of Loy)
Max Loy ‘22 (Architecture and Urban Design) last year launched a GoFundMe page where people could donate money toward the creation of a statue in honor of beloved campus cat Powell Cat. At around 20 inches tall and 15 inches wide, the statue is meant to mimic Powell Cat’s actual size and appearance, Loy said. He went through many different poses, including a laying down cat and a cat with a halo, before settling on the cat’s final pose. The final iteration shows Powell Cat looking up to the left, offering hope and dignity. The statue is complete and pending campus approval.
Header image: A photo of Veronica Peitong Chen at Adobe MAX. (Courtesy of Chen)
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