Faculty Spotlight: Winter 2022
The creative and scholarly contributions of the UCLA Arts community mine the complexities of the human condition, ask essential questions of our time, and expand the potential of creativity. Read more for a list of recent accolades and current and upcoming virtual and in-person exhibitions, performances, lectures, and events.
Refik Anadol Studio, “Machine Memoirs: Space.” Credit: Refik Anadol Studio
Refik Anadol, visiting researcher and lecturer in the Department of Design Media Arts, as well as an alumnus of the department, will create “Machine Memoirs: Space,” the inaugural exhibition for The Reel Store, the U.K.’s first permanent immersive digital art gallery, opening in April. Housed in the Coventry Evening Telegraph newspaper’s former building, the 8,610-square-foot space was built with a spatially adaptive sound system and 14 intricate 4K laser projectors for large-scale projection mapping.
Bryonn Bain, associate professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and the Department of African American Studies, will publish the book “Rebel Speak: A Justice Movement Mixtape” on Mar. 29. The book includes interviews with change-makers on the front lines of the prison abolition movement, and an intimate exchange Bain had with his brother returning from prison.
Jennifer Bolande, professor in the Department of Art, has work on view in “Golden Hour: California Photography from the LACMA” at the Vincent Price Art Museum in Los Angeles through Feb. 5. She will also participate in the event “MoMA New York: Modern Mondays Series: An Evening with Jennifer Bolande” on Apr. 11. In May, a solo exhibition of her work will be shown at the Independent Art Fair, NYC, with Magenta Plains Gallery. In June, she will have a film installation included in the exhibition "Drawing Down the Moon” at the Hammer Museum.
The Houston Endowment, designed by Kevin Daly Architects and Productora.
Kevin Daly, adjunct professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, was recognized in the 2021 American Architecture Awards under the category of “corporate office buildings” for The Houston Endowment headquarters in Houston, Texas, which his office designed in collaboration with Productora.
Andrea Fraser, professor in the Department of Art and area head of interdisciplinary studio, is the subject of an in-depth interview by John Hulsey ‘18 (M.F.A., Art). “On Institutional Democratization and Reflexive Resistance: A Conversation with Andrea Fraser” appears in the fall 2021 issue of the journal October. Fraser is the subject of a solo exhibition at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart in Germany, titled “This meeting is being recorded,” which runs through Feb. 27. A new video from Fraser will be shown at the Hammer Museum this spring, with a date to be announced. She will also reprise her 2014 performance for Prospect 5 New Orleans later this spring, with a date to be announced.
Dan Froot, professor in the Department of World Arts and Culture/Dance, published two new episodes of the podcast “Pang!” this past November. Listen on Apple Podcasts or at PangPodcast.com.
Through a series of photos and personal testimonies, people living with HIV describe what it is like to live with a virus that has, even today, devastating levels of stigma and discrimination attached to it.
David Gere, professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and director of the UCLA Art & Global Health Center, launched "SURVIVORS: The inspirational journeys of people who are long-term survivors of HIV", in collaboration with UNAIDS. In honor of the 40th anniversary of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the campaign is live on UNAIDS social media and a new website: survivors.unaids.org.
Anna Sew Hoy, associate professor in the Department of Art and area head of ceramics, was a 2021 grant recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman awards. Sew Hoy has work included in the 77th Scripps College Ceramic Annual, the longest running national annual ceramics exhibition, on view from Jan. 29 to Apr. 10. Her work is also included in “The Hearing Trumpet I,” a group exhibition of Asian-American artists, at Galerie Marguo in Paris, on view from Feb. 26 to Mar. 26. Sew Hoy’s work is also included in “Abstract Vocabularies,” a group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, on view through Apr. 24.
Kevin Kane, director of the Visual and Performing Arts Education (VAPAE) Program, co-authored (with Karen Hunter Quartz and Lindsey T. Kunisaki) the research article “Multigenerational Art Making at a Community School: A Case Study of Transformative Parent Engagement” in the Harvard Educational Review’s Winter 2021 issue.
HY • CLUTCH | ICE, made by Julia Koerner’s label JK3D.
Julia Koerner, assistant adjunct professor in the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design, will deliver the keynote talk at TIPE 3D Printing, highlighting women in 3D printing and fashion technology, on Jan. 19 in Frankfurt, Germany. On May 21, she will speak at the Textile Arts Council at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. In December, Koerner launched the new label JK3D, which includes innovative products such as the HY Clutch, which is entirely 3D printed with plant-based material and sustainably manufactured in their solar-powered Los Angeles studio. Koerner’s work is included in the exhibition “P.LACE.S - Looking through Antwerp Lace” at MoMu in Antwerp, Belgium through Feb. 1.
Candice Lin, A Robot Spoke What My Father Wrote, 2019. Cut sheetrock, wood, razor-wire, welded gate, glazed ceramics, paper, photographs, synthetic hair, dried bacterial colony, dried tobacco, dried bat, sisal whip, chain, bone black pigment, black mold, rusty nails, aluminum spoon, cactus tincture. 96 x 360 x 60 inches (244 x 914.5 x 152.5 cm).
Candice Lin, assistant professor in the Department of Art, is among the first five inaugural Gold Art Prize winners, which focuses on Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Asian diaspora artists. Lin’s solo exhibition “Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping” was recently presented at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and travels to the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University from Feb. 4 to Apr. 1. Her exhibition “Pigs and Poison” will be on view at Spike Island in Bristol, United Kingdom from Feb. 5 to May 8. “Pigs and Poison” was previously exhibited at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, New Zealand and Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou, China. Other solo exhibitions by Lin that are currently on view include “The Glittering Cloud” at Kunsthalle Osnabrück in Osnabrück, Germany through Feb. 27 and “The Agnotology of Tigers” at the Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Baton Rouge through Mar. 20. Her work can also be seen at “Prospect 5 triennial: Yesterday We Said Tomorrow” through Jan. 23; “Flamboyanzinho” at Galeria Boavisita, Galerias Municipais in Lisbon, Portugal through Jan. 30; and “New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century” at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley, CA through Jan. 30.
Lauren Lee McCarthy, associate professor in the Department of Design Media Arts, has been named a Sundance Institute interdisciplinary program grantee and an “Art of Practice” fellow in the field of emerging media. She will present new work “Surrogate” at the Sundance Film Festival from Jan. 20-30. McCarthy presented a new performance work, “Appreciate You,” on Dec. 31, in which she appreciated 100 people over 10 hours on Zoom. The performance, distributed via NFT, continues as token holders may transfer their ownership of the work by appreciating the next owner.
Rodney McMillian, professor in the Department of Art, has work on view in “I don’t know you like that: The Bodywork of Hospitality,” a group exhibition exploring corporeal hospitality, at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Neb., on view through Mar. 20. He also has work in the exhibition “The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse” at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, on view through Feb. 6.
Rebeca Méndez, “Any-Instant-Whatever.” 2-channel looping video, captured in Los Angeles in winter 2019–2020. Duration: 90 minute, loop. Dimensions: 15 x 36 feet, variable.
Rebeca Méndez, professor and chair of the Department of Design Media Arts, has work on view as part of the Laguna Art Museum’s Art & Nature Festival through Apr. 25. “Any-Instant-Whatever” is a multimedia installation that depicts a contemplation of a day in Los Angeles, capturing a cloud-rich sky above the city and its residents.
Narineh Mirzaeian, lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, is founder and principal of MNOffice, a design practice based in Los Angeles. MNOffice recently completed a children’s dental clinic located in Camarillo, CA. The firm did the architectural design—including the graphic artwork and construction administration—for the project.
Catherine Opie, professor and chair of the Department of Art, has work in several current and upcoming exhibitions: “New Time: Contemporary Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century,” on view at Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, CA through Jan. 30; “Any distance between us,” on view at RISD Museum, Providence, RI through Mar. 13; “Masculinities: Liberation through Photography,” on view at FOMU – Fotomuseum Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, through Mar. 13; “Viva la Frida! – Life and art of Frida Kahlo,” on view at Drents Museum, Assen, Netherlands, through Mar. 27; "Catherine Opie," on view at The Current in Stowe, VT through Apr. 9; and “Black American Portraits,” on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art through Apr. 17. Opie will participate in The Broad's "Un-Private Collection" conversation, with Los Angeles Chief Design Officer Christopher Hawthorne and moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist Carolina A. Miranda, on Thurs., Jan. 20 from 7:30 - 9 pm. The talk will be livestreamed on YouTube. Opie will also give a virtual talk related to The Current exhibition on Thurs., Mar. 10 from 2:30 – 4 pm PT. Her monograph "Catherine Opie," published by Phaidon in 2021, was reviewed in The New York Times in a roundup of new photography books and was listed as one of the top ten photo books of the year by 1000 Words.
Lionel Popkin, professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and associate dean of academic affairs, and David Roussève, professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, serve on the board of Dance Camera West. Its 20th anniversary international film festival, with screenings of new and commissioned films, will be held in Los Angeles from Mar. 26 to Apr. 2.
Casey Reas, “HSB-119-006-090-1366-618 / HSB-135-006-090-1232-687,” 2015. Relief print on paper. 30 x 22.5 in / 76.2 x 57.2 cm, each. Edition of 6.
Casey Reas, professor in the Department of Design Media Arts, has woodblock prints included in the exhibition “A Generative Movement” at bitforms gallery at Minnesota Street Projects in San Francisco through Jan. 22.
Peter Sellars, distinguished professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, directs a presentation of “Roman de Fauvel” at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris from Mar. 18-26. He will also direct semi-staged adaptations of Igor Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex” and “Symphony of Psalms” at the San Francisco Symphony from Jun. 10-12.
David Shorter, professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, will deliver a keynote address to the international conference “Transition & Transmission in Oral Tradition,” organized by the Department of Folkloristics and Tribal Studies at the Central University of Karnataka in Kalaburagi, India, taking place Jan. 20-22.
Jennifer Steinkamp, professor in the Department of Design Media Arts, is the subject of the exhibition “Jennifer Steinkamp: The Technologies of Nature,” on view at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia through Aug. 21. Steinkamp also has work in the group exhibition “Remote Possibilities: Digital Landscapes from the Thoma Foundation Collection” at the Harwood Art Museum of The University of New Mexico in Taos through Feb. 27. Her work will be included in The Hawai’i Contemporary triennial “Pacific Century – E Ho‘omau no Moananuiākea.” The event will take place Feb. 8–May 8 across seven venues on the island of Oahu, and will be themed around climate change, history, social activism, and Indigenous knowledge in relation to Hawaii’s position at the nexus of Asia and Oceania.
Forensic Architecture Digital Violence: How the NSO Group Enables State Terror Investigation (detail; Platform), 2021 © Forensic Architecture, 2021
Nathan Su, lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, has been working over the last year with Forensic Architecture on their investigation “Digital Violence,” which documents and exposes the global landscape of digital infections performed using the cyber-weapon Pegasus, a software developed by NSO Group. Su was the lead designer of the data visualization and video editor on the project. It is being exhibited at MAC (Musée d'art contemporain) in Montreal through Apr. 18. He also worked as the exhibition designer on that exhibition, called “Terror Contagion.” The visualisations also appear in Laura Poitras’ documentary “Terror Contagion,” which was recently nominated for the Cinema Eye Honors.
Rodrigo Valenzuela, “Afterwork #5,” 2021. Archival inkjet print. 40 x 32 in.
Rodrigo Valenzuela, assistant professor in the Department of Art and area head of photography, has an exhibition called “New Works for a Post-Worker World” on view at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles through Feb. 19.
HEADER IMAGE: Jennifer Steinkamp (American, b. 1958), “Mike Kelley, 14” 2007. Video, dimensions variable; duration: 8-minute loop. Image courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul and London.
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