Alumni News December 2008

Alumni in the news... in the bookstores... and in your Internets!
Now with more color pictures!

Karl Kasten's long-anticipated and profusely illustrated memoir, Foghorns and Peacocks, chronicles his college years, war years, professional years, activities in painting, printmaking, and education, and random observations, is due out any day now. Check back here for ordering instructions.
Luz Marina Ruiz had a busy fall, with two artists books at the Conrad Gallery in Tuscon, AZ and a show at NoneSuch Space Gallery in Oakland. Also this fall, Diane Damé Shepp BA '77 showed at the Oakland Museum as part of the Day of the Dead Exhibit.
Flatfile Galleries showed the work of Nancy Genn in Chicago at SOFA in November, with several of her cast bronze sculptures and mixed media drawings from her new Geneses series. Helen Ann Licht has a show at the Bade Museum, the Pacific School of Religion from Jan 7 through March. The title of the show will be the Bible and Bhuddha. Opening reception will be Saturday February 7, 2009. Check out what's going on at the Sebastopol Gallery and keep up with Sandy Eastoak by subscribing to her "Fish Rap" newsletter. In September, Christine Lando held a Contruction/Deconstruction show of her work at her gorgeous Dogpatch studio in San Francisco.
Prius-driving Barbara Morris had a show called Hybrids at the San Geronimo Valley Center in November. Jim Melchert MA '61 (also driving a Prius) had a solo show at Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco in June and another fabulous show in November at b. sakata garo entitled appropriatly enough Breaking and Entering. Yuriko Yamaguchi had a huge feature in the Washington Post with video that you can see on-line here. The Theater of Insects, Jo Whaley's beautiful new book, was published last month by Chronicle Books. Lynne Rutter BA '85 recently completed a major mural commission for the children's wing of the Burlingame Public Library.

"Blink" by Nemo Gould

Giant boxing Robots! Nemo Gould is mixing it up in the news, in the clubs, and on the Discovery Channel! Check out his Giant Boxing Robots on YouTube. Jeff King's Y2K Gallery includes some of Nemo's work, on now through January 23, 2009.
Casey Anderson continues to paint and exhibit in East Hampton, NY. Sandra Low BA '97 showed in two recent group exhibits: "we are all in this together" at McNish Art Gallery, Oxnard, CA in November, and "Reality Check" at Overtones Gallery, Los Angeles, CA in December. Merl Ross BA '85 recently celebrated her 20+ year career with a retrospective show in December at her historic Hillside School Studio. Kara Maria is currently showing her work in Los Angeles at the Charlie James Gallery, through January 3.

David Jones hawking his wares at a recent show.

The Elephant in the Room, a group of politically provocative, mixed-media sculptures by Emily Duffy MFA '93 had a pre-election showing True World Gallery in Joshua Tree.
A recent show called Art of Democracy; War and Empire at the Meridan Gallery in San Francisco, featured the expertly crafted "Limited Time: Sale: $999.99 Lead Shirt" by David Jones MFA '73. David's work was also exhibited in the October show Change America at Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica.

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Help us spread the word about the accomplished and interesting lives of our alumni artists, by sending us articles, news, and images to share with this community.

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Graduate Program Update

Hello dear Art Alumni,

I'm writing to catch you up on the goings on of the Dept. of Art Practice.
As Graduate Adviser for the past three years, I'm particularly up to date on the status of our graduate program, so that is what I'll concentrate on sharing with you.

At present we run an MFA program with 13 or 14 graduate students per year. It's a two year program, and to achieve the degree, our students must produce an artistic thesis that is exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum in May. The 5.25 full-time faculty we currently have in the department all work with graduate students, but we have also been able to hire outside advisers to with with MFA students in their second year, serving as members of their thesis committee. This has been a terrific way for students to make contact with artists who operate outside academia, and who come to them with no agenda other than to help and push them toward their best working practice.
In recent years we've had Allan de Souza, Stephanie Syjuco, Sergio de la Torre, Trevor Paglen, Vincent Fecteau, Pamela Wilson, Kota Ezawa, Josephine Taylor, and other internationally-known artists working with our grads in this capacity.
Our visiting artist lecture series has also provided extra studio visits to MFA students. Each year we bring 6 or 7 artists to campus to give a lecture, and visit the Richmond Field Station studios. In this way we are able to keep a fresh set of eyes on our students work throughout the year, and expose those students to visiting artists. We've found that some of these visitors go on to curate our students' work into
exhibitions, and even help them create relationships with galleries and dealers.

Our graduate program is also extremely competitive to get into: we receive upwards of 200 applications per year for 7 places, which allows us to pick students of high caliber. Many of these MFA students do not come straight from their undergrad programs, but have been out in the world working for a few years, and bring with them their life and studio experience. Of utmost importance to our ability to attract good applicants is the fact that our grad program is fully funded. Students receive a stipend as well as having their tuition paid. In their second year, they teach Art 8 or Art 23AC, and earn money and really valuable teaching experience that way as well. So we're finding that our student "body" is mature and mostly very self-starting. We've created a media lab and a wood shop at the Richmond Field Station, as well as building our large media lab here at Kroeber, so there are ample tools and spaces for students to work in.

Our curriculum for graduate studies has changed somewhat, to emphasize the vast resources of the UCB community at large. MFA students take at least two courses from outside of the Art dept. during their time here, and we see the powerful impact of faculty from a broad range of disciplines on the students' work. They are studying philosophy, physics, rhetoric, computer science, sociology, art history, environmental science, history, performance studies, interactive design, and architecture, to give you a far from exhaustive list. The presence of the Berkeley Center for New Media also offers our students various fora for discussion with students from other disciplines, as well as a second busy lecture series to attend.

Our recent hire of Brody Reiman to teach sculpture and run the sculpture area has proved to be a very, very good one. Brody has the most astonishing ability to motivate good work from students that I have ever seen. The quality and quantity of 3D and installation work being produced by the department has grown hugely since she began as an Assistant Professor in 2007 (though she'd taught as a lecturer several times previous to 2007, and we were impressed with her then too). She is in the process of setting up a laser cutter for the department (our first!) and that represents an exciting new step forward for us. Brody and I hope to begin combining our curricula with a new course in video and sculpture as well.

At the undergrad level, we're seeing a growth of declared art majors. We now have something like 180 majors, which, distributed amongst only 5.25 full time faculty and 4 staff is a formidable work load. But we continue to have the help of our four devoted continuing lecturers - Randy Hussong, Kevin Radley, John McNamara and Craig Nagasawa, who do a yeoman's share of work. Our visiting lecturers have provided an ever-broadening range of courses to our curriculum for undergrads. We now offer courses with titles such as "Experimental Landscapes," "Issues in Multi-Cultural display," "Art, Medicine and Disability," (Katherine Sherwood's legendary course), "Art and Meditation," "Sound Art," "Game Design," and, in the summer time, Digital Photography. Students clamor for more classes, and when the University budget provides, we provide. We're eager to be able to offer more courses.

Many of the faculty continue to travel widely for exhibitions of their work, or for performances, or screenings of films and videos. Katherine Sherwood currently has a one-person show at Paule Anglim Gallery in San Francisco. Greg Niemeyer won a MacArthur Foundation-funded grant last summer to build a complex interactive project. We all treasure our studio time! We're lucky, also to have a new Chair at the helm: Hertha Sweet Wong, whose background is in Creative Writing, but whose research has focused mostly on Native American folk culture. She began her 3-year term this fall and we're VERY pleased to have her.

Morale is good! We're delighted we've been able to build up a media lab that is the envy of many departments on campus. In room 285 we have a video shooting studio and lecture space, and in room 295 we have a computer lab with 20 dedicated stations for animation, game design, and video editing. It's a big change, and students hop on to the equipment as fast as we can train them on it.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, and grateful for your interest and continued dedication to the Department of Art Practice.

Sincerely,

Anne Walsh
Associate Professor for Video
Graduate Advisor

6th Annual Symposium October 18, 2008

What's Happening - Contemporary Art

In the sixth annual Art Alumni Symposium we present "What's Happening- Contemporary Art" an exchange by now-oriented artists and educators, exploring the processes of contemporary artists, the dynamic post-modern political and social force in today's art world.

Tina Takemoto as Bjork-Geisha

Speakers include Rene de Guzman, curator at the Oakland Museum; Tina Takemoto, performance artist and professor at CCA; Berkeley Art Museum Matrix Curator Elizabeth Thomas; and Petra Royale Bibeau, Founder/Curator of Maniac Gallery, an alternative space for contemporary artists.
Spontaneous audience participation via a non-commercial guerrilla broadcast of Neighborhood Public Radio.

UC Berkeley Art Alumni Symposium VI
"What's Happening?" Contemporary Art
Saturday, October 18th, 9:30 AM - 4 PM
160 Kroeber Hall, UC Berkeley
suggested donation: $20

The afternoon will wrap up with a private reception in Worth Ryder Gallery and the Karl Kasten retrospective exhibit.

Please join us!

Karl Kasten Restropective at Worth Ryder Gallery

September 23 through October 24, 2008 the University of California's Department of Art Practice will present "Karl Kasten/UCB: the 70 year Journey" - a retrospective exhibition of the works of renowned artist and popular mentor, Professor Emeritus Karl Kasten. The show will cover Mr. Kasten's 70 year relationship with the university, and will also feature works created by colleagues and former students.

Kasten attended Cal in the mid- 1930’s and graduated in '38, and later returned to teach in 1950 at the request of Kastens' most influential mentor, Worth Ryder.
Another powerful influence in Mr. Kasten's early career was the influential Hans Hoffmann, who taught at UC from 1930 -31 and laid the groundwork for modernizing the newly formed department.

As part of the exhibition, the gallery will also feature a variety of artwork created by colleagues and fellow members of what has been referred to as "The Berkeley School". A select number of former students will also present their work.

Worth Ryder Gallery is located in Kroeber Hall opening hours Tuesday - Saturday 12 noon - 4 PM
Join the Alumni and the Department of Art Practice in celebrating the opening of this exhibit September 23rd, 4 - 7 PM.

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Congratulations to the Class of 2008

It was my pleasure once again to attend the 2008 Commencment in the sculpture garden of BAM and personally welcome to the real world, these artists, our newest alumni:

Gabriel Agee, Christopher Alarie, Gilberto Armendariz, Stephanie Barringer, Erika Bird, Ben Bracamonte, Jessica Bracamonte, Shannon Braziel, Christopher Breithaupt, Erik Bro, Sarah Brock, Emily Brundige, Rebecca Bush, Crystal Carlson, Faheema Chaudhury, Crystal Chen, Jayson Cheung, Kristie Chow, Yve Laris Cohen, Cecilia Contreras, Madelyn Covey, Ashley Davidson, Natasha DeAlmeida, Laura DeNardo, Daniel Edery, Nathan Finney, Gabriel Fischer, Emily Frost, Aaron Fung, Katherine Greenman, Carson Grubach, Wen Dong, Tony Guan, Olga Gutierrez, A Han, Amber Handal, Karen Henderson, Anna Hoffman, Clare Hutchinson, Mattie Kahren, Bryan Kato, Tricia Kim, Ping Kuang, Lynn Seohong Lee, Adrienne Levoy, Shang-Wuen Liu, Edwin Lo, Brendan Luce, Steven Lybeck, Katherine Madrigal, Makai Magie, Jason Maze, Robert McCluskey, Zoilita McKeon, Kelda McKinney, Sonia McNally, Lucia Mendoza, Tina Moreno, Oliver Mork, Sheau-Wha Mou-Keefe, Amber Morrison, Amber Mueller, Jenifer Nelson, Jean Linh Chi Nguyen, Khang Nguyen, Hilary Pollack, Allison Porterfield, Joanne Rademacher, Nick Reid, Carolina Reyes, Rebecca Richards, Gabrielle Roussos, Hayley Rucker, Jon Running, Lillian Sabersky, Christina Salazar, Asaki Sano, Kelly Seldan, Youna Shin, Matthew Siemonsma, Jenny Song, Keiko Stong, Jingqin Su, Hongyun Suriwong, Jessica Tatara, Maile Thompson, Michelle Tingen, John Torrens, Sharita Towne, Elizabeth Tran, Justine Travers, Minisha Trivedi, Katy Tsai, Wan-Ling Tsai, Enrique Unzueta, Kate VandenBerghe, Greg VanHoesen, Julia Wiener, Stacy Wilkinson, Nicole Wilson, Eric Wong, Michael Wooten, and a special repeat performance from Sierra Helvey.

MFA graduates: Adrianne Crane; Renee Davis- awarded a UAM Council Founders Prize and an Eisner Prize; Rosalyn Khor-Eisner Prize; Emily Prince - awarded a Headlands Graduate Fellowship Program (1yr. residency 2008-2009); Wenhua Shi- awarded a Javits Fellowship; Sunny Taylor awarded the Kelsey Travel Award and an Eisner Prize; Indira Morre left us with the Harry Ford Lord Award.


Shannon Jewel Braziel was the recipient of this year's Art Alumni Award for the Leadership in the Art Community. Shannon also garnered the Doris Nichols Sculpture Award.
The Theresa Hak Kyung CHA prize was awarded to Jingqin Su.



~Lynne Rutter, BA 1985

Farewell to Tony Shultz BA 1969

Tony Shultz was happily quoted as saying he showed up at Free Speech and left Berkeley at People’s Park. In the midst of all of that, Tony was a student in the Residence College, working in the theatre shop building sets and hanging lights and working in the Ceramics studio under Peter Voulkous and Ron Nagle. He set up kilns, fired his own stuff and created work independent of class time as well formal study. He had previously studied with Helen Slater in Los Angeles.
Leaving Berkeley in '69 with his degree in Theatre (cum laude) and a one-way ticket to London, he spent three years with the Moving Being Company as actor and technician, working with Charles Marowitz at the Round House Theatre. Returning to the states he worked as a technician for the studios and then headed to New York to star in the original production of Grease, and as a featured player in The Bakers Wife with Paul Sorvino and Platinum with Alexis Smith. In 1986, Tony decided to move into real estate in Los Angeles, marrying actress Susan Merson in 1987. Their daughter, Sofie, was born in 1991.
Tony was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos exposure disease, on January 2 of this year and died unexpectedly after surgery on March 15, 2008. There is a blog detailing the last few months of his life at www.thejourneyoftheprince.blogspot.com His family would very much appreciate hearing from anyone who knew or worked with him the ceramics studio. Susan can be reached via email at susan@susanmerson.com.

Alumni News Winter 2008

Thanks to all who participated in our fall symposium, which was well-attended and a great success!
Time once again to catch up with our alumni..... News has been coming to us via postcards, email, and our special operatives which as everyone knows, are everywhere that matters.

Our newest alumni of the class of 2007 deserve some mention here:

MFA graduates Kara Hearn and Jennifer Wofford, received a 2006 Jack and Gertrude Murphy Fellowship of $2,500 each from the San Francisco Foundation.
Joe McKay, MFA 2007, was the 2006 Anker Fellow Award recipient.
Javier Aros, Brad Aldridge, Chau Nguyen, Issac Quigley and Cynthia Silva, undergraduate students were each awarded 2006 Sargent Merit Scholarships in Art, for $3,000 each. Issac Quigley was also the 2007 Art Alumni Award honoree, and we hope he spent all $200 of that in one place.
Kelly Seldan was awarded the 2006 Sussman Award in Painting of $6,000.
Lettie McGuire helped us establish this blog, as well as organizing the Art Group at Berkeley- with Aisling Maguire, they also facilitated the Cal Artist Empowerment Workshop- a DECAL class introducing art majors to the business of the art life.

Also last May, there was a reception to honor distinguished CED design alumni and a group of art alumni were invited to attend, at the lovely Maybeck Recital Hall in Berkeley.

Professor Katherine Sherwood had a show at The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. with a catalog designed by graduate Lisa Solomon. Lisa also participated in the Monster Drawing Rally at Southern Exposure in SF this year.

In the left bay, Tina Takemoto took San Francisco's Trannyshack by storm with one of her performances; who knows how many times popular demand with bring back the Bjork-Geisha!
check this out, we can embed videos here. heh.

In what could possibly be the most perfect match up of artist and pile of seemingly useless stuff ever conceived, Nemo Gould wrapped up a 4 month stint as artist in residence at the San Francisco Dump with a fabulous solo show called "Waste Deep."
Pat Rose has been invited the National Society of Arts and Letters, and her company for the artistically gifted is thriving- visit their website at www.artodyssey.org
Leslie Cheney-Parr (BA '69, MA '71) has been blessed with an award from National in New Mexico as well as twin grandchildren!
Phyllis Shafer had an exhibit of paintings from the Sonoran Desert at the Stremmel Gallery in Reno, NV last year. Jim Melchert's show "Eye Sites" featured a lot of new work, in October at the Paul Kotula Projects in Ferndale, MI. "To Be Someone" paintings by Mary Heilmann at the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston showed though January 2008. Beatrice Caracciolo showed at the Charles Cowles Gallery, NY in October.

The opening of Charles Linder's show at Gallery 16 was well attended as well. Lynne Rutter and David Jones were both there, as were a lot of other people, and wine was consumed.

Stephanie Peek "Garden Camouflage" 20x20" oil on panel

Paintings by Stephanie Peek MFA ’96 were shown at Triangle Gallery SF last October as well as the Thoreau Gallery in San Francisco in November. She has been teaching painting at Dominican College in San Rafael, CA, and curated “The Camo Show” at Dominican which showed Nov-Dec 07. Her work can be seen at the Friesen Gallery in Seattle and Sun Valley.
After many years, Edythe Bresnahan will be retiring as Chair of the Art
Dept. at Dominican University at the end of this spring semester 2008. Paintings by Kevin Bean MFA 95 were exhibited at Charles Campbell Gallery in San Francisco. Work by Aida Gamez showed at Barry Sakata Gallery in Sacramento, CA last summer.

Roy Tomlinson showed some of his photographs at Lost Canyon Winery in November. Yuriko Yamaguchi's show "Interdigitate" was displayed at the University of Maryland through December.

Frances Spencer MA '68 received Special Recognition for painting in national juried competition of Emerald Art Center, Springfield, OR. "The Visionary Art of Frances Spencer" was featured at the Albatross Pub Gallery, Berkeley, November 2007 through January 2008. Sharon Lloyd BFA '79 has been living in the Monterey Peninsula area working (architecture), writing, raising a family, and making art. Music, art , and intention... in Sebastopol, CA. find out more by subscribing to the Fish Rap newsletter from Sandy Eastoak.

Kara Maria recently had a solo show at Catherine Clark's new gallery in San Francisco, and has been selected as a 2008 Masterminds finalist by the SF Weekly. Enrique Chagoya's work "Borderlandia" is now at the Berkeley Art Museum through May 18, as well as Gallery Paule Anglim through March 2008.
Sonya Rapoport MA '49 is showing graphic pieces from her work Shoe-Field in the exhibition Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print being organized by The Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, through April 6, 2008. She will be discussing the work at the symposium that coincides with the exhibition. An article about the interactive Shoe-Field is being published this year by Berg Publishing, a branch of Oxford Press, London.