CCA MFA Class of 2011 Exhibtion!!! (Part I)

I may be a little behind, but I have a giant post of coverage from my MFA exhibition which took place from May 12-21.  Walking around a few days later, it was ideal to take shots after the chaos of the opening.  On the evening of the reception, I was stuck at my post next to my paintings, so it wasn't until I walked around to get some photos that I got to spend some quality time with everyone's artwork.  I did not get to each artist in this post- some photos were bad and some I missed, so my apologies to anyone left out.  We had a stellar class and I'm super proud of all of us!  

CCA main building

Here we are! (Double-click for larger image)

Opening night in the main walkway

Sarah Thibault's painting and sculpture

Thibault close-up of texture

Maysha Mohamedi's wall of paintings

Maysha and I: Our art was right across from each other in the main hallway

Here's one of my walls

Here's the other one

I wore a sweet suit!

Dave Sandoval's "Holiday Dinner Karaoke" was a crowd pleaser

Inside, you sat at one of four seats around a table with a microphone and a scrolling prompter of banal family dinner conversation.  Like, "Last year we went to Vegas", and the other seat:  "Oh, I didn't know that.  I like Blackjack".

A video projection on the table of a time-lapsed view of the dinner plates

Emily Eifler's super-ambitious interactive video game

Radka Pulliam's "constellations" of her charted walks around her Tenderloin neighborhood.  Some recorded items:  prostitutes and pee smells.  

Neil LeDoux's Headlands Tournesol Prize-winning cat mural

Carlos Ramirez's ceramic Mario Brothers blocks and blobs in the background

More Ramirez ceramic blobs

Jonathan Runcio's paintings and concrete sculptures on mini-plinths

Runcio painting

Amber Stucke's drawings and mushroom spore paper hand-outs

Carol Koffel's melting ice and porcelain sculpture

Ida Roden's detailed installation of an imaginary character's bedroom

She even made the book cover

Bean Gilsdorf's enormous digitally printed textile piece

Gilsdorf close-up: She's got Reagan and some civil war images mingling on the fabric

Stay tuned for more Part II coming soon!
Class photo by Jim Norrena.  Can't get enough CCA photos?  See the rest of his images here.

The CCA class of 2011 is:  

(Click on names for links)

Frederick Alvarado 

Natalia Anciso
Simone Bailey 
Mark Benson 
Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik 
Marissa Botelho 
Marylene Camacho 
Jillian Clark
Serena Cole
Daniel Dallabrida 
C. Wright Daniel 
Rachel Dawson 
Crystal De la Torre
Victoria Deblassie
Katherine Dorame
Elizabeth Dorbad
Emily Eifler
Rachel Foster 
Mik Gaspay 
Bean Gilsdorf
Angus Haller 
Julie Henson 
Sarah Hotchkiss 
Courtney Johnson 
Waheguru Khalsa 
Brian King 
Carol Koffel 
Noah Krell
Neil Ledoux 
Maysha Mohamedi 
Vanessa Nava 
Nancy Nowacek 
Radka Pulliam 
Carlos Ramirez 
Ida Roden
Allison Rowe 
Jonathan Runcio
David Sandoval 
Amber Stucke 
Mark Taylor 
Sarah Thibault 
Natasha Wheat 

Artist Focus: Carlos Ramirez

I have been curious about fellow grad at CCA, Carlos  Ramirez's, ceramic work for some time.  Within our large program, Carlos and I have never been in a critique class together so I have never had much of a chance to investigate his work, but I have seen it peeking out of his studio since the beginning of school.  The other day his ceramic video game-shaped sculptures were hung in a project space out in a main lobby and I was able to check out some of the details of his pieces.  I asked if he could send me a few pictures and then I went into his studio to take snap more photos.  

What I love about the work is that it is so unusual- you don't see much ceramic work that looks this contemporary.  Often, ceramics are banished into a "craft ghetto", where artists sell pots and vases at craft fairs, or make seemingly identical, badly sculpted blobby figurative sculptures.  Contrary to this, using the narrative of anthropomorphic shapes most of us recall from childhood, with neon-colored plexiglass to mimic the geometric movements of the game shapes, his pieces are both beautifully colored with lovely cracks, refreshingly funny, and semi-nostalgic.  See his website here.

Looking into his studio

Inspirational source material

A piece on the wall 

Close-up

Work station with candy

Candy and toys: necessities

For this particular body of work below, Carlos says:  "In this series of work, Crushing Nickels Into Quarters, I draw from imagery of 1980s video games, Meso-American architecture, and Minimalism to make sculptural work in reference to transitional times in coming of age".

Untitled (Black stripe)

Untitled (Pink stripe)

Untitled (Yellow stripe)

See my post on Southern Exposure's juried show, Boom, for another piece by Carlos.

Two Mission Openings: Southern Exposure and Triple Base Gallery

 I am a little behind in posting these two shows I saw in December, with the end of the semester and Christmas taking a big bite out of my time.  Both are shows already through, but here are some pictures!

Southern Exposure's annual juried exhibition, "Boom", was chalk full of recent or current CCA grads and buddies.  Congrats to the participants; I was told over 700 people applied for the show, leaving only a seven percent chance of getting in!

 The scene at Southern Exposure

 Hilary Pecis and a Boom-themed explosion digital collage 

 Noah Krell's video piece in which he convinces a girl to drag him up a steep hill

Mark Benson and his sculptural piece, "Oversight (Undershirts)" (you can't see the red sock from here)

Carlos Ramirez's ceramic sculpture based on Mario Brothers' game pieces

Lindsey Lyons and her linen painting of floor detritus

Some of the artists/intellectuals:  Noah Krell, Julie Henson, Mark Benson, and bud Mark Taylor

Next up was the annual Holiday party and Flat File show, "Out of the Flat Files", at Triple Base Gallery.  I was part of the show, too, but I didn't take a photo...

The scene at Triple Base, with an extra wall for even more viewing at the event

This guy is amazing!  Edmund Wyss only does machinery- mostly cameras.  This is a photo realistic gouache painting

Gallery Co-Director, Dina Pugh, in the back room with Christmas goodies made from scratch

A Rachel Kaye drawing wall

Rachel Foster's tricky screenprint

Bryson Gill and Jay Nelson

I found some favorite girls outside.