Reflecting CalArts’ experimental ethos, the Institute’s CalArts Expo returns on Friday, May 14 as a virtual event featuring creatively adventurous and imaginative projects by students, faculty, and alumnx representing every school at CalArts. Highlighting student projects created during the current academic year, the virtual CalArts Expo will present work by over 500 artists, curated and organized by our student-led team. Audiences can experience Expo in three ways—access though the Virtual Gallery; social media; and media playlists on Spotify, YouTube, and Vimeo. This year’s Expo precedes CalArts’ Virtual Graduation Ceremony, which begins at 6 pm PDT at calarts.edu/graduation.
The CalArts Expo goes live at 1pm PDT on May 14, 2021.
The Expo Welcome Event, free and open to the public, will take place from 1–2pm PDT on May 14, featuring a virtual meet-and-greet with the Expo team and guided tour through our exhibition spaces. RSVP here to receive the Zoom link.
Artists will also be featured on Expo social media through highlighted profiles of the student creative team, and posts presenting student, alumni, faculty, staff, and guest artists and their work. For more information, follow CalArts Expo on Facebook (@CalArtsExpo), Instagram (@calarts_expo), and Twitter (@CalArtsExpo).
Fiona Casper-Strauss
Fiona Casper-Strauss School of Theater, Acting, BFA4 Dough What’s eating you?
Riley Campbell
Riley Campbell School of Music, Music Technology, BFA4 The 12-Tone Mandala The 12-Tone Mandala is a method of analyzing and teaching music theory using geometry. Inspired by concepts within Qabbalah and Pythagoreanism, it uses simple shapes to illustrate the beautiful mathematical permutations of the 12 notes of the western scale. http://mandala-its-alive.glitch.me/
Eliot Burk
Eliot Burk School of Music, Experimental Sound Practices, MFA1 String Quartets for Two Performers Before COVID, I saved up to purchase the instruments of a String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola, Cello). I wanted to have the whole ensemble so that I could play them without being restricted to what most performers are comfortable doing to […]
Norm’s Short Sleeves
Norm’s Short Sleeves School of Theater, Acting, MFA2 The Way It Was (Official Music Video) Song by Norm’s Short Sleeves Performed by Lucas Brahme, Spencer Prescott, Elizabeth Waller Directed by Adam Peltier Edited by Connor Linnerooth Collaborators: Elizabeth Waller (Calarts BFA ’20) Adam Peltier (Calarts MFA2 Actor) Connor Linerooth (Film Editor) Spencer Prescott (Musician)
Ari Bone, Liam Hayden and Gabe Salomon
Ari Bone, Liam Hayden and Gabe Salomon School of Music, ExPop, BFA3 Neil Degrasse Tyson Hates Issac Newton The Chonks (Ari Bone, Liam Hayden, Duncan Mugalian) filmed a music video for the lead single off their upcoming 2nd EP. The video was edited by Warped Visions. 90% of the footage was filmed in bathrooms. Collaborators: […]
Lois Bielefeld
Lois Bielefeld School of Art, Photo/Media, MFA2 To commit to memory To commit to memory is work delving into my parent’s life, particularly their conservative Evangelical traditions and how this plays out within the home. The genesis for this series was a video piece I made of my mom’s daily 13-minute plank while reciting memorized […]
Fía Benitez
Fía Benitez School of Art, Art and Integrated Media, MFA2 Root Rot Citrus House, 2021 Graphite, watercolor on matboard; Sunkist Citrus House on Main Street, USA, Disneyland, Anaheim, CA, sign (1960-89) 32 x 40 in. From CalArts final exhibition, Root Rot (2021)
Sara Brown
Sara Brown School of Music, BFA2 Recording Studio for Women & LGBTQ+ Community During the pandemic friends and I built a recording studio called Kahina Studios in Zurich, Switzerland, from scratch that should serve as a safe space for women and the LGBTQ+ Community. Motivated by my experience and the discrimination towards marginalized groups I […]
Rosa Evangelina
Rosa Evangelina School of Music, VoiceArts, MFA2 BODY SCAN #1: THE WAR IS OVER BODY SCAN #1: THE WAR IS OVER For Solo Performer I Explore your body with a contact microphone. II Place the microphone on your voice box. Breathe as slowly and pleasurably as possible. If singing happens, allow it. Collaborators: […]
Rollercoasterwater
Rodrigo Arruda
Rodrigo Arruda School of Art, Art, MFA 1 Cattle/Gado About horns and allegory, here and there.
Anaís Azul
Anaís Azul School of Music, Performer-Composer, MFA1 IDENTIDAD Patricio Espinoza: Lyrics and video Anaís Azul: Performance, composition, and lyrics This song was written in response to a call by Centro Cultural Universidad de Lima in which musicians were asked to make an original composition responding to the current climate of Peru only using the […]
Mahedi Anjuman
Mahedi Anjuman School of Art, Art, MFA 1 YOU YOU portrays the image of how we interact with or understand other humans, as our understanding is limited and developed through our own knowledge and perception. Collaborators: Madison Foley
Josie Anders
Josie Anders School of Dance, Dance, BFA 2 James Dean James Dean is a dance documentary. It explores life’s mundane moments that largely affect how we view ourselves, all while having a comedic approach.
Razan Alsarraf
Razan Alsarraf School of Art, Art, MFA 1 Seeds After Black Gold Seeds After Black Gold is a short film created in Kuwait, illustrating several rituals traditionally practiced by Shia women preparing for an Islamic marriage. The rituals are then lifted from the context of a wedding and displaced into spaces unbound by […]
Moham Wang
Moham Wang MA | CalArts Critical Studies | Painting and installation Wuhan Series This watercolor series is a collection of stories I recall from my high school years in Wuhan, a city now known for the outbreak of the pandemic. In agony and nostalgia, I feel an impulse to visualize what I see through my […]