Rewind Review Respond Vol.4

We invite you to revisit these events and take a deep dive into the ideas discussed. RRR Vol.4 was organized by the Exhibitions department, and in spring 2022 edited by Katherine Jemima Hamilton and Liz Godbey, with original graphics by Sora Won.

“BFA Senior Thesis Conversations” are live, virtual events where graduating students from CCA’s Textiles, Photography, Individualized Studies, Sculpture, Glass, Printmedia, Jewelry and Metal Arts, Ceramics, Community Arts, and Painting and Drawing programs publicly share their capstone work. Each event features student presentations, responses from art professionals, and time for discussion. Through this online presentation, we celebrate each student’s dedication to art-making during their time at CCA, and provide a way for family, friends, and the general public to connect with and celebrate student work.

Writing about artists is an essential element of the art ecosystem. Artists need outside eyes for the value of critique and to communicate a vision, and art provides writers with inspiration. We bring the two sides together as part of Glen Helfand's Art and Language course. Seven writers took different approaches to introduce the artists of the graduating MFA Class of 2022. Here, you’ll find written and video interviews, thematic essays, epistolary forms, and fictionalization. We offer these as a means of introduction to a cohort of artists and writers we know we’ll see and read more of in the future.

Eman Alami is a creative based in San Francisco, where she explores the intersection between creative writing, philosophy, and visual art. She is an MFA in Writing graduate student with a BA in Art History from UCLA.

Marco Bene (he/him) received a BA in Art History at Goldsmiths, University of London, from 2012 to 2016. In 2017, he moved to Lisbon, writing vacuum cleaner reviews to subsist, until he started working as a curatorial assistant to the exhibition programme conceived by Natxo Checa, at Galeria Zé dos Bois; studio manager to the artist Alexandre Estrela, and curatorial assistant to the Oporto, Lisbon exhibition programme. Currently, he is pursuing an MA in Curatorial Practice.

Gregory Blanche is an artist from Berkeley, who has lived in Florence, Italy, for much of his life. His paintings, drawings, and sculptures depict abandoned places and dilapidated everyday things.

Gordon Fung is a transdisciplinary artist who works across various fields, including installation, music composition, sound art, video art, multi-/ new media, experimental, and conceptual arts. With his use of unconventional materials like noises, lo-fi presentations, and glitches, his immersive and synaesthetic works challenge the viewers to expand their experiential horizons.

Liz Godbey is a graduate student pursuing a dual degree in Visual & Critical Studies and Fine Arts whose practice involves writing, painting, drawing, and collage.

Renata Blanco Gorbea is a writer majoring in History of Art and Visual Culture.

Katherine Hamilton is a curator, educator, and graduate student pursuing a dual degree in Curatorial Practice and Visual & Critical Studies.

As an aspiring writer, Alex Hwang thinks about writing every day and sometimes even achieves this goal. He loves hanging out in the East Bay, where he grew up, skating around, reading, and listening to podcasts about mental health. His cat, Bianco, inspires him to keep pushing through it all.

Gwendolyn Kim is an LA and SF-based visual artist and MFA in Fine Arts candidate.

Zoë Latzer (she/they) is a curator and writer pursuing an MA in Curatorial Practice. They are currently working as a Curatorial and Public Programs Associate at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) San José.

Ann Liu is a senior in the BFA in Illustration program. Passionate about editorial art, Ann is constantly experimenting with new ways of expression.

Yue Liu is pursuing a Master of Advanced Architectural Design, concentrating on Urban Works. Yue is from Daqing, China, and received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from CCA in 2019. He returned to CCA to augment his approach to spatial and formal design with strategies for understanding the systems and protocols of cultural life in cities.

Kai Newquist is a born-and-raised Californian who considers herself an animator by trade but an artist in practice. Having dabbled in printmaking, ceramics, textiles, glassblowing, and writing, she is constantly exposed to varied modes of expression and creation through the artists she encounters.

Alejandro Elias Perea is a Chicano artist and writer interested in tech and its intervention by decolonial voices.

Niv Rajendra is a socially engaged artist and certified ayurvedic practitioner pursuing an MFA in Fine Arts.

Caki Rebeiz is an illustrator from Austin, Texas. She uses rhythmic line work, inspired by patterns found in nature, to express the emotions of people and their stories.

Shreya Shankar is an environmental planner and cultural strategist who directs Sacred Rivers Institute, writes the Viewsletters publication, and is pursuing a Master of Architecture.

Meghan Smith (she/her) is pursuing a dual degree in Curatorial Practice and Visual & Critical Studies with interests in postcolonial theory, critical race, and the contemporary art market.

Rebecca Velasquez is a second-year MArch student. She graduated from California State University Sacramento with a BFA in Interior Architecture and a minor in music.

Kristen Wawruck is a writer, curator, and MA candidate in the Visual & Critical Studies program.

Sora Won is a graphic designer pursuing an MFA in Design with a concentration in Graphic Design. She likes to find hidden value and beauty in everyday objects and life through a lens of design.

Xiangzi Xu is an illustrator with many years of art training and various styles of painting, and skilled in using various drawing software and traditional media. They are a recipient of the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship in 2022.

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