Fischl studied at CalArts when the contemporary art scene was trending toward minimal and conceptual art. He became a champion of figurative painting and conquered the New York art world in the 1980s. His works have been the subject of numerous solo and major group exhibitions and represented in many museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modem Art in New York City, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, St. Louis Art Museum, Louisiana Museum of Art in Denmark, and the Musee Beaubourg in Paris.

Fischl’s recently published memoir Bad Boy: My Life On and Off the Canvas describes his coming of age as an artist, including his time at CalArts, and his life and art experiences in the fast-paced New York scene.

CalArts graduation ceremony begins at 6 pm tonight, and 24700 will be reporting from the festivities, including Fischl’s address to the community of artists and their families. Join us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook throughout the day for updates. If you’d like to join in the conversation, use the hashtag #calartsgraduation.

CalArts Graduation 2013 Schedule of Events

• 4 pm: CalArts Balinese Gamelan
  Burat Wangi (Fragrant Offering), directed by I. Nyoman Wenton and dance director Nanik Wenten

• 6 pm: CalArts African Music and Dance Ensemble
  Co-directors Andrew Grueschow and Yeko Ladzepko, lead the procession of graduating students

• 9 pm: Reception
  In the Cafe and Main Gallery for graduates, families and guests

• 10 pm: Performance by the CalArts Salsa Band
  Directed by David Roitstein in the Main Gallery

The Cannes Film Festival started this Wednesday (May 15) in France and two films by CalArtians are joining the prestigious festival, both featured in this year’s Cannes Court Métrage.

School of Film/Video staff member Justin Hogan is the Supervising Producer of The Spirit Game, a short film based on the true story of the Fox sisters, three girls in the nineteenth-century whose spirit-summoning prank accidentally founded Spiritualism. The film is screening on May 20 at the Palais F as part of an out-of-competition program called “Canada: Talent Tout Court/Not Short on Talent.”

David Braun (Film/Video BFA 13) and Victor Sala’s sci-fi film Robota is also screening at Cannes as part of “Short Film Corner 2013.” Part live action and part stop-motion animation, the film grew out of Braun’s time studying abroad in Prague, where he met and collaborated with Sala, a film student from Barcelona. Robota‘s screening time and venue are yet to be determined.

We posted the trailer for The Spirit Game, above, and the trailer for Robota, below.

Robota Teaser from David Braun on Vimeo.

Fella has had tremendous influence on graphic designers around the world and on the generations of CalArts graphic design students who were under his mentorship.

Known for always leaving his studio door open for students and faculty, Fella has been a huge presence in the CalArts community. “Ed is the opposite of a man of few words: a verbosity that echoes in the hearts, heads, and hands of so, so many,” says CalArts Program in Graphic Design faculty member Louise Sandhaus in a Print article that compiles words and images on Ed Fella by Michael Dooley, a long time friend of the graphic design icon.

Above, we included one of many posters designed by CalArts students, alumni and professors in honor of Ed Fella’s last official lecture at CalArts. For more design tributes, visit the Posters for Ed Fella site.

Related: A Postmodern Postscript: Ed Fella’s Last Official Lecture at CalArts.

Now in its fourth year, Cinefamily hosts Autarky: Frontier Animation, a screening of 26 works from mostly second-year BFA students from the Experimental Animation and Character Animation Programs. As the title of the event suggests (“autarky,” meaning the quality of being self-sufficient), the compilation of films was curated by the CalArts students themselves.

The late-night screening, which begins at 11:59 pm, focuses on bringing work from the students’ hands directly to the screen. Pieces include stop-motion animation, drawing, painting, video, flicker films and text-based films.

Here are the films listed in program order:

• Amalgam - Jack Turpin (BFA 15) – 3 min 18 sec
• Dear Sky - Jerrold Chong (BFA 16) – 1 min 40 sec
• Romance - Sunny Liang (BFA 15) – 3 min 20 sec
• Loud Boy - Amy Lee (BFA 14) – 3 min 57 sec
• ESCAPE - Skyler Brown (BFA 15) – 4 min 50 sec
• Crickets - Crystal Skye Jordan – 43 sec
• Hey There, Second Conscious” – Tyler Russo (BFA 15) – 4 min 3 sec
• Procrastination - Eben Zboch (BFA 15) – 1 min 17 sec
• Vanishing Jazz Band - Jacob Sluka (BFA 16) – 2 min 2 sec
• Umma - Sieun Lim (BFA 13) – 4 min 50 sec
• Leap of Faith - Sydney Frank (BFA 15) – 3 min 36 sec
• Wood Colored Foxes - Madeline Mathis (BFA 15) – 4 min 27 sec
• Bad Day - Nicole Stafford (BFA 16) – 1 min 30 sec
• Dwarf Planets - Leo Lillrank (BFA 15) – 4 min 13 sec
• Fruit Stand Off - Tomas Christian (BFA 15) – 1 min 52 sec
• Dragons Are Assholes - Hae-Joon Lee (BFA 14) – 2 min
• S’more and Peace - Harley Scroggins (BFA 15) – 4 min 35 sec
• Onion - Erin Kim – 1 min 24 sec
• Shadowbox - Shawna Koski (BFA 15) – 4 min 18 sec
• The Light Collector - Eric Loelius (BFA 16) – 2 min 2 sec
• Remnant - Abby Magno (BFA 16) – 1 min 34 sec
• i met a robot at a ballet once. – Isabela Dos Santos (BFA 15) – 2 min 7 sec
• UNTITLED - Jesse Johnson (BFA 15) – 4 min 47 sec
• EYES BIG LOVE - Sophia Diao (BFA 13) – 1 min 5 sec
• To a Lost Memory - Skyler Brown (BFA 15) – 4 min 34 sec
• The Best Daughter - Ambar Navarro (BFA 15) – 4 min 33 sec

From the release:

The “problem of social practice” is that all art-making is social practice: As human activity, art emerges from social life and takes place within it, deriving its meanings and value from the social relations and beliefs that surround it. Nonetheless, terms like “social practice” are common today, with the potential to marginalize works that pursue unconventional social engagement; while at the same time, such terms allow for things like this class to form. In this class, we will work to push our authorship, audience and subject matter toward the broader world of which art (as we typically understand it) is but one part. By laying a foundation for what we understand “the social” to mean, we will consider the actors, the contexts and effects of our work, providing a laboratory to work and challenge our projects. While looking to histories of collaboration and collectivity, performance and participation, and the roles of publics and communities within our work, we will ask: What is art able to do other than ‘be art’? To be successful, does it need to count as art — and according to whose definitions?

In addition to Hunt, co-authors include the following Program in Art and Program in Photography & Media students: Adriana Baltazar (MFA 14), Roslyn Cohen (MFA 13), Yaron Guerrero (MFA 14), Christopher Hahn (BFA 13), Natalie Hon (BFA 14), Nebras Hoveizavi (BFA 14), Emma Iocovozzi (BFA 13), Nick Johnston (MFA 14), Taylor Lovio (BFA 14), Heather M. O’Brien (MFA 13), Andres Payan (MFA 14), Ho Yan Pun Nicole (MFA 14), Vidisha Saini (MFA 13), Weng San Sit (MFA 14), Kevin Smith (14) and Katrin Winkler (MFA 13). The box itself was designed by Izaak Berenson (Art MFA 14).

The project also includes a contribution by the sound art collective Ultra-red, which was co-founded by current visiting faculty member Dont Rhine in 1994.

One copy of the publication will be on view in the CalArts library following the reception and will also be available at an event in conjunction with the 2013 School of Art Graduate Exhibition in Chinatown on June 15.

Julia Rhoads, the winner for dance, was a member of the San Francisco Ballet before founding the Chicago dance company Lucky Plush Productions in 1999. Her work combines theater, physical comedy, full-throttle postmodern dance and social commentary to wrestle with issues of gender, originality, appropriation and group dynamics. Rhoads is particularly interested in improvisation and presence in her choreography. “I want my work to breathe differently in every show,” she said. “Giving the performers permission to be responsive to the live circumstances is a way to reveal their vulnerability and humanity.”

Anthropologist, artist and filmmaker Lucien Castaing-Taylor received the award for film/video for documentaries that eschew narration altogether, instead taking the viewer into visceral, immersive and intimate investigations.

Alex Mincek, the New York City-based saxophonist and composer, was the winner in the music category. He is currently the saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and artistic director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, a contemporary music group he founded in 1998. According to Mincek, his music “frequently plays with the ambiguous relation between how various physical gestures and audible structures feed into and off of one another.”

Kelly Copper and Pavol Liška, who jointly won the award for theater, are co-founders and co-directors of Nature Theater of Oklahoma, a performance ensemble based in New York. The duo were chosen for “the scale of their theatrical ambition, their aesthetic innovation, and the way they systematically challenge and reinvent their artistic identity with each project,” according to Irene Borger, director of the Alpert Award in the Arts.

Artist and performer Sharon Hayes received the award in the visual arts section. Hayes’ artistic practice stems from a preoccupation with the nature of history and the power of public speech. “Her collaborative processes embody the Alpert Award’s dedication to engagement and generosity,” says Borger.

The Alpert Award in the Arts recipients received their awards at a brunch held on May 10th at The Herb Alpert Foundation in Santa Monica.

“It’s so weird seeing everyone cleaned up,” joked Dan Hansen, director of CalArts’ Character Animation Program, as he took the stage for remarks at the 2013 Producers’ Show held last Wednesday night  (May 8) at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood, Calif. While the students came dressed to impress, even more impressive was the slate of 23 films that highlighted the hard work, technical expertise and storytelling talents of the student filmmakers.

Brad Bird (Film/Video BFA 76), director of The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol was the evening’s guest of honor. He spoke about his own student Producers’ show and his start as a professional animator. “This was a clandestine, almost vanishing art form… It was kind of at death’s door, coughing up blood when we got around to doing it. But now animation’s hip and kind of in a golden time, so take advantage of it.”

Of his time at CalArts, Bird said, “It was really the first place where I actually got to talk to other people who had opinions about all this stuff that had been in my mind… It is a special time. You won’t know that now, but you will know it later. And a lot of the people that you’ll meet at this school will go on to do really cool things and you’ll have this in common. That’s rare and it’s special.”

Bird was presented with three CalArts baseball caps, a riff off a photograph of him wearing one while walking with Tom Cruise on the set of Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol. He proceeded to wear and switch one after the other, and had the evening’s award winners wear one as they accepted their awards.

The Peers’ Pick Award was given to John Kim’s The Sugar Bugs, a story about a tribe of bugs waging war against an evil dentist. Kim accepted his award and a CalArts cap from Bird (and asked if he could keep it. Bird replied, “Nooooo”). Kim expressed heartfelt thanks to his classmates. The Walter and Gracie Lantz Animation Prize, better known as the Woody Award, went to Jacob Streilein’s Punctuwool, a film about a cloud-sheep that rebels against its boss’s all-work-no-play management style.

Below is Jacob Streilein’s Punctuwool.

Punctuwool from Jacob Streilein on Vimeo.

While the showcased films varied in style, some common themes emerged. Romantic love, of course, was well-represented onscreen in Janine Chan’s SunBurn, Matthew Yang’s You Imagined, Hyojin Bae’s Puppy Love and Benjamin P. Carow’s Night of the Living Bad Brains. Other titles focused on family and aging, such as Sun Jae Lee’s Timber., Helene Leroux’ Floating in my mind, Seth Boyden’s Momma’s Boy and Madeline Sharafian’s Omelette. A handful of films touched on political issues, from animal rights in Toniko Pantoja’s Wolfsong and Jason Reicher’s King Kababa and the Knight, to feminism in Melanie Atwater’s Moon Goddess.

At the reception following the screenings, students hobnobbed with each other and CalArts alumni and animation greats, including Wreck-it Ralph director Rich Moore (Film/Video BFA 87), Brave co-director Mark Andrews (Film/Video BFA 93) and The Little Mermaid writer and director John Musker (Film/Video BFA 77). Cartoon Network‘s Curtis Lelash and Nate Funaro, Nickelodeon‘s Karen Kirkland, Rich and Eric Robles and Blizzard Entertainment‘s Tad Leckman and Bob Nicoll were also present at the show.

We posted a slideshow of photos from the event, above. To see more photos, visit the CalArts Character Animation Facebook page. Below is John Kim’s The Sugar Bugs.

The Sugar Bugs from John Kim on Vimeo.

Related: Films Announced for 2013 Character Animation Producers Show.

On Monday (May 6), CalArts’ Main Gallery and the Walt Disney Modular Theater lobby were transformed into an expo hall to present this year’s School of Theater Portfolio Review. Throughout the day, students in the Programs in Design and Production showcased work to faculty as well as to theater and entertainment industry professionals from across the country.

The portfolios included examples of scenic, costume, lighting, sound and video design for performance created by student puppetry artists, technical directors, scenic artists, stage managers, production managers and producing students.

The portfolios covered scene, costume, lighting, sound, and video design, puppetry, technical direction, stage and production management, and producing.

Above is a photo gallery of the event snapped by Institute photographer Steven Gunther. To see the list of students involved, visit the Portfolio Review site.

Related: Photo Gallery: School of Theater’s Portfolio Review 2012

Writers will read five-minute excerpts from their MFA theses. They are:

• Patrick Benjamin
• Chris Black
• K. Bradford
• Jamora Crawford
• Eleni Demetriou
• Tom Dibblee
• Jessica Felleman
• Sam Freilich
• Colleen Hur
• Jen Hutton
• Lianna Kissinger-Virizlay
• Nijla Mu’min
• Peter Nichols
• Bel Poblador
• Janice Sapigao
• Laura Schmidt
• Josyln Sklar

The Next Words reading series allows CalArts MFA writers to introduce their work to the wider Los Angeles community. Along with Thursday’s reading, the School of Critical studies will also release an eponymous anthology of student work, curated by Eleni Demetriou and Bel Poblador.

In the new production, 28 performers portray historical figures of the city’s Mexican, European, African, Chinese and Native American origins with the audience moving from room to room. Each of the “exhibits” comes to life to re-tell one of five stories: “The Pobladores,” which focuses on the original 22 families to migrate to Los Angeles from Mexico; “Gold Mountain,” a chilling examination of the Chinese Massacre of 1871; “The Tongva,” the Native peoples of the Los Angeles region; a meet and greet at “The Tavern” with the characters responsible for the building of Los Angeles, including Pio Pico, California’s last Mexican governor.

The production ends with “We Look Back,” an examination of how these diverse cultural origins affect modern-day Los Angeles and its current residents.

L.A. Founding Families was conceived and originally staged by Acting Program faculty Marissa Chibas and directed by Nataki Garrett, associate dean of the School of Theater; it also stars former CalArts faculty member Roger Guenveur Smith, Tonantzin Carmelo, a performer whose maternal lineage descends from the original peoples of Southern California, and a number of CalArts actors.

The production is a project of Duende CalArts—an ongoing initiative to explore Pan-American work and issues—and CalArts Center for New Performance, the School of Theater’s professional producing arm. The School of Theater is preparing to bring L.A. Founding Families to a full production later this year.

Tickets are free, and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations can be made at lafoundingfamilies.eventbrite.com.