Long synonymous with its sprawling entertainment industry, vibrant culture, and sunny climate, the City of Angels reminds us to tack “international art hub” onto the list as February welcomes its annual flurry of art fairs throughout the region. Among the myriad happenings taking place during Los Angeles Art Week 2025 are two events, rife with works from recent grads: the 2024 Art MFA postgrad show and a performance festival by alumni and current Reef residents, both happening at CalArts’ satellite location at The Reef in downtown Los Angeles.
Work From Home: A CalArts Post-Grad Exhibition, organized by LA-based independent curator Andrew McNeely, plays on a phrase now commonplace in a post-pandemic world. From Saturday, Feb. 22 to Saturday, March 22, on view will be paintings, sculptures, performances, and mixed-media pieces by 24 graduates from the MFA programs in Art, Art and Technology, and Photography and Media: Emory Hall, Elizabeth Howland, Hu Di, Luna Izpisua Rodriguez, Megha Jairaj, Chaska Jurado, Lily Kennard, Jane Lee, Congyu Liu, Tian Liu, Sarah May Taylor, Katrina Parker, Tae Parvit, Naomi Sam, Toria Shi, Kyle Slevira, Jiyoung Song, Amanda Teixeira, Jennifer Van, Emiko Wilks, logan wolfe, Green Yoon, Litong Zeng, and Zoe Zhou.
This year marks the first that the post-grad show takes place at The Reef, aptly inaugurating its mission as a space created to provide fresh graduates a “wider context in which to share their work and build community.” The organizers reflected on the show in the following statement:
While the transition into post-graduate life is challenging in its own right, this cohort has succeeded in sustaining practices not only amid historic political upheaval but also at a time when expressions like shelter-in-place and evacuation orders increasingly feel like part of life’s minutiae. Work from Home, then, does not just name something quite literal about the works on view, it likewise underscores the extraordinary circumstances under which the show as a whole came into being. Like temporal markers, the works record the creativity of Los Angeles at an historic flash point.
Running concurrently with the exhibition will be various performances and a curatorial walkthrough. The opening reception for Work From Home will be held on Saturday, Feb. 22 from 6-8 pm, followed by an after-party at Cevera Yoon Gallery at 672 S. Lafayette Park Place, Los Angeles, CA 90057. A curatorial walkthrough with McNeely is also scheduled for March 8 (time TBD).
Overlapping with Work From Home is ANTI-FRIEZE: LA, also taking place at the CalArts Reef Residency space. The two-day performance festival features work by current Reef residents and CalArts alumni Amy Chiao (Theater MFA 22), Genevieve Fowler (Theater MFA 21), Nicholas Ginsburg (Music MFA 23), Robert Kelley (Dance MFA 22), and Taylor Donofrio (Dance MFA 22). More about the event from the official festival website:
A showcase of works in progress, time-based experiences, ANTI-FRIEZE LA performances recontextualize and reimagine liminal theatrical passages, multi-disciplinary movement practices, object sound containers, and participatory group tours in the once commercial, wholesale furniture showrooms of South Broadway.
Visitors to The Reef’s 12th floor will experience five original happenings, each by the five aforementioned artists. Learn more about each project and RSVP on the ANTI-FRIEZE website.
Due to the REEF’s policies, attendees must RSVP in advance for either Work from Home or ANTI-FRIEZE performances.
Other CalArtians at LA Art Week
Numerous other CalArtians will be showing work throughout the week, both at the major art fairs and in the city’s art galleries:
- From Feb. 19 to 23, CalArts hosts a booth at the Felix Art Fair at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to showcase work from the alumni- and artist-led scholarship endowment initiative 50+50: A Creative Century from Chouinard to CalArts. Featured artists include Larry Bell (Chouinard 59), Andrea Bowers (Art MFA 92), Anne Collier (Art BFA 93), Laddie John Dill (Chouinard 68), Joe Goode (Chouinard 61), Lauren Halsey (Art BFA 12), Barbara T. Smith (Chouinard 65), James Welling (Art MFA 74), and B. Wurtz (Art MFA 80).
- Three additional CalArtians are also showing works at Felix:
- Bari Zipperstein (Art MFA 04) | Charles Moffett gallery
- Roksana Pirouzmand (Art BFA 17) | murmurs gallery
- Former faculty Paul Mpagi Sepuya | DOCUMENT gallery
- Hauser & Wirth presents Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs, a sequence of Plexiglas works by School of Art Faculty Emeritus Charles Gaines.
- Claire Chambless’ (Art MFA 20) interactive sculpture hunt Player, Non-Player is part of the Art Production Fund’s curated program at Frieze LA, while Lauren Halsey’s South Central LA nonprofit organization Summaeverything partners with the fair to showcase its vision for a permanent hub in the city offering education, health, wellness and creative opportunities, as part of Frieze’s Community Projects.
- Other alumni with works at Frieze include:
- Naotaka Hiro (Film/Video MFA 00) | Bortolami gallery
- Danielle Dean (Art MFA 12) and Gala Porras-Kim (Art MFA 09) | Commonwealth and Council gallery
- Edgar Arceneaux (Art MFA 01) | Dreamsong gallery
- Robert Russell (Art MFA 06) | Anat Ebgi gallery
- Liz Larner (Art BFA 85), Catherine Opie (Art MFA 88), and James Welling (Art MFA 74) | Regen Projects gallery
- Noah Purifoy (Chouinard 56) | Tilton Gallery
- Laura Owens (Art MFA 94) | David Zwirner Gallery
- Current students from the School of Art will be showcasing their work at The Other Art Fair Los Angeles: Masha Sheinina (MFA2), Ti Lee (MFA2), Chin Ning Liu (MFA2), Isabella Yates (MFA1), Rebecca Poarch (MFA1), and Vincent Troia (MFA1).
