On Saturday, Sept. 14, CalArts celebrates the opening of Big Tent, a group exhibition of CalArts Reef Residents and their collaborators. Organized by residency program manager Cameron Masters, it marks the inaugural exhibition of the resident-operated gallery, MM/DD/YYYY.
Big Tent features work by Reef residents Anaís Azul (Art MFA 22), Alex Barlas (Theater MFA 20), Nick Ginsburg (Music MFA 23), Zoe Moon (Art MFA 23), Wes Weisbaum (Art MFA 23), Shu L. Xu (Critical Studies MA 23), and Yanbin Zhao (Film/Video MFA 23), alongside collaborating artists Edgar Arceneaux (Art MFA 01), Justine Faith (Theater BFA 24), Samuel Garnett (Theater BFA 20), Clay Hollander (Theater BFA 23), Abigail Stanton (Theater BFA 19), Kaiwen Ren (Film/Video MFA 24) and Masters.
The origin story for the show name Big Tent has roots in the gallery’s physical location. Seventy-four years ago at The Reef’s site, more than 7,000 visitors packed into two conjoined circus tents for the West Coast’s largest-ever Southern Baptist congregation. Dubbed the “Canvas Cathedral” and “Big Tent,” services ran for eight consecutive weeks behind a main entrance framed by a sign reading “Greater Los Angeles Revival.”
Drawing connections between the residency and the legendary event’s conceptual themes—fellowship, meditation, outreach, inward, and outward revival—Big Tent is built on the nonuniformity of its artworks, which encourage communion via the residency’s duration and shared use of space. As organizers explain, “Like the Big Tent’s itinerant preachers and congregants, each exhibitor enters with their own hopes and leaves with their own epiphanies, but not without inevitably encountering degrees of diffusion.”
Now in its ninth year, the CalArts Reef Residency is a six-month program presented jointly by the School of Art and the School of Critical Studies. Open to recent graduates of CalArts MFA programs, it offers artists cost-free space and a small award to support their work.
The residency is housed within The Reef, a 860,000 square-foot building and creative hub, on Broadway and Washington in downtown Los Angeles. Offering a range of amenities and proximity to other artists, designers, and cultural organizations, the fellowship expressly encourages residents to get involved in opportunities held at the building over the duration of their fellowship and to propose their own exhibitions, symposia, events, and readings.
After Saturday’s event, Big Tent will remain on view through Saturday, Oct. 12 by appointment only.
