CalArts Faculty, Alumni Among 2013 Guggenheim Fellows

Last Thursday (April 11), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced the recipients of the 2013 Guggenheim Fellowships. Among the 175 scholars, artists and scientists selected were three CalArtians: School of Art faculty member Charles Gaines and alumni luciana achugar and David McDonald.

The successful candidates were chosen on the basis of prior achievement in artistry and exceptional promise from a group of nearly 3,000 applicants.

In his 40-year art practice, Gaines has had more than 65 solo shows and several hundred group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and Europe, including the 1975 Whitney Biennial and the 2007 Venice Biennale. Gaines’ work since 1990 has explored meaning in seemingly arbitrary relationships through the use of images and text.

McDonald (Art MFA 92) is an artist who works primarily with sculpture. His latest solo exhibition, Everything is Broken, is currently on view at Carter & Citizen gallery in Los Angeles through April 27. The works in the show address accumulation and emptiness through commonplace materials such as wire, plaster, wood, dirt, cardboard and acrylic.

luciana achugar (Dance BFA 95) is a dance artist and choreographer whose work is experimental yet pays homage to the classical aspects of both dance and theater. In her artistic mission, she states, “My work actively addresses the audience’s gaze, revealing their role as voyeur and bringing them into the ‘narrative’ as participating characters.”

The three now join a long, storied list of Guggenheim Fellows. Since its establishment in 1925, the foundation has granted over $306 million in fellowships to more than 17,500 individuals, counting Nobel Prize winners, poets laureate and Pulitzer winners among its roster.

Excerpt below of luciana achugar’s Puro Deseo (2010):

PURO DESEO from Chase Granoff on Vimeo.

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