CalArtians have often provoked and inspired audiences at Frieze New York, one of the most anticipated art fairs each year. Due to the cruel realities of a global pandemic, plans for this year’s fair proceeded only through the sheer determination and creativity of artists, collaborators, and sponsors. Their solution: the Frieze Viewing Room, which runs online from May 8-15.
CalArts joins more than 200 galleries from around the world as a featured nonprofit exhibitor at this state-of-the-art virtual exhibition. The Institute features its artist-led scholarship endowment initiative, 50+50: A Creative Century from Chouinard to CalArts.
The inaugural release of 50+50 editions and works were first exhibited at REDCAT last February. The purchases of these editions are raising scholarship funding for future students in the School of Art. The alumni-artists included in the release are John Baldessari, Anne Collier, Laddie John Dill, Joe Goode, Naotaka Hiro, Tony Oursler, Gala Porras-Kim, Stephen Prina, Barbara T. Smith, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Weems (Art BFA 81) recently spoke to the Financial Times about the initiative and addressed the importance of supporting the community of artists at CalArts. The Institute is “a dynamic place, an extraordinary place to go to school,” she noted.
The 50+50 artist editions and series reflect the diversity of graduating artists from CalArts and Chouinard, which together have nurtured some of the world’s most influential artistic talent for nearly 100 years, and set the leading edge of contemporary artistic practice in conceptualism, feminist art, design, and interdisciplinary performance. 50+50 was developed in partnership with publisher Lisa Ivorian-Jones.
Learn more about 50+50: A Creative Century from Chouinard to CalArts at 50plus50.calarts.edu.
—Greg Houle