Art MFA Students Present VR Gallery at Other Places Art Fair 2020

MFA candidates in the School of Art present their VR booth at the third annual Other Places art fair (OPaf), running Saturday, Sept. 19 to Saturday, Oct. 31 on the fair’s digital platform.

After coronavirus postponed the original dates in March, OPaf transformed its 2020 edition into a virtual art fair experience, featuring more than 40 project spaces from the US and Mexico. According to Hyperallergic, participants were “given complete freedom to use the website as they pleased.” 

The participating CalArtians will unveil their OPaf space FOREVER 21, a virtual reality gallery named in reference to their shared class of 2021:

Built in a foggy/smokey virtual environment populated by panda avatars, geodesic domes, and giant fauna, FOREVER 21 is a space to gather, view, and wander.

FOREVER 21 artists include (all (Art MFA 21)): Fia Benitez, Jamie Denburg Habie, Benjamin Shreves Gordon, Herry Kim, Annika Klein, Richard Nam, Jennie Park, Casey Poehlein, Camellia Saleh, Ruoyi Shi, Zoë Sturges, Cha Tori, and Christine Yerie Lee.

Check out FOREVER21’s booth video tour on Vimeo:

Also presenting at OPaf is the Operational Statements collective, comprised of CalArtians Luka Fisher (Art MFA 18), Sydney Mills (Art MFA 18), Don Tinling (Art MFA 18), and Elizabeth Preger (Art MFA 18). The performance group, originally scheduled to perform outdoor stage shows prior to the fair’s postponement and now performing virtually, serves as a catalyst for each of the four artists to “deviate from their individual practices and create works that are experimental and rooted in expanding their research methodologies.”​

Founded by Keith Rocka Knittel (Art MFA 09) in 2018, OPaf reflects a movement of fluidity in art spaces, and is intended to “operate in other places outside current contemporary art systems.”

New to OPaf this year is OPaBf (the Other Places art Book fair), curated by The Fulcrum Press and OPPPAFFF (Other Places Projects Performances and Fun Food Fair), and organized by Asha Bukojemsky. In keeping with OPaf’s ethos, one booth will be randomly chosen as the best and then awarded the inaugural OPaf Prize, a cash prize for best booth selected upon the fair’s conclusion on Oct. 31.