ADRIANO PEDROSA NAMED CURATOR OF THE 60th INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION OF LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

By Christine N. Ziemba

December was a banner month for museum director and CalArts alum Adriano Pedrosa (art-CritiCal StudieS MFa 95). The board of La Biennale di Venezia and its President Roberto Cicutto named Pedrosa—currently the artistic director of Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) in Brazil—as curator of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, scheduled to open in April 2024. And just a few weeks before the Biennale announcement, Pedrosa was selected as the recipient of the 2023 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. Presented by the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York, the award is accompanied by a $25,000 prize. Pedrosa was honored by the CCS Bard Board of Governors at a gala dinner on April 3.

For both honors, Pedrosa was recognized for his extensive curatorial experience and a career that has been marked by innovative thinking, fearless vision, and thoughtprovoking examination of history. Prior to his work at MASP, Pedrosa was adjunct curator of the 24th Bienal de São Paulo (1998), curator in charge of exhibitions and collections at Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2000–2003), co-curator of the 27th Bienal de São Paulo (2006), and curator of the São Paulo pavilion at the 9th Shanghai Biennale (2012).

The Biennale is certainly the most important platform for contemporary art in the world, and it is an exciting challenge and a responsibility to embark on this project. I look forward to bringing artists to Venice and realizing their projects, as well as to working with the Biennale’s great team.

Pedrosa’s work with the Biennale includes organizing the large-scale group show as well as dozens of independently organized national exhibitions. The Biennale Arte 2024 is scheduled to open on Saturday, April 20, running through Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. ⁂

THE FALL AND RISE OF THE ANIMATION A-BLOCK

By Greg Houle

A-Block, the wing of CalArts’ Main Building that has been the stomping grounds for decades of storied animation artists—including such highly accomplished filmmakers as Tim Burton, Lauren Faust, Jorge Gutierrez, Pete Docter, John Lasseter, and Brenda Chapman—was struck by a unique tragedy on June 5, 2021. It was on a quiet Saturday when a decades-old cooling tower located on the fifth floor malfunctioned and overflowed, causing a substantial amount of water to spill down into the spaces below.

Thankfully, nobody was injured. But the place where hundreds of current undergraduate and graduate students hone their crafts—including A221 and A115 that are used by the Institute’s two renowned animation programs, Character Animation and Experimental Animation, as well as The Herb Alpert School of Music’s famed Gamelan Room— was rendered completely unusable.

“I remember essentially watching ‘rain’ falling in three of the faculty offices,” Abigail Severance, the dean of the School of Film/Video, said about that day.

This devastating event presented administrators, particularly Severance and the School of Film/Video’s Director of Technology and Operations Nathan Crow, with an unenviable predicament. Suddenly, they would need to find a new space for their hundreds of animation students to work during the upcoming fall 2021 semester and beyond. Luckily, a suitable spot was found at the former Princess Cruise Corporation offices in the Valencia Town Center just a few miles from campus. That space, among other things, once held a small-scale replica of television’s famous “Love Boat.”

As a writer, Pedrosa has been published in Artforum, Art Nexus (Bogotá), Bomb, Frieze (London), and The Exhibitionist (Berlin), among others. In 2013, Pedrosa worked with artist and CalArts faculty emeritus Leslie Dick to create the volume: A List of Students Enrolled in Post Studio Art, with Michael Asher at CalArts 1976–2008. The late artist and faculty member Asher was famously known for critiques in his Post Studio Art course, which could stretch from 10 am until evening. All proceeds from the sale of the book were donated to the Michael Asher Scholarship Fund at CalArts.

In a press statement about his appointment as curator of the Biennale Arte 2024, the world’s longest-running contemporary art exhibition, Pedrosa noted:

I am honored and humbled by this prestigious appointment, especially as the first Latin American to curate the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, and in fact the first one based in the Southern Hemisphere.

In the meantime, A-Block needed to be rebuilt. There was a silver lining to this tragedy, however: The flood presented an opportunity to remake a long-outdated facility, replacing it with a modern 21st-century workspace designed to meet the needs of current-day animators. Severance and her team got to work. But first they wanted to be sure that the redesigned space would support the development of their artists and help to set them up for success in the future. With that in mind, the team consulted with a major animation studio as well as with students, faculty, and staff in both the undergraduate and graduate Character Animation and Experimental Animation programs.

“We got some really terrific support from the administration to evaluate what our needs for these two really important programs are,” Crow said.

Their careful evaluation has led to a thoughtful and intentional new design for A-Block that takes into account three main priorities: creating a space that is flexible and adaptable based on current and future needs; ensuring that the space artfully incorporates technology; and making certain that the well-being of students is considered by incorporating a variety of environments, including natural light, community gathering spaces, as well as quiet spaces.

Phase one of the A-Block’s construction is scheduled for completion in May. And while the new offices and cubicle spaces may not have the historic, “lived in” charms that it once contained, the updated and modern A-Block stands ready for students to make art and films that will become part of CalArts’ grand legacy.

⁑ Architectural renderings, courtesy of HGA ⁑

Architectural renderings, courtesy of HGA ⁑

ADRIANO PEDROSA NAMED CURATOR OF THE 60th INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION OF LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

By Christine N. Ziemba

(Art-Critical Studies

MFA 95). The board of La Biennale di Venezia and its

December was a banner month for museum director and CalArts alum Adriano Pedrosa (art-CritiCal StudieS MFa 95). The board of La Biennale di Venezia and its President Roberto Cicutto named Pedrosa—currently the artistic director of Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) in Brazil—as curator of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, scheduled to open in April 2024. And just a few weeks before the Biennale announcement, Pedrosa was selected as the recipient of the 2023 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. Presented by the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York, the award is accompanied by a $25,000 prize. Pedrosa was honored by the CCS Bard Board of Governors at a gala dinner on April 3.

For both honors, Pedrosa was recognized for his extensive curatorial experience and a career that has been marked by innovative thinking, fearless vision, and thoughtprovoking examination of history. Prior to his work at MASP, Pedrosa was adjunct curator of the 24th Bienal de São Paulo (1998), curator in charge of exhibitions and collections at Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2000–2003), co-curator of the 27th Bienal de São Paulo (2006), and curator of the São Paulo pavilion at the 9th Shanghai Biennale (2012).

The Biennale is certainly the most important platform for contemporary art in the world, and it is an exciting challenge and a responsibility to embark on this project. I look forward to bringing artists to Venice and realizing their projects, as well as to working with the Biennale’s great team.

The certainly most important platform for art in the world, it is an exciting challenge a responsibility embark on this project. I look forward bringing artists to Venice and realizing their projects, as well as to working with the Biennale’s great team.

Pedrosa’s work with the Biennale includes organizing the large-scale group show as well as dozens of independently organized national exhibitions. The Biennale Arte 2024 is scheduled to open on Saturday, April 20, running through Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024. ⁂

THE FALL AND RISE OF THE ANIMATION A-BLOCK

By Greg Houle

A-Block, the wing of CalArts’ Main Building that has been the stomping grounds for decades of storied animation artists—including such highly accomplished filmmakers as Tim Burton, Lauren Faust, Jorge Gutierrez, Pete Docter, John Lasseter, and Brenda Chapman—was struck by a unique tragedy on June 5, 2021. It was on a quiet Saturday when a decades-old cooling tower located on the fifth floor malfunctioned and overflowed, causing a substantial amount of water to spill down into the spaces below.

Thankfully, nobody was injured. But the place where hundreds of current undergraduate and graduate students hone their crafts—including A221 and A115 that are used by the Institute’s two renowned animation programs, Character Animation and Experimental Animation, as well as The Herb Alpert School of Music’s famed Gamelan Room— was rendered completely unusable.

“I remember essentially watching ‘rain’ falling in three of the faculty offices,” Abigail Severance, the dean of the School of Film/Video, said about that day.

This devastating event presented administrators, particularly Severance and the School of Film/Video’s Director of Technology and Operations Nathan Crow, with an unenviable predicament. Suddenly, they would need to find a new space for their hundreds of animation students to work during the upcoming fall 2021 semester and beyond. Luckily, a suitable spot was found at the former Princess Cruise Corporation offices in the Valencia Town Center just a few miles from campus. That space, among other things, once held a small-scale replica of television’s famous “Love Boat.”

Artforum, Art Nexus Bomb, Frieze (London), and The Exhibitionist volume:

As a writer, Pedrosa has been published in Nexus (Bogotá), (Berlin), among others. In 2013, Pedrosa worked with artist and CalArts faculty emeritus Leslie Dick to create the volume: A List of Students Enrolled in Post Studio Art, with Michael Asher at CalArts 1976–2008.

Michael at CalArts 1976–2008. The late artist and his Post Studio Art course, which could stretch from 10 am faculty member Asher was famously known for critiques in his Post Studio Art until evening. All proceeds from the sale of the book were donated to the Michael Asher Scholarship Fund at CalArts.

In a press statement about his appointment as curator of the Biennale Arte 2024, the world’s longest-running contemporary art exhibition, Pedrosa noted:

In the meantime, A-Block needed to be rebuilt. There was a silver lining to this tragedy, however: The flood presented an opportunity to remake a long-outdated facility, replacing it with a modern 21st-century workspace designed to meet the needs of current-day animators. Severance and her team got to work. But first they wanted to be sure that the redesigned space would support the development of their artists and help to set them up for success in the future. With that in mind, the team consulted with a major animation studio as well as with students, faculty, and staff in both the undergraduate and graduate Character Animation and Experimental Animation programs.

I am honored and humbled by this prestigious appointment, especially as the first Latin American to curate the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, and in fact the first one based in the Southern Hemisphere.

I am honored and humbled by this prestigious appointment, especially as the first Latin American to curate the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, and in fact the first one based in the Southern Hemisphere.

“We got some really terrific support from the administration to evaluate what our needs for these two really important programs are,” Crow said.

Their careful evaluation has led to a thoughtful and intentional new design for A-Block that takes into account three main priorities: creating a space that is flexible and adaptable based on current and future needs; ensuring that the space artfully incorporates technology; and making certain that the well-being of students is considered by incorporating a variety of environments, including natural light, community gathering spaces, as well as quiet spaces.

Phase one of the A-Block’s construction is scheduled for completion in May. And while the new offices and cubicle spaces may not have the historic, “lived in” charms that it once contained, the updated and modern A-Block stands ready for students to make art and films that will become part of CalArts’ grand legacy.