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Current Students
CLASS OF 2010
Nensi Brailo
Nensi Brailo was born and raised in Dubrovnik, Croatia. She came to the U.S. for college and forgot to go home. She earned a B.A. degree in Spanish Language and Literatures from UC Berkeley, and a Master’s in Library and Information Studies from San José State University. Her interests include destruction and reconstruction of cultural heritage affected by wars, and the role of the artist during time of war. She wrote a thesis “Librocide: Destruction of Libraries in Croatia, 1991-1995” and co-published an article in Visual Resources on protection of cultural heritage. Over the years she has worked at various libraries at UC Berkeley, CCA, and Oakland Public. She is pursuing an M.A. in Visual and Critical Studies at CCA on a part-time basis, and is writing a thesis on the 1990’s wartime art in the Old City of Dubrovnik.
Crow Cianciola
Crow Cianciola is an artist and student of queer and critical race theories and practices. Cianciola is currently a masters candidate in Visual and Critical Studies at CCA. In his thesis project, Cianciola is researching and writing about the appearance of Billy Budd and Melvillian Atlantic sea narratives in contemporary media. His project focuses on the racial formations within seminal queer literary and film analyses that have worked with Billy Budd. Cianciola makes work in collaboration with other artists. His independant work involves figurative sculptures in wood, rubber, candy and encaustic wax. Some of his recent projects have been exhibited in San Francsico at Million Fishes Gallery, 111 Minna Street Gallery, The LGBTQ Archive, Alphonse Berber Gallery and the 2009 CCA MFA show. Cianciola works as a museum preparator and builder.
contact Crow Cianciola at: ccianciola@cca.edu.
Ace Lehner
Ace Lehner is an Artist, writer and Art Educator living and working in the Bay Area. Lehner has exhibited as well as produced events, projects and exhibitions internationally including London, New York and Montreal and has taught Art through the San Francisco Boys and Girls Club, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Oakland School for the Arts and California College of the Arts. Lehner primarily uses photography, drawing and installation but has also worked with web based projects, intervention and other strategies of Artistic production. Lehner's work often deals with the ethics of viewership in relation to misreading, disidentification and invisibility within visual culture. Lehner is currently persuing an MFA in photography and an MA in Visual + Critical Studies from California College of the Arts. In the Spring of 2009 Lehner was a recipient of the Murphy Cadogan Fellowship in the Fine Arts and is participating in the recipient exhibition Immediate Future: The Murphy + Cadogan Fellowship in the Arts, in October 2009 at San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. Recently Lehner had work in the group show Looking Forward Feeling Backward at PPOW gallery in Chelsea, curated by Tammy Rae Carland and Capricious magazine. www.acelehner.com (acephotoz 'at' gmail.com)
Elyse Mallouk
Elyse Mallouk is an artist and writer living and working in San Francisco. She maintains an interdisciplinary practice, working in painting, video installation, and sculpture. She holds a B.A. in Studio Art and English from Boston College, and is currently pursuing a dual MFA/MA in Fine Arts and Visual and Critical Studies at
California College of the Arts. www.elysemallouk.com
Matthew David Rana
Matthew David Rana is an artist and writer living in Oakland. His current research is focused on socially engaged art practices and their relationships to government and policy making. Matthew is a featured writer for Art Practical and has contributed to the books There is No Two Without Three and I’m a Park and You’re a Deer. He is also co-director, with Michelle Blade, of The Living Room, a storefront project in Oakland. Matthew is in the final year of a dual MFA/MA in Social Practice and Visual & Critical Studies. He holds a BFA in Art Studio from the University of New Mexico. matthewrana[at]gmail[dot]com
www.artpractical.com http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/there-is-no-two-without-three/2786274 http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/im-a-park-and-youre-a-deer/5502278 http://livingroomoakland.wordpress.com/
CLASS OF 2011
Levi Barringer
Levi Barringer is a designer, artist, writer, and theorist who bikes, lives, works, and studies in SF Bay Area. Having earned a BFA in Graphic Design from CCAC in 2007, his background in music, dance, and performance led him to explore realms of art and design outside of print: motion graphics, typography, and digital video documentary are a primary focus. His freelance work is comprised of print collateral for international musicians and Bay Area nightlife for over three years. In 2007, he received honors for an experimental short thesis documentary about online dating, entitled: Less Than Three. Continually motivated by his own radically formed kin structures amongst queer, adopted, and partially-biological siblings, Barringer is currently working toward an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts, with a focus on gender and queer theory, protective practices of kinship, and the body as linguistic form. You can view his work here: www.modifold.com
Sita Bhaumik
Sita is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and writer born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles by Bengali and Japanese-Colombian parents. After receiving her B.A., Cum Laude, in Studio Art from Scripps College, Sita moved to the Bay Area where she curates a museum of cultural oddities in the comfort of her own home. Sita has exhibited with organizations such as the Asian and Pacific Islander Cultural Center, the Mission Arts Performance Project, the Center for Sex and Culture, SomArts, and New Langton Arts. She has been featured by MYX TV and Pacifica Radio's APEX Express. Sita is a founding member of the 24hourshow collective of Asian American women artists. She is the art features editor for Hyphen magazine, a community advisor for Kearny Street Workshop, and teaches at Rayko Photo Center. You can reach her at www.sitabhaumik.com and check out the truth about MSG at http://tinyurl.com/yewnzhn.
Angela Braren
Angela Braren is pursuing her graduate degree in Visual and Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts after her completion of a BA from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Her main interests lie at the interstices of human culture and avenues for multi-species co-flourishing. In her comic series as well as her work in documentary photography, Angela explorers self-reflection and gives voice to exploited animals. Angela resides in Berkeley, CA with her Saint Bernard, Violet. Contact her through her website at www.drawnbyangela.com or contact her by email at abraren@coa.edu.
Abby Chen
Abby Chen is attending CCA to study towards her MA in Visual Critical Study. Abby is active as a curator and art administrator in Chinese contemporary cultural field. She was the Co-Founder and Director of Chinese Artist Network (CAN), an organization dedicated to promoting Chinese contemporary media and visual artists. With CAN, Abby has curated exhibits for San Francisco Arts Commission, Museum of Chinese in America in New York, San Leandro History Museum & Art Gallery, Photo San Francisco and Olive Hyde Art Gallery. She currently works as Program Director at the Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco, overseeing the Center’s visual art program, including Xian Rui/Fresh Sharp Artist Excellence Series and the Present Tense Biennial. Born in Shandong, China, and raised in both Beijing and Shenzhen, Abby is tri-lingual in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Abby can be reached at achen at cca.edu and www.abbychen.com
Adeleine Daysor
Adeleine Daysor is a dual Masters degree candidate in Fine Arts and Visual + Critical Studies at CCA. Her interdisciplinary studio practice reflects on her multifaceted ethnic heritage juxtaposed with mainstream cultures. She is currently exploring painting, objects and installations that speak of a hybrid and ambiguous presence. Her academic interests lies in the overlapping and interstitial spaces of Contemporary Art, Asian Aesthetics and Post-Colonial Theory. Adeleine has exhibited in Singapore, London and San Francisco while her delight in the experimental has also driven her involvement in community festivals, art happenings, media productions, and dance performances. Prior to graduate school, Adeleine adopted a strategy to exchange artistic visions with youths, in order to be immersed in their whimsical and quirky talents. As an educator, she is experienced in facilitating art programs in various settings, for youths, adults and people with special needs. Adeleine is an alumnus of The University for the Creative Arts, UK and LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore where she earned her BA(Honours) Fine Art and Diploma in Fine Art.
Liesa Lietzke
Liesa Lietzke earned her BA from San Jose State University in Creative Arts, an interdisciplinary fine arts program, in which she was active in musical performance and composition, writing, and painting. Her musical projects included the ensemble Soplavientos, which she directed and performed with from 1993-1998, developing a repertoire of Andean and other South American musical forms. She has published poetry as well as art critical writing and has been exhibiting and teaching art since 2001. Now focused on visual art and critical writing, she will complete her MFA (sculpture) at CCA in May, 2009, and her MA in Visual and Critical Studies in 2010. In her studio practice, she creates performances and sculptures that explore the playful and the grotesque, bodily experiences and perceptions, and the slipperiness of boundaries.
Emily Macenko
Emily Macenko is currently pursuing a MA in Visual & Critical Studies from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, she received her BA in Art History with a concentration in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies from St. Mary's College of Maryland in 2005. Emily has worked with numerous non-profit institutions including, most recently, the Maryland Institute College of Art where she spent four years in the Office of Alumni Relations. While at CCA, she hopes to continue her exploration of postmodernism with a focus on concepts of identity and censorship in contemporary art & culture.
Contact Emily: emacenko 'at' cca.edu
Rob Marks
Rob Marks has been seeing things since boyhood and has finally decided they deserve more rigorous attention. After a brief stint as a freelance journalist, he has worked as the Publications and Training Manager at the UCSF AIDS Health Project. There, he edits, writes, and oversees the development of articles, books, and trainings on HIV-related counseling and mental health issues. Rob has an MJ (Journalism) from UC Berkeley and a BA (double major: English and gender roles) from the University of Pennsylvania. He has been drawing, picture-taking, and writing for many years and occasionally collaborates on book arts projects with his partner, Saul. Rob grew up in New York and lives in San Francisco. (rmarks at cca.edu)
Marta Martinez
Marta Martinez graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in Latin American Studies with a concentration in Anthropology. After being awarded the Mellon Mays Fellowship, she studied in Mexico City and UC Santa Barbara researching the impact of the Mexican and Chicano mural movements on identity formation. Since returning to her native San Francisco, she has worked for several nonprofits, started her own massage business, and made a short documentary with the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project. Her film "Mi Casa Es Mi Casa" discusses gentrification in the Mission District of San Francisco and premiered
at the Queer Woman of Color Film Festival in May 2009. Her interests are in identity politics, community formation, illustration, photography, environment, and education. She is currently pursuing her Masters of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies.
Leanna Oen
Leanna Oen received her BA in Art History and English from the University of Denver and studied German at the University of Tübingben. Her undergraduate thesis was a semiotic analysis of The Inferno by Dante Alighieri and Robert Rauschenberg’s accompanying prints. She received the 2009 MacDonald Award for outstanding Art History Major and graduated with honors in English.She is currently pursuing her MA in Visual + Critical studies and is endlessly fascinated with semiotics, language, and cephalopods. She currently lives in San Francisco and be contacted at loen 'at' cca.edu.
Danielle Sommer
Danielle Sommer is an artist and writer currently residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. She currently reviews art, books, and new media for KQED Arts and Culture, and is pursuing an MFA in Studio Art and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts. danielle.a.sommer at gmail.com
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor is in his second year at CCA pursuing a dual degree in Visual and Critical Studies and Media Arts. Mark has made a number of experimental films, which have screened at festivals, galleries and museums around the globe. In 2009, he (with partner James Aarons) opened Factory Outlet Gallery, a small art gallery in the Sierra Foothills. Taylor is the Managing Editor of KQED Arts, a daily review blog; the creator and producer of Gallery Crawl, a monthly program about the Bay Area art gallery scene; and the creator and producer of The Writers' Block, a weekly reading series. His work can be viewed at www.emptypictures.net and a review he had published last year called "The past isn't what it used to be: the troubled homes of Mad Men," can be viewed at: www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/mad
Matthew Tedford
Matthew Harrison Tedford is originally from San Diego. He holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, Santa Cruz (Stevenson College). While at UC Santa Cruz he was awarded the Stevenson College Junior Fellowship, teaching “Self and Society,” the college’s philosophy and social sciences core course. His interests include political and social theory, feminist philosophy, semiotics, phenomenology, historiography, media theory, and undergraduate education. He is currently working as a writing tutor, assisting with an ESL class, and working at SF Camerawork as a research and writing intern.
Contact Matthew at: mhtedford at gmail dot com
Kris Timken
Kris Timken is an Oakland based visual artist with a background in photography, printmaking and time based media. A former gallery owner, her work has been represented by galleries in both California and the Pacific Northwest. In 2006, she completed a large-scale commission for the Art in Architecture Program of the U.S. General Services Administration. Additionally, her work has been published in 100 Artists of the West Coast. She holds a BA in history from Stanford University and a BFA from CCA. She is currently pursuing a dual degree MFA/MA in Social Practice and Visual and Critical Studies at CCA.
Lia Wilson
Lia Wilson is a printmaker, draftsperson, and writer living in the Bay Area. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from the College of Santa Fe, during which time she studied abroad for a year at the Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence, Italy. Professionally, Wilson has experience in interior design consultation, Contemporary Art gallery administration, figure drawing instruction, and organic winemaking. Currently pursuing a Master's degree in Visual and Critical Studies at CCA, she hopes to gain a deeper theoretical background to her interests in Outsider Art, creative criticism, body language, biological and socio-political theories of memory, and the therapeutic links between drawing and mental illness. Contact her at lwilson@cca.edu.
Carmen Winant
Carmen Winant is an artist who works and lives in San Francisco. She was born in San Francisco, raised in Philadelphia, and received her undergraduate degree in Art and Art History from UCLA. Carmen works in photography and drawing, often blurring the lines between the two. Carmen is currently pursuing a dual MFA/MA in Fine Arts and Visual and Critical Studies at California College of the Arts. www.carmenwinant.com
Madeleine Zinn
Madeleine Zinn received her BA in Art History from the College of Santa Fe. During this time, she spent a year abroad studying at the University of St Andrews, and completed her credits in New York City through internships at Harper’s Bazaar magazine and the Stephen Haller Gallery in Chelsea. Additionally, she spent a summer interning at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum wherein she created a complete catalogue of images of the artist for the museum’s records. She is currently pursuing her MA in Visual and Critical Studies.
( Bios for class of 2011 coming sooneine Zinn Madeleine Zinn received her BA in Art History from the College of Santa Fe. During this time, she spent a year abroad studying at the University of St Andrews, and completed her credits in New York City through internships at Harper’s Bazaar magazine and the Stephen Haller Gallery in Chelsea. Additionally, she spent a summer interning at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museu
m wherein she created a complete catalogue of images of the artist for the museum’s records. She is currently pursuing her MA in Visual and Critical Studies.
Madeleine Zinn received her BA in Art History from the College of Santa Fe. During this time, she spent a year abroad studying at the University of St Andrews, and completed her credits in New York City through internships at Harper’s Bazaar magazine and the Stephen Haller Gallery in Chelsea. Additionally, she spent a summer interning at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum wherein she created a complete catalogue of images of the artist for the museum’s records. She is currently pursuing her MA in Visual and Critical Studies.
Current Students