Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Events

Overview

Events
Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program

The Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program hosts numerous public lectures, events, and exhibitions every academic year. The program hosts The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies, the Visiting Artist Lecture Series and the Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Lecture Series. The California Studio brings leading artists to UC Davis for student-focused residencies that present contemporary forms of practice and approaches to studio art education.

Throughout the academic year, undergraduate students organize student-run exhibitions at the Basement Gallery. Graduating M.F.A. students present their work in the Arts & Humanities Graduate Exhibition, hosted annually by the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art and held at the end of spring quarter. The Arts & Humanities Graduate Exhibition is a long-running and storied tradition at UC Davis that showcases the work and research of graduate students across numerous disciplines, including art history, art studio, design and music. 

Lecture

Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Graduate Symposium
Fall 2025

Please join us for the Fall 2025 UC Davis Art Studio Graduate Symposium on Tuesday, Dec. 2.

Daisy Nam, director and curator of CCA Wattis Institute of Contemporary Art in SF, will give the keynote address at 4 pm. Following her talk, will be graduate student presentations. We will conclude with a reception at 8 pm in the Maria Manetti Shrem Graduate Building.

Exhibition

Art Walk
Undergraduate Art Exhibition

Please join us for the fall quarter Art Walk, an exhibition featuring art studio undergraduate art. 

Art students will display their work throughout the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Hall and TB-9 on Friday, December 5 from 12-3 pm. Refreshments will be available.

 

Event

Teju Cole in Conversation with John Gossage
2026 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Teju Cole is a novelist, essayist, and photographer. He was the photography critic of the New York Times Magazine from 2015 until 2019. He is currently the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard and a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. His photography and writing have received numerous awards. His most recent novel, Tremor (2023), was named a book of the year by Time, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, among others.

Event

Raven Chacon
The California Studio

Ann E. Pitzer Center

Raven Chacon is a composer, performer, and installation artist born at Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. A recording artist over the span of 24 years, Chacon has appeared on over eighty releases on national and international labels. He has exhibited, performed, or had works performed at LACMA, The Whitney Biennial, Borealis Festival, SITE Santa Fe, Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York, and more. As an educator, Chacon is the senior composer mentor for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP).

Ann E. Pitzer Center, Davis, CA
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Event

Stephanie Syjuco
Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Cruess Hall, Room 1002

Stephanie Syjuco works in photography, sculpture, and installation, moving from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations. Recently, she has focused on how photography and image-based processes are implicated in the construction of exclusionary narratives of history and citizenship.

Cruess Hall, Davis, CA
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Event

Andre Keichian
The California Studio

Main Theatre, Wright Hall

Andre Keichian is an interdisciplinary artist and educator working across photography, video and sculptural installation. His work houses conversations around exile, trans identities, and diaspora and questions how these connections might speak to geopolitical and subjective understandings of migration. 

Cruess Hall, Davis, CA
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Event

Mimi Plumb
Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Cruess Hall, Room 1002

Mimi Plumb is part of a long tradition of socially engaged photographers whose work explores the landscapes and communities of California and the American West. In 2022, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to support her ongoing project, The Reservoir.

Cruess Hall, Davis, CA
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Event

Dyani White Hawk
The California Studio

Manetti Shrem Museum

Dyani White Hawk is a multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. Her practice, strongly rooted in painting and beadwork, extends into sculpture, installation, video, and performance, reflecting upon cross-cultural experiences through the amalgamation of influences from Lakota and Euro/Americanabstraction.

Cruess Hall, Davis, CA
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Announcement

Josh Faught
The California Studio

Main Theatre, Wright Hall

Josh Faught is a Sacramento-based fiber artist. Faught creates sculptures that use traditional textile and homespun techniques, such as loom-weaving, knitting, and crocheting, to explore craft traditions, queer culture, and personal history. In 2025, Faught received the Guggenheim Fellowship. Recent solo exhibitions include Josh Faught, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2025) and Look Across the Water into the Darkness, Look for the Fog, Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2022).

Announcement

Anne Ellegood
The California Studio

1002 Cruess Hall 

Anne Ellegood has been the executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) since September 2019. She was senior curator at the Hammer Museum from 2009 to 2019, and has held curatorial posts at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. She has organized numerous group exhibitions, including Made in L.A.

Cruess Hall, Davis, CA
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