Latest News

Professor Shiva Ahmadi’s recent show Shiva Ahmadi: Crown of Flames at Haines Gallery in San Francisco was just positively reviewed by Maria Porges in Artforum. Ahmadi’s show featured new and recent works that present Ahmadi’s longterm exploration of conflict, corruption, and instability, informed by her own experiences and the current news cycle.

The launch of Professor John López’s new book The Aquatic Metropolis: Urban Design and Environmental Change in Tenochtitlan-Mexico City (Pennsylvania University Press) starts on June 26 with a virtual book talk sponsored by The Association of Latin American Art.

Professor Katharine Burnett has published a new article on the artist Wu Bin in the journal Word and Image. In “Mediated meaning of a magnificent rock: using Wu Bin’s words to understand his painting Ten Views of a Lingbi Rock,” Burnett examines the late Ming Originalist artist Wu’s intentions through an analysis of the artist’s inscriptions, colophons and similarly commissioned painting On the Way to Shanyin.

On June 7, Professor Katharine Burnett explored Yixing teapots and the discourse of originality with the San Francisco Ceramics Circle. She presented “The Marvelously Inventive 17th-Century Chinese Teapot (and Some of Its European Descendants)” at the Gunn Theater in the Legion of Honor, San Francisco to the San Francisco Ceramics Circle, an affiliate organization of ceramics enthusiasts connected to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Professor Talinn Grigor has been awarded a fellowship by The Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University. She will be a Visiting Fellow from January to April, 2027. Professor Grigor will be working on her project Of Hyphenated Architects which examines the role of hyphenated and diasporic Armenian architects and artists in the global circulation and connectivity of the Modern Movement.

Professor Talinn Grigor will participate in the 2026 Cultural History of Asian Art Conference at the University of Hong Kong on June 24. Professor Grigor will discuss “Postcards, Hotels, and Hospitable Minorities: Armenian and Parsi Urbanity Networking a British Empire” for a panel exploring urbanity.

Alum David Beatty (MFA, dramatic arts, ‘05) is the author of The Appetite of Giants: Mostly True Stories and Some Exaggerations, a collection of funny and heartfelt essays follows his journey from a Southern California childhood filled with imagination and adventure to a lifelong love of theater, filmmaking, and the arts. The book features stories about family, creativity, and even a hungry 25-foot-tall Giant who lives in a

The American Musicological Society (AMS) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2026–2027 academic year graduate research and dissertation fellowships. Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Fellowships provide funding for the final year of Ph.D. dissertation work and are awarded on the basis of academic merit. Fellows receive a twelve-month stipend, currently set at $25,000. They may also elect to accept the award on a non-stipendiary basis (thus freeing scarce resources for others).

In his newly released documentary film, Umbria Jazz Feast, UC Davis Professor of Music, Pierpaolo Polzonetti, investigates the perceptions and identities of jazz as it intersects with the cuisine, art, and culture of locals and visitors in Perugia, a medieval town in central Italy. A musicologist specializing in music and food, Polzonetti focused on how the festival enabled a synesthetic experience; that is, one in which different senses are simultaneously engaged.  

Alum Anuj Vaidya (PhD., performance studies, ‘24) has devised a one-of-a-kind people-powered cinema that re-stories the South Asian epic Ramayana, as eco-tales at the edge of the sixth extinction. On Thursday, June 4 at 6 p.m., “The Smoldering Forest” is a live performance in which Vaidya and audiences co-create the film through live sound, tactile images, and collective imagination. Blending mythology, ecology, and science-fiction, this intimate experience invites audience members to become part of the film itself

Professor emeritus David Hollowell’s solo show “Hollowell Heaven,” on view at Harhawik in New York to June 6, was just reviewed in the New York Times. “Hollowell Heaven” features paintings and drawings made between 1985 and 2005, most of which have not been exhibited publicly in the years since.

Congratulations to Professor Beatriz Cortez, recipient of an ICA San Diego Star Award! Professor Cortez, along with artist Ashish Subedy, was recognized at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego’s Future Forward Gala as an artist whose work and vision shape the cultural and creative landscape in meaningful ways.

Professor Emeritus Hearne Pardee is featured in a group show at Prince Street Gallery exploring new perspectives on collage.

The results of the 16th annual Luminaire Design Competition are officially in, featuring a partnership with Maltani Lighting and the work of Professor Jae Yong Suk’s students. After three rounds of deliberation by the jury—comprising the Maltani design team, Neha Sivaprasad of Sol Light Studio, and Karen Park from UC Davis—the winners are Olivia McCutcheon, Mara Alagon, and Gian Ayson. Link to Article

Each year, UC Davis undergraduates in all academic fields are invited to submit an abstract and participate in the Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Conference. This year, art history was well represented with six majors presenting research papers in Oral Session 2 on Saturday, April 25.