On Friday, May 8, Otis College of Art and Design launched the 38th Annual Exhibition in a wholly virtual gallery at otis.edu/annual-exhibition/2020. The exhibition features new work from graduating seniors and graduate students, highlighting projects within 10 academic departments throughout Otis.
The virtual Annual Exhibition comes during this time of social distancing in which the College has pivoted to remote learning environments, with students and instructors completing online coursework using a variety of innovative methods and practices.
Historically, much of the Otis College campus has been devoted to a campus-wide Annual Exhibition, offering a chance to display some of graduating students’ best work in gallery-like settings—an introduction of them to the world not only as artists and designers, but as Otis artists and designers. In this move to a virtual gallery and exhibition space, Otis College will be able to showcase student work to an even broader audience than was possible with an on-campus event.
This year was to mark the first time the College’s annual Fashion Show was to be included during Annual Exhibition. Work from this year’s graduating Fashion Design class is featured in online gallery, and also will be included in next year’s show in May 2021.
The online Annual Exhibition will provide a prominent platform for a rich, diverse body of student work to be showcased with the Otis alumni community and recruiters from the creative industries. Departments to be featured in the virtual galleries include Architecture/Landscape/Interiors; Communication Arts; Digital Media; Fashion Design; both BFA and MFA Fine Arts; Product Design; Toy Design; MFA Graphic Design; and MFA Writing.
Ahead of Annual Exhibition site going public today was the online launch on May 1 of eight thesis shows from graduating MFA Fine Arts students that currently are available to view at otis.edu/mfa-fine-arts-thesis-shows/2020. These thesis shows by Kyle Schwingel, Ally Wallace, Nefertiti Jenkins, Chris Stoltz, Christina Rankin, Claire Sun, Miguel Hernandez, and Chuanyuan Song originally were planned as in-person gallery showings before the COVID-19 pandemic enforced Stay at Home restrictions in California. On Friday, May 8, exhibitions by Maria Laura Hendrix, Bria Goodall, Cassia Reynolds, Derek Prado, Mirena Kim, Danny Kadum, Ameera Daaood, Xiaoxiao Wu, and Justin Nunnally were added to the virtual thesis shows website. These shows had been exhibited in the Bolsky Gallery on Otis’s Goldsmith campus before its closure in March.
Otis College Interim President Randall Lavender, Incoming President Charles Hirschhorn, senior leadership, and department chairs invite the public to view graduating students’ work on the Annual Exhibition website and help celebrate their achievements.