Read About Five Otis College Alumni Whose Successes Have Made the News
From a Toy Design alum talking about the Labubu craze to a fine artist known for their viral videos, Otis College alumni are in the news.
Otis College has long been a breeding ground for creative excellence—and its alumni continue to prove why. From trailblazing illustrators and award-winning filmmakers to innovative fashion designers and visionary architects, Otis graduates are making waves on both national and international stages. As part of a new series that will appear on Otis.edu’s blog every month, we will be featuring our esteemed alumni’s accomplishments and accolades as they appear in the media.
Markus Maciel (’01 BFA Toy Design)
In ABC News story about Pop Mart’s Labubu doll craze: “From Brad Pitt to Bethenny Frankel, Everyone Is Obsessed with Labubu Dolls”
Maciel was part of the first class of Toy Design majors to graduate from Otis College when the program launched over 25 years ago. His first professional roles were in toy design and development at Mattel, Hasbro, and SpinMaster, among others, before he struck out on his own as a toy designer and joined the faculty of the Toy Design program at Otis. Follow him on Instagram, @arxavius.
Wendy Park (’08 BFA Digital Media)
In the Los Angeles Times: “Korean American Artist Reflects on Her Parents’ Immigrant Experience in Tustin Gallery Exhibit”
“Park’s early life at the swap meet and her parents’ immigrant experience are at the center of her third solo exhibition at Various Small Fires OC gallery in Tustin. Titled “Of Our Own,” Park’s paintings explore artifacts and rituals of daily life as an immigrant and the objects that can connect a current home to one left behind….
Park received a BFA from Otis College of Art & Design and spent 13 years in Disney animation. The bright colors that inform her work draw on that experience while also reflecting her point of view as a child, how colorful and alive the world seemed to her then. She references both American pop and Korean folk art in her work and makes newspaper kiosks, coin laundry carts and pots of Tiger Balm worthy of investigation.”
Park originally studied animation at Otis and worked at Disney for 13 years before segueing into painting. Her work reflects the immigrant experience through detailed, colorful depictions of daily life and currently is being exhibited at Various Small Fires, a gallery in Tustin, California. Visit wendypark.co and follow her on Instagram, @wendypark_.
Juston Gordon-Montgomery (’13 BFA Digital Media)
In Variety: “Why Adult Swim’s ‘Invincible Fight Girl’ and Creator Juston Gordon-Montgomery Is Making Space for Black Girls in Animation”
“Juston Gordon-Montgomery’s path to becoming a showrunner wasn’t traditional, but it was intentional. The Baldwin Hills native, now the creator of Adult Swim’s ‘Invincible Fight Girl,’ is carving a unique space in animation, not only with original storytelling, but also with a commitment to representation and mentorship.
Best known for his work on ‘DC Super Hero Girls,’ ‘My Dad the Bounty Hunter’ and the animated ‘Adam Ruins Everything,’ Gordon-Montgomery’s latest series features something rarely seen in Western animation: a Black female protagonist chasing a dream in the wrestling ring.”
Gordon-Montgomery started freelancing as a story artist right after graduating from Otis, first at Blue Sky Studios and then at Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Animation, and Illumination, among other studios. He broke out into writing and directing at Warner Bros. and Netflix before landing at Cartoon Network, where he’s the showrunner behind Invincible Fight Girl.
Darel Carey (’16 BFA Fine Arts)
Carey recently was profiled by Hi Fructrose Magazine: “For Artist Darel Carey: It All Starts With a Line”
“For Darel Carey, it all begins with the line. From that most elemental figure, a work of art eventually blossoms. ‘Every single line I place is based off where the last line was, which is based off the line before it, which is based off the line before that,’ Carey said recently, speaking by phone from his home in Los Angeles. Placing that first line sets the scheme for the rest of the piece. Each line that comes after speaks directly to the line that came before it in a cycle of repetition and incremental change. As Carey slowly alters the distance between lines, the piece—at least the viewer’s perception of the piece—morphs. Suddenly, strange shapes and visions enter the viewer’s consciousness. What was once a wall with a smattering of straight lines becomes something else—something confusing, even terrifying. The lines engulf the viewer, forcing her to confront the shaky reality of her visual perception. The world, Carey’s art tells us, is not how it appears.”
Los Angeles-based Carey came to Otis College as a veteran on the GI Bill after having served as a language analyst in the Air Force. At Otis he honed a visual style that involves large-scale tape installations, painted murals, and digital art. Visit DarelCarey.com and follow him on Instagram, @darelcarey.
Vita Kari (’24 MFA Fine Arts)
Kari recently was profiled in W Magazine: “Vita Kari Is Locking Themself in a Box For 24 Hours to Apologize”
“This Wednesday night, TikTok sensation and performance artist Vita Kari will crawl into a cramped, pink box and apologize for 24 hours straight. Not that Kari has done anything wrong—it’s just their latest stunt, “Apology Box,” christening a group show Kari curated at 806 Dorado Projects in Los Angeles on July 16. “Pride hit different this year,” the nonbinary artist remarked over the phone. ‘We need an apology, but we're not going to get one, so we're just gonna have to give it to ourselves.’...
‘The performance of accountability is something I'm really exploring in this work,’ they said. ‘I'm not standing on 10 toes necessarily saying anything directly, I'm just interested in investigating.’”
Kari is known for their viral videos on TikTok, which actually are part of their investigation of virality through textiles, performance, and video. Kari focuses on the relationship between internet culture, diaspora, and public space through their lens of being a deaf/Hard of Hearing (HOH) artist. Visit vitakari.com and follow Kari on Instagram, @vitakari.
Related News
