Art
76 courses · UC Irvine · 2026-2027 Catalog
Classes: Fall 2026
ART 1A Art in Context: History, Theory, and Practice
- Units
- 4
First in a three-quarter foundation sequence introducing students to a broad range of contemporary art, media, and practices in relation to their 20th-century cultural and historical antecedents. ART 1A deals specifically with contemporary painting and photography.
ART 1B Art in Context: History, Theory, and Practice
- Units
- 4
Deals with film/video/performance. Concerned with the development of modern/contemporary film, video, and performance, with a focus on experimental and avant-garde production from the early 20th century to today.
ART 1C Art in Context: History, Theory, and Practice
- Units
- 4
Third in a three-quarter foundation sequence introducing students to a broad range of contemporary art, media, and practice in relation to their 20th-century cultural and historical antecedents. Deals specifically with space and cyberspace.
ART 8 Changing Creativity
- Units
- 4
Explores creativity as a changing concept in historical and contemporary terms from the perspectives of producers, consumers, and institutions. Encompasses international perspectives and the role of new technologies in considering creativity as a resource for innovation and social change.
ART 9A Visual Culture: Media, Art, and Technology
- Units
- 4
Examines creative activities in all spheres of life, including the "artistic" impulses that dwell in the individual. Culture is addressed in broad terms of the many institutions and cultural forces that shape everyday activities of listening, seeing, doing.
ART 9B Visual Culture: A Culture Divided
- Units
- 4
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, controversies flourished in the mainstream media over purportedly obscene art, anti-American writing, and moral decay, among other issues. Examines these new conflicts as they manifest themselves in public life and everyday experience.
ART 9C Visual Culture: Thematic Investigations
- Units
- 4
Considers a broad range of concerns and questions raised by various acts of appropriation in contemporary art and visual culture, such as originality, authenticity, authorship, translation, audience and aesthetics, temporal dimensions of a work, and context.
ART 9D Visual Culture: Graffiti as Art and Language
- Units
- 4
Examines how graffiti art transforms urban landscapes and serves as a powerful means of global communication and cultural expression.
ART 11A Topics in History of Contemporary Art
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A
Surveys mid-19th and 20th-century art production, from modernity through post-modernity, in a historical and cultural context.
ART 12A Art, Design, and Electronic Culture
- Units
- 4
Introduction to historical and theoretical foundations of digital media art, tracing how information technologies seeded growth of new expressive medium. Considers how today's pervasive digital culture evolved through interdisciplinary collaborations between artists, engineers, scientists, scholars.
ART 12B Cultural History of the Anthropocene
- Units
- 4
A survey of the ongoing interactions between technological and social change through the 19th century and 20th century, with special attention to the history of computing, changing arts and cultural practices, and the idea of the Anthropocene.
ART 12C Intelligences of Arts
- Units
- 4
Introduces contemporary neuroscience and new approaches to cognition – embodied, enactive, extended, situated, distributed. Reviews the history of related ethological, biological, psychological, technological, and philosophical traditions. Considers arts and cultural practices from these and other perspectives, and considers case studies.
ART 20A Basic Drawing I
- Units
- 4
Encourages an investigation of the premises and limits of drawing, primarily, but not inevitably, as a two-dimensional medium. Includes slide presentations and discussions of the historical uses of a wide range of drawing. Materials Fee
ART 30A Basic Painting I
- Units
- 4
Examination of the fundamental components of painting: color, form, space, surface, scale, and content. Studio work, slide presentations, and critiques of student work. Materials Fee
ART 30B Basic Painting II
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 30A
Further examinations of the essential qualities of painting: color, form, space, surface, scale, and content. Studio work, slide presentations, and critiques of student work. Materials Fee
ART 40 Beginning Sculpture
- Units
- 4
The practice of sculpture in the contemporary arts; inclusion of spatial interventions, site-specific and environmental design, appropriation of found materials; techniques in cutting joining, and assembly of wood, metals, and plastics. May include casting, welding, and ceramics. Materials Fee
ART 50A Matter and Media
- Units
- 4
A project-based introduction to tools and approaches for creating and sharing digital media content within internet-mediated social environments, with a particular emphasis on art-making and personal expression. Includes an overview of basic user experience and interaction design principles.
ART 50B Interaction and Experience
- Units
- 4
An overview of digital video and audio production for the Web, emphasizing art-making and personal expression. Includes digital media aesthetics and conceptual design, basic audio and video recording, and fundamentals of desktop video, audio, and Web authoring software applications.
ART 51 Basic Ceramic Sculpture
- Units
- 4
Exploration of use of clay as sculptural basis with an emphasis on development of an idea and its relation to contemporary and experimental art practice. Hand-building, glazing, finishing processes, and use of other structural materials. Materials Fee
ART 65A Foundations in Media Design
- Units
- 4
Provides an overview of media design in the digital age, covering principles of design for different media (2D, time-based, interactive); history of relationship between art and design; and practice in working with different design approaches. Materials Fee
ART 65B Foundations in Internet Art and Design
- Units
- 4
Introduction to creating art for the Internet, covering history and structure of networks; key types of net-based interactivity; basics of Web design and scripting. Materials Fee
ART 65C Gizmology and Kinetics
- Units
- 4
Provides students with basic skills in materials, construction and design applicable to making machines, musical instruments and things with moving parts enabling work in kinetic sculpture, custom interactive systems, Mechatronics, Robotics, and Maker/DIY culture. Materials Fee
ART 71A Introduction to Photography I
- Units
- 4
Introduction to technical underpinnings emphasizing photography as a contemporary art practice. Topics include 35mm non-automatic camera operation, exposure and lighting, black and white printing, introduction to digital photography, discussion of critical and historical issues. Materials Fee
ART 71B Introduction to Photography II
- Units
- 4
Techniques covered include medium and large format cameras, digital photography, studio lighting, digital and analog color printing, mural room. Conceptual direction is developed through critiques, critical readings, discussions, slide lectures. Materials Fee
ART 81 Beginning Video
- Units
- 4
Offers an introduction to the experimental histories and contemporary practices of video art with training in video, audio, lighting equipment, and editing software. Screenings, readings, and discussions engage issues of installation, representation, technology, and critical media literacy. Materials Fee
ART 91 Basic Performance Art
- Units
- 4
Exploration of objects, gesture, action, text, image, and media to create narrative or non-narrative works. Elements of theory and history of performance art are discussed to illustrate techniques and styles to understand, identify, and articulate artistic vision and voice.
ART 95 Special Topics in Basic Media
- Units
- 4
Basic instruction in media or disciplines not otherwise represented in the regular curriculum. Topics vary according to the instructor.
ART 100 Special Topics in Art
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A. Lower-division writing strongly recommended
Materials fee, topic dependent.
ART 101W Artists as Writers
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A and ART 11A. Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement
Contemporary art practice involves text, as final form or an integral element. Many contemporary artists consider writing as essential to their practice. Covers historical and contemporary uses of text and image as well as artists' writing.
ART 106A Programming for Artists
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 65A. Recommended: ART 11B
Programming as a means to create interactive artworks with an emphasis on the integration of video, sound, text, and stills. Topics include basic concepts in programming, understanding the limits of code, working with video and audio files, and interface design. Materials Fee
ART 108 Advanced Video
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 81
Students learn to conceive, develop, and produce original video works building directly upon previously learned skills. Use of video stage and post-production editing facilities. Lectures on video/film subjects, production strategies, readings, screening, field trips, and group critiques. Materials Fee
ART 109 Performance and the Camera
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 1B or ART 81A or ART 91 or ART 128
Surveys the development of contemporary artists who use performance strategies in the making of videos and films. Students analyze the artist's conceptual approach to performative gestures, actions, and landscapes created for their video or film art.
ART 113 How to be Clever with Stuff
- Units
- 4
How to Be Clever with Stuff is an introduction to the skilled embodied practices of arts and crafts, working with hand tools, wood, and steel. Class includes technical lecture/demos, short technical assignments, a self-initiated final project, and design drawing. Materials Fee
ART 121A Afro-Futurism I
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A. Satisfactory completion of upper-division writing strongly recommended
First of a two-part course on the futuristic artistic vision of Black film, video, and cyberspace. Deals with critical analyses of the Black image in Western Art history, and its association to contemporary Hip Hop culture, art, and music.
ART 121B Afro-Futurism II
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A. Satisfactory completion of upper-division writing strongly recommended
Second of a two-part course on the futuristic artistic visions of Black film, video, and cyberspace. Deals with modern techno-culture, digital activism, and designing technology based on African aesthetic principles of contemporary Hip Hop International Culture.
ART 123B Issues in Media, Violence, and Fear
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A. Satisfactory completion of the Upper-Division Writing requirement is recommended
Violence has been instrumental in story-telling throughout history in art, literature, religion, and entertainment. Continuing presence of media violence provoked debates among parents, politicians, media producers, and academics. Examines history, theory, aesthetics, economics, and politics of violent representation.
ART 125 Issues in Photography
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 1A or ART 71A or ART 71B or ART 152A or ART 152B or ART 152C or ART 152D or ART 152E or ART 190B. Recommended: Satisfactory completion of the Upper-Division Writing requirement
Rigorous investigation of photographic practices and critical writings, the relationship of photography to the construction and maintenance of cultural institutions, the circulation of photographic ideas in society, and photography and technology.
ART 126B Issues in Techno-Arts
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A. Recommended: ART 11B
Addresses issues related to artmaking practices that emerge in tandem with new technologies. Topics include sociopolitical contexts of techno-art; utopic/dystopic framings; key moments in the history of techno-arts.
ART 127B Issues in Experimental Film History
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A
A critical study of experimental film/video art genres and production techniques considering their narrative, structural, iconographic, and cultural aspects. Hollywood narrative, Nouvelle Vague, American Independent, and Video Art compared in terms of production innovation, design, and conceptual content. Materials Fee
ART 128 Issues in New Genres
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A. Recommended: Satisfactory completion of the Upper-Division Writing requirement
Investigates issues in post-studio practices, including concepts of time, relational aesthetics, site-specificity, institutional critique, and the post-medium condition.
ART 130A Projects in New Technologies
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 65A. Recommended: ART 11B and ART 106A
Working with media such as electronic still cameras, desktop publishing, faxes, satellites, virtual reality, digitized imaging. Cultural issues pertinent to the emergence of new technology (e.g., ethical concerns, social impact, copyright laws, nontraditional approaches to distribution, cyberpunk, global markets).
ART 131 Projects in Installation
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 40
Investigates interior installation in particular spaces. Working in teams, students install, discuss, and remove projects. Technical information and hands-on experience with various media is provided. Materials Fee
ART 138 Place Making and Public Art
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 40 and ART 9A
How do art interventions in public spaces inform our definition of "place" and develop culturally informed audiences? Students will engage in class projects and group investigations that question the traditional and institutional conceptual boundaries of exhibition/distribution.
ART 141 Advanced Video: Installation
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 81
Students design and produce video installations including multi-channel and synchronized forms with an attention to space. Incorporates group and individual projects; lessons in projection, monitors, media players, editing; readings, screenings, and discussion. Materials Fee
ART 144 Artist Books as Objects
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- (ART 20A or ART 30A or ART 40 or ART 51 or ART 65A or ART 71A or ART 81A or ART 91) and ART 9A
Are artist books still relevant in the contemporary creative community? Focusing on intellectual content and raw physicality, students will explore this question and image/text relationships by creating handmade one-of-a-kind or edition book projects utilizing various mechanical reproduction techniques.
ART 146 The Artist Archives
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 9A
Addresses ways in which artistic production and archival practice intermingle and overlap. Examines critical works on the nature of knowledge and the archive, and uncovers methodologies of knowledge production and how these inform what we think of as art.
ART 150 Advanced Studio Topics--Painting
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 30B
Provides an intensive and specialized working environment. Thematic issues and material strategies will be explored. Materials Fee
ART 150C Advanced Drawing
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 20A
Advanced studio problems in visual exploration. Students pursue individual solutions to self-defined and presubscribed projects. Techniques/materials are individual choice. Continual analysis of the personal process.
ART 150G Advanced Figure Painting
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 150F
Students develop technical skills in painting the figure. Live model sessions and projects that investigate the use of the figure in contemporary art.
ART 151 Advanced Studio Topics--Sculpture
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 40
Provides an intensive and specialized working environment. Thematic issues and material strategies will be explored. Materials Fee
ART 152A Advanced Studio Topics: Photography
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 71B
Focused investigation of a range of issues in photographic practice, with an emphasis on developing individual student projects, refining critical thinking, and conceptual framing. Technical topics covered as required. Readings, lectures, critiques, labs. Materials Fee
ART 152B Documentary Photography
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 71B
Documentary practice is examined through the realization of photo-based projects. Thematic focus of student's choosing will be refined through lectures, discussion, technical demonstrations, field trips, labs, and individual meetings. Materials Fee
ART 152C The Public Image
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 71B
Strategies for artistic intervention in the public circulation of images are examined alongside the role images play in constructing public identity. Individual or collaborative student projects will be directed around course themes. Materials Fee
ART 152E The Constructed Image
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 71B
A studio investigation of theoretical ideas, critical possibilities, historical precedents, and various techniques involving the production of fabricated images. Techniques may include montage, digital, chemical and in-camera manipulations, studio constructions, appropriations, performance, and projected images. Materials Fee
ART 153 Advanced Video: Projects
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 81
Focused on production of individually initiated projects in video, including narrative, experimental, documentary, and installation forms. Students create one substantial work or a series of shorter works through: pre-production, production, post-production; demos including editing, camera, and sound; weekly screenings, discussions. Materials Fee
ART 154 Advanced Studio Topics: Performance
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 91 or ART 109 or ART 128
An intensive investigation of the practice of performance art, with an emphasis on the development of individual projects, and the refinement of various technical skills, as well as audiences, spaces, and cultural connections.
ART 156 Advanced Studio Topics: Ceramic Sculpture
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 51
Discussion of ideas, techniques, and personal control of form. Clay body, fabrication, glazing, and firing. Emphasis on development of personal direction. Materials Fee
ART 170 Advanced Projects
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 150 or ART 150C or ART 151 or ART 152A or ART 152B or ART 152C or ART 152D or ART 152E or ART 152F or ART 153 or ART 166A or ART 190 or ART 190B or ART 190C or ART 40
Students working in different mediums focus on ambitious research, planning, development, and experimentation, leading to a single work or focused series that is large in scope. The project is exhibited and documented at the end of the quarter. Materials Fee
ART 189 Critical Aesthetics
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 1A and ART 1B and ART 1C
Surveys critical thought that has influenced twentieth-century art production, preparing the student to engage contemporary art with a critical eye, specifically addressing aesthetic and political debates of the historical avant-garde, the neo-avant garde, and postmodern culture.
ART 190 Senior Project and Critique
- Units
- 4
Directed-study critique class in preparation for final project and life after graduation; documentation and portfolio preparation for graduate school. Investigation of exhibition spaces and funding opportunities, participation in artists' communities outside the university, and artists' rights issues.
ART 190B Senior Projects and Critique in Photography
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 1A and ART 1B and ART 1C and ART 71A and ART 71B
Directed group study focused on production of photographic projects of significant scope and ambition. Emphasis on preparation for continued study and/or practice in photography in advanced settings beyond the undergraduate university experience. Materials Fee
ART 197 Art Internship
- Units
- 1-4
Under faculty supervision, students participate directly in a variety of art institution settings, including museums, galleries, and nonprofit organizations.
ART 198 Honors Exhibition
- Units
- 4
Preparation, installation, and participation in the annual honors exhibition. Materials Fee
ART 199 Independent Study
- Units
- 1-4
Individual study or directed creative projects as arranged with faculty member. Materials fee.
ART 210 First-Year Graduate Seminar
- Units
- 4
Introductory theory class to contemporary art: intellectual history, theoretical antecedents, and current critical concerns.
ART 215 Graduate Seminar Topics
- Units
- 4
In-depth discussion of contemporary art production in relation to a variety of theoretical, cultural, and historical topics. Material is determined by the given instructor's current research interest. Topics vary.
ART 220 Graduate Seminar: Issues in Contemporary Art
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 210 with a minimum grade of B-
Classroom interaction with artists, curators, critics, lecturers from fields outside of the arts or from cross-disciplines. Includes recommended readings, discussions, panel participation, writing assignments.
ART 230 Graduate Group Critique
- Units
- 4
Focus on studio production. Students are expected to help foster and develop an environment in which serious and sophisticated peer critique can take place.
ART 236 Graduate Topics in Studio Production
- Units
- 4
Graduate group study of a specific medium or art practice (e.g., painting; video, installation, photography, sculpture/3D, performance, digital media, public art, sound art; film). Includes consideration of technical, theoretical, historical, and/or formal issues.
ART 240 Interdisciplinary Projects
- Units
- 4
Intensive faculty-led discussion of in-progress graduate studio projects--can be discipline driven or working across fields in a rigorous interdisciplinary studio environment where students meet with the professor both individually and in small groups.
ART 250 Directed Reading and Research
- Units
- 4
Independent study with a supervising faculty member to direct academic research, develop bibliographies, and discuss assigned readings.
ART 251 Special Topics Seminar
- Units
- 4
Directed reading and/or study group on a given research topic. Agreed-upon meeting structure may be flexible in order to accommodate off-campus field trips and travel.
ART 261 Graduate Thesis Writing Seminar
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 210 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 215 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 220 with a minimum grade of B-
- Corequisite
- ART 262
Seminar for writing as a component of the thesis. Different models of writing, text, and spoken word will be discussed. Required second year.
ART 262 Graduate Thesis Independent Study
- Units
- 1-4
- Prerequisite
- ART 210 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 215 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 220 with a minimum grade of B-
- Corequisite
- ART 261
Tutorials and directed study in thesis writing, research and/or studio production with thesis committee chair and/or thesis committee members to be taken during final quarters of study.
ART 263 Graduate Thesis, Exhibition Critique
- Units
- 4
- Prerequisite
- ART 210 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 215 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 220 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 230 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 240 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 261 with a minimum grade of B- and ART 262 with a minimum grade of B-
Group critique required for matriculating M.F.A. students during the quarter in which their thesis exhibitions are scheduled. Public presentation/lecture on student's work required.
ART 399 University Teaching
- Units
- 4
Limited to Teaching Associates working under the active guidance and supervision of a regular rank faculty member responsible for curriculum and instruction at the University.