Faculty
The ITI faculty offer a wide variety of approaches to the written and visual arts. All are working contemporary artists who publish and exhibit their work in national and international contexts. Our faculty are dedicated to innovative approaches and traditions that value psychologically, culturally and politically engaged work.
Cauleen Smith (Fellow) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work reflects upon the everyday possibilities of the imagination. Operating in multiple materials and arenas, Smith roots her work firmly within the discourse of mid-twentieth-century experimental film. Drawing from structuralism, third world cinema, and science fiction, she makes things that deploy the tactics of activism in service of ecstatic social space and contemplation. Smith enjoys container gardening, likes cats and collects disco balls, vinyl records, and books. She is an avid functional cyclist. She lives in Los Angeles and is Art Program faculty at California Institute of the Arts. BA in Creative Arts from San Francisco State University and MFA, University of California, Los Angeles School of Theater Film and Television. Smith’s short films, feature film, an installation and performance were work showcased at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2019. Her solo show, Mutualities, at The Whitney Museum of American Art resumes this summer until December 2020. Her SFMoMA show will launch Summer 2020. Her solo show, Give It Or Leave It, has traveled nationwide. A major survey of Smith’s work is on view at MassMoCA until April 2020, the centerpiece of that show, “We Already Know What We Need” will travel to CAM Houston Winter 2021. Smith is the recipient of the following awards: Rockefeller Media Arts Award, Creative Capital Film /Video, Chicago 3Arts Grant, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Chicago Expo Artadia Award, and Rauschenberg Residency, Herb Alpert Awards in the Arts in Film and Video 2016, United States Artists Award 2017, 2016 inaugural recipient of the Ellsworth Kelly Award, 2020 recipient of the Studio Museum Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize.