In the past decade Studio Art has seen steady growth in faculty with an accelerated growth in recent years. Studio Art currently has 13 full time faculty and three joint appointments. From the late 90's on, Robert Nideffer and Antoinette LaFarge were hired to develop the Digital Media program; Simon Leung was hired in 2001 to begin the New Genre program; Miles Coolidge in Photography; Bruce Yonemoto in Video; Lorraine O'Grady with a joint appointment in African American Studies and Studio Art, Simon Penny with a joint appointment in EECS and Studio Art, and Beatriz da Costa with a joint appointment in EECS and Studio Art.

Our outstanding faculty is very active and prominent. Antionette LaFarge, Simon Leung and Daniel Martinez have been included in the Venice Biennale, one of the most prestigious international exhibitions. Daniel Martinez (1993) and Robert Nideffer (2002) were included in the Whitney Biennial, perhaps the most prestigious national exhibition. Bruce Yonemoto was featured in the Corcoran Biennial in Washington DC in 2002. Several of our faculty, including Yong Soon Min, Ulysses Jenkins and Bruce Yonemoto have received NEA grants to individual artists. Numerous faculty members have been awarded the highly competitive COLA grants by the City of Los Angeles. Yong Soon Min (2001)and Connie Samaras (2002) have received the Anonymous Was a Woman award ($25,000), a national award given to under-recognized female artists. David Trend was awarded the highly prestigious Getty Residency in 2000.

In terms of special projects, Yong Soon Min was commissioned in 2001 to curate an exhibition for the Gwangju Biennial, a prestigious international exhibition, and featured three UCI Studio Art alumni in the exhibition that was held in 2002 and included two graduate students and a faculty member in the related international symposium also held in 2002.