UCI’s first graduating class, the class of 1966, had 14 students. Michael Max Asher received his BA in fine arts as part of that class. Asher (the son of L.A. art collector, curator and art dealer Betty Asher) became one of  the prioneering figures in Conceptual Art, and a leader in the Institutional Critique movement. He is now on the faculty at CalArts. Michael Asher’s work has been exhibited widely in the United States and abroad, including  the Centre Georges Pompidou, Musee National d’Art Moderne and ARC in Paris, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven in Holland, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Banff Centre in Canada, the Krefeld Kunstmuseum in Germany, the Venice Biennale in Italy and Documenta 5 and 7 in Kassel Germany. He’s received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a USA Broad Fellowship. As an educator Michael Asher has influenced a generation of artists, encouraging students to always question the contexts in which they work.