Fountain (The Tower: Ground Level) by Ryan Brewer. Photos by Asia Morris.

For the 13th year, Greater Los Angeles Master of Fine Arts (GLAMFA) is featuring the work of MFA students from schools all over the greater Los Angeles area, showcased in the School of Art galleries at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB).

Curated by CSULB graduate students and on view through January 31, GLAMFA has become an annual tradition for viewers to “discover the next wave of contemporary artists,” said Cintia Segovia, an MFA photography student at the university set to graduate this spring and co-director of Fine Arts Round Table (FAR), the organization that puts on GLAMFA.

On display are works by 23 MFA students from Cal State University, Northridge (CSUN), Claremont Graduate University (CGU), California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts), Art Center College of Design (Art Center), University of California, Irvine (UCI), San Diego (UCSD) and Los Angeles (UCLA).

Rhizome 2 by Kyle Welker (UCI).

“Some of the works that stood out to me personally would be Kyle Welker’s Rhizome 2 and Maria Bang Espersen’s National Costume,” said Elena Roznovan, also a co-director of FAR and an MFA third-year who will graduate from CSULB this spring.

Roznovan commented that she was intrigued by Welker’s use of sculpture combined with living organisms. The installation made of industrial materials, test tubes and grass describes his idea that “it’s made for non human entities, which humbles our relationship to the rest of the world,” Roznovan said.

“National Costume impressed me because of its ambitious take on the current political climate,” Roznovan continued. “Maria is Danish, and in reaction to the political events back at home, she created this piece which parallels the political climate here in the US. The piece contains heavy references to danish culture, but through the use of wit and distortion, Maria exposes the hypocrisy in the ways the white Danish majority thinks.”

National Costume by Maria Bang Espersen (Cal Arts).

Kim Garcia, a Los Angeles-based artist and a current MFA Candidate at UCI is showing Happy Object, a large red knot suspended by a rope and propped up by a pile of casted cushions, as well as a video projection showing a pair of red hands burying and uncovering casted objects from blue sand, called we are where we are not.

“Both works explore interpersonal and material relationships, their co-dependencies and their power dynamics,” Garcia told the Post.

Now in her final year in grad school, Garcia said she chose the graduate programs featured in GLAMFA because “we all have a common desire to participate in the greater LA art community.”

“[…]I hope to add to my current circle of friends from UCI and establish an environment in LA where I can keep challenging myself and peers to grow and make work,” Garcia said.

Happy Object by Kim Garcia (UCI).

Segovia said that two artists she felt particularly excited about include Pablo Estrada, whose photographic installation addresses ideas of labor through his work photographing the spaces, food and labor force in and around taquerias in South Central Los Angeles and Adrienne DeVine’s work about the lost or stolen history of Northern Africa and Sub-saharan Africa.

“In a political moment when our president is making important decisions about immigration -DACA- and inflammatory comments about immigrants from Africa and Haiti, it’s important to keep in mind the work of these artists that present another perspective of the American life,” Segovia said.

Capsize by Trevor Amery (UCSD).

“Through their investigations of worldly interactions that we often take for granted, the artists of GLAMFA 2018 uphold the pivotal axis of progressive cultural production—they are asking us to question everything we think we know,” reads the catalogue text by Rhiannon Aarons.

The artists of GLAMFA 2018 are: Adrian Abela (UCLA), Robin Akashi (Art Center), Stacey Alexander (CSUN), Trevor Amery (UCSD), Victoria Aravindhan (Cal Arts), Ryan Brewer (Art Center), Carey Coleman (UCLA), Adrienne Devine (CGU), Maria Bang Espersen (Cal Arts), Pablo Estrada (CSUN), Kim Garcia (UCI), Wesley Hicks (Cal Arts), Nasim Hantehzadeh (UCLA), Kellan Barnebey King (CSUN), Tony Larson (CGU), Amy MacKay (UCI), Emily Marchand (Cal Arts), Sydney Mills (Cal Arts), Iain Muirhead (CGU), Michelle Nunes (CSUN), Pecking Nets (Cal Arts), Haena Yoo (Art Center) and Kyle Welker (UCI).

Consumed Body Purification System from Sydney Mills on Vimeo.

An opening reception will take place on January 28 from 5:00PM to 8:00PM, with open studios from 5:00PM to 7:00PM and an announcement for Best of Show at 7:00PM. In addition, a panel discussion with CSULB MFA alumni will take place at 3:00PM. For more information on gallery hours, docent tours, directions and parking, visit the website here.

Additionally, a GLAMFA Satellite exhibition at the East Side International Gallery in Los Angeles will be on view from February 25th through April 7th, with an opening reception to take place on March 3 from 7:00PM to 10:00PM.

{gallery}asia/glamfa2018{/gallery}

CSULB is located at 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, with the closest entrance to the galleries off of 7th Street down East Campus Road.

{FG_GEOMAP [33.7826983,-118.12230440000002] FG_GEOMAP}