LOS ANGELES — After I was in graduate college for an MFA in writing, a professor advised me one thing harrowing. “Most people here aren’t artists,” she stated. “They’re students.” The judgment was implicit: College students go to high school, and artists make artwork. On the time, I deeply wished to be an artist, and never a scholar — however after viewing graduate artwork exhibitions throughout Los Angeles, I imagine the latter to be the superior class. Sure, there’s a vary of professionalism within the work on view — college students usually wrestle to tell apart child from bathwater, and easily put the entire tub on show as an alternative — however the College of California Los Angeles’s MFA exhibition proves how priceless it’s to be a scholar. Removed from excellent, their work illustrates the sort of mess, ambition, and a spotlight that many “artists” could be fortunate to have.
Installations on view flip galleries into would-be campsites, erecting makeshift buildings throughout their barren white packing containers. Ayla Gizlice’s “Rumble, Rumble, Rumble” (all works 2025) cordons off one gallery with strings stretched from ground to ceiling, wrapped round a wrought iron bar. Past it lies what appears like a tea kettle and ground cushions, ready for company who haven’t but arrived. Harrison Kinnane Smith’s exhibition makes use of scaffolding wrapped with orange plastic fencing to border its contents, stacking picket boards alongside one wall to evoke a half-finished building undertaking (“Story Poles (Proposal for New Wight Gallery)”). Every set up is in dialog with different paintings on view: Smith’s pictures investigates LA housing developments, and Gizlice’s exhibition consists of an authentic fairytale — the type one would possibly inform round a campfire (“The Woman with Three Husbands”).
Set up view of Zenobia, “‘Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects (abject) – for Harriet Jacobs’” (2025), steel
Student sculpture, photography, and video interrogate art world conventions, poking fun at the ways artwork — and life — are traditionally experienced. Maren Karlson’s grayscale work and collages lie on the ground below a glass pane. Their show mimics how one would possibly research her material, which ranges from machines to X-rays of her personal organs. In Zenobia’s “ ‘Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects (abject) – for Harriet Jacobs,’” an enlarged metal needle seems to pierce immediately by way of a gallery wall, ominously positioned at head-height. D.A. Gonzales exploits limitations in “CBP-FO-2024-133704,” a collection of 21 reflective graphite prints that reveal FBI denials of requests for video footage from surveillance cameras on the United States-Mexico border. And Misty EunJoo Choi demonstrates how home life interpolates artwork, usually to surreal outcomes: One video and accompanying set up includes a small kitchen vestibule tipped on its facet, the footage capturing warped each day rituals: Toast flies “up” to a plate, and a determine crouches from the “ceiling” (“The Disoriented Room”).
Right here’s the factor. If the previous two years have taught us something, it’s that college students are the true artists. A minimum of, they’re what artists needs to be: unafraid, playful, and principled, particularly within the face of ever-increasing authorities threats. At UCLA, these college students — all of whom are, shocker, artists too — make house for brand spanking new methods of creating, trying, and being. Simply the way it needs to be.
Ayla Gizlice, “The Woman with Three Husbands, 2” (2025)
Zenobia, “Mimesis (saccharine)” (2025), stoneware, ebony sawdust
Set up view of Misty EunJoo Choi, “fool-ly functioning things wall text” (2025), spray paint, blended media paper, plywood, drywall, flooring tile, wallpaper adhesive, laser print
Set up view of labor by Ayla Gizlice
Element of D.A. Gonzales, “CBP-FO-2025-071750 (self-portrait)” (2025–ongoing), 5 gelatin silver prints, ongoing Freedom of Data Act Request correspondence
Maren Karlson, “Staub #14” (2025), graphite on inkjet print on paper
Harrison Kinnane Smith, “Story Poles (Proposal for New Wight Gallery)” (2025), {hardware}, lumber, paint, security fencing, story pole plan
Set up view of Zenobia, “‘Poiesis’” (2025), carved ebony wooden
College of California Los Angeles 2025 MFA Exhibition #4: Misty EunJoo Choi & Ayla Gizlice continues at New Wight Gallery (Broad Artwork Heart, Suite 1100, Los Angeles) by way of Might 9. 2025 MFA Exhibition #3: D.A. Gonzales, Maren Karlson, Zenobia, & Harrison Kinnane Smith was on view in the identical gallery from April 17–25.
Learn our overview of Components I and II right here.
