LOS ANGELES — Once I was in graduate college for an MFA in writing, a professor informed me one thing harrowing. “Most people here aren’t artists,” she mentioned. “They’re students.” The judgment was implicit: College students go to high school, and artists make artwork. On the time, I deeply needed to be an artist, and never a pupil — however after viewing graduate artwork exhibitions throughout Los Angeles, I consider the latter to be the superior class. Sure, there’s a vary of professionalism within the work on view — college students usually battle to differentiate child from bathwater, and easily put the entire tub on show as a substitute — however the College of California Los Angeles’s MFA exhibition proves how priceless it’s to be a pupil. Removed from excellent, their work illustrates the form 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 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 friends who haven’t but arrived. Harrison Kinnane Smith’s exhibition makes use of scaffolding wrapped with orange plastic fencing to border its contents, stacking wood boards alongside one wall to evoke a half-finished building challenge (“Story Poles (Proposal for New Wight Gallery)”). Every set up is in dialog with different art work on view: Smith’s images investigates LA housing developments, and Gizlice’s exhibition contains an authentic fairytale — the sort one may 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 beneath a glass pane. Their show mimics how one may examine her subject 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 instantly by a gallery wall, ominously positioned at head-height. D.A. Gonzales exploits obstacles 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 aspect, the footage capturing warped day by 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 actual artists. At the very least, they’re what artists must 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 area for brand new methods of constructing, trying, and being. Simply the way it must 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 Info 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 Middle, Suite 1100, Los Angeles) by 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 evaluate of Elements I and II right here.
