Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
It started as a refuge for excluded art students. Now this show is celebrating 20 years
"Untitled (friend)" 2023, one of the pieces Libbi Ponce submitted for this year's GLAMFA. She found the fossilized lizard in her truck during a residency in Nebraska.
(
LVL3
/
Courtesy of Libbi Ponce
)
Promising a wide range of media and styles, Cal State Long Beach will host its 20th annual art show later this month, spotlighting the region’s next generation of artists.
Listen
• 0:45
It started as a refuge for excluded art students. Now this show is celebrating 20 years
The Greater L.A. Master of Fine Arts exhibition, popularly known as GLAMFA, will feature work by about 40 graduate students and recent alumni from local Cal State and UC campuses, as well as private schools.
Alberto Lule, who earned his MFA in 2024, has had his heart set on taking part in the show ever since he began his program at UC Irvine. For him, the only thing more exciting than being selected is seeing what his peers have cooked up.
Support for LAist comes from
“We come into spaces, we come into museums kind of expecting certain things now,” he said. “With GLAMFA, expect the unexpected.”
For a layperson or aspiring artist, Lule added, the exhibition is an opportunity to expand their understanding of what art can be: “Some video or installation is just gonna make you, like, think.”
Why GLAMFA matters
Emily Berl, one of this year’s co-organizers, said the event was born after another school held a similar one that excluded CSU students.
“We’re making the show we think should have happened,” she said.
Berl is an MFA student at Cal State Long Beach, focusing on photography and painting. On top of giving participants a chance to showcase their art, she said, GLAMFA provides a space for them to network.
Support for LAist comes from
“When school’s over and we’re out of our bubble of the institution, this is our community,” Berl said. “And so, it’s really important to continue the tradition and [help] foster these relationships.”
Libbi Ponce just completed her first quarter at UCLA, where she’s working toward an MFA in sculpture. Ponce was born and raised in Tampa and came to L.A. after completing multiple residencies. She’s “looking to connect with other artists who are also trying to make pivotal changes in their practice and career,” as well as potential art collectors.
GLAMFA at Cal State Long Beach
-
Location: CSULB Art Gallery Complex, between Fine Arts Building 3 and Fine Arts Building 4, near the Campus Art Store (1250 N. Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840).
-
Dates: Jan. 18 - 29, 2025 (The galleries will be closed on Jan. 20 in observance of MLK Day.)
-
Time: Monday – Friday, noon to 5 p.m.
-
Admission: Free and open to the public
-
Parking: Ranges from $6 – $15 (depending on the day of the week and length of visit) in lots E7, E8, and G15.
-
Opening Reception: Saturday, Jan. 18, 4 – 7 p.m., featuring an experimental musical performance
For students, by students
GLAMFA is about “creating our own opportunities,” said co-organizer Marrin Goodall, another Cal State Long Beach student, working in sculpture.
The show is run by students, Goodall noted. GLAMFA exhibitors are chosen by a panel of their peers, who don’t know what school each submission comes from.
“We're leveling the playing field,” Goodall said. “We have the power to push different themes and conversations that we find important, rather than having things being chosen and curated and juried by others.”
Support for LAist comes from
"halo ring" | steel, hardware, enamel 2023
(
Courtesy Libbi Ponce
/
Bemis Center For Contemporary Arts
)
For students like Berl and Goodall, putting the exhibition together also offers a chance to build other industry skills.
When it comes to success in the art world, Goodall added, “curation is a big part of it — putting on shows and figuring out how to show your work and other people's work and sort of thinking about the wider conversation that's happening at the time.”
A taste of this year’s GLAMFA
The five galleries in this year’s exhibition will feature photographs, sculptures, paintings and video, the organizers said.
“We've got large-scale installations,” Goodall added. “And we've got the teeniest, tiniest little pieces that you would miss if we didn’t point them out.”
INVESTIGATION #29 (On Customized Pedestal) 72” X 36” 2024. Lule used fluorescent forensic fingerprint powder on acrylic glass for the piece. In the front of the artwork lies construction materials gathered from West Adams.
(
Courtesy Alberto Lule
/
Hiroshi Clark
)
Support for LAist comes from
As far as themes go, they told LAist, this year’s GLAMFA kept it pretty open.
“There's levity to the show,” Berl said, “but there is also a seriousness. I think the artists are really responding to the world.”
This includes a piece by Lule titled “INVESTIGATION #29,” which draws on his experience getting dusted for fingerprints before he was incarcerated. The artwork speaks to the gentrification of the artist’s West Adams neighborhood.
“There's so much going on,” Goodall said. “We’re proud to provide space for those hard conversations.”
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist