CSULB alumnae find full-circle moment exhibiting at Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum
Two accomplished artists and alumnae of Cal State Long Beach are featured in exhibitions opening this week at the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, a testament to the training, opportunities and guidance they received while students that prepared them for the unpredictable art world.
Brittany Mojo’s ’13 ceramic work is featured in a small but concentrated solo exhibition, titled “A Vocabulary of Objects.” A total of 72 works are on display, ranging from pots and vases to replicas of tennis balls and a pair of dice.
Rema Ghuloum ‘07 and her painting “Hayat” are part of a larger group show called “Inner Vision: Abstraction and Cognition,” focusing on abstract art and its connections to the lived experience, scientific inquiry and other diverse frameworks. These shows and four others open Thursday, Feb. 13.
For both artists, showing their work at the Kleefeld Museum is kind of a full-circle moment. They exhibited at the University Art Museum when they were students, but this is their first time back as professional artists.
Brittany Mojo ‘13
Mojo, who graduated from The Beach with a BFA in ceramics, is a widely exhibited ceramicist and professor at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. During her time at CSULB, she learned her craft at the College of the Arts’ well-regarded Center for Contemporary Ceramics.
“When I came to CSULB, I didn’t know you could be an artist,” she said. “It wasn’t something clear to me at the time. At Cal State Long Beach, I met people who made art for a living, and taught as kind of a means to make the work. So that was really eye-opening for me.”
Mojo said she immediately connected with fellow art students at CSULB, whom she described as “really hard-working.” Together, they established a supportive community environment that encouraged creative thought and activity.
“There was just an energy in that place that really changed my life,” she said. “The faculty there all had studios. You were able to see in real time what a career would look like and really understand the connection to teaching as being a vital component of that.”
Mojo points to faculty members Tony Marsh, Christopher Miles, Jay Kvapil, Kristen Morgin and Ryan Taber as being hugely influential. She decided early in her career that – like her School of Art instructors – she would get a master’s degree in fine art and teach while developing her craft.
At The Beach she was president of the Potter’s Guild for two years, and she concentrated on making smaller scale objects – like the ones on view at the Kleefeld.
“It’s just like a fun nod to my younger self. It’s a full-circle moment, of where I’ve come from, in terms of my practice.”
Mojo still has strong Long Beach ties. She won a professional artist fellowship grant from the Arts Council of Long Beach, and served as an artist-in-residence at the Long Beach Museum of Art. She maintains a studio in Long Beach, lives part-time in the city, and still occasionally uses the ceramic studios at CSULB.
Erin Stout, chief curator and interim co-director of the Kleefeld Museum, said Mojo “represents, really well, the rigor of our ceramics program, which equips students to thrive and be successful out there.
“She’s doing super playful, really sophisticated work in ceramics. It’s visually very delightful and playful. But the theoretical impetus is really interesting. They’re very diaristic, these little objects. But they’re also relatable to the everyday viewer, because they’re very recognizable.”
Rema Ghuloum ‘07
Ghuloum graduated from The Beach with a BFA in drawing and painting. After getting an MFA from San Francisco’s California College of the Arts in 2010, she has participated in dozens of group and solo exhibitions, and has gotten reviews and features in national publications like the Wall Street Journal and Art Forum. Locally, she has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, KCRW and L.A. Weekly.
Her oil and acrylic paintings are layered with color, atmospheric and usually abstract, which fits in with the theme and scope of the Kleefeld group show, “Inner Vision.”
Ghuloum has also taught for much of her career, including a nearly 10-year stint as an art lecturer at CSULB.
Of her time as a Beach undergraduate, she said, “It was very rewarding. At that time, I was very green in the sense that I didn’t really know what was in store for me. I was happy to be in an art program that was super supportive. I liked how diverse the student body is, with a lot of first-generation college students, too. The students are amazing.
“You really learn a work ethic. How to be in the studio and to learn by doing.”
CSULB instructors who influenced her include the late Linda Day, Marie Thibeault and Tom Krumpak. Ghuloum credits Thibeault as the one who persuaded her to pursue painting as a career, rather than graphic design.
“They saw something in me that I wasn’t even aware of,” she said. “They pushed me forward, to do the next thing, which was apply to grad school, which led me to having a career and having the confidence, too. I felt very, very supported as a painter there.”
Ghuloum remembers balancing school and outside work when she was an undergrad, and recalls seeing that in her CSULB students, too.
“A lot of the students that I taught had a similar situation, so they were hungry to be in the studio. While I wasn’t a first-generation student myself, I had that kind of mentality, just being diligent. You have to develop a real work ethic to be successful as an artist.”
Curator Stout recalls discovering Ghuloum’s work a couple of years ago while doing research into abstract artists in the L.A. area. She saw that Ghuloum was using the full light spectrum in her work and was interested in the artist’s exploration of optical science and the science of light.
“I saw that she was also an alum of Cal State Long Beach, so I scheduled a studio visit with her. I was interested in her work because of the interdisciplinary connection. Her work is really unlike anything that you’ll see elsewhere.”
Stout added, “She’s evidence of how stellar our art program is. That’s really important. Rema has taught at CSULB as well. She’s very excited to exhibit here.”
