Nicholas
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Lee Begovich Gallery
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2025-2026
college of the arts galleries
COTA Exhibitions in Review
2025
- "Gravity Well: Chris O’Leary’s Visual Meditations on the Unseen Universe" (OC Art Blog)
- "Curating a Collection of Alumni Art for CSUF Begovich Gallery" (Fullerton Observer)
2022
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"The Women of the Vietnamese American Arts Scene in Orange County"
(KCET ARTBOUND) -
"Ann Phong, họa sĩ gốc Á đầu tiên triển lãm ‘solo’ tại Cal State Fullerton trong 50 năm/ Ann Phong, First Asian-American Artist to Exhibit 'Solo' at Cal State Fullerton in 50 Years"
(Người Việt)
-
"Những mất đi và tìm thấy trong lúc giao thời: Ann Phong và ký ức của những lần đổ vỡ/ Lost and Found in Times of Change: Ann Phong and Memories of Broken Times"
(Viêt Báo)
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"Phỏng vấn họa sĩ Ann Phong/ Interview with Ann Phong"
(H’ôn Viêt TV)
- "Pandemic art validates global trauma
"
(Daily Titan)
2020/2021
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CSUF's Begovich Gallery is listed among art giants such as The Getty, The Hammer, Hauser and Wirth, MOCA, and LACMA in Christopher Knight’s "
11 essential L.A. art exhibitions this fall...
" for its presentation of Kim Abeles: Smog Collectors, 1987-2020. (L.A. Times)
- "The Newest L.A. and O.C. museum exhibitions to see in October" (L.A. Times)
- "Kim Abeles Turns the Climate Crisis Into Eco-art
" (The New York Times) - "Kim Abeles: Smog Collectors 1987-2020 at Cal State Fullerton Begovich Gallery"
(Art and Cake)
- "Generational Reflection
" by Bill Lasarow (Visual Art Source)
- "Smog art inspires climate awareness" (Daily Titan)
- “Clearing the Air
,” by Evan Senn (OC Art Blog)
"
Soo Kim:
(Charlie sings in the quietest voice)
October 4, 2025 – May 16, 2026
Public Reception: October 4, 2025, 1:00–4:00 pm
Known for her meticulous process of cutting and layering photographs, Soo Kim’s latest exhibition challenges traditional expectations of the medium as a form of documentation. In this new body of work, photography operates as a site of material and conceptual exploration, encompassing hand-cut prints, paper compositions, immersive slide projections, and collected ephemera. The works reflect ongoing themes in Kim’s practice—impermanence, fragmentation, and the interplay between visibility and erasure.
Also on view are materials drawn from the artist’s studio—literary excerpts, handwritten notes, found objects, and other personal references that have informed the work’s development. These items appear alongside the artworks, offering a broader context for understanding Kim’s creative process and the visual, textual, and emotional references that shape it.
The exhibition is organized by CSUF College of the Arts Galleries and is curated by Jennifer Frias, Gallery Director/Curator and Jennifer Lee, Curatorial Assistant (Art History, ’25). Support for the exhibition is provided by the Art Alliance, the Instructional Related Activities Grant, the College of the Arts, and the Department of Visual Arts.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Soo Kim is a photo-based artist whose work has been exhibited at institutions including the Getty Center, the Gwangju Biennale, the Pasadena Museum of California Art, the Orange County Museum of Art, and the Seoul Museum of Art. Her work is held in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Broad Foundation, LACMA, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, among others. She received her MFA from CalArts and currently serves as Professor and Program Director of Photography at Otis College of Art and Design, where she also leads the Critic-in-Residence program.
This exhibition is free and open to the public. For more information, including gallery hours and programming, visit fullerton.edu/arts/galleries or follow us on Instagram @cota_galleries_csuf.
RELATED PROGRAMMING
(To be announced)
IMAGEs: Passage: (They come zooming back), 2025, 60 x 46 inches, Hand-cut archival pigment print, acrylic lacquer
Passage: (A flood of the brightest light, then darkness), 2025, 60 x 46 inches, Hand-cut archival pigment print
Carole Caroompas:
Mystical Unions
October 4, 2025 – March 28, 2026
Public Reception: October 4, 2025, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
The landmark exhibition "Carole Caroompas: Mystical Unions" celebrates the life, legacy, and enduring impact of Carole Caroompas (1946–2022) – a trailblazing Los Angeles-based artist and esteemed CSUF alumna.
Caroompas was widely recognized for her innovative approach to interweaving literature, pop culture, and feminist critique into layered visual narratives. Her work, developed over decades, continues to invite critical engagement among artists, scholars, and viewers for its rigorous interrogation of cultural norms and its complex, image-text constructions.
Carole Caroompas received her B.A. in English from CSU Fullerton in 1968, where early experiences in literature laid the groundwork for her interdisciplinary approach to artmaking. This foundation – further developed through her MFA studies in studio art at the University of Southern California—shaped a practice that merged literary inquiry with bold artistic experimentation. Caroompas’ ability to construct complex visual narratives positioned her as a transformative figure in conceptual and feminist art.
"Mystical Unions" revisits Caroompas’ deep ties to CSU Fullerton, where intellectual exploration and artistic risk-taking converged to shape her distinctive voice. Featuring key works from the university’s permanent collection alongside archival materials drawn from public and private sources, the exhibition highlights the dynamic interplay of text and image that defines her contribution to contemporary art and expands the narrative possibilities of painting in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Carole Caroompas (1946–2022) was a visionary American painter whose work critically examined the intersections of pop culture, mythology, and gender archetypes. A graduate of California State University, Fullerton (B.A., 1968) and the University of Southern California (M.F.A., 1971), Caroompas developed a distinctive visual language that merged narrative structure with dense, symbolic imagery.
Her work has been exhibited widely in major institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Hammer Museum at UCLA, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Regionally, she held significant solo exhibitions at venues such as the Ben Maltz Gallery, Western Project, Mark Moore Gallery, P.P.O.W., and Sue Spaid Fine Art.
Throughout her career, Caroompas received numerous accolades, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants in Painting, a COLA Individual Artist Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles, and a California Community Foundation Fellowship.
Presented in partnership with the Art Education Program at CSU Fullerton, Carole Caroompas: Mystical Unions is curated by Jennifer Frias, Gallery Director/Curator, and Mary Anna Pomonis, Associate Professor of Art Education/Graduate Program Advisor, with research and written contributions by Elise Neal, Columbia College. Support for the exhibition is provided by the Art Alliance, the Instructional Related Activities Grant, the College of the Arts, and the Department of Visual Arts.
This exhibition is free and open to the public. For more information, including gallery hours and programming, visit fullerton.edu/arts/galleries or follow us on Instagram @cota_galleries_csuf.
Image: CAROLE CAROOMPAS, Hester and Zoro: In Quest of a New World – The Little Book that Carries Woes, 1985. Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 84 inches. CSUF Department of Visual Arts Permanent Collection. Gift of Cliff Benjamin. [2023.000611]
