Galleries at The Beach

Art Gallery Complex

The California State University at Long Beach (CSULB), College of The Arts (COTA), School of Art (SOA), Art Gallery Complex is a truly unique resource. Five student art galleries: Gatov Gallery West, Gatov Gallery East, Merlino Gallery, Dutzi Gallery & Werby Gallery present different MFA, BFA, and non-degree shows each week. We certainly need all these galleries since More students study Art & Design at CSULB than any other public university in America!

Exhibition Opportunities

The opportunity for an MFA student to not only be part of an MFA group exhibition, but to have the experience of producing a solo show is a powerful and valuable experience. That BFA students are afforded the same opportunity, and that both can also produce 1 or more non-degree shows during their time at the CSULB School of Art is priceless.

Viewing Opportunities

While the value of this exhibition experience for Art Students cannot be understated, it is also important to note what an incredible experience of art it offers both for Art Students, and for all students across the CSULB campus. I teach Introduction to the Visual Arts, a general education, non-major, mostly lower-division course. Each Thursday we spend our day at the School of Art, Art Gallery Complex viewing the new shows and talking with the artists. Over the course of our 15 week semester students have the opportunity to see 60 different shows and talk with 60 different artists. Culturally, aesthetically, and ideologically, the SOA student artists are as diverse as the myriad forms of media they employ in their work.

I’m not aware of anyplace else that students can see 60 different shows and talk with 60 different artists in a short, 4-month span. Southern California is home to many great Art Schools, but I’m not aware of any other school having 5 galleries. Southern California is home to many great Art Museums, but exhibitions there change every few months, not every week. 60 shows in a single semester is simply an extraordinary resource. And to have the artist right there for conversation makes it all-the-more unique and valuable an opportunity.

Thank You!

The School of Art includes 12 Programs: Art History, Art Education, and 10 Studio Programs: Ceramics, Drawing & Painting, Fiber, Graphic Design, Illustration & Animation, Metals & Jewelry, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture & 4D, and Wood. For myself, and for my 143 students this semester, I can’t say thank you enough to the School of Art, and to the many student-artists who are giving us a singular opportunity to experience Art not just as Art Appreciation textbooks or Art Museums chronicle the achievements of the masters across the ages, but as 60 different artists about the same age as my students and living in the same city see art, life, and culture here in the 21st century.

Personal Opportunity

You can count me among the many who have benefited from this remarkable resource. A decade ago as an MFA student in Sculpture / Intermedia I had the rare opportunity to use all 5 galleries and the Art Gallery Courtyard for my thesis exhibition. My thesis “Blue Shift,” was a chance to think about the nature of existence in our contemporary moment. The 5 Galleries plus Courtyard were a unique chance to create 5 installation works each with its own angle on corporeality, phenomenology, instantiation, individuality and uniqueness.

Thank you School of Art! Thank you College of the Arts! Thank you CSULB!

Jeanette Viveros

Photosynth of Jeanette Viveros installation in the SOA Merlino Gallery last week.

Art Gallery Courtyard

School of Art, Art Gallery Courtyard

Heather Anacker & Krista Feld

Gatov Gallery West & Gatov Gallery East installation by Heather Anacker & Krista Feld

Erynn Richardson / tina linville

Gatov Gallery West & Gatov Gallery East installations by Erynn Richardson / tina linville

Glenn Zucman / Blue Shift

Links

• CSULB
• College of The Arts
• School of Art

• Art Gallery Complex

• Jeanette Viveros / Instagram

• Heather Anacker / Flickr / Very Hungry Vegans
• Krista Feld / Blog
• Erynn Richardson / Erynn Richardson.com / Tumblr
• tina linville / tina linville studio.com / Blog
• Glenn Zucman / Mixed Reality Cabaret / ideas R.sexy