New art exhibits at CSULB have themes of global warming, endangered species, and the impact of industrialization will be on display until Dec. 11.
The Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum features four exhibits made up of artwork from multiple LA based artists.
An exhibit named “Solastalgia” consists of multiple artworks from 15 artists alone.
“It’s basically about the grief that people go through of the environment sometimes, you know, being changed. And so the artists are giving their expression of that, how it’s affected them in different ways,” museum docent Kathleen Navarro said.
Media used in the pieces include watercolors, acrylic paint, wood, plant-based and recycled materials, pigment print and even wildfire debris.
Some pieces like “You hear what those f—— said?” by Saif Azzuz had materials from an obscure valley in Yosemite National Park.
“Some of the things, I don’t even know what they are, which is really exciting to me to enter a show and not know what some of the materials are. It’s making me think I need to do a little bit of research so that I understand, like ‘old growth from Hetch Hetchy’. I don’t know what that means,” said Fafnir Adamites, CSULB Assistant Professor in the Fiber Area.
“Solastalgia” also includes specimens of endangered bird, mammal, and plant species, which are on loan from CSULB Biological Collections.
Alongside “Solastalgia” was “From Eco-Grief to Eco-Action: Rewild with Native Plants”, an interactive educational display featuring photographs of native plants, which was created by the student organization RE:Wild.
“Our goal is to eliminate pesticides on campus and just plant more native plants,” RE:Wild member and contributor to the project Marlene Rosales said.
“Species in Danger” by Jennifer Celio attracted many visitors and featured 13 graphite portraits of creatures in the endangered species lists that are native to Southern California.
“These are the first 13 that I’ve done of the 54, and I’ll just keep going until I finish them all. And then I want to move on to all of California, which will be about 145 creatures that are endangered, and just keep going,” Celio said.
Celio explained that her work reflected ecological negatives that come from humans, such as plastics, disposable materials, urbanization, factory farming and environmental racism.
“I’m hoping that with these pieces, they’re approachable enough. It makes a topic that can be either clinical or can be really hard to take in because it feels so overwhelming,” Celio added.
“Emergence of the Kelp Deer” by Christine Nguyen was presented in a solo space in the Mini Gallery, and is now a part of the museum’s permanent collection.
“The main theme would be the grief of the change in the environment, but [also] space to talk about possible solutions,” said Navarro.
