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Up Close: New Acquisitions

Main Gallery, February 10 – May 7

Up Close: New Acquisitions presents a selection of over one hundred works added to Kleefeld Contemporary’s permanent collection since 2023. Featuring artwork by more than sixty artists spanning painting, photography, printmaking, assemblage, sculpture, fiber, and new media, the exhibition celebrates Kleefeld Contemporary’s ongoing commitment to expand and share a permanent collection that reflects the complexity and diversity of the contemporary art world.   

Including works from the 1960s to today, the recent acquisitions touch on a wide range of subject matter, from considerations of race and identity to explorations of gender, sexuality, and the body. Many of the works build key areas of the Museum’s collection, such as different approaches to abstraction and material innovation. Adding depth and breadth to Kleefeld Contemporary’s permanent collection, the acquisitions advance opportunities to illuminate new connections across time, place, and media.  

Up Close will also showcase new additions of archival materials and ephemera that shed further light on the Museum’s collection, such as exhibition announcements and invitations, mail art, artist books and publications, and other printed matter.  

Since its founding in 1974 as the University Art Museum, Kleefeld Contemporary’s holdings have grown to over 2,000 objects, including historically significant works by celebrated modern artists as well as works by some of the most innovative artists of today. Kleefeld Contemporary’s acquisition program aims to catalyze learning by engaging its permanent collection as an evergreen pedagogical resource, fostering understanding through arts integration at California State University, Long Beach and beyond.    

Featured artists: Laura Aguilar; Phillip Argent; Phyllis Davidson; Aaron Curry; June Edmonds; timo fahler; Simone Gad; Joe Grillo; Candida Höfer; Terrence La Noue; Barry Le Va; Ericka Lopez; Arnold Mesches; Mark Milloff; Tony Oursler; Judy Pfaff; Guillermo Srodek-Hart; Laurie Steelink; Barbara Thomason; Hap Tivey; and Rita Yokoi, among others.

Up Close: New Acquisitions was organized by Chief Curator Erin Stout, PhD, and the staff of Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum. We acknowledge with gratitude the generous support for this exhibition and accompanying programs provided by the ɫ��ɫ Instructionally Related Activities Fund, the Elizabeth and Charles Brooks Endowment, and the Arts Council for Long Beach and the City of Long Beach and Percent for the Arts.

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SpaceTime Collaborative: Cosmic Bloom

Mini Gallery, February 10 – May 7 

“Petals of sound, pollen of light, roots of vibration... come explore the emergence of a universe within Cosmic Bloom.”&�Բ�����;

- SpaceTime Collaborative 

Cosmic Bloom is a participatory experience where visitors become part of a generative sound and light environment. Conceived by Long Beach-based interdisciplinary collective SpaceTime Collaborative, the immersive surround evokes the impression of traveling across the universe on an interplanetary spaceship or navigating the internal workings of a beehive from the perspective of ultraviolet light-seeing bees. The interactive multisensory environment is designed to collectively bring creative possibilities to life. As visitors explore the installation, Cosmic Bloom unfolds, infusing the space with sounds and visuals that stimulate curiosity and imagination.

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Jillian Thompson: Limitless

Community Gallery, February 10 – May 7 

Jillian Thompson: Limitless showcases new work by multidisciplinary artist Jillian Thompson that explores the formation of Black womanhood and self-identity. Thompson is interested in how memory and day-to-day experience intertwine to shape personal and cultural expression. Referencing found imagery culled from social media and magazines, Thompson explores the creation of contemporary Black womanhood that plays out in prevailing trends in language, style, and material culture. Examples of Thompson’s work across collage, printmaking, and metalwork will be featured.   

The exhibition takes its title from Thompson’s work limitless (2025), which combines painting and collage techniques in a vibrant assemblage made from shoebox lids. Shoebox lids are a recurring theme in Thompson’s work, alluding to the aspiration of personal style and the collective participation in a culture of consumption. Thompson’s photolithographs often combine image and text to produce narrative portraits of hyper-visual social media personas flashing their individualized looks, as in icy girl (2025) and video phone (2025). Thompson’s handmade accessories, created from bronze and stoneware components, employ shape and color to demonstrate the ways in which visual signifiers are used to construct and communicate self-identity. 

Together, Thompson’s artworks reveal the ways in which the formation of the self is a social practice that gives rise to continuous exploration, study, and exchange. “As young girls, we recorded music videos on VHS tapes, rewinding and pausing to study the fashion before scouring the mall for similar pieces. These experiences shaped my understanding of Black girlhood and continue to shape my experiences as an adult,” says Thompson. “My work honors contemporary Black women, using adornment to explore identity and cultural history.”&�Բ�����;

Thompson received an MFA in Jewelry & Metalsmithing from California State University, Long Beach in 2020. 

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Notes to Future Selves: A Community Engagement Project 

Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Gallery, Ongoing 

Notes to Future Selves: A Community Engagement Project is a participatory exhibition that invites the community to create artwork in response to the prompt: What do you want the future of your community to look like? Participants are given the option to display their artwork in the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Gallery for the duration of the exhibition.  

Inspired by the Museum’s 50th anniversary in 2024 and the 75th anniversary of California State University, Long Beach (ɫ��ɫ), Notes to Future Selves embraces these milestones as a powerful moment for collective reflection. The exhibition celebrates the ɫ��ɫ community’s diversity of voices, perspectives, experiences, and visions for the future.

Notes to Future Selves will be updated weekly as artwork submissions are received from the community.

Learn how to participate in the exhibition.

In conjunction with Notes to Future Selves, a section of the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Gallery features selections from the Museum’s permanent collection that engage introspective practices, such as recording everyday events, experiences, or observations in a sketchbook or journal or expressing one’s thoughts and feelings through personal iconography. Featured artists include Hannelore Baron, Carolyn Kleefeld, Joyce Treiman, and Beth Van Hoesen.   

Selections from the Permanent Collection  

Archives Room, Ongoing 

A selection of artwork from Kleefeld Contemporary's permanent collection is displayed in the Archives Room on an ongoing basis. 

The Archives Room is available to reserve for research requests. To make a reservation, please fill out a request at least two weeks in advance.