Cal State Fullerton's Nicholas and Lee Begovich Gallery has opened "Carole Caroompas: Mystical Unions," a special exhibition celebrating the life and legacy of the late contemporary artist and CSUF alumna Carole Caroompas. Curated by College of the Arts Director Jennifer Frias and Caroompas's longtime friend Mary Anna Pomonis, the show features paintings, mixed-media works, and personal ephemera drawn from the artist's archives at the Getty Research Institute, including journals, letters, and sketches that offer an intimate look at her creative process.
The exhibition matters because it not only honors Caroompas's trailblazing career as a feminist artist and educator—who taught at Immaculate Heart College, Cal State Northridge, and Otis College of Art and Design—but also serves as a hands-on learning experience for CSUF students, who participated in research, installation, and even created a custom Spotify playlist inspired by her work. Caroompas's dense, layered imagery, which critiques popular media's construction of femininity, remains strikingly relevant in today's image-saturated digital world, connecting with a new generation of viewers.