Sunday, October 5, 2025 at 1:00 PM to Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Good Mother Gallery, Los Angeles
Good Mother Gallery is pleased to present the third annual edition of MFA’s of LA, curated by Leslie Fram. Entitled Prompt & Circumstance, the exhibition presents 20 emerging artists from 8 Los Angeles graduate programs: ArtCenter, CalArts, California State University Long Beach (CSULB), Claremont Graduate University (CGU), Laguna College of Art and Design, Otis College of Art and Design, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and University of Southern California (USC) Roski.This year, MFAs of LA takes place in Good Mother Gallery’s Annex, a cavernous vaulted warehouse adjacent to the main gallery. With only a single wall and a wildly irregular architecture, the Annex resists the conventions of a white cube. Abstract and conceptual works reign supreme here. Works hang from beamed ceilings, swoop in from recesses, and peel off distressed cement floors. As Leslie often tells her MFA students in her Strategic Marketing workshop: “Get off the wall.” Here, that directive is taken quite literally.Why Prompt & Circumstance?“Prompt” refers to the unique starting point each artist received: a 360-degree video of the empty Annex. Invited to imagine, claim, and create their own area, each MFA has effectively curated a personal mini-solo show of two to four works.“Circumstance” acknowledges the shift in venue. Traditionally staged in Good Mother’s main gallery, this year’s move to the Annex was a welcomed change that pushed both artists and curator beyond their comfort zones. The result is art that demands to be seen, felt, and discussed. Here, space and practice converse, as viewers are asked to navigate, dance, and engage with each submission in new ways. Riffing The Artistic CanonThe title also contemporizes the phrase “pomp and circumstance.” First found in Shakespeare’s Othello and later immortalized in Edward Elgar’s 1901 orchestral march of the same name, most often heard at graduation ceremonies — the very milestone awaiting these MFAs.A Multisensory FeastTogether, Prompt & Circumstance is a multidisciplinary exhibition that transforms both art and architecture into a sensorial feast, staging Los Angeles’s newest MFA voices with ambition and imagination.