University Advancement

  • Oviatt Library

L.A. artist Carole Caroompas, performer and painter who bucked convention, dies at 76

Over 50 years as a working artist, Caroompas’ imagery and performance art intersected, and informed, multiple weighty 20th century movements: Feminist Art, Pop, Pattern and Decoration, the Pictures Generation. Artist and gallerist Cliff Benjamin, who met Caroompas in the 1980s and later showed her work at his gallery Western Project, found it mystifying that she remained less famous than many of her peers, including Mike Kelley, Chris Burden and Lari Pittman. The decades she spent mentoring the young artists she taught at Immaculate Heart College, Cal State Northridge, and Otis College of Art and Design only made the limits of her success more confounding. “She was so influential to legions of kids in art school, legions who were so faithful to her because Carole gave them the real deal,” said Benjamin. “She did not pander. She told them the truth.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-08-04/l-a-artist-carole-caroompas-a-painter-of-grand-and-subversive-work-dies-at-76

Los Angeles Times

Clip Category

Northridge