College of Communication and Fine Arts > Laband Gallery > Exhibitions > Young Contemporaries 2026

Young Contemporaries 2026

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A woman standing next to her sculpture on display at the exhibition.

Exhibition Dates: Apr 23 - May 16, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 23, 5 – 7pm

The Laband Art Gallery’s Annual Juried Student Exhibition is open to all students who have enrolled in a Studio Arts course during the past school year. We encourage students to submit their best work in any media of their choosing including drawing, printmaking, photography, painting, graphic design, sculpture, and multimedia. Two professionals who are active in the contemporary art world serve as co-jurors. Now in its 42nd year, this exhibition serves as an excellent first professional experience for student artists and celebrates their burgeoning creativity. 

Generous support for the exhibition is provided by The Friedman Family in memory of Andrea Kingaard Friedman '66.

2026 Jurors' and Director's Awards

Jurors' First Prize

Sophia Chavez '26
"Consumed, Unseen,” 2026
Mixed media installation

Jurors' Second Prize

Olivia Tiano '26
“Untitled (Don’t Go For My Legs),” 2026
Ceramic and color photograph

Jurors' Third Prize

Karissa Smith '29
“Walking By,” 2026
Acrylic on canvas

Jurors' Honorable Mention

George Evensen '26
“Kinesis,” 2025
Digital media with multimedia animation

Chloe Gilabert '26
“Surrounding Sites,” 2025
Acrylic on canvas

Krystal Nava '26
“Ode to Los Angelenos”, 2025
Oil on canvas

Grace Swanson Painting Award

Lily Baehr '27
“My Girlfriend’s CRV,” 2026
Acrylic on canvas

Maryam Ali '29
“Untitled,” 2026
Acrylic on canvas

Laband Director’s Award

Krystal Nava '26
“Ode to Los Angelenos”, 2025
Oil on canvas

Meet the 2026 Co-Jurors

Cara Megan Lewis

Cara Megan Lewis is an artist, curator, and arts advocate based in Los Angeles. She is one of the founding directors of Bridge Projects, a former non-profit curatorial platform which fostered interdisciplinary explorations between contemporary art, spirituality, and religious traditions. Since 2022, she serves as Deputy Director of the Wende Museum. These two posts demonstrate her longtime interest in religious traditions and human rights issues. Lewis has been supporting artists for over 20 years: she started her career in the arts in 2002 at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco and received her master’s degree in Curatorial Practice from the California College of the Arts in 2007. As a practicing artist, she has collaborated with her husband under the moniker Díaz Lewis.

Vicki Phung Smith

Vicki Phung Smith joined the Skirball Cultural Center as a Curator in 2023 and is the curator of the forthcoming exhibition, Robert Russell and Lisa Edelstein: A Palace in Time. Prior to the Skirball, Smith was a gallerist and curator of contemporary art for over 15 years at Los Angeles art spaces including Frank Lloyd Gallery, ACME. Gallery, and Bridge Projects, where she curated an exhibition exploring the Jewish holiday of Sukkot through a contemporary lens. A Los Angeles native born to Vietnamese immigrants, Smith is passionate about art that is centered on a sense of community, education, and storytelling. She received her BFA in Painting from The University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. 

Photo: Monica Orozco

Young Contemporaries 2026

2026 Jurors' and Director's Awards

Meet the 2026 Co-Jurors

Image Gallery