Laguna Art Museum presents Carole Caroompas: Heathcliff and the Femme Fatale Go on Tour, a series of works created between 1997-2001. Here, feminist artist Carole Caroompas took inspiration from the lead character in Emily Bronte’s 19th-century novel Wuthering Heights, turned him into a rockstar, joined him with the self-inspired, dangerous sexual presence, the “Femme Fatale,” and sent them on a journey of desire and destruction. Throughout her career, Caroompas (1949-2022) drew from a diverse array of sources, including art history, rock music, zines and magazines, literature, film and advertisements to both reflect and subvert gender roles, power dynamics and the construction of identity. These works are dynamic in their hybrid forms and color, involving periods of intense research, sketching, drawing, painting, collage, embroidery and other approaches with found materials and on canvas.
Born in Oregon City, Oregon in 1946, the artist grew up in Newport Beach, California; she studied English at Cal State Fullerton and received her MFA from the University of Southern California in 1971. After graduate school, Caroompas lived in Los Angeles and became associated with peers who similarly explored abject themes in their punk-inspired works. She also worked within the context of feminist artists whose work utilized stitching, embroidery and other forms that could be considered “women’s work” or craft, taking on these forms and approaches while creating critique.
Fiercely independent, she did not receive the wide-reaching recognition of some of her contemporaries, despite her consistent exhibition history and national awards. It is only now, after her death in 2022, that her work is being well-considered for her unique approach and its impact on her contemporaries and generations of artists who followed.
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