ART

ART students used to have a reputation as being flighty, but in reality they can be among the most ambitious. After all, art is a thriving business, and artists can be picked up by galleries before they receive their MFA diplomas. So exhibitions at USC and UCLA often attract the attention of curators scouting talent.

The USC Roski School of Fine Arts is establishing itself as an up-and-coming program. “The graduate program at USC has become really strong in the past five years,” says Lisa Tan, a 2001 alum whose digital film projection “One Night Stand” is on display at LAXART in Culver City. “The program was very important to my rearing as a professional artist.”

Which means “A Sense of Place,” opening Dec. 8 at the Gayle and Ed Roski Master of Fine Arts Gallery, should give viewers a sense of the program’s strengths. “The alumni exhibition will show a good range of work by artists that all came out of the USC Roski School of Fine Arts at different times and established themselves in the art world,” says Michael Ned Holte, the school’s communications manager.

For a more traditional venue, the USC Fisher Gallery counts as the first museum in L.A. devoted exclusively to the exhibition and collection of fine art. “Then and Now: Highlights From the USC Fisher Gallery Collections” shows works acquired in the last 60 years, including French Barbizon landscapes, contemporary portraits and abstract works.

On the other side of town, beginning next Thursday, the annual Design/Media Arts Grad Exhibition is on view for one week at UCLA’s Wight Gallery in the newly completed Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center. But springtime is when some of the most buzzed-about artists can be seen -- take for example, the fierce competition among galleries to represent 2005 grad Elliott Hundley -- at the MFA exhibitions also held at the Wight Gallery beginning in March. It’s a chance to see not only their works but also the artists, says James Welling, interim dean of UCLA’s department of art.

Undergraduate shows are held earlier in the winter quarter on the seventh floor of the Broad Art Center, which has a Richard Serra elliptical sculpture in its plaza. For more sculpture, adjacent to the Richard Meier-designed building is the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, which includes works by Calder, Matisse, Moore, Noguchi, Rodin and Zuniga.

Also on campus is the Fowler Museum, focusing on Africa, Asia and the Americas. Two shows commemorating World AIDS Day 2006 open Friday, including a display of Adriana Bertini’s evening gowns made entirely of condoms.

If that’s not edgy enough, the Hammer Museum, just south of campus, curates some of the most talked-about shows in the city. On display now are photographic works in the Wolfgang Tillmans show and “A Fine Experiment: A Tribute to Robert Heinecken.”

Info: www.usc.edu, www.happenings.ucla.edu/arts

cynthia.dea@latimes.com