ART/SNEAK PEEK: STUDENTS MAKE DOLLS, GAIN CULTURAL LESSON.

Looks like Valley students are getting all dolled up, thanks to an unusual exhibition at UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

A couple of months ago, the museum sponsored a competition in conjunction with ``Isn't S/He a Doll?'' an exploration of how dolls are used in play and rituals around the globe. The Fowler invited L.A.-area schoolchildren to create their own dolls out of plastic, clay, wire, yarn, cloth and other found objects. The only guideline was that the dolls should reflect the students' cultural and/or aesthetic backgrounds.

Some 900 entries later, a jury panel has picked Jessica Makhoul, a Glendale High School senior, as the first-place winner (grades 9-12). Makhoul submitted a small (8-1/2-by-1-inch), elongated, unadorned figure representing her grandfather, whom she barely knew before he died. The figure, Makhoul says, symbolizes him and her desire to know more about him.

Also among the top winners was Juan Acevedo, a fifth-grader at Gridley Street School in San Fernando. His entry, ``Mr. Spike Head,'' consists of a wooden block with fingers, hair and eyes made of nails.

The students were honored at a June 1 awards ceremony at UCLA. The exhibition continues through Nov. 9. For museum hours and information, call [phone].

Our bodies, ourselves: The late Mark Morrisroe (1959-1989) inspired a generation of documentary and experimental photographers. Any list of his admiring peers would have to include Jack Pierson, Mike Starn and Nan Goldin.

But Morrisroe's obsession with self-portraiture sets him apart even from these fellow travelers. Armed with a 195 Polaroid Land camera, Morrisroe shot hundreds of portraits of himself, and his friends and lovers. Through toning, painting and expert retouching, he turned his camera's raw observations into painterly studies in human character.

Through Sept. 14, an exhibition of 188 of these portraits is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) at California Plaza, 250 S. Grand Ave. The show also includes videotapes of several of Morrisroe's super-8 films, taken between 1977 and 1989.

The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. For information, call [phone].

Got kimchi?: Dietarily speaking, kimchi is to Koreans (and many Korean-Americans) what milk and high-sodium cheese snacks are to European-Americans. It's a staple of life.

Which is why kimchi is getting its very own art exhibition - two of them, in fact. Through Jan. 10, the Korean American Museum is presenting a multidisciplinary showcase of everything you ever wanted to know about the spicy pickled condiment. The second exhibition, ``Memory Matters,'' was conceived by artist Yong Soon Min in collaboration with anthropologist Soo Young Chin. It utilizes commercially made and sold kimchi as a vehicle to present oral histories of Southland Korean-Americans.

The museum is located on the first floor of 3333 Wilshire Blvd. For information, call [phone].

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Photo: Among dolls earning recognition in the ``Isn't S/He a Doll?'' student exhibition are ``Dancer,'' left, by Darlecia Hicks, 10; ``Fujio,'' by Ian Riley, 9; and ``Mr. Spike Head,'' by Juan Acevedo, 10, San Fernando.