Bloom 2013

May 11 - June 29

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SuperCallaFragileMysticEcstasyDioecious: Cole Case, Amir H. Fallah, Penelope Gottlieb and Roland Reiss

SuperCallaFragileMysticEcstasyDioecious highlights the work of four Los Angeles artists who synthesize artistic and ecological concerns through the painting of flowers.  Cole Case, Amir H. Fallah, Penelope Gottlieb and Roland Reiss bring disparate painting approaches and varying cultural associations together as an artistic response to the world’s concentrically dizzying spin.

 

“Whereas older traditions of botanical art and still life painting involved calm, studio-bound reflections of natural beauty and visual order, a new paradigm seems appropriate in the more fragile condition of the world in the early 21st century. We’re in a state of accelerated change, possibly teetering on some sort of apocalyptic brink.”

-Penelope Gottlieb

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Sharon Suhovy: Ambrosia

Sharon Suhovy sculpts sumptuous three dimensional paintings with cake-frosting utensils. Her sculptures may reflect structures that are familiar in historical architecture and almost always include the use of classic flowers like the rose as a metaphor for beauty.

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Elena Manferdini

Elena Manferdini’s site specific installation is a new addition to the MOAH permanent collection.  This acquisition was made possible with funds from the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation.

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Jennifer Vanderpool/ Patrick Melroy: Astro Flowers

This site specific installation recontextualizes the historic propaganda of the Cold War Space Race, imaging an alternative history that subverts patriarchal, nationalistic imagery with botanical iconography – the rocket ship for the flower. Thematically, the work acknowledges Lancaster’s role in space technology, while in a tongue and cheek manner suggesting the beautification of space is as worthy a goal as manifest destiny of unknown galaxies and global dominance. 

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Kathleen Elliot: Living Flame

Kathleen Elliot lives in two worlds: the “real” one of luscious flora, fruits and vegetables and in her own Garden of Eden.  Her works in glass exhibited at MOAH arose from a great love of plants, their life cycles, the beauty of all of their parts – leaves, seed pods, flowers, bark, etc – and the spiritual connection she feels when she is in nature. 

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Janice Tieken: Orchid Requiem

California photographer Janice Tieken’s series Orchid Requiem focuses on the beauty of orchids and other flora after their life cycle is finished. This body of work won the International Silver Prize for Art and Science of Color. 

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Susan Sironi: Nothing Domestic

Susan Sironi’s altered garden books are fantastical botanical dioramas. Leftover cuttings from the altered books form the basis for Sironi's "Garden Collage" series of mixed-media wall work. Romantic looking floral bouquets are overlaid with Sironi's handwritten stream of consciousness texts which are modified -- leaving us to ponder the poetic content.

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Rebecca Niederlander: We are Stardust, We are Golden. And We Have to Find our Way Back to the Garden

As an artist, Rebecca Niederlander’s practice is founded in the relationship of the individual to the larger whole.  Her art contains an aesthetics of multiples, a commitment to the singular element and how it fits into a larger balanced context of many.  Her works invite the viewer to participate on an active level by creating pieces of their own within the installation that add to the whole of Niederlander’s work.  Rebecca Niederlander is the Community Engagement Artist working in conjunction with sculptor Brad Howe on the new Los Angeles County Multi Ambulatory Care Center scheduled to open in Lancaster in 2014.