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Elana MannBellows and QuakesThrough sculpture, sound, and community engagement, the artwork of artist Elana Mann explores the power of the collective voice and the politics of listening. Mann’s sculptures, resembling the horns and rattles prominent in musical instruments, serve to create, amplify, and embody sound. < Back Elana Mann, Unidentified Bright Objects Elana Mann, Bans Off Our Bodies Elana Mann, Bans Off Our Bodies Elana Mann, Unidentified Bright Objects 1/4 Elana Mann Bellows and Quakes Through sculpture, sound, and community engagement, the artwork of artist Elana Mann explores the power of the collective voice and the politics of listening. Mann’s sculptures, resembling the horns and rattles prominent in musical instruments, serve to create, amplify, and embody sound. The physical creation of sound and of hearing itself is an intangible discourse that is visualized through her artworks. For Mann, the act of listening can be a catalyst for social change. Her sonic sculptures, street protests and performances in galleries and museums produce a collective voice to enable social activism. These works generate a sonic link between art practice and civic action, providing visible symbology to connect the ephemeral and material power of sound. Previous Next

Branching Out < Back Previous Terry Holzgreen Branching Out Straying away from traditional notions of woodworking, cabinetmaker and self-taught artist Terry Holzgreen, creates both functional and sculptural wooden works. His works are a visual compilation of the uniqueness and variety of lumber. Wood fragments from different tree species are arranged into a multitude of shapes, turning into a collage of texture, form, and natural wood color. Pieces and fragments are sourced from both scraps and found material. These assemblages are presented in various formats: cubes, spheres, vessels, wall works, each retaining this pieced-together quality. Holzgreen’s process derives from his background in carpentry and a fluke idea in which he created a small hollow cube and then attached thin cuts of wood pieces into a grid pattern along the cube’s surface. Holzgreen sees the reuse of these fragments and materials as a way of refining and showcasing the natural beauty of the material. This idea of improvisation and experimentation still resonates in his practice today. Next

< Back to ACTIVATION 1/12 Carla Jay Harris A Season in the Wilderness January 22 - April 17, 2022 Born in Indiana while her father was stationed at Fort Benjamin, Carla Jay Harris spent most of her childhood in flux, moving every two or three years in and out of the United States. “My nomadic childhood is what, in part, has attracted me to photography. The camera is a way for me to attach permanence,” she says. “A Season in the Wilderness” is the most recent development of “Celestial Bodies”, an ongoing series by Harris, which stems from her experiences as a ‘third-culture kid’ — feeling othered by race, culture, language, and nationality. “Throughout history, mythology has served humankind’s need to understand its surroundings... Through myth-making, I have been able to tap into a sense of belonging that extends from a connection to universal cultural concerns and narratives,” Harris says. Carla Jay Harris trained as a photographer and cinematographer, working in the commercial art field in New York for nearly ten years before committing herself to a contemporary art practice in 2011. In 2013, she moved to Southern California to earn her Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has stayed in the area ever since. Over the last decade, Carla Jay Harris’ artistic practice has evolved to include installation, collage, and drawing in addition to photographic methods. Harris has exhibited extensively in California and on the East Coast, participating in solo, two-person, and group exhibitions. She has received numerous awards, grants, residencies, and fellowships, and her work can be found in the collections of the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, and the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, among others. Previous Next

back to list Brandon Thompson Brandon Thompson is a contemporary mural artist, Air Force Veteran, & California native. In 2009, while traveling in the military, Brandon turned to his childhood influences of hip-hop and graffiti, and started spray painting hand-cut stencils to create custom canvas paintings. Today, Brandon has completed over 30 local murals in collaboration with several community leaders, businesses, and schools including BitWise, Lowes, The Dolores Huerta Foundation, and the City of Bakersfield. His original paintings and drawings range in unique size, medium, and subject and are available at Bird Dog Arts in Tejon, California. Brandon earned his undergraduate degree in Small Business & Entrepreneurship in 2018; however, his creative journey has been self-taught. Brandon was recently selected as one of Bakersfield's "20 Under 40" Rising Stars. As a self-taught Veteran artist, Brandon hopes to inspire others, educate the masses, and celebrate culture and people.

The Frostig Collection < Return to Exhibitions October 29, 2013 - January 5, 2014 Frostig at Large: The Artists of The Frostig Collection Main Gallery & South Gallery Second Floor Lou Swenson: Moving West Wells Fargo Gallery Bradford J. Salamon: Objectified East Gallery Legacy: The Artists of the Open Studio Vault Gallery Christoff Van Kooning: Invertibles Third Floor Galleries Guy Dill From The Frostig Collection Lou Swenson Moving West Bradford J. Salamon Crosley Radio Renato De Guia Timothy Christoff Van Kooning Invertibles Collection Frostig at Large: The Artists of The Frostig Collection The Frostig Collection is comprised of an expansive array of artwork by many of today's most compelling and well-known artists. The artists represented in the exhibition live and work in Los Angeles and have substantially contributed to the international reputation of arts in the region through their innovative use of concepts and materials, some of which were developed by the aerospace industry here in the Antelope Valley. The Frostig Collection was created as a fundraising enterprise to support the Frostig Center and School, both global leaders in research and education of students with learning disabilities. Located in Pasadena, California, The Frostig Center is one of the few privately-funded non-profit organizations in the United States which is exclusively dedicated to investigating the causes and treatments of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia along with ADHD, ADD, Asperger’s and high-functioning autism. Founded in 1951 by Marianne Frostig, Ph.D., a leader in education for children with learning disabilities, The Center has significantly changed the way children with learning disabilities are taught, which has resulted in helping them achieve satisfying and productive lives. Frostig School parents created The Frostig Collection to expand the work of The Center and bring a much-needed social skills program to fruition, thereby further supporting the emotional health of the students. By donating their work, the distinguished artists of The Frostig Collection have significantly contributed to the development and advancement of specialized resources for children with learning disabilities, improving the lives of the students, their teachers and their families. These pioneering artists include: Lita Albuquerque, Charles Arnoldi, Gary Baseman, Larry Bell, Lynda Benglis, David Buckingham, Chris Burden, Guy Dill, Robert Graham, Frank Gehry, Brad Howe, Eric Johnson, Matt Johnson, Michael Kalish, Michael C. McMillen, Ed Moses, Gwynn Murrill, R. Kenton Nelson, Chris Piazza, Sarah Perry, Ken Price, Nancy Rubins, Alison Saar and Ray Turner. Lou Swenson: Moving West Lou Swenson has been making art for 50 years. His passion for photography began when his mother presented him with a Kodak Pony 135 camera the day he was deployed to serve on the frontlines of the Korean War. At every opportunity when not engaged in battle, he used this gift to capture images of his comrades and to calm the effects of active duty in a foreign land. A great loss to the art world and the visual history of the time, this transparency collection was lost during an overseas shipment, making images from this time impossible to reproduce and share with the world. His early creative inspiration came from Depression Era Life Magazine and war photographers such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier-Bresson. As Swenson moved west, he was taken with the groundbreaking work of Ansel Adams and the pioneering California coastal photographers of the time. After completing his military career, Swenson became a commercial photographer and studio owner in San Antonio, Texas. During that time, he earned a Master of Photography degree, built an extensive list of clients and won many awards at print competitions. Mastering the technical aspects of his craft and enjoying eleven years of successful commercial photography, Swenson shifted gears and returned to his roots in Colorado, where he established himself in the fine art of black and white photography. Drawn to the geographical and cultural diversity of the Four Corners region, he settled in Dolores, Colorado where he currently resides. The region has been his creative home for the past 29 years: traversing the back roads of the west, documenting treasures of open spaces, remnants of rural life and the marks of time on a rapidly changing society. Swenson’s expertise in maximizing tonal variations, textures and shadow patterns across the landscapes and architecture of the west lies in photographing and printing black and white silver halide negatives in his home darkroom, a practice he continues as long as film, paper and chemicals are available. Like the landscape painters and photographers who traveled west with the tenets of Manifest Destiny and on the trails blazed by Lewis and Clark, Swenson utilized large format cameras to capture the inherent qualities of light, form and drama in the region. He began shooting with a 5 x 7 inch camera body then weaned himself down to a medium format 6 x 9 cm in order to reduce the cumbersome weight of these models while maintaining perspective control and maximizing tonal values, all of which are germane to representing the light and essence of the west. Swenson is a master in the art of composition, utilizing the basic principles of design and the rule of thirds to position his subjects within the frame. Swenson’s ability is apparent in how he captures the shift of a cloud in an expansive landscape, the depth of a shadow wrapping around a hand built pueblo or the intangible interior light of a dusty room in a forgotten ghost town. He is particularly fascinated with the change of seasons, when leaves begin to drop and reveal the underlying structure of trees and the inherent mood of a landscape. He notes: “when the snow begins to fall it creates a new and dynamic relationship between light and dark, texture and form, horizon and sky.” His works are sensuous and striking homages to the beauty of the region, where artists are still drawn to study and experience the dramatic landscapes and cultural heritage found in this quiet part of the world. Bradford J. Salamon: Objectified Objectify: verb (objectifies, objectifying, objectified) 1.To express (something abstract) in a concrete form: good poetry objectifies feeling. 2. To degrade to the status of a mere object: a deeply sexist attitude that objectifies women. Bradford J. Salamon is widely regarded for his portraits of artists, writers and musicians who he invites into his studio to sit in his iconic orange chair, often for hours, as he observes and documents the intricacy of their humanity. His approach allows the artistic process to unfold as an unpredictable journey into the subject’s personality, where the painting unlocks a visual narrative unique to the time of the sitter’s life. The person becomes part of the art making process: as they bring to the chair their life stories of professional achievements and personal hardships, their bodies begin to sink into the chair, and over time their faces often collapse into fatigue. The pain of sitting for hours unoccupied by a task other than being there for the artist becomes apparent. For Salamon, this process captures the entire evolving narrative of the person and activates the canvas with the human condition. His process counteracts the tendency to objectify the model—as many portrait artists have done throughout the history of art—while also representing an abstraction of his model. Salamon sees portraiture as an opening into life experiences he may never otherwise have had the opportunity to observe and notes that the process of painting people for extended periods of time provides a way of communicating and interacting with them on an entirely different level. He brings this humanizing approach to painting objects as well; objects such as rotary dial phones, vintage machinery, and toys. These portraits serve as a reminder of the power of invention and the purpose and aesthetic considerations that initially guided the object’s design. He notes: “I will paint people forever, as they are always important to me. But my fascination with inanimate objects and the stories they tell bring me back to a different time when it makes me move into the mindset of a designer or inventor who thought with 1920 references. Old glass bottles, iconography, out-of-date sewing machines, their shapes and how they work stimulate me to see the world with fresh perceptions.” Exploring the poetics of these vintage objects is a welcome challenge for the artist. Representing multiple surfaces as they interface with one another is no simple task for a painter: capturing the luminosity of glass against metal; the texture of time-worn wood overlaid with fading chrome; and the contrast of fabric and mesh with plastics all have their own character and qualities. The artist has plentiful objects from which to choose, especially due to the speed at which objects become obsolete, a phenomenon that intrigues the artist and keeps him inspired to paint on a daily basis. Bradford J. Salamon has recreated his private studio at MOAH with the orange chair at the center of the installation. His studio—itself a series of objects from the artist’s life—is situated here as a place in which you may interact with him and become familiar with his process; a process that is unfolding in real time, as an unpredictable journey into the artist’s mind and method. While Mr. Salamon is not painting in the Museum, he consistently works in Los Angeles on painting commissions. He studied at The Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach and trained extensively in Europe. His work has been shown and collected internationally. Legacy: The Artists of the Open Studio The Open Studio class began in January 2013 at the Museum of Art & History (MOAH) as a forum for the art community to draw and paint from a live model. The practice of life drawing provides a greater challenge in comparison to drawing from photographs. With the presence of a live model, often draped in multi-colored fabric and placed under focused lighting, artists are offered a variety of shapes and forms from which to sharpen their observation skills and articulate details of the human figure. Open Studio takes place in the Hernando and Fran Marroquin Family Classroom and is led by local artist Renato de Guia. The success of Open Studio is found in Mr. de Guia’s accessible approach to cultivating the existing skill set of his students. He provides a safe place for experimentation as he looks for clues in the students’ work, then suggests practicing techniques in rendering, line quality and creating the illusion of volume. His students range in age from 17 to 74 with beginning to advanced skills. Novice students have the opportunity to observe and practice the techniques of some of the Antelope Valley’s finest and most established artists, providing a place for camaraderie and artistic growth among like-minded citizens. Born in Manila, Philippines, Mr. de Guia’s early interest in drawing was ignited by the comic books that his aunt would send him as a child. He was taken by the style and technique of the comic artists, particularly Neil Adams, whose articulation of human anatomy was accurate and dynamic due to his training in life drawing. As a youngster, Mr. de Guia was constantly drawing, even during hospitalizations for a rare bone disease. He went on to earn his B.S. in Architecture from Kent State University, Ohio, another opportunity pursued to refine and utilize his drawing skills, all of which he applies to his teaching. Mr. de Guia has been practicing architecture and teaching art in the Antelope Valley for many years and was deeply involved with Allied Arts at Cedar Center. He is equally passionate about volunteering and contributing to the expansion of MOAH’s adult art education program. Renato de Guia’s artwork is accompanied by student work from Ulrica Bell, Betty Ermey, Geoffrey E. Levitt, Joanne McCubrey, Albert Miller, Julie Schuder, Nay Schuder and Adeline Wysong. Christoff Van Kooning: Invertibles Through his multi-dimensional sculpture series, Invertibles, Christoff Van Kooning sees his work as a poem of materials and a language of shapes and forms. With the use of many different materials, from stone and metal to Styrofoam and gold leaf, Van Kooning explores the space between positive and negative shapes and the visual interplay that is created when a series of shapes are cut from a large volume of material. His Invertibles are puzzle-like and playful compositions of interlocking and movable geometric shapes that reveal both the original source material and the skill of the sculptor. His objective is to release a lively series of shapes from the original material through a process of discovery. Although his work preserves the hard edges of his materials, his positive and negative shapes recall the minimalist sculptures of Henry Moore (1898 –1986) and Barbara Hepworth (1903 – 1975). Christoff Van Kooning lives and works in Los Angeles. He studied classical sculpting methods in Italy before returning to the United States to work with David Hickey at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He continues to focus on minimalist art and testing the power of juxtaposing line and mass/volume in his work. His awareness of the qualities of repetition, duality and symmetry are easily recognizable in this installation of new work. Frostig Swenson Salamon Legacy Kooning View or Download the Frostig Collection Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.

Inclusion The Museum of Art and History (MOAH) is compliant with American Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. MOAH is committed to making its facility, collections, exhibitions, programs, and services accessible to all visitors. Physical access to MOAH is compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. Sensory Friendly Programming Community members experiencing autism and/or other hyper- and hypo-sensitivities are invited to participate in the Lancaster Museum of Art and History's Sensory Friendly Programming (SFP). This programming is multi-faceted, with open hours every first Saturday of the month (during exhibition dates), Take-A-Break Space during select BLVD events, and calming tools available for check out from guest services. SFP Open Hours Every first Saturday of the month, the museum opens one hour early 10:00 am to welcome guests with hyper- and hypo-sensitivities. Lights are dimmed, sound elements are lowered, a free sensory-friendly art activity is offered, and the Take-A-Break Space is open for use. Fidgets and noise-canceling headphones are available for use throughout the museum. Take-A-Break Space Stocked with calming tools, noise-canceling headphones, kinetic sand, snacks, and water, the Take-A-Break Space is a great spot to relax during a museum visit or BLVD event. The T-A-B Space is located off of the Main Gallery. Check MOAH's scheduled events for details about T-A-B Space availability. American Sign Language Tours The Lancaster Museum of Art and History offers a American Sign Language Tour for each exhibition at MOAH’s main location. They are led by a MOAH guide, who is accompanied by a certified American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. Please register in advance on Eventbrite; space is limited to 20 participants. Contact the Education Department at (661) 723-6085 or moaheducation@cityoflancasterca.gov for more information. Spanish Tours The Lancaster Museum of Art and History offers tours in Spanish every second Friday of the month during exhibition dates at MOAH's main location. Tours begin at 5:00 pm and last about 30-40 minutes. Please register in advance on Eventbrite – space is limited to 20 participants. Contact the Education Department at (661) 723-6085 or moaheducation@cityoflancasterca.gov for more information. Early Stage Social Engagement Program (virtual) The Lancaster Museum of Art and History partners with the Alzheimer's Association Southern California Chapter to create a two-part virtual tour for each exhibition on view at MOAH's main location. Each tour is one hour and touches on a variety of exhibited artworks, artistic processes, and artist perspectives for participants experiencing the early stages of dementia. Please visit https://www.alz.org/socal to register for this two-part program.

2014 < View Public Art Projects One Desert Sky 2014 Permanent Art Project By Brad Howe Drawing upon the stories of local Antelope Valley residents, artist and Antelope Valley native Brad Howe created the installation that now hangs in the atrium of the High Desert Regional Health Center, located on Avenue I and. Taking mental pictures from these stories, Howe turned them into actual images – 8,000 laser-cut aluminum plates painted blue. Spearheaded by the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, a naming contest took place with the winning name being “One Desert Sky” – an imagine invoked by the blue images and the stories behind them.

Accessibility The Museum of Art and History (MOAH) is compliant with American Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. MOAH is committed to making its facility, collections, exhibitions, programs, and services accessible to all visitors. Physical access to MOAH is compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. Wheelchair Accessibility All galleries and facilities are wheelchair accessible. Visitors with wheelchairs can access MOAH through its front-facing doors and utilize the elevator to access the 2nd and rooftop floors. All restrooms on each floor are wheelchair accessible. Service Animals MOAH is committed to providing its programs to a broad and diverse audience that includes those assisted by trained service animals. MOAH is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which defines service animals as a dog that is trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. According to the ADA, the dog must be trained to take a specific action when needed to assist the person with a disability. For example, a person with diabetes may have a dog that is trained to alert him when his blood sugar reaches high or low levels. ⓘ Certified service animals are welcomed and allowed in MOAH’s public areas. However, the following questions may be asked of each guest with a service dog: - Is the service dog required because of a disability? - What work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Accessible Parking Accessible parking spaces are located in the parking lot behind the museum. Accessible Facilities All public restrooms in the museum are ADA accessible. Two gender-neutral single-stall bathrooms are located on the first floor. Elevators Elevators are available for all three levels of the building, with locations at the Moore Family Trust Gallery, near the top of stairs on the second floor, and on the third rooftop floor. Sensory Accommodation Noise-canceling headphones and sensory-friendly fidgets are available for checkout at the front desk. Quiet Time to Visit The museum is quietest between 11 AM to 1:30 PM Tuesday and Wednesday. The busiest days are Thursday and Friday.

Western Hotel Museum 557 W Lancaster Blvd, Lancaster, CA 93534 Open Friday and Saturday | 11 AM - 4 PM Closed Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays, and Holidays westernhotel@cityoflancaster.gov (661) 723-6250 *Closed April 17 to 19, 2026 as we celebrate the California Poppy Festival! The Western Hotel Museum is one of the Antelope Valley’s most visible links to our past heritage. We hope that you will enjoy your visit and encounter nostalgic recollections when you see photographs and artifacts that depict the history of the people who built, worked, and lived in early Lancaster. Admission to the museum is free, but we accept and appreciate all donations History Blog Request a Tour Book a Tour Explore the the rich history of Lancaster's Western Hotel Museum, by booking a tour today! Learn More > View The Self Guided Tour Enjoy the Western Hotel Museum at your own pace by following along with the self-guided tour. Learn More > Read about Myrtie Webber Learn more about the woman behind the Western Hotel Museum: Myrtie Webber. Learn More > Visiting one of our museums? Let us help you plan your trip!

back to list Aaron De LA Cruz Aaron De La Cruz's work, though minimal and direct at first, tends to overcome barriers of separation and freely steps in and out of the realms of fine art and design. The act and the marks themselves are very primal but tend to take on distinct and sometimes higher meanings in the broad range of mediums and contexts they appear in and on. His work finds strengths in the reduction of his interests in life to minimal information. De La Cruz gains from the idea of exclusion, just because you don't literally see it, doesn't mean that it's not there.

Up The New Vanguard II Various Artists Artists: Sandra Chevrier | Cages and the Allure of Freedom Seth Armstrong | Lil' Baja's Last Ride Craig 'Skibs' Barker | Suzy is a Surf Rocker Brooks Salzwedel | Rut in the Soil Featured Installations: Andrew Hem Dan Witz HOT TEA Isaac Cordal Jaune Laurence Vallieres Spenser Little https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e60af9_f0364efb1164401d93836cd0372bc2c2/1080p/mp4/file.mp4 The New Vanguard II, a dynamic group exhibition of works by international artists working in the New Contemporary art movement. The highly anticipated follow up to 2016's successful first iteration of The New Vanguard, on view in tandem with this year's POW WOW! Antelope Valley will feature special solo projects by artists Sandra Chevrier, Seth Armstrong, Craig 'Skibs' Barker, and Brooks Salzwedel. A sequel to what was in 2016 the most extensive presentation of work from the New Contemporary movement in a Southern Californian museum venue to date, The New Vanguard II, in keeping with the first, will present a diverse and expansive group of curated new works. The group show will include new pieces by ABCNT, Adam Caldwell, Alex Garant, Alex Hall, Alexandra Manukyan, Amy Sol, Andrew Schoultz, Benjamin Garcia, Brian Mashburn, Carl Cashman, CASE, Dan Witz, Drew Merritt, EINE, Ekundayo, Ermsy, Esao Andrews, Evoca1, Fernando Chamarelli, Fidia Falaschetti, Fintan Magee, Helen Bur, Hueman, Hula, Huntz Liu, Jaune, Joel Daniel Phillips, Jolene Lai, Juan Travieso, Kaili Smith, Kathy Ager, Kikyz1313, Laura Berger, Lauren YS, Lonac, Mark Dean Veca, Mars-1, Martin Whatson, Masakatsu Sashie, Meggs, Michael Reeder, Milu Correch, The Perez Bros, PichiAvo, RISK, Robert Xavier Burden, Robert Proch, Ronzo, Saner, Scott Listfield , Sergio Garcia, Seth Armstrong, Snik, Stephanie Buer, Super A, Super Future Kid, TikToy, Tran Nguyen, Van Arno, and Yosuke Ueno. Alongside the focused solo presentations by Chevrier, Armstrong, Barker, and Salzwedel, the exhibition will include site-specific installations by Andrew Hem, Dan Witz, HOTxTEA, Isaac Cordal, Jaune, Laurence Vallieres, and Spenser Little. A movement unified as much by its diversity as its similitude, 'New Contemporary' has come to denote an important heterogeneity of styles, media, contexts, and activations over the course of its establishment since the 90s. Unified in its fledgling beginnings by a founding countercultural impulse searching for its own nomenclature, the New Contemporary movement's shifting and inclusive designations have offered alternative narratives over the years to those popularized by the dominant art establishment and its conceptual predilections. Though stylistically disparate, the work belonging to this rapidly expansive movement reveals a desire to reference the popular, social, and subcultural domains of contemporary experience, grounding, rather than rarifying, imagery in the familiar. Looking to the urban landscape and the kaleidoscopic shift of individual identities within it, these artists use the figurative and narrative to anchor their work in the accessible and aesthetically relatable. A fundamentally democratic stance governs the ambitions of this new guard, ever in search of novel ways to expand rather than to contract. Sandra Chevrier - Cages and the Allure of Freedom Chevrier creates work that explores identity as a locus of competing imperatives and complex contradictions. Drawing parallels between the assumed invulnerability of the superhero and the impossible demands placed upon the contemporary individual, Chevrier creates literal and metaphoric masks by combining comic book imagery assembled from found and imagined sources. Her dystopian spin on the iconic figure of the superhero looks to reveal the flaws in the staged extroversion of a superficial veneer. In Cages and the Allure of Freedom, her first significant solo museum presentation, Chevrier showcases large-scale sculptural works for the first time including three massive portrait based reliefs alongside three life-sized, hand-painted busts complementing some of her largest two-dimensional acrylic on canvas works. Sandra Chevrier is a Montréal-based Canadian artist. Her work has been shown in Canada as well as in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia and in collections in Europe, the United States, Netherlands, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and Russia. Seth Armstrong - Lil' Baja's Last Ride Seth Armstrong creates paintings that arrest a sense of time. Some offer expansive views and others a contracted intimacy, moving freely in and out of public and private spaces to create intersecting narratives. Known for paintings that self-consciously capture the act of looking - whether as a voyeur in trespass or a participant in the landscape - Armstrong apprehends the simultaneity of the city as a place of endless, contingent narratives, jarring interruptions and suspenseful pauses. In Lil' Baja's Last Ride, the artist presents a sequential vignette of over ten new paintings in which his own car becomes an unlikely protagonist. His immersive approach to his subject matter often produces anecdotal adjuncts. Following several pilgrimages into the landscape between his home in LA and Lancaster for the exhibition, a route, incidentally, which also happens to have personal childhood significance for the artist, Armstrong's beloved beater and proverbial instrument of research, 'Lil' Baja,' caught fire and was partially incinerated in the museum's parking lot. The overarching narrative structure of the works feels ambiguously suspended somewhere between fiction, social realism, and personal history. In an ending befitting Armstrong's own penchant for cinematic turns, poetic hooks, and absurd knacks, Lil' Baja's Last Ride is an unexpected swan song in memoriam to an old friend's final expedition. Armstrong is a Los Angeles-based painter who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California College of Arts in San Francisco. His paintings have been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. He is represented by Thinkspace Projects in Los Angeles, Vertical Gallery in London and Bold Hype Gallery in New York. His work has been featured in international art fairs such as SCOPE and the LA Art Show. Craig "Skibs: Barker - Suzy is a Surf Rocker Barker has been immersed in both the punk rock and surf culture of southern California since the early 1980s. His imagery, being informed by the print media and graphics of the subcultural terrain shaping the time period, reflects this upbringing. Influenced and surrounded by punk flyers, album covers, and surfing magazines, Barker began testing his artistic skills by initially making flyers and t-shirts for his punk bands and his friends. Barker’s work explores the junctions between past and present, memory and imagination, fantasy and reality, while creating a dialog between image and viewer. Barker’s most recent paintings infuse his long-standing love for painting and rendering the human female figure with his punk-fueled graphic design aesthetic. Mixing different approaches, techniques and mediums, he creates a sense of memory, personal history, and appreciation for the female form. Combining elements of pop culture and literary censorship, he creates layered scenes of voyeuristic playfulness. His artworks feel surreal and partial, yielding results of decontextualization. The way Barker frames his figurative subjects, his compositions feel like spontaneously taken polaroids. Born and raised in Huntington Beach, Barker has been exhibiting installations and his paintings in places such as Long Beach Museum of Art, Thinkspace Projects Los Angeles and was featured at MOAH in 2014. His work has been included in Newbrow and Juxtapoz magazines. Brooks Salzwedel - Rut in the Soil Obscuring the boundaries between actual and imagined landscapes, Salzwedel constructs light, delicate and translucent vistas that fluctuate between solid and ethereal states. These assembled works explore the juxtaposition of natural and simulated scenes, bringing together scant terrains and fabricated sierras with hazy atmospheres and primordial vegetation. Eroding woods and frosty, glacial peaks veil repressed settings, evoking a landscape untethered from this reality existing on the periphery of dreams. Salzwedel continues this series of ghostly, celestial worlds that are suspended indefinitely, the scenes often feel almost real but are undoubtedly conjured from vivid imagination. Salzwedel induces a sense of solitude through ephemeral, surreal fantasies of supernatural scenery using a combination of materials to create his mixed-media works. His drawings are comprised of graphite, mylar and resin, tape, colored pencil and ink. Salzwedel earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with honors and distinction at Pasadena Art Center College of Design in 2004. He has been featured in more than 50 blogs and publications and he has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions. His work has been displayed at renowned museums worldwide, including the Hammer Museum, MOCA, Honolulu Museum of Art and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. Salzwedel was born in Long Beach and works in Los Angeles, California. The New Vanguard II A movement unified as much by its diversity as its similitude, 'New Contemporary' has come to denote an important heterogeneity of styles, media, contexts, and activations over the course of its establishment since the 90s. Unified in its fledgling beginnings by a founding countercultural impulse searching for its own nomenclature, the New Contemporary movement's shifting and inclusive designations have offered alternative narratives over the years to those popularized by the dominant art establishment and its conceptual predilections. Though stylistically disparate, the work belonging to this rapidly expansive movement reveals a desire to reference the popular, social, and subcultural domains of contemporary experience, grounding, rather than rarifying, imagery in the familiar. Looking to the urban landscape and the kaleidoscopic shift of individual identities within it, these artists use the figurative and narrative to anchor their work in the accessible and aesthetically relatable. A fundamentally democratic stance governs the ambitions of this new guard, ever in search of novel ways to expand rather than to contract. A sequel to what was in 2016 the most extensive presentation of work from the New Contemporary movement in a Southern Californian museum venue to date, The New Vanguard II, in keeping with the first, presents a diverse and expansive group of curated new works. This group show includes new pieces by ABCNT, Adam Caldwell, Alex Garant, Alex Hall, Alexandra Manukyan, Amy Sol, Andrew Schoultz, Benjamin Garcia, Brian Mashburn, Carl Cashman, CASE, Dan Witz, Drew Merritt, EINE, Ekundayo, Ermsy, Esao Andrews, Evoca1, Fernando Chamarelli, Fidia Falaschetti, Fintan Magee, Helen Bur, Hueman, Hula, Huntz Liu, Jaune, Joel Daniel Phillips, Jolene Lai, Juan Travieso, Kaili Smith, Kathy Ager, Kikyz1313, Laura Berger, Lauren YS, Lonac, Mark Dean Veca, Mars-1, Martin Whatson, Masakatsu Sashie, Meggs, Michael Reeder, Milu Correch, The Perez Bros, PichiAvo, RISK, Robert Xavier Burden, Robert Proch, Ronzo, Saner, Scott Listfield , Sergio Garcia, Seth Armstrong, Skewville, Snik, Stephanie Buer, Super A, Super Future Kid, TikToy, Tran Nguyen, Van Arno and Yosuke Ueno. October 21 - December 30, 2018 Back to list

< Back Ann Diener The Invented Land As a fourth-generation descendant of a Southern California farming family, Ann Diener has a deep connection to the land and is fascinated with its continual state of change. Several years ago, while visiting her late grandparents’ farm, she was struck by how abruptly and significantly this land had changed. No longer was she able to recognize her old haunts or familiar landmarks; the crops and trees were gone, the roads were reconfigured, and fertile farmland was covered in a shroud of industrial farming operations. The fields she explored as a child have since been transformed into a tessellation of suburban development, a sprawl of quotidian Southern California tract homes, strip malls and gas stations. Those fields that remain are farmed by large conglomerates-often owned by private equity firms in faraway places. Seeds are scientifically engineered, and food is grown on massive stretches of land or in enormous greenhouse structures. Technology remains as intrinsic to California’s agricultural future as artificial intelligence and the innovations of Silicon Valley. The ecosystems this technology generates is at the core of her work, resulting in intricate architecture and stunning complex visual landscapes. The paramount issue of California agriculture is water. California built the greatest agricultural machine in history, employing technology to grow food in massive amounts to feed the world’s growing population largely by controlling where water flows. However, this approach has dealt overarching environmental consequences, primarily water shortages caused by overuse, flooding, soil erosion, and subsidence. The adaptation of industrial agriculture to a changing climate represents a metaphor for climate change on a larger level. A changing climate requires judicious use of water, rehabilitating depleted soil, rotating crops, planting cover crops, and growing in places that were previously unsuitable for farming. With her drawings, she attempts to demonstrate this complex, evolving landscape, telling the story of these topics of inequality, water, and the vicissitudes of climate change through the complexities of modern-day agriculture. UPCOMING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: The Invented Land Walkthrough with Ann Diener at MOAH Saturday, July 13 at 2 PM | Located at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History Join us for an exclusive walkthrough of Ann Diener: The Invented Land , on Saturday, July 13, 2024, at 2 PM! Discover her stunning art that reflects the evolving landscapes of Southern California. Don't miss this chance to explore the intricate connections between agriculture, technology, and climate change. Sign up now on Eventbrite ! Tickets are not mandatory but suggested 📅🔗 PST ART: Art & Science Collide , Getty Pacific Standard Time 2024 Preview event Saturday, August 3 at 2 PM | Located at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History Featuring an Ar tist Talk and Book Signing with Ann Diener and Debra Scacco Previous Next