The Longest Shift < Back Sam Comen The Longest Shift May 14 - August 21, 2022 Sam Comen, "Carlos Arevalo, Jason Calixto, Esbeida Refugio, and Ray Miller Custodial Staff, Los Angeles County + USC Hospital", 2021, Photograph Sam Comen, "Amado Montejo Port of Los Angeles Trucker", 2021, Photograph Sam Comen, "Hector Robles, Hyun Joo Kim, Kim Chow, Maria Alviso, Lance Goosby, and Nicole Luckie USPS Letter Carriers, photographed at Los Angeles’ Foy Station", 2021, Photograph Sam Comen, "Carlos Arevalo, Jason Calixto, Esbeida Refugio, and Ray Miller Custodial Staff, Los Angeles County + USC Hospital", 2021, Photograph 1/4 Previous Next In December 2020, as COVID-19 infections and deaths skyrocketed in Los Angeles County, everyday workers designated “essential” continued working under dire conditions, exacerbating existing societal and economic inequities. The Longest Shift explores these disparities through photographs, motion portraits, and interviews of these workers — most of them Black and Latinx — throughout Los Angeles County. In The Longest Shift , artist Sam Comen celebrates his subjects and their contributions during the pandemic while allowing the viewer to question the overall conditions of the workers in our society and the value of their labor. This fascination towards representing the lives of everyday people is rooted in Comen's documentary photography practice. Comen argues the unwavering reverence that society places on opulence, fame, and celebrity is slanted — lacking the entire breadth of the human experience, namely that of the working class. The all-encompassing lens that Comen brings to The Longest Shift focuses on themes of American identity, community, and social justice in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic with the purpose of building empathy and justice. Sam Comen is a Los Angeles based artist who received his Bachelor’s degree in Communication from Northwestern University in 2002. Comen has worked as a magazine photographer for 15 years, shooting for publications that include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and Esquire . His work has been recognized by Communication Arts, American Photography, Photo District News, The Center for Documentary Studies, and the Sante Fe Center for Photography. Currently, Comen has three exhibitions on tour which include: Working America : portraits of immigrant and 1st generation Americans at work; The Newest Americans: portraits of U.S. citizens before and after the taking the oath of citizenship; and The Longest Shift at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH). Sam Comen has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and his work is held in permanent collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Library of Congress.

Up Art Activations at the Preserve Dani Dodge Los Angeles artist Dani Dodge uses unexpected sculptural materials to alter spaces. Her experience as an embedded journalist during the 2003 invasion of Iraq changed her forever. Since then, she has created art and installations that change and challenge expectations. From brightening a black and white snowy forest in Ireland with luminescent tree stumps to turning a Los Angeles gallery into a gantlet of rotating car parts made from baby blankets, her works play with surrealist ideas using innovative forms. The installations merge the rational and the dream state. They often require interaction with the viewers. Although she creates individual works for group shows, she is best known for her installations that confront emotion. In the past she has invited participants to share burdens, joys and sins. Her work often incorporates interactive elements that require participants to reveal personal truths, and in doing so recognize our shared human frailties. She has burned people’s fears, thrown people’s burdens into the ocean and typed people’s secrets for the purpose of posting them publicly. Dodge created site-specific installations at the Coos Art Museum, Lancaster Museum of Art and History, New Museum Los Gatos, Inland Empire Museum of Art, Inglewood Public Library, San Diego International Airport, San Diego Art Institute and more. Dodge’s installation/performance CONFESS at 2015’s LA Pride was named one of the outstanding public art projects of the year by Americans for the Arts. Her work is included in four museum collections and has been shown across the U.S. and internationally. Peace on Earth at the Preserve ... and MOAH /January 25, 2019 Learn More> Dawning of a residency at the Prime Desert Woodlands Preserve /January 1, 2019 Learn More> 2019 Back to list

back to list MOUF Mouf is a prolific mural artist in the urban art scene in Austin, Texas. He’s mentored and supported many of the city’s younger artists, while traveling internationally to spray paint his art. In his early years, he was always interested in using spray paint to create something on any surface. He has always considered himself creative and a little bit of a trouble maker. The way he got started was like most that are a part of the art form. Every time he was in a city, he’d notice the contrast of grey and colorless buildings, to the vibrant burst of colors in the shape of letters or characters.

< Back This is a Title 03 This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Previous Next

< Return to Exhibitions Holiday 2012 Ann Marie Rousseau: Sight Lines sight lines jennifer-glass-cyanotypes_edited Accatino Collection 3 Kokeshi&Totem veritas300 Learn More December 6, 2012 - March 2, 2013 September 29, 2012 - January 1, 2013 Jennifer Glass: Cyanotypes December 6, 2012 - January 19, 2013 Madonna and Child: Selections from the Accatino Collection Kokeshi and the Totem: The Art of David and Kazumi Svenson Gary Baseman: The Seven Sacred Magi Winter Wishes: Letters to Santa Madonna Glass Totem Winter Rousseau Jennifer Glass: Cyanotypes Cyanotype Greek: kyano (blue; dark blue) + Greek: typos (type or form; print) English 1835-1845 Jennifer Glass captures moments in the life of women through her cyanotypes of vintage gowns. Selected from her private collection, these gowns are reproduced as cyanotypes through a process that the artist sees as a deeply metaphorical statement on the roles of women, politics, power, and fashion. Specifically, this body of work emphasizes the artist’s affinity for fashion as a polarized narrative. The large-scale reproductions are strong in their Prussian blue impressions while fragile in their ghost-like translucency. Glass explains that her connection to the world of fashion elicits a “strong emotional response to how [fashion] may either empower or constrain a woman depending on how she uses it”…she continues: “fashion has been used as a tool by women for years and although it has confined them in many ways, it also has liberated them…these garments belonged to someone.” Glass notes that although the women who wore these garments are now gone, in their time they danced, brought about new life, felt pleasure and pain, and likely changed policy, leaving their own imprint on the world however large or small. Glass’ prints are created through the deceptively basic methods of light exposure and chemical preparation on fabrics. The cyanotype was pioneered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel as a photographic method to quickly duplicate technical drawings that are normally time-consuming to draw and reproduce. Herschel discovered that when iron salts react with sunlight they leave a permanent blue imprint. When paper or porous fabric is treated with a solution of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, almost any image may be reproduced if it is drawn on a transparent surface, placed over the photosensitive paper in a darkroom and then exposed to sunlight. The areas of the photosensitive paper (or canvas/fabric) that are concealed by the lines of the drawing remain white while the exposed areas turn into an insoluble blue, resulting in a reverse silhouette. In 1843, shortly after Herschel developed the cyanotype, his friend and colleague Anna Atkins, a recognized botanist, utilized the cyanotype method to catalogue her extensive botanical collection. By placing her algae specimens on the photosensitized paper, she created the first known volume of cyanotype photograms. Atkins went on to self-publish her cyanotypes in her book: Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. Atkins published three volumes and only seventeen copies were reproduced. As a photographer, Jennifer Glass is carrying on this tradition in contemporary times, a method that has gone underutilized since the advent of digital reproductions. A Florida native, Jennifer Glass earned a Bachelor of Art degree in Social and Political Science from Florida State University. Glass went on to study photography at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale along with taking workshops in New York with well-regarded photographers Debbie Fleming Caffery and Mary Ellen Mark. Glass currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark. Ann Marie Rousseau: Sight Lines Ann Marie Rousseau is a photographer, artist and writer formerly of New York City and currently living in southern California. She works with photography, painting and drawing on paper. Rousseau has a deep interest in line in all its manifestations - drawn, painted, photographed. Madonna and Child: Selections from the Accatino Collection The Museum of Art & History is proud to present an exhibition showcasing Madonna and Child paintings from the Tom and Christie Accatino Collection. Dating from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the selections feature Madonna and Child paintings from Russia, Ukraine, and Spanish Colonial origins. The Accatino’s are regional collectors, based in Riverside and Palm Springs, whose eclectic tastes range from California landscape painting to Asian artifacts. They have a particular interest in certain themes and approaches associated with the Old Masters, and over the past few years have amassed a group of portraits, still lifes, and religious subjects by various painters – many still unidentified – working in the Baroque and classic styles prevalent in their day. The selections here are in honor of the holidays and include a range of treatments of the Madonna and Child subject. Kokeshi and the Totem: the Art of David Svenson and Kazumi Kobayashi Svenson David Svenson and Kazumi Kobayashi Svenson are mixed-media sculptors based in the High Desert of southern California. They both share an affection for folk art traditions, in particular the kokeshi: wooden Japanese dolls, and the wooden totems of Pacific Northwestern tribes. This exhibition highlights the Svenson’s traditional kokeshi collection and its influence on David and Kazumi’s mixed media work, which includes hand blown glass, neon, wood and concrete. Through their artwork and teaching, David and Kazumi are helping to keep folk art traditions alive by sharing their collection with the public and creatively interpreting the kokeshi and the totem through contemporary art-making methods. Although the couple shares an affinity for folk art traditions and sculpting with glass, neon and mixed-media, they come from very different backgrounds. David Svenson grew up in the 1960’s among the many contrasts of southern California. He was surrounded by the flashy neon signage of historic State Route 66 standing out against the vast expanses of citrus groves that dominated the landscape at the time. David recalls the contrast of multicolored light emanating from the neon signs against the darkness of night as an important impression on his aesthetic development. David subsequently left California to study Tlingit art and culture in Alaska where he witnessed the breathtaking displays of the Aurora Borealis. Having a similar effect on his aesthetic development, the use of light became central to his studio practice. While working with the tribes, David was equally influenced by the way of life practiced among the Tlingit families that adopted him into their clan. There, art and life are intertwined in daily interactions and the overarching respect for life is honored through the arts and gift-giving. Totems are always made for someone else, to honor another family or clan. David recognizes kokeshi and totems as fine craft, and sees kokeshi as similar to the Pacific Rim totems because they both honor the family and the spirit of gift-giving. In addition to his studio practice, David teaches at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and has taught classes at the Pilchuck Glass School, in Seattle, Washington; the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; Urban Glass in Brooklyn, New York, and internationally. He continues to work periodically with a team of Alaska Native totem carvers. Learning, teaching, and sharing skills and knowledge about glass, neon, art and the cultures of the Pacific rim are central aspects of David's life and work. Kazumi Kobayashi Svenson was born in Sendai, Japan, the heart of kokeshi country. She creates miniature kokeshi as well as drawings and sculpture. Kazumi’s interest in kokeshi began while growing up with her mother’s traditional kokeshi collection, which consists of wooden dolls made in the 1930’s of Japanese maple, Cherry or Dogwood. The family collection contained examples from Onsen, an area in northern Japan renowned for its hot springs and kokeshi workshops that lined the streets offering the dolls for sale to tourists and locals. Traditional kokeshi are meant to honor the loss of a child or simply be given as a souvenir to bring happiness to the home. The floral and linear patterns painted on their kimonos have been developed and passed down through generations of kokeshi craftsman and are distinctive to the area where they are made. The 2011 Fukushima earthquake was centered in kokeshi country, a devastation that has taken an additional toll on keeping the tradition alive. Kazumi works in the relatively new “Creative Kokeshi” style which developed after the second World War as a departure from traditional doll making. Although many Creative Kokeshi retain the traditional limbless body, contemporary interpretations often show a more shapely body and additional features such as hair and perhaps a more colorful and exquisitely patterned kimono. The features, materials, and styles of Creative Kokeshi are always unique to their creator. Kazumi utilizes glass as her choice of material and creates in a range of scales from tiny dolls made of individual hand blown glass beads to the larger Italian glass and neon pieces. Because the traditional method of creating kokeshi was by lathe turned wood, it converts easily to glassblowing due to the similar methods of turning the material either by a blow pipe or in using a mandrel for bead-making. She often places her Creative Kokeshi miniatures in a mixed media ensemble of neon and old boxes, perhaps referencing her move to America and symbolically bringing the childhood collection with her. Kazumi recalls that the experience of coming to America afforded her the opportunity to see her own culture from a new perspective and allowed her to translate the traditional art form into her own visual language. Kazumi has been blowing glass for twenty two years as well as teaching the craft in Japan. She first began studying neon in the United States in 1994 and has continued combining neon with glass and exhibiting internationally. Gary Baseman: The Seven Sacred Magi MOAH is honored to bring the artwork of multitalented and internationally celebrated artist Gary Baseman to the Antelope Valley. Born and raised in Hollywood, the artist crosses many disciplines as a painter, illustrator, video and performance artist, animator, TV/movie producer, curator, and toy designer. His artwork captures the bittersweet realities of life: playful yet vicious, naughty but nice and always telling a story layered with the pleasures and pain that life brings across generations. Winter Wishes: Letter to Santa This charming exhibition showcased letters and drawings to Santa inside paper snow globes from local Antelope Valley school children. Baseman View or Download the Holiday 2012 Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.

< Back This is a Title 03 This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Previous Next

Patrick Park < Back My Name is Winky By Patrick Park Today is February 29, 2021. My name is Winky. It is currently the coldest it has ever been. A cold, dark world. Is this all there is to life? A false hope that we may someday escape from this clutching prison. Is that all we can look towards? It feels like a repeating cycle. We grow up together for a while and then one day, some of us stay while others depart. But why me? Why couldn’t I join my friends in the beautiful paradise that is the afterlife? It feels so lonesome, like a rainbow in a storm. I am not beautiful, I am merely a minuscule object that is lost in the vast, unforgiving universe. My bright colors cannot fight off the harsh weather, nor can it ward off the mythological beings whose single footstep can destroy a colony. What is my purpose? A million years can pass and not a single being will notice my presence. We all desire to leave our mark on this world. What is the purpose? A temporary span of experiences known as life is something we consider priceless, but why? An existential question that has been asked throughout history. What is my purpose? Providing something for others until I join my fallen comrades. Why? Why can I not frolic and laugh like those titans? Why can I not run like those animals with four legs? I am stuck with no movement. I am stuck with no purpose. I am stuck with no family. I am stuck finding meaning in my own life. The titans refer to me as a “flower of death”, using me as a crown when mourning the deceased. A fitting name, truly. I suppose I should feel flattered as our family was chosen as a means to honor a titan’s death. They act as though death is something to honor. An interesting concept to say the least. When we die, we (as flowers) are often used as compost in order to help the future generation. But if there’s anything I learned, it’s to live in the moment. Just a few months ago, I had all of my friends near me. We chatted, laughed, and even asked each other questions about life. We were quite the philosophical bunch. However, we had an older gentleman, a fern plant to be exact, that always told us to enjoy the time while it lasted. We often ridiculed him. We believed those times would last forever. Even when each of our companions disappeared one by one, we laughed it off saying that they would be back. We were delusional really, refusing to see our own reality. Perhaps the day will arrive where we may see each other once more. I have not been feeling my best throughout these days, I fear my time to join the afterlife is coming. Today is March 1st, 2021. Something strange happened yesterday. The weather is suspiciously getting warmer. Usually, it feels like an igloo forming inside my petals during the nights however, yesterday’s night was somewhat bearable. Also, I see a tiny seedling about 2 feet on the right. I know it’s nothing and may not survive, but I still feel excited. I lost all my friends, one by one. The fact that I might have a new friend in the near future makes me happy. Would John be a good name? Perhaps I will name him Winky Jr. Although my time is coming soon, I will do everything in my power to grow this seedling. It feels silly to say this out loud but I already feel a bond with this poppy seedling. I will teach it the different things I have learned in this lifetime. Teaching them about the titans, teaching them about the different seasons, and teaching them the different plants. I feel this is the purpose of our lives, plant or titan. Of course, you should expend some of your energy, but you should expend some of your energy to help grow the future generation. I will keep you updated on the progression of this seedling. Today is March 2nd, 2021. I have an update for you. The seedling is almost old enough to begin communicating with me. I’m so excited, I can feel my roots jumping up and down. I also feel nervous about talking with this seedling because I haven’t talked to anyone in person in such a long time. It is also my first time physically communicating with a poppy plant. Poppy plants have a reputation in the plant community as they are one of the most beloved flowers in the state of California. Being able to meet a poppy in person is an incredible honor. I will keep you updated tomorrow when we are able to communicate. Today is March 3rd, 2021. Another major update has surfaced, I have finally exchanged words with the young Poppy. It woke up, scared and confused. I had to talk to it, telling it where we were and what it was. The young Poppy asked for my name, to which I replied “Winky Jr.”. It asked what I was and replied, “A Periwinkle flower”. The Poppy looked confused and went silent for a minute. I decided to start up the conversation once more with, “You are a Poppy flower, a flower that is beloved by the Titans”. The Poppy asked what a titan was. I claimed it was a name we gave to the humans as their footsteps often shook the ground. Of course, this was a silly mistake as it asked what a human was. After spending the whole day passing on my knowledge to the young poppy, I began to give the poppy his own personal traits. The Poppy asked what a good name was. I asked, “How does Summer sound?” The Poppy agreed to this name and our friendship began. After this, Summer thanked me and I welcomed him. Although Summer was the one thanking me, in my heart, I felt I needed to thank Summer. She became the one shining light after several months of darkness. I realized I didn’t need to run and shout like the humans, I just needed someone like me. Someone who could relate to my struggles, someone who was literally in my feet. My will to live became stronger than ever. I hope to see you again tomorrow journal. Although it’s a shame I will not live long enough to see Summer grow, I’m glad I could meet them. Previous Next

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Elyse PignoletHystericalPrimarily working in ceramics, artist Elyse Pignolet has been inspired by and dealt with various themes including political and social issues, the dialectic between feminism and misogyny, and cultural stereotypes. Often projects reflect the urban environment from where she lives and works. < Back Elyse Pignolet, No Gods, No Masters, Installation (wall) Elyse Pignolet, No Gods, No Masters, Mural Elyse Pignolet, No Gods, No Masters, Installation (wall) 1/2 Elyse Pignolet Hysterical Primarily working in ceramics, artist Elyse Pignolet has been inspired by and dealt with various themes including political and social issues, the dialectic between feminism and misogyny, and cultural stereotypes. Often projects reflect the urban environment from where she lives and works. Pignolet relates the traditions and permanence of ceramics to the turbulent and dynamic nature of the contemporary world. Her works span from individual sculptures to more intricate installations and public murals. While rooted in traditional aesthetics, Pignolet’s ceramic works subvert the typical expectations of the medium. Blue and white pottery typically associated with the events and narratives of a bygone era tell the stories of a more current time. The decorative floral and vine motifs that are accustomed to adorning these vessels mingle with text and images that are politically confrontational and unapologetic. Pignolet fuses ornamentation with declaration, calling attention to the many social issues that society faces today. Previous Next

Brandon Kim < Back October 18th, 2020 By Brandon Kim The last time I touched this journal was three weeks ago. You see, since I was so preoccupied with the cruel yearly abscission, I simply could not be bothered to put everything aside to update my own journal. My maple leaf siblings and I all were carefully administered by the tree we grew on throughout our entire lives. We lived almost leisurely, but there is always a catch to everything that seems too good to be true. It would never have come to my mind that we would all be abandoned by the very maple tree that supported us when resources began to run short. I have chosen to move past the decision of being left behind to die on the concrete sidewalk instead of sulking about the decision that was made. I should have seen it coming from a mile away, but I did not know any better a few months ago. In the previous months, I remember clinging onto the maple tree that gave me life, only looking down and waiting for my impending doom that would soon arrive. Every fall, hundreds of us maple leaves would be left behind and abandoned without a moment of hesitation as a means to conserve resources and survive the harsh, cold winter. The process would repeat itself every year; no matter how strongly connected the leaves were with the heartless maple tree, they were always cut off selfishly. Our hard work to gather resources for the tree would be disregarded every time. After each harsh winter ended, the remaining leaves that somehow managed to live through the winter despite being left on the ground continued to rot. It would only be a matter of time before all the leaves wholly decomposed. Some continue to sulk about the tree’s unsympathetic and cruel methods of taking all the resources for itself, and the rest just were not able to make it through the winter or were moved to a completely different location in the cold gusts of wind. I feel betrayed rather than depressed as I lie here on the cold sidewalk. We are ultimately used and given special treatment only for a certain amount of time, and it feels that all of our hard work was for nothing. Our existence as maple leaves is an enormous contribution to why the very tree that abandoned us is standing there to this day. Now our only option is to watch the new maple leaves grow in our place, not knowing what they are in for, as we continue to slowly rot away on the pavement with the maple tree’s back turned to us. Previous Next

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with Papercutting Craft Lorraine Bubar Throughout Spring 2025, Elyze Cliford Interpretive Center hosted a series of workshops with papercut artist Lorraine Bubar in celebration of the Lunar New Year and her artist residency. Lorraine Bubar, whose intricate papercuts are inspired by nature and the tradition of papercutting found in cultures around the world, shared her techniques and artistic process with the community. Workshops included an introduction to papercutting to celebrate the Year of the Wood Snake, a “Knowing Notan” workshop exploring the balance of light and dark in design, and a final “Pop Up Preserve” session encouraging participants to capture the wildlife and plants of the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve through pop-up paper techniques. Participants learned hands-on skills while gaining insight into Lorraine’s creative inspirations and the role of papercutting in cultural and environmental storytelling. Workshop 1 Workshop 2 Workshop 3 Desert Cuts Lorraine Bubar July 12, 2025 - December 14, 2025 Artist Lorraine Bubar explored the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve during a six-month period in 2025 as part of the Elyze Clifford Interpretive Center (ECIC) Artist-in-Residence program. In that time, she created beautiful papercut artworks inspired by the Mojave Desert landscape. Her colorful, layered paper pieces capture the unique plants, animals, and natural beauty of this special urban desert oasis. Learn More

back to list Vojislav Radovanovic Vojislav Radovanović is a Serbian visual artist, art director, filmmaker, and independent curator based in Los Angeles, CA. Witnessing turbulent political unrest and war in the Balkan region in his youth, his visual and conceptual artwork advocates for beauty, environmentalism, mental health, and societal transmutation. His artwork often utilizes a conceptual concentration on wild plants, specifically weeds. The resilient, boundary-defying plants become a metaphor for nature’s powerful ingenuity. The symbolism and conceptualism of weeds also apply to multiple human aspects: its endurance, queer identity, the immigrant experience, and colonization. Radovanović has presented his works internationally in numerous group and solo exhibitions. Important cultural institutions where he showed his works are Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Ronald H. Silverman fine Arts Gallery, Angels Gate Cultural Center, Brea Art Gallery (California, USA); Mall Galleries (London, Great Britain); UNESCO Headquarters, The Institut Suédois (Paris, France); Centre of Contemporary Art (Torun, Poland); The Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid - CBA (Madrid, Spain); Belgrade City Museum, Museum of Yugoslavia, National Library of Serbia and The White Palace (Belgrade, Serbia). Radovanović currently serves as community engagement artist at MOAH Lancaster as part of "Artists At Work" program supported by Mellon Foundation.