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Up Activation Various Artists The Lancaster Museum of Art and History is opening its latest exhibition season, Activation , a series of solo exhibitions from artists Mark Steven Greenfield, April Bey, Paul Stephen Benjamin, Carla Jay Harris, and Keith Collins. The opening reception for Activation will be held on Saturday, January 22, 2022 from 4 to 6 p.m., in tandem with What Would You Say? Activist Graphics from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the second exhibition in its Local Access series. The exhibitions will remain on view until April 16, 2022. April Bey The Opulent Blerd Raised in The Bahamas, Los Angeles-based artist April Bey provides reflective and social critique of American and Bahamian cultures. Her artworks are often weaponized with concepts of Afrofuturism, a genre of speculative fiction regarding the future and significance of peoples and cultures within the African Diaspora. Pop culture, racial construct, and feminism are some of the many topics that Bey discusses. Research, material, and processes are crucial contributors to Bey’s work, she often travels on a national and international scale, allowing her to gather experience, material, and cultural information directly from the source. Using an Afrofuturist lens, Bey repurposes familiar brands, phrases, and portraits to create what she refers to as her “rule-based” and “process based” artworks. Across graphic design, installations, paintings, prints, collages, videos, and handmade artist books, she creates visual commentary on the world’s rapidly increasing set of issues. Bey considers her work a physical representation of “power dynamics destroyed and radically alien views.” Her utilization of witty humor, along with her close attention to texture and color are visually striking, purposefully drawing viewers to decipher the message before them. April Bey is both a practicing contemporary artist and art educator. She is currently a tenured professor at Glendale College and is well known for teaching a controversial course, Pretty Hurts, at the Art Center College of Design. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing in 2009 from Ball State University and her Master of Fine Arts in Painting in 2014 at California State University, Northridge in Los Angeles. Bey is in the permanent collection of the California African American Museum, the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, and Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas. She has exhibited internationally in biennials NE7, NE8, and NE9 in The Bahamas, and in Italy, Spain, and Ghana. Carla Jay Harris A Season in the Wilderness 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. Keith Collins Ali Keith Collins is an American visual artist and designer who specializes in large-scale tapestries, performance and luxury automotive floor mats, oil paintings, and industrial assemblage sculptures. His work has adorned the walls of galleries and homes alike, blending the domestic and the commercial space. Inspired by instances of quilt making with his aunt, Collins has been interested in the re-use of material. “I went down to several carpet stores, jumped into their bins and risked the coffee grounds and stray dogs to go for the prize of these colored pieces.” This idea of recycling has morphed from utilizing discarded carpet scraps to intentionally using fragments of carpets to create his famous tapestries today. While self-taught, Collins has proved to be a master of his craft. The quality and caliber of his work is second to none and has garnered universal respect. His status however, did not come into fruition overnight. Recalling his early days, Collins notes the time where he sold his car, a 1958 Porsche, during his freshman year in college in order to purchase the remaining supply of carpet scraps from a closing store. Although teased by his friends, Keith stuck to the decision that would eventually fuel his career. Mark Steven Greenfield A Survey, 2001-2021 Mark Steven Greenfield is a native Angeleno. Born into a military family, he spent his early years in Taiwan and Germany, returning to Los Angeles at the age of 10. Entering into an American adolescence after being abroad gave Greenfield a unique look at the negative stereotyping of African Americans like himself, sparking his interest in the complexities of the Black experience both historically and in contemporary society. Greenfield’s creative process is based on research that delves into topics of Black genealogy, heritage, and cultural representation. His artwork is anchored in aspects of Black history that have been buried, forgotten, or omitted. Mark Steven Greenfield studied at what is now the Otis College of Art and Design and went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Education from California State University, Long Beach in 1973. To support his artistic practice, he held various positions as a visual display artist, park director, graphic design instructor, and police sketch artist before returning to school to earn his Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from California State University, Los Angeles in 1987. Since then, Greenfield has been a significant figure in the Los Angeles arts scene, serving as arts administrator for the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, director of the Watts Towers Arts Center and the Towers of Simon Rodia, director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and as a board member for the Downtown Arts Development Association, the Korean Museum, and The Armory Center for the Arts — to name a few. Greenfield has been teaching painting and design courses at Los Angeles City College since 1997. Paul Stephen Benjamin Oh Say “If the color black had a sound, what would it be?” This is one of many questions that conceptual artist Paul Stephen Benjamin explores in his multidisciplinary art practice. Through sights, sounds, and material, Benjamin explores the color black as a way to introduce and discuss different social perspectives. While visually understated, his work serves as an introduction to a broader and multifaceted conversation about race and identity. Benjamin states, “I work hard to make sure my work is not in your face,” noting that this aesthetic subtlety lends itself to a more critical and analytical approach to viewing his work. Oh Say (Remix) is a video installation that presents a compilation of various African American artists and their performances of The Star-Spangled Banner Featured artists include Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, and Beyoncé, with performances that range from music festivals to sporting events. The performers are arranged in conjunction with imagery of the American flag and the faces of American presidents. The work blends past and present histories, bringing these timelines into the context of today. Oh Say (Remix) examines the complexities and nuances of racial identity in America, allowing Paul Stephen Benjamin’s depiction of blackness to present itself introspectively. There is a visual and sonic power that is carried throughout the duration of Oh Say (Remix) . Each scene is dense with visual information, rendered in black and white. The auditory factor of the work grounds its narrative through the repetition and rhythmic pacing of each audio track. Each track builds and builds until it creates a haunting symphony of sound. These elements act as a compression of time and space, allowing multiple histories to speak simultaneously. Sergio Hernandez Chicano Time Capsule, Nelli Quitoani For forty years, the late Chicano artist and cartoonist Sergio Hernandez has echoed important cultural topics and socio-political issues of the Chicano community. Early on, Hernandez began working for Con Safos Magazine , the first Chicano literary magazine. Upon being recruited by Con Safos member and artist Tony Gomez, Hernandez began to align his practice with themes related to the emerging Chicano Movement or “El Movimiento”. The Chicano Movement was and still is geared toward advocating for “social and political empowerment through “chicanismo”, the idea of taking pride in one’s Mexican-American heritage, or cultural nationalism.” Across painting, cartoons, and murals, Hernandez satires socio-political happenings and provides an intimate perspective of the Chicano community. Influenced by Chicano culture, iconography, and artists alike, Hernandez’s work became a beacon calling for action and attention to the harsh realities faced by the Chicano community. The artworks in this exhibition are a small yet compelling collection of Hernandez’s contribution to the Chicano art and power movements. The panel of comic strips on display belong to the Arnie and Porfi comic series. Struggling with the duality of his identity as a Mexican- American, Hernandez often battled with his internal desire to adhere to conservative family-views and his newly found chicanismo. Hernandez expressed this conflict through satire and comedic relief through the Arnie and Porfi comics, visualizing the dystopian world. In other words, through art and humor Hernandez exposes the political oddities and disproportionate disparity experienced by Mexican- Americans. Sergio Hernandez (1948-2021) was born and raised in Los Angeles, California in the South Central area known as the Florence/Firestone District. He received his Bachelor Degree in Chicano Studies from San Fernando Valley State College, which is now known as the California State University, Northridge. January 22 - April 16, 2022 Back to list

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

back to list Jaune Jaune is one part satirist and another part artist, utilizing tiny uniformed garbage men and construction workers to advocate for more social awareness. Hailing from Belgium, Jaune paints and constructs little worlds of chaos and disruption, via layered stencils, for his army of workers in little yellow reflective vests to run amok. He creates beauty out of the mundane and wields creativity as a powerful tool for making the best out of the worst.

Lara Cruz < Back Roses By Lara Cruz Roses are gorgeous and universal; they can mean love or friendship. Many people relate to them because everyone loves roses. Someday I wish I could be like a rose. Having everyone adore me from the way that I look to the way that I smell. Letting my aroma enchant whoever passes by me. As well as always carrying a suit of armor as protection. Every rose is different though, their colors are symbolic for everyone. Red means love and passion and is given to someone special, someone you can not live without. While white tends to signify purity, and in the Catholic church, the Virgin Mary is continuously surrounded by white roses. If I could pick my color as a rose, I would want to be a yellow rose. My color would symbolize happiness, and people that would see me as a yellow rose can relate to a happy time in their life. They would have flashbacks of their childhood memories and remember how easy life was. A time in which they were energetic and optimistic about life and would want to go back to that same state of thought. My thorns would help protect me from anyone who tries to hurt me. Sometimes, as humans, we forget how much words can impact others' lives, but as a rose, my thorns will symbolize all the hardships I have endured. As I continue to learn from past experiences, I will gain more thorns from them to ensure that those experiences will no longer hurt me again. My thorns are a shield, but they are swords as well. Anyone that wants to take advantage of my beauty will be pricked by my blades made of thorns. As a rose, I would be happier because I would share beauty and confidence with the world. As well as understand the difficulty the world has to bring. I will adapt to my living conditions and use my thorns for protection. Most importantly, as a rose, I will learn to love and accept myself, which is one of the most complex challenges in life. Previous Next

news archive: 07/08/15 MAYA EXCURSION with Bruce Love, Ph.D. & Stevie Love, MFA 06/17/15 Artweek.LA Cover Story "The Importance of Flower Paintings" MOAH FLORA 05/29/15 Conversation with President Bruce W. Ferguson and Social Practice Artist Rick Lowe 05/19/15 AV Outpost Brings an Ambitious Program of Social Practive to AV 02/24/15 30th Annual Juried Art Show at MOAH to Feature Two Distinguished Judges 01/27/15 Huffington Post: MOAH Artist Andrew Frieder Featured at Outsider Art Fair 01/07/15 KCET ARTBOUND: "Being Here and There: Ambiguous Boundaries and Contested Terrains" 12/16/14 MOAH's "Being Here and There" Cover Story of ARTWEEK.LA 08/14/14 Cedar Center Alive Again 08/13/14 MOAH Manager Andi Campognone appointed to Executive Committee of Art Table LA Branch 03/30/14 MOAH Featured in ARTILLERY MAGAZINE for "Colorimetry" Show 03/24/14 John Van Hamersveld interviews on 'The Poster Show' 02/25/14 MOAH featured in Italian Magazine, Drost Effect: "Colorimetry Uses Color as Instigator" 10/27/13 Eastside High students turn illegally dumped waste into art 09/17/13 Tim Youd: An Art of Sound and Word 08/26/13 Firm has sights set on space, beyond 08/25/13 Old, young theme of workshop 08/13/13 Artist critique slated for museum forum 07/29/13 Museum set to take flight with four new exhibits 05/14/13 Flowers, “SuperCallaFragileMysticEcstasyDioecious,” Bloom at MOAH 05/13/13 Eastside in Full Bloom With Artistic Pieces 05/03/13 The Social Art of Jorg Dubin 05/01/13 Art Ltd.-Artist Profile: Gary Lang 04/17/13 The Brave Gestures Of Gary Lang 07/01/12 Art Ltd-A New Art Museum for the Antelope Valley 06/28/12 Budding Young Artists Flock to MOAH Art Workshop Thursday 05/14/12 A Moon-Age Daydream: The Collision of Arts and the Aerospace Industry 05/02/12 New Museum of Art and History prepares to open in Lancaster 04/29/12 MOAH adds to BLVD 04/25/12 The MOAH the Merrier - Museum to open May 5 04/05/12 Lancaster Hit By 'Yarn Bombing' 03/21/12 Museum of Art and History set to make opening debut 02/06/12 Campognone Looks To Put Impressive Stamp On MOAH 02/02/12 Lancaster's Pro Tem Curator Looks Eagerly To Future 01/16/12 Museum Piece Declares, 'IT'S WAR!' 01/12/12 The MOAH the merrier: New museum twice as big as old

Special Projects What's in a Landscape? Southbound Northbound Count Me In Antelope Valley Walls™ Green MOAH Skytower Park Murals

Spirit of Summer < Return to Exhibitions June 21 - August 31, 2014 Herbie Fletcher Path of a Wave Warrior: Selections From the Fletcher Collection Main Gallery & Lobby Atriums Art of Coop East Gallery Douglas McCulloh & Jacques Garnier: On the Beach Wells Fargo Gallery The Artists of the Film Mana South Gallery Allison Renshaw Education Gallery Vintage Pinball Machines: Selections from the Thumperdome Collection Vault Gallery John Van Hamersveld: Graphic Posters Vault Gallery Herbie Fletcher Wrecktangles COOP Challenger Douglas McCulloh & Jacques Garnier On the Beach The Artists of the Film MANA Allison Renshaw Untitled Thumperdome John Van Hamersveld The Endless Summer Path of A Wave Warrior: Selections from the Fletcher Collection MOAH is proud to present selected works from the Herbie and Dibi Fletcher Collection. Selections include Herbie Fletcher’s signature art work, vintage surfboards, photographs, and historic film footage. Herbie Fletcher is globally recognized as a surfing legend and a pioneering inventor who helped shape—literally and figuratively— the way surfing is practiced today. Herbie and Dibi’s story embodies the passion and determination of America’s trailblazing, entrepreneurial spirit: Herbie and Dibi Fletcher first met in Waianae, on Oahu’s west side during Dibi’s family’s annual trip to the Makaha Surf Contest in 1964. Her dad, Walter Hoffman, was a contest judge and her sister, Joyce, was competing on her road to the women's surfing world title. Herb was looking for his board which someone had given to Dibi’s sister to hang on to, as they were in the same surf club. It was a brief encounter that would change both of their lives. They saw each other frequently on the surf contest circuit that was filled with the colorful characters of the time and by the Makaha contest in '66, Herb was competing and filming with Greg MacGillivray who was making Free and Easy with his partner Jim Freeman. By 1969, Herb and Dibi called the house at Pupakea home. It was idyllic, no footprints on the beach, no TV, phones, radio, or newspapers, a tropical paradise. The first thing Herb did was build a shaping room in the back yard where he continued working on the downrail and mini gun that he and Mike Hynson had been perfecting in the winter of '67/'68 when they were first exploring the waves at Pipeline Rights, now known as Backdoor and Off The Wall. Herb could shape and glass a board in the afternoon and have it in the line-up by morning, allowing him almost instant feedback on his design ideas. Soon thereafter the Fletchers started the Islands first Clark Foam franchise and began to take part in a fantastic time of innovation in surfboard design and construction. Boards were getting lighter, and faster allowing the surfer to get farther back in the tube and still make it out alive. Gone were the days of the surf style from their father’s generation where the surfer took off and trimmed: standing in one place on the board out in front of the break. Now the goal was to get deep in the barrel, so the shapers were creating a new vocabulary in board design to keep up with the needs of the surfers who were pushing themselves and their equipment like never before. With the need to support a growing family the Fletchers decided to head back to the mainland. They opened the Herbie Surfboard Shop on Coast Hwy in Dana Point to reintroduce the longboard that had gone out of popularity with the advent of the new modern short board. Herb realized that the high performance boards that he had help popularize were keeping people on the mainland from enjoying the surfing that's available on the California coast. They started a campaign "The Thrill is Back" with his square nose, turned down rail, fast moving, nose riding flying machine, built for hot dogging, nose riding and drop knee turns. Having grown up in the generation of long boards and personally being part of the short board revolution Herb took the best from both and created light weight, highly manoeuvrable boards that the guy who worked behind a desk during the week could still go out on the weekends and have a blast instead of sitting on a short board in the line up like a buoy, unable to catch anything. Although successful, retail was something Herb found extremely difficult. He had a much more entrepreneurial/ inventor type mindset and the day to day was far better suited to someone else. He started experimenting with an elastomere that he was positive when applied to the tail of the surfboard would eliminate the use of wax and give more fin and rail control, something completely extraordinary. He thought it would not only revolutionize surfing, but boating, bath and shower bottoms and pool decks. He called it Astrodeck. Like all inventors, he was so passionate about the advantages, he was sure he had a Hit. He never thought that the surfers wouldn’t jump at the chance to experience a new, light weight, technically advanced way to have more control over the board. It was an interesting lesson in human nature to see how reluctant individuals are to change, but our sons Christian and Nathan became perfect test pilots for Herb’s fertile imagination. Herb had been experimenting with video as a promotion for Astrodeck and with film left over, the idea of capturing the most awesome surf with the greatest contemporary surfers all riding his product was irresistible. He was back to Oahu’s north shore with secure access to the Pipeline and the most select group of fearless tube riders that the Pipeline was becoming known for. Over the course of the next eight years Herb made 5 videos in the Wave Warrior series that took the viewer deep into the tube at Pipeline, screaming down the face at gigantic Sunset, blasting into the air on a Jet Ski over mountains of water out a Second Reef Pipe and speeding down the line at Maaleaa, sailboarders doing aerial 360’s on Maui, surfers, watermen, pushing the boundaries like never before. These videos showcased the who’s who of Rad, and documented the progress of modern surfing, that started with their father’s generation trimming, to the generation of surfers who got so deep in the barrel and at the last moment spit out with amazing speed, to the abstract expressionists who took surfing into the air. Dibi and Herb’s son, Christian Fletcher lead the aerial assault and caused quite a stir in the mainstream surfing establishment that Herb documented with relish. With more than 60 video titles capturing forever the history of surf that today has finally seen the coming of age of a style that seemed blasphemous a few decades earlier. Surfing has come a long way and seen the awe inspiring big wave adventures of a few complete madmen, our son Nathan included riding 60’ tubes over razor sharp reefs in a couple of feet of water with photographers in tow capturing every breath taking moment, it all has a feeling of déjà vu as the dreams we had a youngsters in the early years in Hawaii are now a reality. During the years Herb was most actively filming, he was also shooting stills of the greatest surfers and has hundreds of thousands of images that he’s used in a variety of ways to tell his story of a surf life, from huge blow ups in his collaboration with Julian Schnabel to photo collages that seem like a short movie themselves in their ability to capture the imagination and allow the viewer a glimpse into a rarefied behind the scene atmosphere of life lived on the edge. As a surfboard shaper/glasser that depended on design to be able to manoeuvre in the most critical circumstances it seemed perfectly natural to use the board itself to create art as an extension of his life and passion. It’s been a honour to have the young surf greats of today saving boards they broke at the Pipeline to be part of the Wrecktangle series. It’s been a fantastic journey and the show “Path of a Wave Warrior” pays tribute to Herb’s love affair with a lifestyle that has given them so much. The Art of COOP: Surfers Cross I and II Los Angeles Based artist COOP (Christopher Cooper) is among a group of second generation pop surrealists working at the intersection of illustration and fine art with a focus on the hot rod, rock and roll, punk rock and the comic books associated with a “delinquent youth” counter-culture. Working continuously since age 16, COOP started creating band posters, concert fliers and 45 record sleeves. COOP was influenced by the renowned first generation Lowbrow artist “Big Daddy Roth”, the California hot-rod builder and the work of pioneering painter/illustrator Robert Williams, co-creator of Juxtapoz magazine; Williams impressed upon COOP the need to bridge the gap between commercial art, highly skilled representational painting and fine art. Moving to Los Angeles from Oklahoma in 1988, COOP put these influences into action creating graphics for the record industry. He subsequently held a studio at the Brewery in downtown LA which allowed him the space to move from small scale music industry posters and cover art to large scale paintings. His 2003 large format 6’ paintings earned him a reputation and he continues to work large format today, as shown here with Surfers Cross (I & II) 2014. This 144” x 72” acrylic & enamel on canvas diptych represents the cooption of war symbols and imagery by the surf culture. COOP notes his alliance to 1960s youth culture and the underlying thrust of Surfers Cross (I & II): “I’m not a surfer. My experience of surf culture comes at a slight remove. I’ve long been obsessed with all the aspects of 60s youth culture (mind you, I’m not talking about hippies, but the real 60s youth culture - hot rods, rock & roll and surfing).” The surfer’s cross is a commercialized version of an Iron Cross, the Prussian military decoration first designed by Karl Freidrich Schinkel for King Frederick William III, after the defeat of Napoleon in Russia in 1813. The symbol was used by the Prussian, and later German armed forces through World War II, and to the present day. In the USA, post-WWII, the Iron Cross became popular as a symbol of nonconformity, worn by surfers, bikers, and hot rodders. In the beginning, these Iron Crosses were the real thing, war trophies brought home by American G.I.s after the war, but soon enough, smart operators like Ed “Big Daddy” Roth began to market newly-made medallions, decals, t-shirts and other items featuring the military decoration. The surfer’s cross depicted is one of these, a cheap knockoff made to cash in on the surfing “craze”. –COOP, 2014 Doug McCulloh & Jacques Garnier: Photographs from On the Beach The real life characters photographed for On The Beach reveal the rich diversity and color of the beach as a social and cultural pageant. California’s beaches are a magnet, not only for the local population, but for the millions who visit California each year. This exhibition features images made over 2 years on California’s beaches, combined with a companion series made on the beaches of Florida. The show rises from a powerfully straightforward idea - go to the beach and capture a chance sample of beachgoers. "The ocean's edge is a place of freedom and desire, a place to stare and to strut, to see and to be seen. Beaches are half display, half voyeurism. This is the precise terrain of photography- one side posing, the other looking. Cameras belong on the beach." —Jacques Garnier and Douglas McCulloh Curator's Statement: The Artists of the Film Mana In 2012, while working on another project with Eric Minh Swenson, artist Alex Couwenberg proposed a documentary film idea on process and passion, specifically the passion associated with surfing and its relationship with creativity. As a curator focused on Southern California, I found this intriguing. Surfing’s connection with the history of materials in Los Angeles had been well-established, but the process had not really been discussed. A call to the art-making community went out and the response was overwhelming. I had no idea that so many serious artists were surfers. After speaking with dozens of artists, the direction became apparent: all revered the power, beauty and complexity of the ocean, and the physical nature of their interaction with it, both in the water and out. Based on their contributions as modern day pioneers of the Southern California art world and their availability to travel as a group to Hawaii, the birthplace of surfing, 10 artists were chosen to represent a section of the Southern California contingent. Several of the artists were born and/or raised in Hawaii and have family histories there. The film comprises artist interviews in their Los Angeles studios, as well as footage of them working, surfing and living on location in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. While in Kailua-Kona, the artists participated in a panel lecture at Holualoa Art Foundation’s Donkey Mill Art Center and an exhibition of their work at MELD Gallery. The documentary was shaped by the directorial vision of Los Angeles-based filmmaker Eric Minh Swenson, who has produced over 500 films featuring major LA artists, curators and collectors. Footage by celebrated cinematographers Marcel Morin and Sarah Mueller of Vitae Sessions coupled with beautiful water images from MANA artist Ken Pagliaro compliment Swenson’s aesthetic sensibility. Our team crafted a feature length film focusing on the brotherhood of a group of artists selected for their artistic contributions in the Southern California art world, each working on their own terms within the Light and Space, Finish Fetish, Design and Assemblage movements that have come to shape and define the Los Angeles art scene. As divergent as each artist’s work is in comparison, they all share a common thread in their process and vision and are constantly driven by the influences and forces of family, friendships, “stoke,” aloha and the common bond of the unseen mana (power) of the land and sea. Their interactions and conversations with each other and the environment are the focus of the visual narrative. The film MANA, which debuted in Hawaii at the Kona Surf Film Festival to a standing-room-only crowd in 2014, became the impetus for the Museum of Art & History’s exhibition, The Artists of the Film MANA, which opened to record museum visitors in the summer of 2014. I am extremely proud to present this incarnation of the original Museum exhibition here in Naples, Italy. I would like to thank Cinthia and Renato Penna for their support and facilitation, all of the artists for their willingness to participate, and especially Eric Minh Swenson for telling the story. Allison Renshaw Encinitas-based artist Allison Renshaw employs fragmentation as a means to offer multiple perspectives, discordant vocabularies and malleable visual boundaries spanning both her large scale and more intimate sized paintings. Renshaw’s explosive imagery is informed by particles of our urban landscape and culture found in everyday life. Fashion, modern architecture, surf culture, and the natural environment combine and collide. Through her active, frenzied surfaces, Renshaw creates a textured universe that is seemingly random and difficult to decipher. This chaotic quality becomes an apt visualization of today’s open-source culture of sampling and recycling. Lines between the organic and human-made become blurred and a larger narrative is evoked through a banal fragment. Renshaw notes she is “interested in how memories occur and connect a life of partial meanings…fragments acknowledge interpretive ambiguities and open the work to sequences of spatial and temporal lapses. Memory and fantasy synthesize and unravel like a half-remembered dream.” This distinctive approach to the painted surface situates Renshaw’s work at the crossroads of multiple art historical periods including Pop Art, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Contemporary Collage. An avid surfer, Renshaw was born and raised in Orange County, California. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and a Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2013, she was included in the Cannon Art Gallery’s Invitational and Biennial exhibitions. Other recent exhibitions include Helmuth Projects in San Diego; The Mirus Gallery in San Francisco; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Oceanside Museum of Art. She is Associate Faculty at Mira Costa College, Oceanside, California. Vintage Pinball: Selections from the Thumperdome Collection The goal of Thumperdome is to preserve the history, technology, artwork and culture of pinball in America and promote pinball to future generations. Thumperdome houses one of the largest, and most diverse private collections of pinball machines in the nation. The ever-rotating collection traverses the development of pinball machines from the early bagatelle-like games of the 1930s, to the introduction of pinball flippers in the 1940s, through the captivating and vibrant artwork from the 1950s, and 1960s pinball game themes which reflect the change in youth culture and current events. The 1970s solid-state games progressed alongside the computer age, culminating with the 1980s and 90s when the threat of video games finally toppled pinball from the hearts of American fun-seekers. This collection shares the beauty of the machines and the challenge of the games to entertain, educate and captivate a new generation. These vintage machines take people back to a time when a pocketfull of quarters meant hours of summer fun spent on one’s favorite games with best friends. The games here in the Vault Gallery represent each of the 3 major pinball manufacturers of the era: Gottlieb, Williams and Bally. These were chosen for their connection to surfing, summer and pop culture. Thumperdome is the name given to the historic pinball collection of Amanda Cole and Art Perez in Pasadena, CA. Both grew up in awe of the silver ball, saving up their quarters to drop in to the nearest pinball machine. A chance find of a decaying Evel Knievel pinball machine gave Art the opportunity to restore his favorite childhood machine and start the collection that would grow into Thumperdome. Amanda works in technology and Art and is an artist/photographer with a background in engineering. Together, their combined interests and expertise are utilized to restore and rejuvenate machines which they have collected throughout the Country. John Van Hamersveld: Graphic Posters Renowned graphic designer and illustrator, John Van Hamersveld’s quest for connecting image or symbol through an abstraction of reality reinforces the emotional connection we make with his images and captures his metaphor of modern life. He uses the language of graphic design to communicate through visual representations of type, space, symbol, and image. The essence of graphic design is to give order to information, form to ideas, and expression and feeling to artifacts that document our human experience from as far back as the middle-ages. John Van Hamersveld combines these graphic design tools with bold color choices, often psychedelic images, and culturally significant events to create his iconic one of kind poster art. This 50 year celebration of John Van Hamersveld’s Iconic poster The Endless Summer will be bringing a pop of culture and color to the Museum’s main gallery. John Van Hamersveld’s work is known for its brightly colored hues, bold lines and commentary on the culturally dominant ideas of the sixties all the way up to current times. Looking at his posters we can see his relationship with color and the different styles and influences that impacted him and his work, from his education at Art Center College of Design and Chouinard Art Institute, to his work with Surfer magazine, and the influence of peers such as Aubrey Beardsley, Alphonse Mucha, and Rick Griffin. His posters are part of the defining moments of Pop Culture which is seen as a reaction to and an expansion of Abstract Expressionism. MOAH will be displaying John Van Hamersveld’s art, which range from the iconic 1964 The Endless Summer movie poster to the 2005 Cream Reunion poster in the Main Gallery. The display will consist of his eighty five posters of Pop Art from the last fifty years. At the center of the room is the core of his work, created as a student and as a professional, each poster representing an experiment with technique, color, and culture. The Endless Summe r movie and poster gave birth to the Southern California surf culture which promised un-crowded beaches, new friends, and the perfect wave. It introduced a new “sport” and defined the style for the surf culture leaving behind a legacy of fashion, music, literature, and popular terms including surf’s up, hang ten, dude, gnarly, and stoked. John Van Hamersveld’s created image being culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant, having been created in Dana Point, a pioneering surf spot, it impacted the local coastal communities of Santa Monica, Venice, and Malibu. The composition of his Endless Summer poster, the placement of the surfers and the single color tone and hard edge of each image, explore the psychedelic and spiritual side of the surfing culture as well as bridging the gap between locals and visitors. Fletcher Collection Mana Renshaw Thumperdome Collection On the Beach Coop Hamersveld View or Download the Spirit of Summer Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.

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back to list Kim Sielbeck Kim Sielbeck is an illustrator, painter, and surface designer. Her colorful, fun illustrations can be found on packaging, clothing, magazines, and murals throughout the world. Kim was greatly influenced by her few years living in Hawai’i as a child, and moved back in 2017 after eleven years in New York City. Kim recently got married to her best friend Bryce (mid-Pandemic!), and now spends most of her time in southern California in the Mojave Desert. When not drawing, Kim travels to new places far and wide, enjoys long walks, likes making friends (except when beating them at Catan), plays guitar (check out her old band Puppies ), reads, and tries new recipes.

Up Empty Vessel Excerpts Amir Zaki Amir Zaki is a photographer interested in the rhetoric of authenticity. Although Zaki’s use of hybridized photography tows the line between reality and the abstract, his documentary style ensures the viewer’s trust in the piece remains intact. His subject matter revolves around the architectural and organic California landscape, mainly the idea that California is symbolic of a metaphorical collage of styles and ideas. Empty Vessels explores the vacant landscapes of California skateparks and juxtaposes these images with still lifes of broken, ceramic containers. Using a DSLR and a motorized GigaPan tripod, each photo taken is a composite of a dozen or several dozen photos that he combines. The result is a hyper-realistic rendering of the space which seeks to explore the stillness and isolation of these places, inviting the viewer to contemplate their existence within these spaces. The visual comparison seeks to highlight the malleability of these structures with the undulating rigidity of the barren, concrete landscapes. What was once seen as static, cold and banal transforms into a magnificent display of movement and meditative contemplation. Amir Zaki received his Master of Fine Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1999. Zaki has been featured in over 30 solo exhibitions at institutions and galleries including the Mak Center Schindler House, the Doyle Arts Pavilion, the Dalian Modern Museum in China, ACME Gallery, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, James Harris Gallery, Edward Cella Art & Architecture, and Roberts Projects. He has been included in over 50 group exhibitions in significant venues including The California Biennial: 2006 at the Orange County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Andreas Grimm Gallery in Munich, Germany, Harris Lieberman Gallery in New York, Flag Art Foundation in New York, Western Bridge in Seattle, Shane Campbell Gallery in Chicago, the California Museum of Photography, Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, the San Jose Museum of Art, and the Nevada Museum of Art. He is currently a professor at the University of California, Riverside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCKJ8VwScGY January 23 – May 9, 2021 Back to list

Gorgeous Venue & Great Staff "I booked the rooftop terrace and Lantern Room for my dad's 90th birthday. The setting was stunning. It would be perfect for a wedding or any other special event...The MOAH staff was professional, helpful, and communicative throughout the 9 months of planning and also during the party." -R Oberdorf, Weddingwir e "I booked the "Lantern Room" atop the roof of the Lancaster Museum of Art & History. The space is very modern and clean; metal beams cross in front of floor-to-ceiling windows and the space is filled with natural light." -Katherine, Weddingwir e View or Download the Facility Rental Application by clicking here. Rental FAQs Rental Fees Photo: Pixels&Prints Photo: Pixels&Prints Photo: Danielle Bacon Photography Photo: Candace Benjamin Photography Photo: Pixels&Prints Photo: Pixels&Prints