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Tanisha Alam < Back Spring Festival By Tanisha Alam It is always a certain time of the year that you return to us. With your beauty and personality, your color and vibrance, you bring everyone prosperity and good fortune. For one month you are regarded with happiness. Like a symbol of hope, the troubles we faced in the last year will disappear at the sight of you. For one month you are displayed to showcase your beauty and your charm. Invited into the homes of all, you give us luck with your presence. For one month, you are the most regarded of any. In such festive times, there would be no tradition without you. You are essential and you are easy. The activities associated with you bring joy to the community, but you do not require much maintenance. Most importantly you are familiar. Since the beginning you have been there. Every year this time approaches, you are the most anticipated guest. When we have to venture from home, we look for you as a sense of belonging and as a sense of family. When we see you, we are reminded of all the good moments in our lives. A joyous time, that one month. But what happens after? What happens when the weather changes and new flowers bloom? All of a sudden your face drops and your color fades and you emit a certain stench. But why? Are you jealous that others arrive after you? But, you had your grand entrance. You were praised till you were worn out. People toss you aside, some even holding on till the last petal. Because, now that your time has passed, you are out of luck and out of style. The festivities that happen before you bless us for the following year, but they must come to an end eventually. Now we have to get on with our lives. Time does not stop, so we cannot allow you to linger, and that you know. So, you accept it. You make your departure, taking your festivities with you. You understand. That time of year is over, your regard is over. Oh well. This happens every season. No hard feelings. It is rather bittersweet. You know when you will come and you know when you will leave. Mourning you like the dead seems pointless. You will be back, so, instead of crying, let us continue to celebrate. Celebrate our new found luck, prosperity, and joy. Let it resonate for the next year, and once the weather turns cold and that luck seems to run out again, no worries, only a couple more months before you return. You come bearing gifts when we need you most, and once that joy is fulfilled, you depart till your time returns. You have a motive and as long as time continues to move forward, you will continue to fulfill it. That is the beauty of you. 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

Past Exhibitions 300-Miles to Wounded Knee: The Oomaka Tokatakiya, Future Generations Ride Ken Marchionno January 23 – May 9, 2021 Ken Marchionno has been pursuing photography since the age of 15 and after working with video, installation, interactive design, digital works and performance, documentary photography is Marchionno's preferred medium and methodology. Marrying his artwork with his passionate social practice, he records the fragility and complexity of life in a quick-moving contemporary world, and through his photography gives voice to moments, people and places that might have otherwise been overlooked. Read More A print collection Nuri Amanatullah February 2019 - May 2021 Nuri Amanatullah is an Antelope Valley-based painter, illustrator, and designer whose stylized, graphic depictions of flora and fauna are represented in a variety of mediums including illustration and large-scale murals. Employing both traditional techniques and digital media, Amanatullah has designed for Disney, storyboarded for Uber, illustrated for Airbnb, and painted walls at numerous sites around the Antelope Valley including a mural with Antelope Valley Walls in 2018, as well as in Flint, Michigan as part of the Free City Mural Festival. Read More Activation Various Artists January 22 - April 16, 2022 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. Read More Art Activations at the Preserve Dani Dodge 2019 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. Read More Artist As Subject Various Artists May 7 - July 24, 2016 Rebecca Campbell Andrew Frieder Kent Anderson Butler Eric Minh Swenson Jane Szabo Nataša Prosenc Stearns Read More British Invasion Various Artists November 19, 2016 - January 22, 2017 Born in Cambridge, England, Andrew Hall is best known for his graphically stunning, abstract photography. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts with honors in graphic design from Exeter College of Art and Design. A successful commercial photographer, Hall has worked with some of London’s top creative agencies and design consultancies. Read More Celebrate the Lunar New Year Lorraine Bubar Read More Citrus Series David Koeth June 5 – September 5, 2021 A critique of these large-scale industrial complexes a the damaging processes of unsustainable agricultural production Describing himself as restless and eclectic, David Koeth works with citrus peels, paint, coffee, and graphic design. His artworks reflect humanity's long-fought struggle with pollution and humanity’s attempt to combat the destruction of Earth's natural resources and living species. Read More Collaborate and Create Various Artists May 9 - August 16, 2020 Collaborate and Create is an extension project conceived by the directors of Kipaipai Workshops, a non-profit organization that focuses on the professional development of artists. Kipaipai Workshop’s mission is to encourage, inspire and build community. Collaborate and Create pairs two artists with varying artistic styles to problem solve and produce a collaborative work pushing boundaries outside the artists’ regular studio practice and experimenting with styles and materials. Read More Contemporary Landscape: From the Desert to the Sea Various Artists November 22, 2014 - January 11, 2015 Being Here and There features photographic works by twenty-six artists whose imagery derives from their individual and contemplative experience of place. Situated among an array of topographies and ecosystems from the desert to the sea, each of their creative works provides us with a unique view and perspective of a spectacular landscape, unlike any other. These artists are contemporary surveyors, seeking to depict and give meaning to this place where we live. Read More CountMeIn - 2020 Census Project Various Artists May 9 - December 27, 2020 The Lancaster Museum of Art & History (MOAH) and the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation (LMPAF) invite the public to its newest exhibition #CountMeIn , a celebration of the community recognizing their value in civic life through engagement and education on the topic of the 2020 United States Census. Every decade, the U.S. Census counts every resident in the nation and uses the data to allocate billions of dollars in federal funds to local communities and determines the number of seats each state receives in the House of Representatives. Read More Empty Vessel Excerpts Amir Zaki January 23 – May 9, 2021 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. Read More

< Back January 4 - January 18, 2025 Elyze Clifford Interpretive Center In this workshop series participants will venture into the Preserve with Polaroid cameras and unique pointing devices to photograph areas that capture their personal interest. These locations will also be marked on a map to document their connection to the land. Back at the Interpretive Center, participants will bring their images to life by adding text, drawings, and captions using stencils, vinyl letters, and handwritten type. All photographs and contributions will be collected to create a community-generated interpretive map of the Preserve, which will be showcased in an upcoming exhibition. Schedule: Saturday, January 4, 2025 | 11AM - 1PM Saturday, January 11, 2025 | 11AM - 1PM Saturday, January 18, 2025 | 11AM - 1PM https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artist-in-residence-with-dave-martin-you-are-the-interpreter-here-tickets-1133494124439?aff=ebdsshcopyurl&utm-source=cp&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing Previous Next

< Back June 5 – September 5, 2021 A critique of these large-scale industrial complexes a the damaging processes of unsustainable agricultural production Describing himself as restless and eclectic, David Koeth works with citrus peels, paint, coffee, and graphic design. His artworks reflect humanity's long-fought struggle with pollution and humanity’s attempt to combat the destruction of Earth's natural resources and living species. As a self proclaimed capitalist, Koeth’s acquisitive tendencies have led him to amass a collection of various objects that eventually find their way into his artistic practice. Additionally, Koeth has created works relevant to endangered species, concepts of recycling, and negatively impactful industrial processes. Koeth’s Citrus Series on view critiques of these large-scale industrial complexes, most directly, the damaging processes of unsustainable agricultural production. Previous Next

< Back November 11, 2017 - January 14, 2018 Special Exhibition : Dark Progressivism Artists : Ken Gonzales-Day Linda Vallejo Abel Alejandre Ana Rodriguez In celebration of the Getty Museum’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, which is a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, MOAH presents its winter exhibition, Imagen Angeleno . This exhibition will include solo exhibits of work by: Ken Gonzales-Day, Abel Alejandre, Ana Rodriguez and Linda Vallejo. The Main Gallery will feature a special exhibition, Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment , guest-curated by Rodrigo d’Ebre and Lisa Derrick. Inspired by the 2016 documentary film Dark Progressivism , written by Rodrigo d’Ebre and co-directed by Rodrigo d’Ebre and James J. Yi, this exhibition highlights the street and public art movements that characterize Los Angeles’ Southland. Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment answers the question of which movements are shaping 21st century art with a multi-faceted approach that looks to the streets of LA, where innovations in design and the idea of vandalism as a form of artistic resistance are embedded in the city’s identity. Artists featured in Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment include: Michael Alvarez, Sandow Birk, Chaz Bojorquez, Liz Brizzi, Roberto Chavez, Gajin Fujita, Peter Greco, Roberto Gutierrez, Jason Hernandez, Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez, Louis Jacinto, Susan Logoreci, Manuel Lopez, Eva Malhotra, Horacio Martinez, Jim McHugh, Gerardo Monterrubio, Nunca, Estevan Oriol, Cleon Peterson and Lisa Schulte, Felix Quintana, Carlos Ramirez, Erwin Recinos, Rafael Reyes, Joe ‘Prime’ Reza, Sandy Rodriguez, Shizu Saldamando, Alex Schaefer, Jaime Scholnick & Big Sleeps. Dark Progressivism Curated by Rodrigo Ribera d'Ebre and Lisa Derrick The Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment exhibit is a survey of the region’s Dark Progressivism school of thought, which dates back to the Great Depression, and is brought into current day. Special emphasis is placed on the post-war era through the present. The exhibit sheds light on the organic relationship between photography, painting, literature, architecture, sculpture, cinema, mural, and typography. The creation and production of these works derive from a noir cityscape, in a land where the bright colors of flora and fauna, native and transplanted, belief somber secrets and complex histories. The origin of Dark Progressivism begins with the built environment. As a result of restrictive housing covenants against people of color, clusters of orderly and planned suburbs sprouted all over the metropolis, while high density, marginalized, and underdeveloped communities developed elsewhere, forming a belt around Downtown Los Angeles. Far from tourist destinations, these communities were invisible and associated with slum housing. During the Depression, people of color, born and raised in Los Angeles, were fired from public sector jobs so that “White Americans” could find employment, while thousands of Mexican Americans and Mexican-born immigrants were repatriated to Mexico. At the same time, “socially progressive” housing projects were designed by renowned architects as a form of containment to house low-income Mexican and Mexican American communities. Housing projects such as Maravilla, Rose Hills Courts, Ramona Gardens, Pico Aliso Village, Dogtown, and several others became a reality, and thousands were displaced into the shadows of the projects; thus people of color and these communities became more invisible and further fragmented. On the bleak streets of this built environment, the youth responded by writing graffiti on walls in the form of community plaques, and carving names and neighborhoods in cement to show that they too existed in the dark metropolis. From then, through the changes, whether physical and social, violent or benign, of the ensuing decades, contemporary artists in a variety of mediums have been directly informed by this noir cityscape. Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment deconstructs the metropolis’ trajectory through an unprecedented historical lens, with works from artists who are not only impacted by the opaque topography, but who are also contributing to the dialog of progress. Ken Gonzales-Day Profiled Racial profiling and discriminatory treatment of persons of color remains at the center of political debates about criminal justice, terrorism, national security and immigration reform despite the increasing understanding that race has more to do with culture than biology. Many studies have been made involving the literary and art-historical depictions of race in text and painting, but the sculpted figure and the portrait bust have garnered little attention. Ken Gonzales-Day: Profiled addresses these forms. It became evident in Gonzales-Day’s research that historically sculptures and portrait busts were created using other works of art such as photographs or illustrations as reference. Many sculptures are copies of copies and with each new artist comes a reinterpretation of the previous. This cycle of replication has resulted in the progressive distortion of the subjects’ depiction. In others, the busts were not busts at all, but fragments from larger sculptures composited from various models. Profiled is about more than the uncanny double, it is about the fragmented and fractured subject and its visual potential. Ken Gonzales-Day is a Los Angeles based artist whom received a BFA from Pratt Institute, an MFA from the University of California Irvine, an MA from Hunter College and is now a Professor of Art and Humanities at Scripps College in Claremont, CA. His work has been widely exhibited including: LACMA, Los Angeles; LAXART, Los Angeles; Tamayo Museum, Mexico City; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; The New Museum, New York City; Generali Foundation, Vienna, and more. Ken Gonzales-Day was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in photography in 2017. Linda Vallejo The Brown Dot Project Linda Vallejo’s The Brown Dot Project continues her work examining the growing Latino population and American’s changing attitudes towards color and class. The Brown Dot Project began with the artist’s consideration of statistics concerning Latino populations and how abstract painted works could spark a dialog about these numbers and their influence on the viewer’s perception of race and class. The “brown dot” abstract image of these Latino data numbers emerged after much trial and error. Once Vallejo’s work led her to the grid, she began dividing them into quadrants and a pattern began to manifest. Vallejo continued the project’s production by experimenting with formal variations based on Latino percentages and her experiences with indigenous weaving. The first images she produced recalled American Indian and Mesoamerican blankets, weavings and ancient ceremonial sites. Later, Mondrian, Chuck Close, Agnes Martin, Charles Gaines, and other grid-oriented modernists came to mind as she was forced to create new variations within the work. Vallejo studies a variety of data sets, including topics such as the number of Latinos in any given city or state, the national number of Latino executives, the number of Latinos involved in the American Civil War. As an example: The population of Los Angeles County is represented by 48,400 total squares. The county’s Latino population (48.3%) is represented by 23,377 dots arranged in 467 sets of 50 dots each (and one set of 27 additional dots). As her dates sets expand, so too have the works, growing in size from 9 square inches to 24 square inches, the largest of which are 36 square inches. Counting of these squares and dots, completing the corresponding mathematics, and “dotting” the page takes hours of concentration on both topic and execution. Abel Alejandre Urban Realism Abel Alejandre spent the first seven years of his life in the rural region of Tierra Caliente, Mexico. In these early years, Alejandre and his family lived without electricity and running water. They emigrated to Los Angeles in 1975, which Alejandre describes as being akin to traveling a century into the future. Looking back to this transformative period, Alejandre aims to examine and reinterpret what it means to be a human being, a man and the member of a community. These themes are explored in his work as his subject matter focuses on discounted and overlooked moments that subversively yet actively shape our culture. By isolating these instances into hyperrealist vignettes Alejandre intends to stimulate the onlookers’ reflection. The autobiographical elements of Alejandre’s work delve into the public and private spheres of masculinity and vulnerability. He frequently uses roosters to symbolize machismo, manhood, valor and patriarchy as they are animals known for their fierce instinct, beauty and determination to fight until its enemy is completely dispatched. Through his work Alejandre evaluates and questions the role of masculinity’s in contemporary society. For over twenty years Abel Alejandre has been perfecting his practice in acrylics, woodblock prints and graphite. Alejandre’s graphite drawings makes up the largest body of work and require upwards of five months to bring to fruition, averaging eleven hours per day and consumes about 700 pencils each. Ana Rodriguez Floral Interiors Ana Rodriguez’ canvases—with their feminine color palettes of pinks and purples and dripping textures that are reminiscent of frosting or cake batter—are at once mysterious, feminine and deeply personal. The artist grew up in the small community of Maywood, California, neighbor to the numerous chemical plants, refineries, public waste areas and foundries of Commerce and Vernon. As a child, Rodriguez recalls being highly aware of how the rancid smells of these factories mixed with the sweet scents of small bakeries and cake shops in her city. Memories of this olfactory sensation are pervasive throughout her current body of work. Rodriguez’ paintings also often incorporate references to the 99 Cent Store decorations that adorned her childhood home, providing a link to her family’s social class in an attempt to acquire a deeper understanding of the nature of classifying beauty and objects of value. Patterns reminiscent of kitchen cabinet liners, linoleum flooring, wallpaper and fabric from childhood toys and clothes emerge from beneath dripping washes of color in an amalgam of neon and pastel hues and abstract forms that seem to melt and ooze in and out of gravity. Allusions to the natural environment are also present in the artist’s color palette: splashes of pink mix with orange and gold, evoking the striking appearance of East Los Angeles’ sunsets, melting over the smokestacks of factories and the rooftops of crowded apartment complexes. Nostalgia and memory, fantasy and whimsy collide, mingle and overwhelm as abstraction and pattern coexist across Rodriguez’ paintings. Ana Rodriguez earned a BFA from California State University Long Beach and an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design, where she currently teaches. Previous Next

< Back May 9 - August 16, 2020 Collaborate and Create is an extension project conceived by the directors of Kipaipai Workshops, a non-profit organization that focuses on the professional development of artists. Kipaipai Workshop’s mission is to encourage, inspire and build community. Collaborate and Create pairs two artists with varying artistic styles to problem solve and produce a collaborative work pushing boundaries outside the artists’ regular studio practice and experimenting with styles and materials. This process generates creative growth, builds bonds and partnerships that establish a vibrant creative community. For #CountMeIn , the Collaborate and Create exhibition includes the works of 40 artists creating 20 new unique works. This is the second iteration of Collaborate and Create which debuted at The Loft at Liz’s in Los Angeles in January of 2020. The collaborative duos include Joy Ray and Dianna Stevens Woolley, Kimberly Brooks and Rob Grad, Terry Cervantes and Marthe Aponte, Alex Couwenberg and Lisa Schulte, Samuelle Richardson and Catherine Ruane, Vicki Walsh and Jim Daichendt, Margo Ray and Scott Yoell, Jane Szabo and Jill Sykes, Annie Seaton and Ray Beldner, Dani Dodge and Chelsea Dean, Snezana Saraswati Petrovic and Chenhung Chen, Karen Hochman Brown and Ann Marie Rousseau, Randi Matushevitz and Debbie Korbel, Marisabel Bazan and Gay Summer Rick, Terry Arena and Chris O’Mahony, Bailey Ferguson and Michelle Schwengel-Regala, Jeanne Dunn and Edwin Vasquez, Stevie Love and Cudra Clover, Vojislav Radovanovic and Kira Vollman, Marne Lucas and Steph Sydney. Previous Next

< Back June 5 – September 5, 2021 An assorted community quilt project portraying visual representations of home, highlighting the humanist aspect of her work. Cut, slash, crunch, and weave. These words encapsulate the fluidity of motion that defines the work of Los Angeles-based artist Shelley Heffler. Growing up in the Bronx, Heffler’s experiences navigating the subways of New York City root her artistic practice. The traces of transit maps are visible in the lines and forms in the composition of her work. Heffler’s recent work, We Are Home (2020), is an assorted community quilt project portraying visual representations of home, highlighting the humanist aspect of her work. Heffler, in her work, often uses glimpses and collages of various colors and textures to create an urban aesthetic. Heffler’s work combines waste and other byproducts of consumerism meshed with paint to create a trance-like cartographic composition, manifesting into the landscape of an altered world. With We Are Home , Heffler utilizes her artistic process in quilt-making, soliciting local residents to submit a 12” x 12” quilt block using objects and inspiration from their home. These assorted squares are then curated into the community quilt. This end product addresses the feeling of isolation during the quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing the thoughts of what home means to oneself. Previous Next

< Back February 14 - February 18, 2024 Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) is proud to present Osceola Refetoff: Repairing the Future , a multi-media exhibition focusing on global sea level rise. The centerpiece of the installation is a large-scale immersive audio-visual projection of the artist’s 8-minute film, Sea of Change . The film’s original footage was shot by Refetoff in Svalbard, Norway, near the North Pole during his The Arctic Circle Artist & Scientist Residency. These visuals are paired with NASA satellite images of the Earth and graphics depicting NASA’s scientific measurements of current climate disruptions. AI-generated animation envisions possible future climate outcomes. The project was edited with Juri Koll during Refetoff’s 2023 artist residency at Building Bridges Art Exchange in collaboration with Dr. Eric Larour, manager of NASA’s Earth Sciences Division at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The original soundtrack is written and performed by award-winning composer Paul Cantelon and Sultan + Shepard. Blending hard science, documentary video, and impressionistic imaginaries, Refetoff is known for using aesthetic strategies to define and communicate an urgent need for both personal and systemic engagement, leveraging the natural beauty of remote regions to command our global attention toward local climate issues. The exhibition will be accompanied by a performance from Hibiscus TV artists Kaye Freeman and Amy Kaps, and will also include a talk with Refetoff, curator Andi Campognone, and Rosanna Xia, L.A. Times climate journalist and author of California Against the Sea . LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER – WEST HALL 1201 South Figueroa Street Los Angeles, CA 90015 OPENING NIGHT PREMIERE Wednesday, February 14, 2024 I 6pm - 10pm GENERAL ADMISSION Thursday, February 15, 2024 | 12pm - 8pm Friday, February 16, 2024 | 12pm - 8pm Saturday, February 17, 2024 | 12pm - 8pm Sunday, February 18, 2024 | 12pm - 6pm For more information, please visit laartshow.com . To purchase tickets, please visit https://wl.seetickets.us/event/THE-LA-ART-SHOW-2024/564086?afflky=TheLAArtShow Previous Next

< Back August 10 - October 20, 2019 Five Year Survey curated by Cooper Johnson In MOAH’s Main Gallery, Five Year Survey , curated by Cooper Johnson features significant Los Angeles painters over the last five years. Its paintings range from socially-conscious figurative works to “pure” abstraction and everything in between. The exhibition exudes pure joy in paint as a material, with thick impasto brushwork, energetic mark-making, and bright, fresh color palettes. But paint isn’t the only material these artists utilize; photography, digital rendering, and printmaking all make their way into the work to break the mold of tradition and subvert expectations of what painting is and means. Five Year Survey is a cross-section of Los Angeles painting of the last five years, as exemplified by 15 artists who are moving the medium in new directions. Whether the artists of the survey pull from socio-political fray, bend the logic of composition, reinvigorate the mark, or push painting into the digital, all have a command of material and concept that enables multifaceted work. More importantly, their work reflects salient aspects of living in the present moment: an increased awareness of identity, hyper-connectedness and information abundance, and a heightened sensitivity to what is fake and what is real. And in this context, three themes emerge throughout the survey. First, many of the paintings in the survey address ideas surrounding identity. Taken together, these works suggest how identity can be viewed merely as a construct, but at the same time, the cause of serious issues concerning one’s experience. Something fabricated but nevertheless real. In Five Year Survey , identity is not about our physical features or inherent qualities, but is instead about the meanings we create for them, and store through object, symbol, and mark. And how those meanings, usually with historical and cultural momentum, are imposed, inflicted, or bestowed on each of us. Five Year Survey prompts us to consider not only how these attached meanings affect our day-to-day lives, but the inverse: whether there is something we truly are without our fabrications. A second theme throughout the survey is the use of paint to confuse how we define and experience what is “real.” Whether approaching the issue from painting’s tradition of illusion or its drift into the digital, these artists manipulate the mind’s natural functions, ranging from base-level sense-making to the desire to treat illusion as real. Artists handle this in a variety of ways in the survey. Objects in a landscape might be simultaneously revealed as staged—mere props in a diorama—but remain cloaked in the illusion of representation. Forms can be ambivalently representative and abstract, trigging the mind’s need to recognize patterns, but denying it certainty. The “space” in a painting may be structured to contain incompatible objects, forcing the mind to reconcile what shouldn’t exist in the same space. Even light itself, painted as textureless and pure as the sublime, lets slight deviations of the hand creep in. These works leave the viewer in seemingly contradictory states: experiencing the painting as “real,” but at the same time, hearing its confessions to the contrary. Third is the theme of plurality and purity in painting—paintings that do not zero in on any single concept, logic, or style, but are more interested in how different sets of rules can coexist in a single image. As seen over painting’s historical cycles of “purification” (and subsequent complication), narrowing down an image or process to its essence simultaneously constructs rules about the logic of its creation and interpretation. Although this isn’t new, the current trend away from “pure” painting seems to fit in the context of how technologically connected we are—not only do we have increasing access to a broader variety of work, but the role of the traditional gatekeepers is not as critical. In Five Year Survey , for example, this could include: charging geometric abstractions with agency or narrative; imbuing marks with more than the immediate movement or gesture, sometimes even elements of the painter’s identity; distorting the logic of the painting’s creation; nesting disparate styles within each other; or ironically adopting the rules of previous styles but conceptually contributing to them nonetheless. While Five Year Survey has no unifying concept, these three themes have similar analytical structures that inflect on, resonate with, and map onto the others. Whether it is our identity, our reality, or our rules of constructing images, the survey asks the viewer to explore the relationships we have with our own fabrications—the extent to which they only exist because we created them, and the extent to which we are nevertheless bound to them. Solo show DAVID ALLAN PETERS David Allan Peters creates work that explodes with countless layers of color and intricate texture, combining painting with sculptural hand-carved qualities. Diamonds, grids and circles create kaleidoscopic compositions that vibrantly explore geometry, intuition and chance. He has become known for his innovative process of building up material which is then peeled and cut away exposing what is below the initial surface, unveiling various colors at different depths. Peters sometimes works for 15 years on a single painting, painstakingly applying layer upon layer of acrylic paint and then cutting, scraping, sanding and carving into the layers to show the passage of time similar to the rings of a tree trunk. From the by-products of his paintings, Peters recycles the carved-out remnants into bricks forming minimalist installations. He pushes the limits of acrylic paint and the traditional painting processes, while dissolving the boundary between the second and third dimension. Rooted in the history of early West Coast abstraction, the genesis of Peters’ career was inspired by the dense layers found in other abstract artists such as Jay DeFeo. Continuously experimenting with pattern and diverse techniques, David Allan Peters’ latest body of work explores both the bold designs of Native American textiles and post-painterly, geometric abstractions. Peters received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Claremont Graduate University following his undergraduate at the Art Institute in San Francisco.The artist has been featured in WhiteWall magazine’s profile on the Anderson Collection as well as the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, the New York Times and an artist profile in Elle Decor. Site Specific Installation ERIKA LIZÉE Site-specific installation Infinite Love/Flesh and Blood by Erika Lizée spans three floors in the MOAH atrium. Erika Lizée uses trompe l’oeil and sculptural acrylic painting to create images that seem to “react” to the actual light and shadows of the space in which they reside. Her magically biomorphic installations are strange yet familiar, and seem to recede behind the gallery wall and reach out toward the viewer simultaneously. Lizée imagines the wall surface as a symbolic threshold between different realms or states of existence. She is also inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a tale of human perception and how our perceptions and experiences shape our personal reality. “The visionary function, which fulfills the soul’s need for placing itself in the vast scheme of things, has been suppressed, with the result that as a culture, we have lost the gift of vision,” states Lizée. She believes there is a “universal and ever-present urge for transcendence, for going beyond the mundane to experience the sublime. I hope to provide such an otherworldly experience.” Lizée’s recent body of work is based on her studies of the numbers 1 through 10 as well as sacred geometry. Infinite Love/Flesh and Blood at MOAH is inspired by the number 8, with visual references to the shape of the clematis flower, oxygen (the 8th element on the periodic table), musical octaves (there are eight notes in an octave) and the infinity symbol (which looks like a number “8”). Raised in a family of four and now having her own family of four, the number eight holds great symbolic power for Lizée as she reflects on love and life. Erika Lizée earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the University of North Carolina Asheville and her Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from California State University Northridge. She is currently a tenured professor at Moorpark College and the Director of the Moorpark College Art Gallery. A Visual Game of “Telephone” 49 works of art created by 49 contemporary artists in absolute secrecy over a period of nine years. Laura Hipke and painter Shane Guffogg’s curatorial project Circle of Truth in the South Gallery is comprised of works by Ed Ruscha, Shane Guffogg, Billy Al Bengston, Lita Albuquerque, Jim Morphesis, Charles Arnoldi, Robert Williams, Ruth Weisberg and 41 other artists in a modern, visual take on a common childhood game “Telephone”. The Circle of Truth project opens a dialog regarding the nature of what is considered “truth”, and the inherent flaws of receiving and re-transmitting information from one person to the next. The process for the Circle of Truth project was simple: the first painting, created by Shane Guffogg, was delivered to a second artist in the Circle along with a blank canvas. The second artist was instructed to find the “truth” in the first painting and respond with their own creation. That painting was then passed on to the next artist. As a rule, each artist was asked to keep their participation a secret until the project was completed. Circle of Truth, launched in 2009, was completed in 2016 and includes paintings by 49 different participating artists, all of which come from a variety of backgrounds and utilize painting styles ranging from hyper-realism to pure abstraction. The paintings will be hung in chronological order so visitors can see the progression of the “truth” over time. Each artist was also asked to write an essay about their experience. Excerpts of the essays will be available in the exhibition catalogue titled Circle of Truth (available for purchase at MOAH) and can be autographed during the book-signing on September 7 at 1 p.m. Kaye Freeman in collaboration with Amy Kaps The Anatomy of a Painting Kaye Freeman in Collaboration with Amy Kaps: The Anatomy of a Painting , examines the performative act of applying paint while expanding the painting plane to include the Museum’s entire East Gallery. Kaps’ role as curator quickly morphed into that of cohort, catalyst and collaborator when she asked artist Kaye Freeman to participate in creating the immersive painting installation. Together, they explore the body in relation to the process and product of painting. The curatorial vision for The Anatomy of a Painting is to tell the story of “creation” from the artist’s point of view using Freeman’s bright color palette and intuitive brush marks. Inspired by Yves Klein’s Anthropometries, Freeman paints directly on Kaps’ nude body, using the human form as a mark-making tool. The installation is made complete with a performance by Amy Kaps in which she walks around the gallery as viewers tear pieces of artwork off her dress, gradually revealing a satin under-dress embellished with body prints, black and white photographs and gestural brush-strokes by Freeman. Kaye Freeman uses painting and drawing to “fold and unfold the myths that surround us like a cosmic origami”. Memories and shared emotions weave through her paintings, abstracted and reshaped again and again until an ineffable common humanity and truth is revealed. Kaye Freeman was born in Hong Kong, raised in downtown Tokyo and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. She has shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia and southern California. Amy Kaps is an interdisciplinary artist in constant dialogue with her surroundings and those who inhabit it. Possessing a predilection for the abstract and surreal while emphasizing the human form and condition, she presents a psychological puzzle hoping to entice the viewer to question what they see. Kaps is a past Artist-in-Residence at the Museum of Art and History and completed a major installation at MOAH:CEDAR in 2018. She has worked in the realms of performance, installation, video, photography, music and words in the United States, Germany, Cuba and Spain. She currently lives in Venice, California. Selections from the Permanent Collection Selected highlights from Lancaster Museum of Art and History’s (MOAH) permanent collection are on display throughout LA Painting. The mission of the permanent collection is to celebrate the rich creative culture and history of southern California. As the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, we place great importance on being good stewards of the art of its collection by preserving and displaying artworks for the enjoyment and education of the public. MOAH emphasizes the support of emerging and established local artists that are significant to our region’s unique cultural perspective. Highlights from the permanent collection include works by: Craig “Skibs” Barker Billy Al Bengston Gary Brewer The Clayton Brothers Rebecca Campbell Alex Couwenberg Julius Eastman Renee Fox Dion Johnson Michael Jones Christine Kline Gary Lang Scott Listfield Stevie Love Bradford Salamon Andrew Schoultz Roni Stretch Tim Youd Eric Zammitt Previous Next

< Back August 13 - October 30, 2016 NASA Flight Research: Probing the Sky MOAH Collection 30th Anniversary: Recent Acquisitions Exhibition Astronaut Karen Nyberg's Star Quilt The New Vanguard : Scott Listfield Gerald Clarke The New Vanguard : Group Exhibition Curated by Thinkspace Albrigo Examines Pettibon and Baseball Jae Young Kim: Blah, Blah, Blah The Wired Presidents The New Vanguard Murals: Bumblebeelovesyou and MEGGS The New Vanguard : Alex Yanes Installation NASA Flight Research: Probing the Sky In late 1946, 13 engineers from the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Virginia arrived at Edwards Air Force Base to establish what is now known as NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, participating in the first supersonic research flights by the Bell X-1 rocket plane. Just a year later, on October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager flew his Bell X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards, reaching an altitude of 40,000 feet and exceeding speeds of 662 mph, breaking the sound barrier for the first time in aviation history. Today, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center is the primary hub of atmospheric flight research and operations in the United States, housing some of the most advanced aircraft in the world. Critical in carrying out missions of space exploration and aeronautical research and development, the Center continues to accelerate advances and make important discoveries in the fields of science, technology, operations and testing. The Center also houses a fleet of manned and un-manned environmental science aircraft which support new developments in the fields of Astrophysics and Earth Science, fulfilling NASA’s goals of enhancing education, knowledge, innovation, economic vitality and stewardship of the Earth. Probing the Sky features over 50 pieces borrowed from the Flight Research Center’s collection, detailing the illustrious history of aviation innovation in Southern California. Featured works include “The Apollo Story” by the late aerospace artist Dr. Robert T. McCall, Robert Schaar’s painted portraits of the NACA/NASA pilots inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor on The BLVD and various paintings, drawings and sculptures by artists known for their work in and about the aerospace industry. Dr. Robert T. McCall’s “The Apollo Story” is a suite of five original cold stone lithographs depicting the legacy of the Apollo moon-landing program. Cold stone lithography is a printing process in which artists use greasy drawing materials to make original images on limestone, which is then chemically etched. Exhibiting artist Robert Schaar is a highly regarded portrait painter who is one of an elite group of artists comprising the NASA Art Program; his work was included in NASA’s Visions of Flight program, viewed in museums worldwide. Schaar’s “Walk of Honor” portraits feature test pilots whose aviation careers were marked by significant achievements beyond one accomplishment. Shown together, these works comprise a vivid retelling of some of the most significant figures and achievements in aeronautics. MOAH Collection: Recent Acquisitions As an institution, MOAH is dedicated to strengthening awareness, enhancing accessibility and igniting the appreciation of art, history and culture through an ever-growing collection of both artifacts and art. One of a museum’s primary functions is stewardship—the responsible planning and management of resources. At MOAH, this objective is implemented is through a focus on preserving Southern California’s unique history via the Museum’s extensive collection. As such, the art in this retrospective includes contributions by both local and internationally known artists, featuring pieces that represent our region both literally, with the inclusion of early California landscapes, and conceptually, with a nod to community involvement in the aerospace industry and artists’ use of new materials, resin and plastics. Beginning in 2012, the Museum developed its Juried Collection, which features the work of local artists who took top awards at MOAH’s annual All-Media Juried Exhibition. Through its dynamic collection, MOAH celebrates the richness of the region and the unique qualities that encompass the Antelope Valley. Karen Nyberg: Star Quilt When astronaut Karen Nyberg launched for her mission aboard the International Space Station, she brought with her some unusual items, including: a spool of ivory thread, five needles, and three “fat quarters” of fabric. During the five month stint that she spent living aboard the Space Station as a flight engineer, Nyberg became the first person to quilt while in orbit. As one might imagine, the astronaut and artist ran into some unique difficulties while striving to complete her zero-gravity project, including figuring out how to best store her sewing supplies (Velcro and Ziploc bags kept needles and strips of fabric from floating away) and how to cut floating fabric. Of the latter, Nyberg states, “Imagine if you take a piece of fabric and hold it out in front of you. Now, take your scissors and try to cut it and that is exactly what it is like. Because you can’t lie it down on the floor, and you can’t use a rotary cutter, you just have to cut.” Despite these difficulties, Nyberg successfully completed a nine-by-nine inch, red, white and blue quilt square. Upon returning to Earth, Nyberg expanded upon her “Astronomical Quilt,” calling for quilters from all over the world to submit star themed fabric blocks to be included in the final product. Nyberg received over 2,200 submissions, which were sewn together to create 28 quilt panels, with the original star at the center. “With a project like this, what I think is really cool, is that you can take somebody from every part of this world and find something that you have in common with them. And we really do have something in common with people from everywhere,” Nyberg said. Born in Vining, Minnesota, Karen Nyberg graduated summa cum laude from the University of North Dakota where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. She then earned a Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, for her work researching human thermoregulation and metabolic testing at the Austin Bioheat Transfer Laboratory, with special focus on thermo neutrality in space suits. Nyberg is currently an American mechanical engineer and NASA astronaut. Scott Listfield: Once an Astronaut Scott Listfield is a contemporary artist known for his paintings featuring a lone exploratory astronaut lost in a landscape cluttered with pop culture icons, corporate logos and tongue-in-cheek science fiction references. Inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, a vision of the future which never quite came to pass, Listfield combines images of modern day landscapes with his signature astronaut, fully clad in space garb. Having grown up with the space-age perception of the future depicted in popular media, Listfield finds our present to be strange and unusual, worth exploring in its own right. He approaches modern existence in a way that makes it seem estranged and alien, allowing audiences the rare chance to interpret the contemporary society we live in from an outsider’s viewpoint. Scott Listfield was born in Boston and studied art at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. In 2000, after some time spent abroad, Scott returned to America where, he began painting astronauts and, sometimes, dinosaurs. Listfield has been profiled in Wired Magazine, Juxtapoz, the Boston Globe, New American Paintings and on WBZ-TV Boston. He has exhibited his work in Los Angeles, Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco, Miami and Boston. Gerald Clarke: Manifest Destiny Gerald Clarke is a Native American artist from Southern California whose artwork focuses on drawing attention to the contemporary existence of indigenous peoples. With views of Native American culture being driven by popular stereotypes, Clarke aims to give back the essence of humanity to these groups. He searches for unconventional beauty in the world, often found through exploring his reality as a contemporary Native man. Clarke’s craftsmanship conveys pride, respect and authority, both celebrating and mourning what is revealed in his search for newfound appreciation of the world. The artist seeks to teach through his work, attempting to express the passion, pain and reverence of contemporary Native life, invoking a greater understanding of these marginalized groups through an emotional response from his audience. A self-proclaimed “kitchen-sink” artist, Clarke has no definitive visual genre, utilizing whichever format, tools or techniques most effectively express his desired message. He often explores aspects of installation, mixed media, video and performance, while incorporating Native American craft techniques such as traditional basket-weaving. Gerald Clarke is a member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians located about 40 miles southwest of Palm Springs, California. He is an artist, educator, cattle rancher and small business owner, taking an active role in preserving Native languages and culture. Clarke teaches sculpture and new media at Idyllwild Arts Academy, where he is the Visual Arts Department Chair, and will begin teaching Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. In the past, he has served as an Assistant Professor of Art at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma. In addition to teaching, Clarke has been part of a variety of exhibitions featured both nationally and abroad. In 2007, he was awarded the Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. Clarke resides in Anza, California, tending to his family’s ranch on the Native reservation where he served as Vice-Chairman on the Tribal Council from 2006-2012. Learn More The New Vanguard The Lancaster Museum of Art and History, in collaboration with Los Angeles' Thinkspace Gallery, is pleased to present The New Vanguard, featuring works by over 55 artists from the New Contemporary Movement. The exhibition will present one of the largest cross-sections of artists working within the movement's diverse vernaculars, ever shown within a museological context in California to date. An ambitious compilation, The New Vanguard will bring together some of the most relevant and dynamic artists currently practicing from all over the world. The exhibition, opening August 13, will take place in tandem with this year's installment of POW! WOW! Antelope Valley. The exhibition will feature site-specific murals and installations within the museum by Alex Yanes, Bumblebeelovesyou, Meggs, and Yoskay Yamamoto, a solo presentation of works by Scott Listfield in the Vault Gallery, and a diverse group exhibition of works in the South Gallery, including pieces by Aaron Li-Hill, Adam Caldwell, Alex Garant, Amandalynn, Amy Sol, Brett Amory, Brian Viveros, C215, Carl Cashman, Casey Weldon, Chie Yoshii, Cinta Vidal, Craig ‘Skibs’ Barker, Cryptik, Dan Lydersen, Dan-ah Kim, Derek Gores, Dulk, Erik Siador, Felipe Pantone, Fernando Chamarelli, Glennray Tutor, Henrik Aa. Uldalen, Icy and Sot, Jacub Gagnon, Jaime Molina, James Bullough, James Reka, Jana & JS, Jean Labourdette (aka Turf One), Jeremy Hush, Joel Daniel Phillips, Josie Morway, Juan Travieso, Kyle Stewart, Linnea Strid, Lisa Ericson, Low Bros, Lunar New Year, Mando Marie, Marco Mazzoni, Mark Dean Veca, Mark Warren Jacques, Martin Whatson, Mary Iverson, Matt Linares, Matthew Grabelsky, Meggs, Mike Egan, Nosego, Pam Glew, Ricky Lee Gordon, Scott Radke, Sean Norvet, Tony Philipppou, Wiley Wallace, X-O, and Yosuke Ueno. The POW! WOW! Antelope Valley project will include public works by Amandalynn, Andrew Schoultz, Bumblebeelovesyou, David Flores, Julius Eastman, Kris Holladay, Mando Marie, Mark Dean Veca, Meggs, Michael Jones and Yoskay Yamamoto. All the works will be centered around the area of the museum, with David Flores actually adorning the backside of the museum with a massive new mural. Historically, the New Contemporary movement has largely been relegated to spaces outside of art institutions and other arbiters of the "high," whether it be urban spaces or subcultural haunts. The movement, having had to create contexts for the reception of its work and support of its community, has never had the fixity of a singular genre - or its limitations for that matter - but rather has prospered under a fluidity, expanding into all manner of techniques, expressions, media, and spaces. This exhibition is significant in that it marks a period of transition in the vetted visibility of this movement and its artists, as it has become increasingly celebrated and acknowledged, not only within the context of popular culture but the institutional framework of museum spaces. No single art movement in recent memory has grown as exponentially in acceptance, visibility, and popularity in as relatively short a period, a phenomenon that attests to the power and sway of its cultural presence. Perhaps most unified by its lack of stylistic exclusion, the New Contemporary movement, long helmed by its simultaneous embrace of multiple elements, incorporates narrative, the surreal, the gestural, the abstract, the figurative, and the illustrative. With no single defining formal or conceptual armature, the work produced by this new generation of artist is responsive, reactive, emotive, and grounded in the social. The New Vanguard highlights the imaginative breadth of these New Contemporary artists, showcasing the limitless potential of an art movement that began without walls and has now infiltrated galleries and museums the world over. Daniel Albrigo: Albrigo Examines Pettibon and Baseball Daniel Albrigo is a Southern California based artist, drawing influence from aspects of modern American culture. Albrigo predominately works with the medium of painting, but also includes photography, drawing and various printing methods in his work practice. Mostly self-taught, he explores classical and contemporary themes of realism, touching on American culture both appropriated and observed. Instead of the more traditional use of photography as reference for his paintings, he began taking portraits of artists in their studio spaces as part of an ongoing project of new American imagery. Beginning in April 2015, Albrigo focused on artist Raymond Pettibon, photographing him in his New York City studio. Over the course of a few visits, Albrigo captured Pettibon with various pieces of sporting equipment and was guided through the vast collection of sports memorabilia he had, filling up almost every corner of his studio. In this series of photos, the audience will be privy to the raw passion for the great American sport of baseball in the working space of an iconic American artist. Baseball with Pettibon is the beginning of an ongoing series of Raymond Pettibon and his collection of diverse equipment, highlighting sports through revealing its longstanding influence on American culture. Daniel Albrigo was born in Pomona, California in 1982. Albrigo has had solo exhibitions at the Guerrero Gallery in San Francisco, Muddguts Gallery in New York City, and a split show at Western Exhibitions in Chicago with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. The collaborative work he created with P-Orridge has been shown at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. Albrigo currently resides and works in Long Beach, California. Jae Yong Kim: Blah Blah Blah Jae Yong Kim is a Korean native who has spent the majority of his life traveling, observing and developing the themes of his art. His work greatly reflects the turmoil of a highly mobile existence, with the question of “home” appearing as a recurring theme as he explores what this concept means to him. On the subject of his art, Kim states, “We live in an incredibly fast paced culture that encourages and requires people to have confidence and strength, and there is seldom any room for failure and doubt, even though these are essential elements in life and absolutely necessary for growth.” Kim primarily works with ceramics and installation, displaying a consistent, quirky and eccentric style that accurately reflects the artist’s own personality, making his work truly recognizable. Donuts first appeared in Kim’s work as a symbol of greed and gluttony, representative of his somewhat negative experiences while endeavoring to understand the financial world of New York City. “The donuts I see as a possibility of working out problem situations in my life and addressing how money is handled and treated in America,” said Kim. Rather than focusing on how to make money and learning a business-based jargon that the artist didn’t particularly care to understand, Kim decided to instead create his own language to say what he thought was important. “I started making more donuts because this is what made me happy,” said Kim. “Donuts are a treat but they aren’t all good,” he said, “Donuts, sweets and junk food are typical fare for those living in poverty or just above it. Cheap and yummy, donuts also give a quick burst of energy which lets you keep going. They can also provide a satisfying balm when life and trying to get by is difficult.” Created from clay fired with three different types of glaze, these sculptures come in several shapes and finishes, representing the varieties of the actual treat as well as the artist’s interest in paying homage to the works of relevant art-historical figures such as Yayoi Kusama and Jackson Pollock. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Kim has stated that each donut is unique and carries the mark of the artist’s hand. Jae Yong Kim spent a significant portion of his early childhood traveling, having lived in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia before moving back to South Korea. After high school, he moved to the United States by himself in order to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts from the University of Hartford. From there, he went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts for Ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Kim has participated in both group and solo exhibitions and shown internationally in settings such as the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art in Japan, the Korean Craft Promotion Foundation Gallery in Seoul, the Art and Industry Gallery in San Diego, the Lyons Wier Gallery, Marshall M. Frederick’s Sculpture Museum, The Dennos Museum Center, Hunterdon Art Museum, Kate Shin Gallery at Waterfall Mansion and Philadelphia Art Alliance, as well as numerous group exhibitions worldwide. Kim lives and works in both Seoul, South Korea and the New York City area; he is currently a professor at Seoul National University of Science and Technology. The Wired Presidents The artists that have produced this work are an unnamed collective of local creators that seek to promote inquiry-based interactions in art. These questions are explored in the collection of works from this group of artists, who come from diverse backgrounds and specialties. Their experiences range from blockbuster films to special effects, props, puppetry, video games, toys and technology. What does the effect of technology have on the electoral process or the office of the presidency? How does information and technology craft our narrative of what constitutes a perfect candidate? Why is it that Abraham Lincoln is considered one of America’s favorite leaders? What qualities did he have that warranted that categorization? How did the technology of Lincoln’s time impact the public conversation? Do we design our own ideal leader within an information-based society? How does that affect our expectations? Bumblebeelovesyou Born and raised in southeastern Los Angeles County, Bumblebee takes the largely ignored parts of the city and uses it as his personal canvas by remodeling urban furniture, such as newspaper boxes and telephone booths, to tell stories of everyday life and comment on the collapse of the bee population through the rise of cell phone usage. He also utilizes the technique of stenciling and mixed media to create images of children on the unloved, deserted walls of his hometown in Downey. Considerate and thoughtful, Bumblebee’s work also deals with issues such as child homelessness and the impact modernity has on nature. Despite the seriousness of his subject matter, his works are not heavy for the viewer. Instead, they are whimsical, playful and exude a sense of childish innocence, freedom and joy. Bumblebee has participated in numerous group exhibitions at various institutions, including: Carmichael Gallery, Thinkspace Gallery, Barnsdall Art Park, Street A.K.A. Museum in conjunction with the Portsmouth Museum of Art, and Outside/In, a partnership with the Art Center College of Design. His art has been covered by numerous media outlets including LA Weekly, TedX Illinois, Complex Magazine, Unurth, Arrested Motion, and Downey Beat. In 2015, he was awarded the Readers’ Choice award for Best Street Artist in LA Weekly MEGGS David “MEGGS” Hooke is one of Australia’s most progressive street and fine artists recognized for his unique, expressive and energetic style with references to pop culture, the natural world and socio-cultural issues. His technical use of color and movement combines clean, bold, illustrative elements with intuitive, textural and free flowing design. By constantly searching for the harmony between form, abstraction, order and chaos, MEGGS pours his all-or-nothing personality into every inch of his work. His life manifesto is that the “journey is the reward” and his work reflects this eternal search for balance. MEGGS’ emphasis on constant growth and passion for travel is demonstrated by his continual exploration of artistic techniques and mediums. Adapting his street art and graffiti to fine art has granted MEGGS extensive opportunities to travel, professionally exhibit his work and participate in mural festivals around the globe. His street art and gallery works are recognized nationally and internationally in cities such as Melbourne, Sydney, London, San Francisco, Paris, Tokyo, Hawaii, Mexico, Los Angeles and Hong Kong. MEGGS’ art works are included in the permanent paper collections of the National Gallery of Australia and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) of London. MEGGS has traveled and contributed his art to support the ambitions of numerous not-for-profit organizations, including Fareshare, Pangeaseed, and POW! WOW! HAWAII. His cooperative practices have led to collaborations with various artists and brands from cultures worldwide. His commercial work with companies such as Nike, Stussy, Addict, New Balance, Burton and Endeavor Snowboards has contributed to the constant evolution of his talent and furthering his range of designs and ideas. MEGGS was born and raised in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia and completed his Bachelor’s degree in Design from Swinburne University School of Design in 2000. He is a founding member of the Everfresh crew, a unique collective of street art pioneers who opened the world renowned Everfresh Studio in 2004. MEGGS’ adoration of comic book art, sci-fi fantasy, skateboarding, graffiti culture, heavy metal and punk rock music are at the core of what inspired him to pursue his career in fine art. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Alex Yanes Alex Yanes is a Miami artist drawing influence from his family’s Cuban roots through his exploration of local Miami culture. It was there that he was exposed to the gritty, fast-paced and ever-evolving nature of art. Much of his work closely relates to his exposure to the skateboard, tattoo, hip-hop and rock culture present in Miami during the 1980s and ‘90s, creating his own form of reality through combinations of materials like wood, acrylic, resin and enamel in three-dimensional installation pieces that seek to reveal elements of Yanes’ own personal history and the impacts of fast-paced city life. In this sense, his art serves as an autobiography, directly associated with Yanes’ individual experiences through his lifetime. Through the innovative use of color and his whimsical and imaginative style, Yanes’ art takes on a form that is widely relatable, speaking volumes to both collectors and new art lovers alike. Alex Yanes was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He has been interested in art since childhood, having won his first award at the age of six. Yanes began pursuing art full-time in 2006. Since then, he has worked with Adidas, Red Bull, Sony, The Learning Channel, Vans, Kidrobot, Neiman Marcus, St. Jude’s Hospital, The Dan Morino Foundation, Miami Children’s Museum, NBA Cares and The Children’s Trust, spreading his art to as many corners of the world as possible. Yanes’ work is now a staple in Wynwood, Miami’s art district, and he awaits upcoming exhibitions to showcase his art worldwide in locations such as New York, Illinois, California, Germany, The United Kingdom, Australia and Brazil. Previous Next

< Back December 5, 2015 - January 24, 2016 Justin Bower: Thresholds Roni Stretch: Not Vanity Austin Young: To Be Determined / TBD The Musical Shana Mabari: Diametros Petals Laura Larson: Grace and Glory Leigh Salgado: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Tina Dorff: Human Story Told Ted Meyer: Scarred for Life Justin Bower: Thresholds San Francisco native Justin Bower paints his subjects as de-stabilized, fractured post-humans, a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human, in a nexus of interlocking spatial systems. His paintings juxtapose how individuals define themselves in this digital and virtual age and the impossibility of grasping such a slippery notion. Bower compares his use of paint to an instrument of dissection and inquiry into the idea of the body as an original prosthetic subject. Flesh acts as the complex layer of biological boundary from externalized technologies; all the while revealing that the same externalized technologies are already inside the body. Bower paints his subjects in a world where humanity and materiality are interwoven symmetrically, where the purity of human nature is being replaced by new forms of creation and evolution. His paintings are influenced by today’s culture that privileges patterns of information by using optical art configurations as the context for most of his artwork. Bower’s paintings open a dialogue of the destabilizing effect and trauma technology has on the individual. He shows this through the technique of doubling features - multiple eyes, spliced noses, melting mouths – and a whiplash-like motion invoked in his abstract expressionist process. Bower received a Bachelor Degree in Art and Philosophy from the University of Arizona and his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Claremont Graduate University. Since receiving his MFA, Bower’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills, Unix Gallery in New York City, and has been part of a group show at Patrick Painter and many international exhibitions. Bower has been the recipient of several awards, among those the Feitelson Fellowship Grant and the Joan Mitchell Award. His artwork has been published by Art Forum, New American Paintings, American Art Collector, Bl!sss Magazine, Modern Painters, Artillery Magazine and the LA Times. Ronic Stretch: Not Vanity Roni Stretch has pioneered the dichromatic process, exploring photorealistic under-paintings that emerge ghost-like from a void of color. His dichromatic oil paintings are meticulously created by executing a layering process whereby two different colors are alternately applied and built up over many weeks. The subjects play against a sharply lined border intended to ground each painting in the physical and force a visual meditation. The image is not so much painted over as optically embedded within the multiple layers of the alternating colors. Stretch’s work is a lesson in contradictions: photorealism and abstraction, light and dark, reality and altered states, smooth and rough textures all ultimately leading to an emotional experience. British artist Roni Stretch grew up in St. Helens, Mereyside, England where he attended the St. Helens College of Art and Design. Stretch has been exhibited throughout California including shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Geffen Contemporary Museum, the Westmont Museum of Art in Santa Barbara and the Cooperstown Museum in New York. His work has recently been included in the permanent collections of the Pasadena Museum of California Art, the Museum of California Design, the Cooperstown Museum in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Austin Young: To Be Determined / TBD The Musical “I am fascinated by identity. Who am I? Who are you? How do we arrive at these conclusions? We all have stories about growing up, making friends and our first loves. These experiences form our relationship to the world and ourselves. Our fears and experiences solidify our identities and make them real. If our identity becomes fixed, it can keep us in a box. Some of us never stop wishing we were something other or more. I continually talk myself out of doing things. For example, I always wanted to make a musical but my fear got in the way. So, recently, I decided to just set up the dates and announce it. I invited the public to join in for a series of workshops where they shared their stories and experiences around the topic of identity and ‘coming of age.’ The call was heard by many amazing people and LA-based artists as we collectively placed emphasis on radical authenticity and spontaneous creativity. For this show at MOAH, I recreate my studio in the gallery, showing behind-the-scenes footage, intimate coming of age stories, notes, photos and final edited scenes from the musical in progress. In short video interviews, participants delve into the stories that formed their identities then sing or act them out in this unusual and revolutionary musical experience.” -Austin Young Austin Young is a photographer and trans media artist. Young has been documenting pop and sub-culture since 1985 through portraits. Young confuses personality and identity issues in confrontational and unapologetic image-making of people who often mix gender roles or otherwise confound stereotypical constraints of socially-constructed identities. In addition to photography and filmmaking, Young is co-founder of Fallen Fruit, a contemporary art collective established in 2004 that uses fruit as a material for projects that investigate the hyper-synergistic qualities of collaboration. Young's video works explore pop-culture, celebrity, gender and identity. TBD The Musical explores the new realm of performance, installation, video and public participatory art. Through a series of workshops, Young invites the public to co-create this project alongside him, sharing stories and experiences around the topic of identity and “coming of age.” In turn, he creates an ongoing, experimental, collaborative musical that emphasizes radical authenticity and spontaneous creativity. Young brings individuals who are pushing boundaries in their respective disciplines together, including musicians, dancers, fashion designers, singers, drag queens and the public. As new collaborations take place, scenes are added to TBD The Musical , as well as the documentary and exhibition of behind the scenes footage, photography and notes. Shana Mabari: Diametros Petals Shana Mabari is an American contemporary artist working in Los Angeles. Working through the intersections of art, science and technology, Mabari orchestrates light, reflection, color contrast and geometry with the intent to play with and expand the reality and experience of physical space. Through her sculptures, installations and environments, she investigates the ways in which worldly stimuli and phenomena are absorbed and processed through sensory and visual perceptions. Mabari is part of the continuum of the Light and Space movement, which originated in California in the 1960s. Science has fueled her artwork, leading her to collaborate with world renowned scientists at the Institute of Neuroinformatics in Zurich, Switzerland. Shana Mabari was born in Los Angeles, California. She has traveled extensively and lived in Paris, Northern India and Tel Aviv. Her education includes studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris and Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. She holds a patent for the design of “Dynamic Spatial Illusions,” a portable version of a visual and sensory experimental environment. She is a recipient of the Center for Cultural Innovation ARC grant. She has exhibited work in the United States and internationally. Laura Larson: Grace and Glory Laura Larson grew up in Chicago surrounded by the influence of the Chicago Imagists, a group of artists that were known for representational work that drew references outside of fine art. Her work reflects the dual interests of story-telling and theatrical production – the building blocks for her consistent interest in sculptural installations and narrative Tableau. In the late 1970s Larson moved to Los Angeles where she became a member of a collaborative group of women and men, working with Judy Chicago to create The Dinner Party , a controversial, ground–breaking feminist art piece rendered in porcelain, china painting, textiles and embroidery, recognizing significant women in history who were forgotten or under–recognized. Over the last 10 years Larson’s work has touched on two topics: our relationship between nature and our animal co-inhabitants; and investigations of the cultural, historical and spiritual through lines of the female trinity: mind, body and spirit. Completed through three different bodies of work, Grace and Glory will be the final part of Larson’s trinity. Larson states: “This serial investigation examines the cultural, historical and spiritual through–lines of the effects of religion – Christianity in particular – on women. Its genesis was my reaction to the Getty Center’s exhibition “Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture.” While Bernini’s gorgeous busts glorified popes, cardinals and kings, I wanted to re-imagine the exhibit by flipping the gender to female – shifting the focus from power and piety to grace and glory, celebrating historical (mythical) women who have shown grace under pressure and who have been bestowed or sought glory for their actions. This series has been created in opposition to the Baroque artists’ “dazzling virtuosity” and their ability to create a "speaking likeness" from the intractable medium of stone. The faces of these women are made of immobile Styrofoam wig heads. However, each head is treated in a different way to exemplify their life’s situation using various mediums such as paint, modeling epoxy/resin, paper mache, fabric, leather, or beads. The bust in general personifies the woman in a symbolic, rather than expressive way. The materials used have associative powers such as black and white leather gloves, which become hair and headpiece for the Queen of Sheba, and handkerchiefs collected over a lifetime, which become a bouquet of roses for Aimee Semple McPherson." Laura Larson has exhibited her work extensively throughout Southern California, and has shown her work internationally. In 2004, she received the Artist Resource for Completion Grant from the Durfee Foundation. Larson graduated from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, receiving a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in fine art and theatre arts. Leigh Salgado: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Leigh Salgado’s sculptural drawings incorporate an organic yet precise process through cutting paper by hand and burning some parts of the composition along with the use of ink and paint. These labor-intensive finished pictures are of abstracted imagery that occasionally morph into recognizable subject matter including lace, lingerie, netting, fabric, clothing patterns and original woven abstractions. Salgado’s current work includes an ongoing interest in subjects and forms that have associations developed during her girlhood and womanhood. Salgado states: “What drives me: Attraction to patterns, fabric, fashion objects, elaborate ornamentation and respect for labor. My work is about persistence in spite of the impossibility of perfection. My memories, experiences and women who have formed my worldview are present in the work.” Leigh Salgado received her Bachelor’s Degree in painting, sculpture and graphic arts from the University of California, Los Angeles and her Master’s Degree in clinical art therapy from Loyola Marymount University. After practicing art therapy professionally for several years, she renewed her fine art studies at Santa Monica College of Design in Art and Architecture. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally. Tina Dorff: Human Story Told “Some emotive narratives in these paintings can be quite obvious, but most are undercurrents of a story told by the figure. My painting themes run the gamut from darkly emotive to lovely trickeries on canvas. Watch the playful antics of the fuzzy headed girl naked and chatting with a figurine. If you listen carefully the woman in the blue shirt will tell you her special tale. There is a woman standing on a half shell reaching out to you because the self-shame is killing her. Turn again and you see a naked nymph lazing in the grass under the breeze of a fan. The black sweaty torso of a soldier reaching up to the skies in despair on those awful human decisions made. Then there is the 21st century knock off of an Ingres countess with her black lace dress and blank stare.” – Tina Dorff Tina Dorff’s oil paintings delve into emotional narratives taken from personal experiences and external observations. She uses canvas as a journal and release. Growing out of years of emotional turmoil and disappointments, Dorff uses her work to access emotions and establish a bridge to the outside world. Most of her models are close friends or family, Dorff feels fortunate to have models with a sharp insight into painting. For her, the relationship between the model and painter is powerful and to be cherished, she states “there is always a story behind my faces.” She hopes that when viewers take in her art their sense of reality will be altered for that viewing time and that they can relate to it. She states “I tell my stories through the painted figure for you to interpret...and now it is your story.” Dorff studied at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Hussian School of Art and received an Associate of Science degree from Temple University. Her work has been exhibited across the United States and internationally. She currently lives and works in Lancaster. Ted Meyer: Scarred for Life Ever since he was a small child with a serious illness, Ted Meyer has mixed art and medical images as a way to understand his experiences. Through his art he highlights the emotional impact of pain and healing on everyday people—patients, families and medical personnel. When medical treatments improved his own situation as an adult, Meyer began to work with other survivors of traumatic health issues. Scarred for Life is a multi-faceted project that includes printing on paper from the subject’s body, interviewing the participants about their experiences and photographing the process. The resulting, ever-expanding, presentation of monoprints, narratives and photographs has received press coverage from the New York Times, USA Today and the Chicago Tribune . Scarred for Life, has been exhibited nationally, including at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., New York University School of Medicine, Bravard Museum of Art in Melbourne, Florida, the Museum of Art and Culture in New Rochelle, New York, and at Sierra College in Rocklin, California and Biola University in La Mirada, California. Meyer has lectured on art and health at Yale University, New York University and UCLA. Ted Meyer is an artist and designer living in Los Angeles. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University. He is owner of and principal designer at Art Your World, a full-service design studio. He is currently an Artist in Residence at UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine and Visiting Scholar at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C. Ted has exhibited his paintings and photographs internationally, including at the Chicago Art Institute, the United Nations in New York City, in Osaka, Japan and Istanbul Turkey. Previous Next