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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.

back to list Christopher Minsal Christopher Minsal is a Pearblossom artist whose murals can be seen on Pearblossom Highway, the Keppel School District, and Palmdale Blvd. He has also worked for a company called A-MAZE-D installing educational mazes, games, and labyrinths in institutions throughout the nation.

Colorimetry < Return to Exhibitions January 18 - March 16 Ruth Pastine: Attraction 1993 - 2013 Main Gallery Gisela Colon: Glo-Pod Jewel Box John Eden: Roundel Series Second Floor - Staircase Atrium Johannes Girardoni: Chromasonic Field Blue/Green, 2013 Second Floor East Gallery Phillip K Smith III: Lucid Stead: Four Windows and the Doorway Vault Gallery Karl Benjamin Entry Atrium Dion Johnson: Light Sequence - Aquarium' 2013 Education Gallery January 23 - March 13 Innovations 29th Annual All-Media Juried Art Exhibition South Gallery Ruth Pastine Gisela Colon John Eden Karl Benjamin Dion Johnson Phillip K Smith Johannes Girardoni Anita Ray Innovations 29th Annual All-Media Curator's Award Eden Pastine Girardoni Johnson Benjamin Innovations Colon Ruth Pastine: Attraction 1993-2013 In the world of human perception, perhaps no single stimulus evokes a more complex cascade of responses than that of the phenomenon of color. Our perception of the color spectrum is completely dependent upon light and is encountered thousands of times a day in seemingly infinite combinations. Whether in our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, cities, in film, in art, even in our dreams, these encounters have the ability to trigger emotional, physiological, intellectual, aesthetic and spiritual responses. Creating this phenomenological interplay between color, light and perception is where renowned painter and color theorist Ruth Pastine thrives. Pastine’s oil paintings and pastel works on paper provide a contemplative field in which we may dwell and absorb the intimate relationships she presents between warm colors and cool colors, between light and dark tones, between two-dimensions and the illusion of three-dimensional space. Pastine’s life’s work is dedicated to evolving the visual experience of color and redefining the perceptual field by combining contrasting color systems that challenge our preconceptions and ask us to move beyond the immediate attraction into the optical realm. The work is best experienced in person, which reveals the optical and visceral resonance of the hand painted surfaces. Through her work, color and light are reduced to their most elemental form. Thousands of tiny brush strokes appear visually seamless, producing an image that is both objective and pure and filled with nuance and subtlety that engages the viewer in the present tense of discovery. This journey parallels her painting process of being in the moment, in the here-and-now as she transforms a neutral canvas into a rich field of color. The square, vertical, and horizontal-rectangular framework of the canvas provides a gateway for departure, a means to access the future work, beyond that which seems finite. Ruth Pastine was born and raised in New York City. She received her B.F.A. from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY in painting and art history, and her M.F.A. from Hunter College of the City University of New York in painting, color theory, and critical theory. She received the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Grant in 1999, and in 2000 in conjunction with The Shifting Foundation matching grant. In 2001 she relocated to Southern California where she currently works and resides. In 2009, she received a public commission from Brookfield Properties and created a site-specific installation titled Limitless , which is comprised of eight large-scale vertical paintings permanently on view in the lobbies of Ernst & Young Plaza in Los Angeles, CA. The Museum of Art & History is pleased to present Pastine’s first museum survey show with exhibition catalog essays by Donald Kuspit and Peter Frank. She has exhibited widely in the United States and Japan, and is included in many public and corporate collections across the nation. Gisela Colon: Glo-Pods The work of Los Angeles-based Gisela Colón has been associated with California Minimalism, specifically the Light & Space and Finish-Fetish movements more broadly referred to as “Perceptualism.” Colón’s sculptures investigate the properties of light in solid form and luminescent color through the use of industrial plastic materials. The Glo-Pods body of work—meticulously created through a proprietary fabrication process of blow-molding and layering acrylic—mark Colon as part of the next generation of southern California artists using light as exploratory media. The light appearing to emanate from the objects is an illusion based on color and form. Colón's use of amorphous, organic, asymmetrical lines and light-reflecting and radiating media make her objects appear to pulsate with light and energy. They simultaneously appear to both actively materialize and dissolve into the surrounding environment, allowing the experience of pure color and form in space. Colon’s goal is to bring about intriguing perceptual contradictions between visual elements such as: mass/lightness, solidity/delicacy, opacity/ transparency, muscularity/femininity, and intensity/nuance thus allowing for the exploration of the phenomenology of light, color, materiality, and space as we experience it through the human lens of the senses. Colón was born in 1966 in Vancouver, Canada, to a German mother and Puerto Rican father. She was raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and attended the University of Puerto Rico, graduating magna cum laude in 1987 with a BA in Economics. Colón moved to Los Angeles to pursue graduate studies, receiving a Juris Doctorate degree from Southwestern University School of Law in 1990. She was given a Congressional Scholarship Award by the Harry S. Truman Foundation in recognition of her outstanding academic excellence. She was able to turn to art full-time in 2002, quickly developing a following for her abstract paintings. Colón’s increasing interest in light and space and issues of visual perception brought her to her present series of work and her conscious association with Light-and-Space and Finish-Fetish artists such as Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Craig Kauffman, DeWain Valentine, Helen Pashgian, Larry Bell, Ronald Davis, Mary Corse, and Peter Alexander. Colón has exhibited at national and international venues. In 2014, she will be featured in the survey exhibition “Trans-Angeles” at the Museum Wilhelm-Morgner Haus in Soest, Germany. John Eden: Roundel Series In his Roundel Series , Sculptor John Eden presents multicolored disks that are interpretations of the symbols and colors used to identify military aircrafts’ country of origin. These 'Roundels' were originally inspired by the tricolored Cockade uniform ribbon of the French Revolution and repurposed again during WWI for aerial combatants. Mr. Eden further abstracts these symbols into pure shape and form. Eden started the Roundel Series in the late fall of 2012 and to date has created twenty-nine discs in various sizes, with twenty-five different Roundel designs. Like many of his contemporaries within the Southern California Finish-Fetish movement, he works solo in his studio, attending to every detail with pride and dedication to his craft. His work is grounded in his lifelong fascination with hidden or secret meanings: things that appear to be one thing, but are quite the opposite—in this case beautiful objects with lethal intent. This series explores the idea that “all that glitters is not gold” and the dark side of beauty. Eden’s Roundel Series builds upon the pioneering legacy of Southern California artists who married industrial materials and the Los Angeles car culture with political activism in the early 1960s. Eden credits the feminist artist Judy Chicago and her 1964 Topical Car Hood Series as an inspiration for his Roundel Series . Chicago sprayed acrylic lacquer on Corvair car hoods in precise, bold patterns thereby ushering in a new era of materials and content in Southern California art. John Eden received his Master of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Southern California; Master of Arts in inter-media from California State University of Northridge; and Bachelor of Fine Arts in independent filmmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute. Eden attributes his skills in handling sensitive pigments, high polish surfaces and non-traditional materials largely developed by the California aerospace engineering industry to his advanced training under Jack Brogan in his world renowned fabrication studio. Since the 1960s Jack Brogan has been an important facet of the art scene in Southern California, working closely with artists such as John Eden, De Wain Valentine, Robert Irwin, Larry Bell, Helen Pashgian and John McCracken as a conservator, fabricator, and collaborator. MOAH is proud to continue exhibiting this legacy of artists and the fabricators who have helped pioneer the Light and Space and Finish-Fetish movements, all unique to Southern California. Eden shows widely in California and has published in The Los Angeles Times, Art Review and The San Diego Union Tribune. He lives and works in Los Angeles. Johannes Girardoni: Chromasonic Field Blue/Green, 2013 Johannes Girardoni is an American-based sculptor and installation artist. Girardoni is known for work that blurs the line between virtual and material content. Dispersed throughout a gallery filled with natural light, Chromasonic Field-Blue/Green is a series of semi-translucent blue cast resin beams. White LED’s illuminate them from within, projecting artificial light as well as allowing the surrounding natural light to pass through. The installation is outfitted with sensors calibrated to measure the specific color frequency emanating from the resin as well as the ambient light. The sensors drive a tone generator, which converts the light information to sound, essentially making light audible. These sensors also register the presence of the viewer moving through the space, which further modulates the sound. The boundaries between natural and digital phenomena are blurred in a field of luminous sound. Johannes Girardoni's work has been widely shown at museums and galleries in the US, Europe and Asia. In 2011, Girardoni's light and sound installation The (Dis)appearance of Everything was included in the 54th Venice Biennale, Italy. Selected other exhibitions include Personal Structures at the Ludwig Museum, Germany, 30 Years of Contemporary Art at the California Center for Contemporary Art and Creative Migration at The Austrian Cultural Forum, New York. His works are represented in public and private collections, such as the Harvard Art Museum, The Progressive Collection and The Margulies Collection. Girardoni has been the subject of features and reviews both nationally and internationally including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, ArtNews, Art in America and Sculpture. In 2013, Girardoni completed a major in-situ permanent work, Metaspace 1 (The Infinite Room) , a light and sound sculpture conceived as part of architecture in collaboration with Smithsonian/Cooper Hewitt National Design Award winner Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig Architects. Girardoni’s Metaspace V2 , a groundbreaking interactive sculpture project that brings together art, technology, and science was first presented at the exhibition Off and On at Nye+Brown in Los Angeles. Phillip K. Smith: Lucid Stead: Four Windows and the Doorway Drawing inspiration from the optic sensation of California’s Light and Space movement, Phillip K. Smith III creates deceptively simple objects that seem to breathe and move as they are observed and experienced. This exhibition showcases one aspect of Smith’s Lucid Stead, 2013 an entirely site specific installation that incorporated LED lighting with mirrored panels on a 70 year old homesteading shack in the Mojave desert. Smith’s design of Lucid Stead was deeply influenced by his relationship to the desert, where he lives and works, and the inherent qualities unique to the Mojave: the quiet, expansive space, the reduced pace of change, and the uninterrupted color fields that occur as day shifts to night over the horizon. Using these ephemeral qualities as material and medium through the reflection of light and mirrors mounted on the homestead, Smith was able to place the building in direct conversation with the surrounding landscape. The four windows and doorway were outfitted with LED panels that slowly drenched the viewer in color. The desert context disappeared as day transformed into night and the colored panels appeared to float into the black sky. Smith happily pulled these light panels away from their desert home and into the MOAH to enable him to strictly focus the eye on pure color. His usual mode of working with light is from the inside-out, meaning he imbues his objects with light from within. Now, the interaction of color occurs as colors reflect and mingle on the gallery walls, washing the gallery in shifting changing light and color. Lucid Stead: Four Windows and the Doorway provides a direct path to the human sensory system, and the installation itself takes on human physicality, as if the color is breathing light into the participant. Smith is concerned with time and the ephemeral nature of life. In the past was Lucid Stead. In the present is: Lucid Stead: Four Windows and the Doorway, a bridge to the future where Smith will take re-site a monumental installation into the landscape, where the Southern California desert and the purity of his solar powered light panels interact seamlessly. Phillip K. Smith III received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. From his Indio, California studio he continues to push the boundaries and confront the ideas of modernist design. Drawing inspiration form the rigidity of the Bauhaus movement in its pure shapes, colors and forms, with the reductive geometries of minimalism and the optic sensation of light and color, Smith III attempts to resolve the complex challenge of finding a natural state of life and spirit within these ideological constrictions. Commissioned to create more than a dozen monumental public art works in the last 5 years in Kansas City, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Arlington, VA, Phoenix and several sites in California, Smith has enjoyed rapid success with a 2008 feature in the Art in America Annual Review. In addition to these larger scaled works, Smith continues to work on an ever-growing list of smaller scaled works for private collections. Karl Benjamin (December 29, 1925 – July 26, 2012) Born in Chicago, Karl Benjamin began his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1943. Interrupted by service in the US Navy during WWII, Benjamin resumed his studies at Southern California's University of Redlands in 1946. Graduating in 1949 with a BA degree in English literature, history and philosophy, Benjamin began his career as a teacher with no intention of becoming an artist. However, his relocation to Claremont California in 1952, shortly after he had begun "playing" with paint in 1951, galvanized his career path. Though he continued to teach in public schools and, later to great acclaim, for Pomona College, the artist's work blossomed amid the lively art, design and architecture scene in Los Angeles in the mid twentieth Century. Numerous gallery showings of his work during the 1950s culminated in 1959 with his inclusion in Los Angeles County Museum of Art's ground-breaking exhibition "Four Abstract Classicists: Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley and John McLaughlin." The exhibition garnered national attention along with the creation of a moniker for Benjamin's meticulously orchestrated color and form: Hard Edge Painting. Subsequently Benjamin's work was included in the exhibit Purist Painting traveling to Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse and the Columbus Museum of Art. The Whitney Museum included his work in Geometric Abstraction in America. Museum of Modern Art (NY) also featured the artist in their watershed exhibit The Responsive Eye. Benjamin was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Visual Arts in 1983 and 1989. His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and is included in the public collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, Israel; Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Seattle Art Museum, WA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY among others. Benjamin taught for many years at Pomona Valley institutions and was named Professor Emeritus at Pomona College. Dion Johnson: Light Sequence – Aquarium, 2013 Dion Johnson is activating the Education Gallery with an animated video projection of slowly evolving abstract fields of color, stripes and architectural forms. This is a site specific work of art that Dion has created exclusively for MOAH. Mr. Johnson imagines the projection as a moving painting that draws inspiration from how he senses and experiences the environment. From observing shadows stretching across his living room floor, watching the curvature of the freeway interchange while driving to his studio, and seeing the Southern California light filtering through urban structures, Light Sequence – Aquarium holds a full range of associations and perceptual cues that percolate as the video animation unfolds. Dion Johnson received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ohio State University and his Master of Fine Arts from Claremont Graduate University. He exhibits nationally with solo shows in museums and galleries across California, New York, Florida, Ohio and Texas. He lives and works in Los Angeles. Innovations 29th Annual All-Media Juried Art Exhibition Highlighted in the 29th Annual All Media Exhibit are 107 pieces created by 73 talented High Desert Artists. The entries were judged by Southern California artist Ray Turner, an American artist known primarily for his portrait and landscape painting and award winning sculptor Sarah Perry who currently resides in Tehachapi. All work in this exhibition was produced in the past three years and has not previously been shown at the Museum of Art & History. All forms of artistic media, including, but not limited to, painting, photography, and mixed-media were welcomed. The award winners were chosen by the esteemed judges with aditional awards given by community members and City leaders. Best of Exhibition • 1st (Best of) Christine Kline - Origins • 2nd (Best of) Stevie Love - Paint Thing 2 • 3rd (Best of) Antoinette de Paiva - Afterthought Series #5 Minors: • 1st Place Hanna Creech (age 13) - The Peacock • 2nd Place Elizabeth Engeda (age 10) - Northern Cardinal • 3rd Place Jack Kozlovsky (age 7) - Jack's Magic Dragon Beryl Amspoker Award • Tina Dorff - Portrait of the Young Countess Deirdra Rose Lakes and Valleys Art Guild Award • Sal Vasquez - Harris Vineyards Harvesters Dean Webb Memorial Photography Award, Presented by the Lancaster Photography Association • Betsy Batish - Unhitched Mayor’s Award • Tina Dille – E.B. City Manager’s Award • Michael Evans – Steampunk Top Hat Director’s Award • Regis R. Gagnon – Cotton Belt on the Outskirts Curator’s Award • Anita Ray – Loose Ends Honorable Mentions: • Nay Schuder – Crackin’ Up #1 • Michael Evans – Steampunk Media Player •Antoinette de Paiva - Afterthought Series #7 • Thaddeus Grzelak - Plein Air - Old Gold Mine • Frank Dixon - The Machine Age • Dennis Borak - Field of Sun Flowers • Dennis Borak - Artist Considering a Painting • Susan Cunningham - Dreaming of Zion • Nancy Scherich - Bitter Sweet • Hossen Mofarrah - Particles in the Air • Ralph Richeson - The Circus Came to Town • Christine Kline - Drowning Man • Jarnold - Meat Head • Tina Dorff - Deirdra & Jacques • Dennis Adams – Old Barn • Cynthia F. McConnell - Voids • Karyl Newman - Inter-Airspace Velvet • Stevie Love - Paint Thing 3 • Bruce McAllister - Sarah Says (As Neptune Swims) • Katherine Shannon - Kidding Around Smith View or Download the Colorimetry Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.

Look up information and photos of past Lancaster Museum of Art and History exhibitions. MOAH ARCHIVE < Return to Exhibitions 2022 What Would You Say? 01/22/22 - 04/17/22 Activist Graphics from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Activation 01/22/22 - 04/17/22 Mark Steven Greenfield, April Bey, Paul Stephen Benjamin, Carla Jay Harris, and Keith Collins 2021 Structure 10/02/21 - 12/26/21 One Exhibit; Nine Unique Artists - HK Zamani, Cinta Vidal, Jim Richard, Kimberly Brooks, Chelsea Dean, Mela M, Matjames Metson, Coleen Sterritt, Stevie Love Shelley Heffler 06/05/21 - 09/05/21 "We Are Home" David Koeth 06/05/21 - 09/05/21 "Citrus Series" NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center 75th Anniversary 06/05/21 - 09/05/21 Cudra Clover 06/05/21 - 09/05/21 "Hysteria" Golden Hour: Images from the Museum of Art & History's permanent collection 01/23/21 - 05/09/21 Darryl Curran, Sheila Pinkel, Nancy Webber, Osceola Refetoff, Naida Osline, and Thomas McGovern Show More 2020 The Light of Space 02/08/20 - 04/19/20 Laddie John Dill, Jay Mark Johnson, Kysa Johnson, Shana Mabari, Mary Anna Pomonis, Robert Standish, Gary Lang, Edwin Vasquez, Jeff Frost #CountMeIn: 2020 Census Project 05/09/20 -12/27/20 Robin Rosenthal, Jane Szabo, Nuri Amanatullah, Clovis Blackwell, Edwin Vasquez, Art in Residence A.I.R The New Vanguard III 09/12/20 - 12/27/20 Kayla Mahaffey, Inga Guzyte, Kathy Ager, Alex Garant, Kevin Peterson, Spencer Little, Robin Rosenthal, Jane Szabo, Edwin Vasquez, Nuri Amanatullah 2019 Peace On Earth 1/26/19 - 4/21/19 David Adey, Tami Bahat, Clayton Campbell, Catherine Coan, Emily Ding, Nancy Evans, Jane Fisher, Matthew Floriani, Simone Gad, James Griffith, Laurie Hassold, Chie Hitotsuyama, Kim Kimbro, Debbie Korbel, Laura Larson, Emily Maddigan, Luke Matjas, Zachary Mendoza, Jen Meyer, Lori Michelon, Cynthia Minet, Bobbie Moline-Kramer, Stephen O’Donnell, Lori Pond, Robb Putnam , Margo Ray, Samuelle Richardson, Laurie Sumiye, Devin Thor, Scott Yoell Woven Stories 05/11/19 - 07/21/19 Ray Beldner, Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor, Victoria Potrovitza, Katherine Stocking-Lopez, Nicola Vruwink, Rebecca Campbell, Peter Hiers, R.Rex Parris High School, Meriel Stern, Victor Wilde LA Painting 8/10-19 - 10/20/19 LA Painting guest curated by Cooper Johnson Five Year Survey, David Allan Peters, Erika Lizée, Circle of Truth Photography: Beyond the Surface 11/09/19 - 1/12/2020 Matthew Finley, Rob Grad, John Peralta, Melanie Pullen, Christopher Russell, Joni Sternbach, Rodrigo Valenzuela, Kira Vollman, & Selections from the Permanent Collection 2018 Imagen Angeleno 11/11/17 - 01/14/18 Dark Progressivism, Abel Alejandre, Ana Rodriguez, Ken Gonzales-Day, Linda Vallejo It Takes a Village 02/10/18 - 04/22/18 Betye Saar, Alison Saar, Lezley Saar, Wyatt Kenneth Coleman, Richard S. Chow, Lisa Bartleson, Scott Yoell, Jane Szabo, Rebecca Campbell The Forest for the Trees 05/12/18 - 07/15/18 Sant Khalsa, Constance Mallinson, Greg Rose, Timothy Robert Smith, High & Dry, Robert Dunahay The Robot Show 08/04/18 - 09/26/18 Dave Pressler, Jeff Soto, Cristopher Cichocki, Chenhung Chen, Alex Kritselis, Robert Nelson, Karen Hochman Brown & Patrick McGillligan The New Vanguard II 10/21-12/31/18 Sandra Chevrier, Seth Armstrong, Craig 'Skibs' Barker, Brooks Salzwedel, Andrew Hem, Dan Witz, HOT TEA, Isaac Cordal, Jaune, Laurence Vallieres, Spenser Little 2017 Makers & Movers 2/11 - 4/16/17 Charles Hollis Jones, Chris Franci, David Jang, Lisa Schulte, Lori Cozen-Geller, Sedi Pak, Terry Cervantes Made in the Mojave 5/13 - 07/30/17 Samantha Fields, Kim Stringfellow, Carol Es, Catherine Ruane, Marthe Aponte, Nicolas Shake, Ron Pinkerton, Aline Mare, Randi Hokett Estate Italiana 8/26 - 10/22/17 Alex Pinna, Antonella Masetti, Carla Viparelli, Carlo Marcucci, Marco Casentini, Max Coppeta, Nicola Evangelisti 2016 British Invasion 11/19/16 - 1/22/17 Andrew Hall, Caroline PM Jones, Colin Gray, David Eddington, David Hockney, Dave Smith, Derek Boshier, Eleanor Wood, Gordon Senior, Graham Moore, James Scott, Jane Callister, Jeremy Kidd, Jon Measures, Kate Savage, Max Presneill, Nathaniel Mellors, Philip Argent, Philip Vaughan, Rhea O’Neill, Roni Stretch, Sarah Danays, Shiva Aliabadi, Siobhan McClure, Trevor Norris Green Revolution 2/13 - 4/17/16 Jeremy Kidd, Lynn Aldrich, Fawn Rogers, Charles Hood, Christine Mugnolo, Coleen Sterritt, Ann Weber, LAGI, HCA Artist As Subject 5/7 - 7/24/16 Rebecca Campbell, Andrew Frieder, Kent Anderson Butler, Eric Minh Swenson, Jane Szabo, Nataša Prosenc Stearns Made in America 8/13 - 10/30/16 NASA Flight Research: Probing the Sky, MOAH Collections 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Astronaut Karen Nyberg, Scott Listfield, Gerald Clarke, The New Vanguard, Daniel Albrigo, Jae Young Kim 2015 Legacy 1/24 - 3/15/15 Eric Johnson, Craig Kauffman, Dewain Valentine, John Paul Jones, Tony DeLap, Tom Jenkins, Lisa Bartleson, Jennifer Faist, Andrew Benson, R. Nelson Parrish, Charles Dickson 2015 Juried 4/2 - 4/26/15 Synthesis: 30th All-Media Juried Art Exhibition, 30th Annual All-Media High School Art Exhibition & Educators' Art Exhibition Flora 5/9 - 6/28/15 Nancy Macko, Terry Arena, Gary Brewer, Debi Cable, Candice Gawnw, Lisa Schulte, Mud Baron, Jamie Sweetman, Guest Curator Dr. Bruce Love Play.Create.Collect 7/18 - 9/6/15 Guest Curators Julie B. & Heidi Johnson, Davis & Davis, Moshe Elimelech, Thumberdome, Woes Martin, Teddy Kelly, Hueman, HCA Myths & Legends 10/4 - 11/15/15 Guest Curator Wendy Sherman, Michael Aschenbrenner, Judy Csotsis, Marissa Quinn, Jeremie D. Riggleman, Jonas N.T. Becker, Tina Dille, Seamus Conley Vanity 12/5/15 - 1/24/16 Justin Bower, Roni Stretch, Austin Young, Shana Mabari, Laura Larson, Leigh Salgado, Tina Dorff, Ted Meyer 2014 Colorimetry 1/18/13 - 3/16/14 Ruth Pastine, Gisela Colon, John Eden, Johannes Girardoni, Philip K Smith, Karl Benjamin, Dion Johnson, Innovations Juried Exhibition Spring 2014 3/29 - 6/8/14 29th High School Art Exhibition, YiKai, Brad Howe, Andrew Frieder Spirit of Summer 6/21 - 8/31/14 Selections from the Herbie Fletcher Collection, Coop, Douglas McCulloh & Jacques Garnier, Artist of the film Mana, Allison Renshaw, Thumperdome, John Van Hamersveld Hispanic Heritage 9/13 -11/9/14 Guillermo Bert, Juan Delgado & Thomas McGovern, Linda Vallejo, Johnny Nicoloro, Luis Fileto, Andrea Kraus, Leslie Mazoch, Omar Mireles, Libby Wendt & Robin Rosenthal From the Desert to the Sea 11/22/14 - 1/11/15 Guest Curator Sant Khalsa, Carol Sears, Hollis Cooper, Kim Abeles, Julius Eastman, Jill Sykes, Kelly Berg 2013 Winter 2013 12/6/12 - 3/7/13 (Dates Vary): Ann Marie Rousseau, Cuppetelli/Mendoza, Nike Schröderz, Gisela Colón, Megan Geckler, Chris Trueman, 28th Annual AVHUSC Art Exhibition Spring 2013 3/16 - 5/11/13 (Dates Vary) Gary Lang, Jorg Dubin, Guillermo Bert, Susan Sironi, Thomas McGovern, Danial Nord Bloom 5/11 - 6/29/13 Cole Case, Amir H. Fallah, Penelope Gottlieb, Roland Reiss, Sharon Suhovy, Elena Manferdini, Jennifer Vanderpool, Kathleen Elliot, Janice Tieken, Susan Sironi, Rebecca Niederlander Autumn 2013 8/3 - 10/13/13 Guest Curators Tyler Stallings & Marko Peljhan, Tim Youd, Rebecca Trawich, Jorg Dubin The Frostig Collection & More 10/29/13 - 1/5/14 The Artists of the Frostig Collection, Lou Swenson, Bradford J. Salamon, The Artists of the Open Studio, Christoff Van Kooning 2012 Grand Opening 5/5 - 8/18/12 (Dates Vary) Smooth Operations, The Painted Desert, Indians, Gold Miners and Gunslingers Autumn 2012 8/9- 10/22/12 (Dates Vary) Gregory Martin, Sally Egan & Amy Bystedt, Mercedes Helnwein, Lakes and Valleys Art Guild, Jennifer Glass Holiday 2012 9/29/12 - 1/1/13 (Dates Vary) Jennifer Glass, Ann Marie Rousseau, Selections from the Accatino Collection, David and Kazumi Svenson, Gary Baseman

< Return to Exhibitions Grand Opening 2012 Smooth Operations: Substance and Surface in Southern California Art The Painted Desert Ron_Davis Thatcher May 5, - August 18, 2012 Learn More May 5, - September 16, 2012 Indians, Gold Miners and Gunslingers Smooth Operations: Substance and Surface in Southern California Art Lancaster's Museum of Art and History opens its new dedicated space with "Smooth Operations: Substance and Surface in Southern California Art," an exhibition looking at the use of new and untraditional materials in the fabrication of art objects. "Smooth Operations" will concentrate on the postwar years in and around Los Angeles, when experimentation with such unorthodox, even radical materials and qualities led to the emergence of movements such as finish/fetish and light-and-space. Among the artist whose work will comprise "Smooth Operations" are Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, DeWain Valentine, Ronald Davis, Craig Kauffman, Judy Chicago, Mary Corse, Roland Reiss, John McCracken, Helen Pashgian, Tony DeLap, VASA, Norman Zammitt, Fred Eversley, Jerome Mahoney, Doug Edge and Terry O'Shea. The work of several younger artists who investigate the qualities of synthetic materials, including Eric Johnson, Lisa Bartleson, Andy Moses, Alex Couwenberg, Ann Marie Rousseau, Ruth Pastine, Phlip K. Smith, Gisela Colon and Eric Zamitt, will augment the main part of the exhibition. In effect, "Smooth Operations" will be the first post-Pacific Standard Time exhibition in southern California, opening only days after the official end of the Getty's vast historic initiative but continuing in the spirit o fthat initiative. Like PST, "Smooth Operations" examines aspects of modernism in southern California and their implications for contmeporary artistic practice and scholarship. The Painted Desert The Painted Desert represents diverse perspectives, interpretations and techniques addressing the dessert as subject. This show celebrates its artistic traditions both through process and concept. Paintings by artists Dennis Calaba, Cole Case, Todd Cooper, Jorg Dubin, Robert Dunahay, Smantha Fields, Richard Gallego, Kris Holladay, Christine Kline, Glen Knowles, Ellie Korn, Gregory Martin, Al Miller, Donnie Molls, Debbie Nelson, Ann Sly, Gerald Strangio, Sal Vasquez, Donna Weil and Andre Yi will grace the second floor of MOAH. Indians, Gold Miners and Gunslingers "In small things forgotten..." writes American archaeologist James Deetz, we remember our past. It is in the seemingly insignificant remnants of daily life that we can reconstruct teh history of a people. We can learn their values, derive their prosperity and visit the essence of their existence. In the beginning, Lancaster was a rough and tumble stagecoach and whistle stop thorugh the upper Mojave Desert for weary travelers on their way south toward the Los Angeles Basin or norht toward the San Joaquin Valley. Driving through the City of Lancaster today, it is difficult to imagine a time when Indians populated the landscape, gold mining was a profession and gun slinging was a means of survival. However, prior to 1930, a way of life in Lancaster, CA could be described as just this. Outpost, stagecoach stop, railroad stop, frontier—these are all words that described the area that would be Lancaster prior to 1930. Lancaster was part of the Old West. Come enjoy a brief look back at the people and industry of our predecessors, the things they left behind and the legacy they leave us. As you contemplate the history of Lancaster in the Old West the goal is that you will come away with an appreciation for what life wa like in the past and what it is today. The artifacts and photos of a time gone by seem to say, "Don't read what we have written, see what we have done". (James Deetz) Smooth Desert Gold View or Download the Grand Opening Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.

Mission Statement As a community resource leader in the Greater Antelope Valley, the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation fosters the diversity and richness of the region through collaborative support of programs celebrating arts, culture , and history. Learn more President Vice President/Treasurer Secretary Directors Directors Emeritus Administrative Assistant Nicole Christensen Michelle Shaver Donna Hill Andi Campognone Kara Avery De'Chane Yusef Leo Stallworth Steven Eglash Jocelyn Sanchez For more information on the Lancaster Museum & Public Art Foundation: Visit us online: LMPAF.org E-mail: LMPAF@cityoflancasterca.org Click to make a donation to the Lancaster Museum & Public Art Foundation: Support MOAH

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< Back Mela M Featured Structure Artist MANIFEST STRUCTURES FROM THE IMAGINAL is a new body of work from Mela that captures the artist's concept of "a provocative stream of consciousness as the past informs the present… to imagine multiple future possibilities." For Mela, these works bear witness to species-driven archetypes that result in how humans structure their lives on a physical and emotional level. The acceleration of science and technology have made these cultural systems increasingly complex, and these intricacies are reflected in Mela's structural representations. Mela strives to create visualizations of the different layers of human consciousness as imagined through multiple dimensions and timelines, and hopes her work challenges upcoming artists to draw inspiration from this not-so-common era. There are five distinct but related components from throughout the museum that make up MANIFEST STRUCTURES FROM THE IMAGINAL: a set of four acrylic paintings titled THE EVOLUTION OF THE OMEGATROPOLIS THROUGH FOUR SEASONS OF ARCHITECTONIC METAMORPHOSIS (lobby atrium), the hand-drawn CITYSCAPES OF ARCHITECTONIC METAMORPHOSIS FOR THE COMMON ERA (wall leading to the Jewel Box), a symbolic monument titled THE TOTEM OF THE MOON CASTLE (Jewel Box), and two architectural wooden sculptures titled THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE MOVES THROUGH IRREGULAR ANGLES IN A RISING WALL FROM AN ARCHITECTONIC CITY WITHOUT NAME OR PLACE OR TIME and THE WALL TEMPLE AT THE VANISHING POINT (Ralph and Virginia Bozigian Family Gallery). Mela M has an MFA from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California and an MFA from the Technological Institute of Art and Textile Design in Belarus. Her work has garnered national and international recognition with over twenty solo exhibitions, twenty-seven museum group exhibitions, and dozens of group shows in colleges and universities. She has been honored with numerous prizes and awards internationally, and her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Long Beach Museum of Art in California, the Southwestern Oregon College at Coos Bay in Oregon, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belarus. Previous Next

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

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

Map of Lancaster Aerial Map of Lancaster (West to East) Lancaster Map Lancaster Map 1/1 Aerial Map of Lancaster (West to East) Photographic Print 2019.19.01 MOAH Permanent Collection Gift of Edwards Air Force Base (AFFTC-HO) Scan the QR Code for more information Map of Lancaster

back to list Sean Banister Sean Banister is an artist from Riverside, California. While growing up in Southern California as a young painter and envisioning an adult life in the art world, Sean’s early years in college steered him from a life in the arts and towards a degree in English and a career in teaching. As he approached 15 years as an English teacher, Sean began working his way to earning a second credential in teaching Art, coinciding with a return to painting as a main priority in his life. Sean’s art education has been a self guided patchwork of sources: foundational classes at Riverside Community College, various workshops in Southern California, along the wealth of online resources have all been woven into his approach to his paintings. Sean reprioritized art in his life in 2019, and by the end of the year he had garnered the attention of gallerists and collectors alike through juried open submission shows and portfolio reviews. This opened the door to working with Thinkspace Gallery in 2020 for his first solo show, and several group exhibitions.