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< Back Purple Sunset Atrium Alexis Mata Alexis Mata is a Mexico City based multimedia artist, whose digitally altered landscapes explore the complexities of reality, perception, and beauty. His work investigates the ways in which technology distorts and enhances our understanding of the natural world, creating imagery that is both familiar and surreal. Purple Suns et portrays the desert flora surrounding Mexico City, evoking narratives of place and personal identity. Blending traditional oil painting with digital editing techniques and the use of artificial intelligence, Mata’s work explores the tensions between classical modes of representation and contemporary technology. This juxtaposition of realism and digital abstraction challenges viewers perception of authenticity and illusion. Through his hallucinatory compositions, Mata highlights the evolving relationship between technology and the environment. Previous Next

< Return to Exhibitions Winter 2013 December 6, 2012 - March 2, 2013 Ann Marie Rousseau: Sight Lines January 1 - March 2, 2013 Nervous Structure: Cuppetelli/Mendoza Nike Schröderz: 34° N 118° W Gisela Colón: PODS January 26 - March 10, 2013 Megan Geckler: Rewritten by Machine on New Technology Chris Trueman: Slipstream Brian Wills January 24 - March 7, 2013 28th Annual Antelope Valley Union High School District Art Exhibition Megan Geckler Brian Wills Ann Marie Rousseau Gisela Colón Nike Schröder Chris Trueman Cuppetelli/Mendoza AVUHSD 2013 Learn More PODS Nervous Geckler 28thAVUHSD Nike Nervous Structure: Cuppetelli/Mendoza Nervous Structure is an interactive installation created by emerging artists Annica Cuppetelli (USA) and Cristobal Mendoza (Venezuela). The work is composed of hundreds of vertical elastic lines illuminated with interactive computer graphics that react to the presence and motion of viewers. The piece consists of three planes that intersect: the physical plane (the structure), the virtual plane (the projection) and the perceptual plane (the viewer and his/her interaction). The artists note that “it is in these various points of intersection that the piece works, and our interest lies in the perceptual problems that arise within these intersections.” A significant aspect of the installation is the moiré pattern, which is created when the projected lines move over the structure. A moiré pattern is the optical result of two overlapping grids that are not in perfect alignment. The term is used widely in physics and computer graphics; however the word is hundreds of years old and originates from a type of textile that has a “watery” look, which is produced by layering fabric. The fact that so much of modern technology terminology has its origins in historical techniques (particularly in textiles) is of great interest to the artists, as it connects their individual practices and it ties their work to history. Cuppetelli and Mendoza began their artistic collaboration in autumn 2010. They have exhibited in the Biennial of Video and Media Arts (Chile, 2012) and festivals such as Scopitone 2012 (France), ISEA 2012, FILE 2011 (Brazil), FAD 2011 (Brazil), video_dumbo 2011 (New York, NY) among others. Cuppetelli received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art (Fibers, 2008) and Mendoza at the Rhode Island School of Design (Digital Media, 2007). Mendoza is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, where they are based. Nike Schröder: 34˚N 118˚W 34˚N 118˚W is a site-specific installation made especially for the MOAH entrance lobby by Los Angeles-based artist Nike Schröder. The installation represents an abstraction of the moment when the sun pierces the desert horizon at dawn. Schröder captured the color scheme from this moment in time by integrating it into the textile art piece, which brings a reflection of the ephemeral horizon into the museum. As the artist painstakingly hand stitched thousands of colored threads onto the canvases, she allowed them to hang in the manner that paint drips from the canvas, forming a symphony of color that is sensitive to the movement of people as they walk through the entrance doors and to the subtle and shifting air currents in the museum. The two canvases are placed at a prescribed distance apart, creating a locus of conversation between each panel. The top threads slightly touch the lower canvas while leaving drips of cut-off thread on the floor as part of the discussion between materials and location. Nike Schröder earned her Art Therapy degree in Germany in 2008 and moved to Los Angeles in 2012. Working as a professional studio artist, Schröder has shifted her practice from figurative motives to exploring the world of abstraction through precise systems of color. Her color calculations are based on a specific place and/or time and generously provide the viewer with keen color gradations that she configures into sensitive linear and formal compositions. Coming from a painting background, the artist explores the exceptional materiality of fibers and textiles as they overlap and extend beyond the traditional frame of a painting into the environment. Additionally, by utilizing materials that respond to movement, her work invites public interaction while activating the museum space. Schröder exhibits internationally in galleries, at art fairs and in commercial spaces such as Urban Outfitters and Stefanel. MOAH is thrilled to showcase Nike Schröder’s site-specific piece 34˚N 118˚W, a work that celebrates the Antelope Valley through her distinctive artistic sensibility. Gisela Colón: PODS PODS—the new work of Los Angeles-based abstract artist Gisela Colón —features a painting-sculpture hybrid of blow-molded plastic forms that are meticulously saturated with automotive lacquers in iridescent, reflective, radiating pigments. Colón’s use of anthropomorphic, amorphous, organic and asymmetrical lines appear to cause the object to dissolve into the surrounding environment, thereby inviting the viewer to experience pure color and form in space. Colón was born in Canada to a German mother and raised in her father's native Puerto Rico. Having spent the last two decades living and working in Southern California, Colón’s latest body of work reflects the influences of her surroundings and embraces the quintessential SoCal artistic practice of perceptualism—also known as "light & space" and "finish fetish" that developed here in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Megan Geckler: Rewritten by Machine on New Technology “I cannot overemphasize the need for play, for in play you don’t extract yourself from your activity. In order to invent I felt it necessary to make art a practice of affirmative play or conceptual experimentation” – Richard Serra. Megan Geckler’s installations are fun – let’s just get that out in the open. Her work is an absolute pleasure to look at, and the impending sense of vertigo one may self-induce by circumnavigating her installations and craning one’s neck at precipitous angles is part of the visceral delight. And it is a pleasure that Geckler wants to induce. Her practice of building large scale, site-specific installations out of commonly produced, industrial, rather than art-specific, materials is, at its core, oriented toward the human figure. Geckler creates a kind of grand spectacle full of pulsating color to trigger the eye, while the scale of her work, the investigation of architecture, and the manner in which the pieces unfold dimensionally elicits an awareness of space as traversed by the figure. This hybrid endeavor that blurs the distinctions between disciplines draws on the history of geometric abstract painting, late twentieth century sculpture, and contemporary practices in installation. Geckler focuses on the phenomenological experience of the singular viewer, offering an encompassing environment that notes the vocabulary of minimalism and its use of industrial materials and literalness. Rewritten by Machine on New Technology is the first of Geckler’s installations to be re-imagined for a new architectural setting, re-engineered, and re-deployed. Fill It Up and Pour It Down the Inside, her 2006 installation at the Torrance Art Museum was the first iteration and featured a vortex-shaped twist between two rectangles. Machine is about twice the size, and it involves a rhombus and a new color scheme designed specifically for the Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Her new work invites consideration: What does it mean to have created a site-specific, temporally limited work that gets resurrected and transformed? What are the implications now that the work has passed into the realm of an idea, to be retrieved from Plato’s cave, as it were, and precipitated, realized as a new specificity? Geckler’s work, in its re-imagination, takes on a self-reflexive quality, but one that is light-hearted and whimsical, rather than ironic. It is a return to the idea, a playful reiteration, and an enchantment with time, place, and perception. Christopher Michno—Los Angeles, 2013 Megan Geckler earned her Bachelors degree from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1998 and her Masters degree from the Claremont Graduate University in 2001. She has mounted solo shows at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Los Angeles World Airport, and the Creative Artists Agency among others, as well as in partnership with corporations such as Nike, Target and Urban Outfitters. For more images and information about Geckler, please visit her website - megangeckler.com Chris Trueman: Slipstream noun \slip-strēm\ aeronautics: a current or stream of fluid (as air or water) driven aft by a revolving propeller or jet engine. an assisting force regarded as drawing something along behind something else such as to ride in the slipstream of a fast-moving vehicle. How might a stationary painting behave like a slipstream? Southern California based painter, Chris Trueman answers this question deftly and deliberately by combining forces between hard edge lines and the organic fields of color that occupy his expansive, immersive canvases. While his command of the painted surface is apparent in the formal qualities of his work, he simultaneously questions and reconstructs the ideological precepts of Abstract Expressionism, OP Art, Hard-Edge and Minimalism, which takes his work beyond the formal and into rich—and often opposing—philosophical terrain. The assisting force of Trueman’s slipstream is generated by the intersection of these formal and philosophical experiments. Trueman’s slipstream gains additional strength and efficiency as he traverses a range of painterly applications including his generous use of color, tonality, form, texture, and the visible record of his exploration of materials, each providing a tangible contrast to one another. Trueman seduces the viewer by calculating the pressure between hard and soft edges; through directing color combinations that vibrate in the moiré to trick the eye; and by leading the conversation that occurs between the painted surface and the areas where he reveals the raw, untreated canvas. His attention to materiality—the softness of the raw canvas against the strictly defined edges and textural depth—exposes the truth of the material. Trueman’s painted slipstream is equally structural: his canvases are composed with architectonic forms that reference the tenets of geometric abstraction as defined by Picasso’s lineage of producing an illusionistic space that one feels compelled to step into. Formal elements and historical styles may be easily identified in this exhibition, however the process of analyzing the work is complicated by the very act of viewing and thus, experiencing the painting. The effect of various moiré and optical patterns shift constantly according to the distance and angle from which they are viewed, and often interfere with the ability to see and envision the entirety of the painting at once. At times the underlying forms are completely dependent upon the leading or foreground layers; much like a cycling team is reliant upon the leading cyclist who is creating a slipstream. Within Trueman’s new work exists yet another type of slipstream, one that is energized by a collision of philosophical references. Moving beyond the formal principles of design, Trueman’s slipstream builds considerable momentum as he shifts through several periods that define the history of modern art: the iconic, self-absorbed and experimental nature of Abstract Expressionism; the mathematical and perceptual trickery of OP Art; the rigorous precision of Hard-Edge painting; and the quiet, contemplative principles of Minimalism. Trueman states that for him, the most compelling collision occurs between the philosophical arrogance of abstract expressionistic gesture painting and the humble “blue collar” act of hard-edge painting. This ideological conflict precipitates a kind of vigorous tension that pulls the viewer into the painting as strongly as the formal properties of his works. While Trueman’s new body of work is richly painted and contains complex formal and ideological principles, it simply draws the viewer in and is pleasurable to engage. Trueman gives you the autonomy to move between the layers and create your own slipstream in real time as you move toward and away the painting. Chris Trueman graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2003, earning dual BFA degrees in Painting and Digital Media. He relocated to southern California to attend Claremont Graduate University, earning a MFA with a concentration in Painting in 2010. Trueman currently teaches painting at Fullerton College and Santa Ana College and has previously taught at Chapman University. Trueman has exhibited his work nationally in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and internationally in Milan, Italy. 28th Annual Antelope Valley Uniton High School District Art Exhibition For 28 years the Lancaster Museum of Art & History, formerly the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery, has been proud to present the artwork of the Valley’s burgeoning young artists. This year marks the first time the show will be located at the brand new MOAH facility. Featuring the work of over 100 students from across the Antelope Valley, this all-media show will fill three of MOAH’s galleries. Over $1,000 in awards, donated by the Lakes and Valleys Art Guild, Lancaster Photography Association, Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation, Beryl Amspoker Memorial, as well as awards from Lancaster’s Mayor R. Rex Parris, City Manager Mark Bozigian, Director of Parks, Recreation and Arts Ronda Perez and MOAH’s Interim Curator Andi Campognone will be presented to students encouraging their passion for art. Trueman View or Download the Winter2013 Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.

RENTAL FEES MOAH MOAH:CEDAR WESTERN HOTEL MUSEUM PRIME DESERT WOODLAND PRESERVE MOAH Rental Fees * Prices are subject to change Entire Museum (excluding office and storage) CAP. 399 Deposit Hourly Fee Cleaning Fee Staff Fee (2 Staff Members) $581 $316-581 w/ 4hr. min $300 $49 per hour *Available after normal business hours Lantern Room with Terrace CAP. Sitting 80, Terrace Cocktail 170 Deposit Hourly Fee Cleaning Fee Staff Fee (2 Staff Members) $560 $314 $94 $49 per hour *Depending on Exhibit Galleries Second Floor CAP. 70-100 Deposit Hourly Fee Cleaning Fee Staff Fee (2 Staff Members) $303 $94 $61 $49 per hour *Depending on Exhibit Main Gallery CAP. 125-250 Deposit Hourly Fee Cleaning Fee Staff Fee (2 Staff Members) $287 $298 $90 $47 per hour *Depending on Exhibit Classroom CAP. 50 Deposit Hourly Fee Cleaning Fee Staff Fee (2 Staff Members) $120 $48 $0 $47 per hour Required Fees Insurance Low - If less than 99 guests Insurance High - If more than 100 guests For every 100 guests, a Ranger is required If Alcohol is being served, Ranger is required $30/hour and need to provide own Liability insurance with ABC Certificate. $46 $66 $30 Optional Fees Wi-Fi Patio Heater (Propane provided, max. quantity 4) Outdoor Furniture (Table + 4 Chairs) Tablecloth (White or Black) Chair Cover (White) Uplight Art Removal Fee Lounge Furniture - Gray Accent Chair Lounge Furniture - Gray Couch Lounge Furniture - Large Accent Table Lounge Furniture - Small Accent Table Pipe and Drape (12' - Black) $30 $65 each $21 each or $97 for all 5 sets $15 each $15 each $9 each $119 each $113 each $113 each $21 each $10 each $15 each *Refunds for deposit and cancellations are issued via paper check and may take up to 6 to 8 weeks to receive MOAH:CEDAR Rental Fees *Prices are subject to change Main Hall CAP. Seated 120, Standing 180 Deposit Hourly Fee Cleaning Fee $100 $124 $124 Galleries CAP. 50 Deposit Hourly Fee Staff Fee (2 Staff Members) $50 $43 $49/hour Required Fees Insurance Low - If less than 99 guests Insurance High - If more than 100 guests For every 100 guests, a Ranger is required If Alcohol is being served, Ranger is required $28/hour and need to provide own Liability insurance with ABC Certificate. $46 $66 $28 Optional Fees Wi-Fi Patio Heater (propane provided, max. quantity 4) Tablecloth (White or Black) Uplight Lounge Furniture - Gray Accent Chair Lounge Furniture - Gray Couch Lounge Furniture - Large Accent Table Lounge Furniture - Small Accent Table Pipe and Drape (12' - Black) $30 $65 each $15 each $9 each $113 each $113 each $21 each $10 each $15 each Western Hotel Museum Rental Fees *Prices are subject to change Pavilion CAP. 100 Deposit Hourly Fee Cleaning Fee $100 $91 $50 *Refunds for deposit and cancellations are issued via paper check and may take up to 6 to 8 weeks to receive Required Fees Insurance Low - If less than 99 guests Insurance High - If more than 100 guests For every 100 guests, a Ranger is required If Alcohol is being served, Ranger is required $30/hour and need to provide own Liability insurance with ABC Certificate. $46 $66 $30 Optional Fees Wi-Fi Patio Heater (propane provided, max. quantity 4) Staff Fee (2 Staff Members) Tablecloth (White or Black) Lounge Furniture - Gray Accent Chair Lounge Furniture - Gray Couch Lounge Furniture - Large Accent Table Lounge Furniture - Small Accent Table Pipe and Drape (12' - Black) $30 $65 each $49/hour $15 each $113 each $113 each $21 each $10 each $15 each Prime Desert Woodland Preserve Pavilion Rental Fees * Prices are subject to change Pavilion CAP. 100 Deposit Hourly Fee Cleaning Fee $100 $48 $50 Required Fees Insurance Low - If less than 99 guests Insurance High - If more than 100 guests For every 100 guests, a Ranger is required If Alcohol is being served, Ranger is required $30/hour and need to provide own Liability insurance with ABC Certificate. $46 $66 $30 *Refunds for deposit and cancellations are issued via paper check and may take up to 6 to 8 weeks to receive Optional Fees Wi-Fi Staff Fee (2 Staff Members) Patio Heater (propane provided, max. quantity 4) Outdoor Furniture (Table + 4 Chairs) Tablecloth (White or Black) Uplight Lounge Furniture - Gray Accent Chair Lounge Furniture - Gray Couch Lounge Furniture - Large Accent Table Lounge Furniture - Small Accent Table Pipe and Drape (12' - Black) $30 $49/hour $65 each $21 each or $97 for all 5 sets $15 each $9 each $113 each $113 each $21 each $10 each $15 each View or Download the Facility Rental Application by clicking here . Apply Visit the link before to see frequently asked questions regarding rentals. Rental FAQ

Up 300-Miles to Wounded Knee: The Oomaka Tokatakiya, Future Generations Ride Ken Marchionno 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. Marchionno is also known for his large-scale panoramic landscapes comprising dozens of separate frames shot using a telephoto lens. 300 Miles to Wounded Knee: the Oomaka Tokatakiya Future Generations Ride is a community-engaged photography project that documents the three hundred-mile memorial horseback ride to the site of the Wounded Knee massacre. Often braving the piercing South Dakota Winter, the journey to Wounded Knee is meant to be an homage to the Lakota people who lost their lives one hundred and thirty years ago, but riders also regard it as a spiritual, cultural and intellectual experience. Machionno’s portrayal of the event strays from the typical exploitative depiction of stoic, poverty-stricken Native Americans and reservation life and offers an empowering representation of their journey. His documentation offers a contemporary lens that highlights the autonomy and self-empowerment of the Lakota people. Ken Marchionno is an artist, writer and curator living in the Los Angeles area and is currently a Professor in Photography and Imaging at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. His work has been presented in Dr. Betty Ann Brown’s Art and Mass Media and Robert Hirsch’s Exploring Color Photography. He has been a stringer for the Associated Press and his photography has been featured in a number of magazines and newspapers including the contemporary art quarterly, X-TRA. His creative writing has been included in the literary journals Errant Bodies and Framework. His ongoing project, 300 Miles to Wounded Knee: the Oomaka Tokatakiya Future Generations Ride has been exhibited in The Smithsonian Institution; the U.S. Embassy in Prague; and Yuchun Museum, Suzhou, China. January 23 – May 9, 2021 Back to list

Sean YangTOUCH THE TRUESELF WITHINThrough sculptural ceramics and mixed- media works, artist Sean Yang’s practice exploits the tension between reproduction and handcrafted objects, using this dialogue to examine social control, collective unconsciousness, individual identity, and cultural transformation. < Back SEAN YANG 20X20X12 Pigeonhole_MIXEDMEDIA CAST RESIN_2023.jpg SEAN YANG 9X7X6 BLUE MOUNTAIN PORCELAIN STONEWARE OXIDES GLAZED 2019.jpg SEAN YANG 4X12X5 CocaCola Buddha mixedmedia cast resin 2016.JPG SEAN YANG 20X20X12 Pigeonhole_MIXEDMEDIA CAST RESIN_2023.jpg 1/7 Sean Yang TOUCH THE TRUESELF WITHIN Through sculptural ceramics and mixed- media works, artist Sean Yang’s practice exploits the tension between reproduction and handcrafted objects, using this dialogue to examine social control, collective unconsciousness, individual identity, and cultural transformation. His work is informed by a nomadic-like experience during his early 20s, in which he traveled across thirteen European countries until finally settling down in the United States, taking bits and pieces from these cultures and fusing them into his own personal identity. Focusing on the desire to quiet the mind and embrace the unity between human, nature, and environment, Yang’s installation TOUCH THE TRUESELF WITHIN considers his interpretation of the Four Noble Truths: suffering, self-righteousness, perception of human nature, and environmental sustainability. Yang’s work is a meditation on the process of self-discovery, focusing on how the experience is not the result of a straightforward course, but rather a collection of social and internal exchanges within oneself. Previous Next

Up What it takes to survive a crisis or the imaginary Richter scale of rage Eileen Cowin Eileen Cowin uses video, photography and multimedia installations to explore the blurred lines between narrative, storytelling, memory, the unconscious, fiction and truth. Her carefully fabricated compositions combine objects with intimate human gestures in a way that heightens the emotional experience and yet is open for interpretation, allowing the viewer to complete the artwork. Cowin's early work is often associated with the Los Angeles experimental photography scene of the 1970s and the East Coast Pictures Generation. During the 80s and 90s Cowin's work evolved to include the fully-constructed cinematic installations and videos that she is known for today. In her series What it takes to survive a crisis or the imaginary Richter scale of rage, Cowin expands on her themes of anxiety and rage through her various images and video installations. In the age of unprecedented mass upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cowin explores the constant state of crisis America has dealt with, starting with the 2016 presidential election to the present time. Her visual narratives are symbolic in nature, perfectly encapsulating the constant fear, turmoil and global uncertainty the pandemic has released. Eileen Cowin is a Los Angeles based artist known for work in photography, video and mixed-media installations. Her work has been featured in over 30 solo exhibitions and in more than 180 group exhibitions. Cowin’s works have also been featured in private and public collections including: the Brooklyn Museum, NY; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Los Angeles, CA; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; the National Museum of American Art; and MOCA, Los Angeles. She has received numerous recognitions and awards including three individual fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a commission from the Public Art Fund in New York, a City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Individual Artist Fellowship in New Genres from the California Arts Council, California Community Foundation’s Fellowship for Visual Artists, City of Santa Monica Artist’s Fellowship, Best Experimental Film USA Film Festival, and three commissions from Los Angeles World Airports. Cowin is currently working on a commission for the Martin Luther King Jr. Metro Station in Los Angeles. January 23 – May 9, 2021 Back to list

Land and Image: Chris Engman, 2002-2022 < Back Chris Engman Land and Image: Chris Engman, 2002-2022 May 14 - August 21, 2022 1/4 Previous Next Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles-based photographer Chris Engman spent his earlier years with an appreciation for nature, art, and travel. Throughout his undergraduate career Engman continued to travel from his studio in Seattle to the desert landscapes in eastern Washington, Oregon, and Nevada, collecting materials and building photography sets in Seattle and relocating them to the desert. Over the past two decades, Engman has dedicated his art to understanding how images deceive the eye and the human need to make sense of visual perception. Engman’s photography, at first glance, appears normal, yet, under careful examination, viewers become aware of the optical illusion and begin to question the constructed image. Engman’s twenty-year practice is grounded in research and conceptual thought. He documents remnants of labor and the juxtaposition of human material and vast landscape through sculpture and photography. He explains, “My constructions are not sculptures in the traditional sense. They’re just vehicles to reveal a process that is focused on experiencing time and understanding what photographs do – or don’t do. . .” Chris Engman was born in Seattle, WA. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He earned an MFA from the University of Southern California in 2013, and a BFA from the University of Washington in 2003. His work has been shown widely in the United States and Europe including at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle, Henry Art Gallery, The Seattle Art Museum, Institute for Contemporary Art in San Jose, Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Clair Gallerie in Munich, 68 Projects in Berlin, Project B in Milan, and Flowers Gallery in London. His work is featured in numerous public and private collections including Orange County Art Museum, The Henry Gallery, Seattle Art Museum, Houston Fine Arts Museum, Covington Library, Microsoft, and the Elton John Collection. Engman is represented by Luis De Jesus Los Angeles and in Seattle by Greg Kucera Gallery.

Brooke Jurgenson < Back ROSE By Brooke Jurgenson Seed. Secured beneath the soil, Spreading of thy roots. Stuck in a choking coil, With nowhere to offshoot. Sprout. Suddenly struck by the light, Suffering from the air’s embrace, She climbs till night, Yearning for the roots’ embrace. Shoot. Surrounded by the foreboding trees, Sensing the futility of life, Suppressing her urge to freeze Amidst the winter strife. Thorn. Trapped in this withered existence, There is no other choice but to fight. There is no other choice but resistance, For she must survive the brutal winter night. Rose. Rising above the pain of the past, Releasing the rouge of the future, Rejoicing in life at last, She is forever flourishing. Previous Next

Up The New Vanguard III Various Artists Solo exhibitions: Kathy Ager Alex Garant Inga Guzyte Kayla Mahaffey Kevin Peterson Special group show curated by: Thinkspace Projects Special Installation by: Spenser Little The Lancaster Museum of Art and History, in collaboration with Los Angeles’ Thinkspace Projects, is pleased to present The New Vanguard III , a dynamic group exhibition of works by international artists working in the New Contemporary art movement. The highly anticipated follow up to 2018’s successful second iteration of The New Vanguard, on view in tandem with this year’s POW WOW! Antelope Valley will feature special solo projects by artists Kevin Peterson, Kayla Mahaffey, Kathy Ager and Alex Garant. The New Vanguard III , in keeping with the first two installments, will present a diverse and expansive group of curated new works. In addition to the solo exhibitions on view from Mahaffey, Peterson, Ager and Garant, we will also be presenting our ’ Small Victories ’ group show focusing on suicide prevention and mental health. We’ve lost one of our greatest allies and friends and one of our rising stars to this ever growing epidemic in recent years. Sadly this issue is very wide spread in the creative community and we want to help raise awareness and funds. If it helps guide just one person out of the darkness, it was more than worth it to mount this collection of works. This special showcase will include new pieces by ABCNT, Adam Caldwell, Ador, AKACORLEONE, Allison Sommers, Angel Once, Anthony Hurd, Anthony Solano, Atomik, Brad Woodfin, Brian Mashburn, Bryan Valenzuela, Carl Cashman, Charlie Edmiston, Chloe Becky, Cinta Vidal, Clare Toms, Collin van der Sluijs, David Rice, Derek Gores, Dovie Golden, Dragon76, Drew Young, Edith Lebeau, Eduardo F. Angel, Erik Mark Sandberg, Frank Gonzales, Ghost Beard, Goopmassta, Hilda Palafox, Hola Lou, Huntz Liu, Imon Boy, Jaime Molina, Jeff Ejan, Jimmer Willmott, Kaplan Bunce, Kate Wadsworth, Kelly Vivanco, Ken Flewellyn, Kim Sielbeck, KOZ DOS, Lauren Hana Chai, Lauren YS, Linsey Levendall, Mando Marie, Manuel Zamudio, Mari Inukai, Max Sansing, McKenzie Fisk, Meggs, Molly Gruninger, Mwanel Pierre-Louis, Nicola Caredda, Patch Whisky, Ricky Watts, Roos van der Vliet, Saturno, Sergio Garcia, Shar Tuiasoa, Stephanie Buer, Tati Holt, Telmo Miel, TMRWLND, Waylon Horner, and Wiley Wallace. A movement unified as much by its diversity as its similitude, ‘New Contemporary’ has come to denote an important heterogeneity of styles, media, contexts, and activations over the course of its establishment since the 90s. Unified in its fledgling beginnings by a founding countercultural impulse searching for its own nomenclature, the New Contemporary movement’s shifting and inclusive designations have offered alternative narratives over the years to those popularized by the dominant art establishment and its conceptual predilections. Though stylistically disparate, the work belonging to this rapidly expansive movement reveals a desire to reference the popular, social, and subcultural domains of contemporary experience, grounding, rather than rarifying, imagery in the familiar. Looking to the urban landscape and the kaleidoscopic shift of individual identities within it, these artists use the figurative and narrative to anchor their work in the accessible and aesthetically relatable. A fundamentally democratic stance governs the ambitions of this new guard, ever in search of novel ways to expand rather than to contract. Kayla Mahaffey – Adrift Born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, Kayla Mahaffey (also known as KaylaMay) is quickly becoming one of the city’s most sought-after artists with her unique blend of flat, cartoon elements with brilliant photo-realism. Mahaffey’s work gives voice to the unheard stories of contemporary youth and, as explained by the artist, “serves as a guide to bring hope back into our daily lives by cherishing each moment, not in the mindset of an adult, but with the fresh eyes and imagination of a child.” Being born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, only ignited Mahaffey’s love for all things art. The artist elaborates, “seeing the struggle and the support from the community made my work evolve to a concept that is personal to me. I continue to further my technique and creativity in my field in order to paint a beautiful picture of a new world for those around me. Living in our society can be tough and most of the time we have to make the best of it. A wild imagination can take you so far, but at the end of the day we need to realize and observe the world around us. And the world around us is where I find my inspiration to paint. Colorful paintings that contain hints of whimsy and realism that tell a story of inner thoughts and personal issues that sometimes go unheard.” Inga Guzyte - Kindred Spirits Inga Guzyte is a sculptural-portraiture artist who melds her love of sculpture and skate culture into intricate, larger-than-life interpretations of powerful women. Guzyte utilizes recycled skateboards complete with scratches and scrapes conveying a sense of character, adding a “lived in” quality to her works, and portraying the authenticity of her art subjects. Her deconstruction of materials allows her to create the colors and shapes needed to produce a three-dimensional quality to her works. Through the exploration of important historical figures and social movements, Guzyte explores her humanity and encourages female viewers to ponder their thoughts on their own terms. Guzyte’s series of work, Kindred Spirits, pulls from her own experiences as a woman in male dominated fields such as: skateboarding, woodworking, and sculpture and the traumatic experience of being abandoned by her father in her formative years. From powerful female figures like Malala Yousafzai, to influential artists like Patssi Valdez and Alison Saar, Guzyte places the central crux of her works on the female experience. Her materials are discarded and broken, however, the end result is that which embodies graphic power and grace. Despite her use of recycled skateboards, every piece is carefully selected, providing a dimensional and complex quality to her pieces. Guzyte’s work provides a sense of catharsis in her own experiences, as she reflects and re-creates the stories of these influential women, she gains courage and strength. Guzyte was born in Lithuania and emigrated to Germany. Inspired by the skateboard culture of California, Guzyte moved to Santa Barbara, California. In 2011, she had her first exhibition in Santa Barbara and would soon move to New York City, showing her artworks in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Shortly thereafter, she would move to Switzerland to complete an art residency in Vienna, Austria. Guzyte would display her first piece in Switzerland and in 2017, her pieces would regularly be featured in group exhibitions. Guzyte received her Associate of Arts degree at Santa Barbara City College. She currently resides in Santa Barbara, California. Kathy Ager - Fool’s Gold Kathy Ager creates detailed still lifes that feel simultaneously Baroque and acerbically modern. Inspired by the 17th-century Golden Age of Dutch and Spanish painting, her imagery uses historical visual rhetoric to deliver intensely personal and emotively charged themes. A professional graphic designer-turned painter, this is Ager’s first complete body of work to date and includes ten new paintings. Ager begins her process with language – an idea or expression often gleaned from music, a book, or some other source that resonates personally. She then endeavors to resolve the concept visually through objects and composition, assembling a patchwork of references – some collective and shared from pop culture, others steeped in the idiosyncrasies of the personal. Both poetic and revelatory, Ager’s works feel charged with the simultaneous misery and beauty of contemporary appropriation – and express the current world through the formal repositories of the past to create anachronistic moments of resonance and delivery. Ever present amidst moments of undeniably expressed disappointment and disillusionment are redemptive linings, beautifully poignant discoveries, and playful, irreverent mirth. The seductive darkness with which Ager reveals universal human longings is both disarming and consuming. Broken hearts are offered up as organs in a bowl, skeletal memento mori abound, and dating feels about as abject in the modern world as butchery; books are stacked with suggestive spines, and flowers wither while fruit threatens to decay. The abattoir is never far from the transcendent ambitions of classical statuary in Ager’s world, while beauty is embroiled in the vulnerability of intimacy and self-exposure. Alex Garant - Deconstructing Identities Toronto-based, Canadian, Québéquois artist Alex Garant is a painter known for her hyper-realistically rendered Op Art portraits in which the faces and eyes of her subjects seem to skip their registers through image redoubling and superimposition, Garant is in search of the frenetic internal life of the sitter. Not unlike the fugitive flicker of a screen or the spectral layering of multiple film exposures, her portraits reveal an unsettling multiplicity, shifting beneath the subject’s surface. Garant creates faces that challenge the optics of identity and the reductive way in which it is perceived, with a visual gimmick that quite literally dislodges and displaces its coherence to produce skittering psychological images of fracture and ricochet. Garant has long been fascinated by the interaction of patterns and symmetry, and the resulting optics of their graphic repetition and layering. Her portraits begin with a series of superimposed drawings based on her sitters, actual individuals, and muses from her life, and pushes the familiar confines of portraiture to a newly strange and re-sensitized place of sensory confusion. Her subjects and their energy seem to erupt from within, testing the tensile seams of the skin, the body, as always, an insufficient vessel for the incongruous experience within. The artist’s labor-intensive oil paintings are meticulously executed, often incorporating patterning or other graphic elements and motifs to produce reverberating visual effects. Garant’s color palette ranges from the subtlety of realistic flesh tones to hyper-colored gradients, saturated pastels, and translucent gem-like washes of color. Her stylizations of these vertiginous portraits thrive in surreal kitsch to interrupt the apprehension of the subject, activating a process of invested viewing, that is of trying to “see” the person amidst the trappings of hallucinatory visual interference. The compelling and somewhat unsuccessful process of attempting to stabilize the image produces a fundamental feeling of perceptual instability, one that intensifies our stolen communion with an evasive subject. Kevin Peterson – Embers Kevin Peterson, a gifted hyperrealist painter, creates a fictional world in which innocence and collapse are brought into difficult proximity. His arresting images combine portraits of children accompanied by kindly sentient beasts in a state of kindred displacement. Alone, though together, in strangely desolate, richly graffitied urban scenes, these babes and their benevolent conspirators appear interchangeably as beacons of hope and symbols of dispossession. Peterson’s works harness a dystopian social hyperrealism through painstaking attention to every possible fraction and detail of the mundane in their execution – every contour is excised, every surface meticulously rendered. The weird crystal clarity of the hyperreal in the depiction of these desolate underpasses and structural ruins provides a starkly strange backdrop for elements of fairytale, like the fantastic alliances proposed between children and animals, and the magical narratives these allegiances imply. A psychologically poignant, if not ambiguous, feeling of transformation and hope lingers in these impossibly arresting scenes of solitary kids. The resilience they suggest is haunting, while the unsettling verity with which these vulnerable fictions are cast strike something in our shared fear of literal and figurative exposure. Always in search of poetic tension and compelling contrasts, Peterson alloys unlikely parts: beginnings and ends collide, the young appear in worn and weathered worlds, innocence is forced into experience, and the wild infringes upon the ‘civilizing’ city limits. In Wild, Peterson explores themes of protection and marginalization, staging wild animals, ironically, in the humanizing and civilizing charge of caregivers. Though a recurring suggestion in previous works, the role of the animal in a nearly shamanistic role as protector and watcher appears more overtly in the new. Small children are attended by wild bears, watchful raccoons, gentle fawns, mythic looking ravens, owls, and jungle cats, among others, as they hold a living and protective vigil against the crumbling architectures around them; their guardianship staged like a protective bulwark. Peterson’s hyperreal paintings are at times uncomfortably close in the pathos of their offerings; they remind us, too, of something uneasily present in us all, a childhood that haunts the posturing of all of our adulthoods. Ultimately, Peterson’s works offer beautifully jarring reminders of the need for redemptive outcomes in a disappointed time. Spenser Little - Illumination Devices Spenser Little is a self-taught artist who has been bending wire and carving wood for almost 20 years, allowing his creativity to morph into images that range from simple wordplay to complex portraits. He has related his wire work to a mixture of playing chess and illustration, as the problem-solving component of the work is what continues to inspire himself to create larger and more complex pieces. Some works contain moving components and multiple wires, but mostly the pieces are formed from one continuous piece of wire that is bent and molded to Little’s will. He has left the wire sculptures all over the world, in locations that range from the Eiffel Tower to the bottom of caves, their location selected with little discernment, only for the piece to be finally realized at the moment that someone discovers the surprise piece of art. Little has taken part in numerous POW! WOW! mural festivals in the past few years, which has exposed his work to an entire new audience via their network of art sites/blogs and having his work shared all over the world including the likes of the Antelope Valley (Lancaster, California); Long Beach, California; Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Honolulu, Hawaii; Israel; and San Jose, California. Regarding his new body of work, Spenser shares “To me, all art is a form of illumination devices. For this exhibition I have built a new series of mixed-media kinetic lamps. The lamps serve as bright facades for inner, hidden chambers. Looking through their constantly closing and opening doors, viewers are offered a peek at what makes them tick. Like the different layers we develop throughout our lives, we only allow certain people to see our most inner workings, while the majority are only able to see our polished exteriors. The lamp building process begins with the wood carving of the central character’s head. I then weld a round bar frame for the outline of the body. I don’t put much forethought into where the design will go, aesthetic or engineering wise, which allows me to adapt any spontaneous idea during the build. Once I have the legs and body welded out and sized to the wooden head, I begin to problem shoot the kinetic portion of the build. Which is the unnatural part for my purely sculptor’s brain. Once all of the kinetic components are complete, I clean and bake the paper skin on the lamp, allowing them to come to life.” Small Victories A group show focusing on suicide prevention and mental health. This special showcase will includes new pieces by Adam Caldwell, Ador, AKACORLEONE, Allison Sommers, Angel Once, Anthony Hurd, Anthony Solano, Atomik, Brad Woodfin, Brian Mashburn, Bryan Valenzuela, Carl Cashman, Charlie Edmiston, Chloe Becky, Cinta Vidal, Clare Toms, Collin van der Sluijs, David Rice, Derek Gores, Dovie Golden, Dragon76, Drew Young, Edith Lebeau, Eduardo F. Angel, Erik Mark Sandberg, Frank Gonzales, Ghost Beard, Goopmassta, Hilda Palafox, Hola Lou, Huntz Liu, Imon Boy, Jaime Molina, Jeff Ejan, Jimmer Willmott, Kaplan Bunce, Kate Wadsworth, Kelly Vivanco, Ken Flewellyn, Kim Sielbeck, KOZ DOS, Lauren Hana Chai, Lauren YS, Linsey Levendall, Mando Marie, Manuel Zamudio, Mari Inukai, Max Sansing, McKenzie Fisk, Meggs, Molly Gruninger, Mwanel Pierre-Louis, Nicola Caredda, Patch Whisky, Ricky Watts, Roos van der Vliet, Saturno, Sergio Garcia, Shar Tuiasoa, Stephanie Buer, Tati Holt, Telmo Miel, TMRWLND, Waylon Horner, and Wiley Wallace. September 12 – December 27, 2020 Back to list

Discover Trunks Lancaster Museum of Art & History is proud to offer the Discover Trunk program: a free traveling trunk program where members of MOAH's Education Team give engaging on-site presentations about different historical topics. Currently, the museum provides the following Discover Trunk topics: Dinosaurs, Ice Age, Ancient Egypt, and Aviation & Aerospace. Discover Trunk presentations are available for education sites, libraries, youth organizations, homeschool daycare groups, community/recreation sites, senior centers, special events, and more. Each Trunk presentation is about 45-60 minutes long and features a variety of tangible objects and artifacts. For back-to-back presentations, please allow a 15-minute transition period between presentations. Please contact the Education Department at (661) 723-6085 or MOAHeducation@cityoflancasterca.gov for more information about the Discover Trunk program. Use the form below to request a traveling Discover Trunk. Please book at least 3 weeks in advance. Interested in field trips? Click Here dinotrunk_Feb20_2024_img1 1/7 Request a Discover Trunk! Primary Contact First Name Primary Contact Last Name Secondary Contact First Name (if applicable) Secondary Contact Last Name (if applicable) Organization Site Address Phone Email Select a Discover Trunk Number of Presentations Number of Participants per Presentation Age of Participants Select prefered month Choose an option Select a date. Must be booked at least THREE WEEKS in advance. (Available only Wednesdays & Fridays) * required Select a preferred time (*If you need accommodations outside of the days and times listed, please contact the Education Department.) 09:00 AM 11:00 AM 01:00 PM Choose a time Please include any further details about your location to help us find you, such as where to park, enter the building, check-in. I want to subscribe to the newsletter. Take a moment to review our Guidelines and Expectations for the Discover Trunk program, and print them for your records. Check the box to confirm you have read and understand these conditions. Guidelines and Expectations Submit

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

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