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< Back to ACTIVATION 1/12 April Bey The Opulent Blerd January 22 - April 17, 2022 Raised in The Bahamas, Los Angeles-based artist April Bey provides reflective and social critique of American and Bahamian cultures. Her artworks are often weaponized with concepts of Afrofuturism, a genre of speculative fiction regarding the future and significance of peoples and cultures within the African Diaspora. Pop culture, racial construct, and feminism are some of the many topics that Bey discusses. Research, material, and processes are crucial contributors to Bey’s work, she often travels on a national and international scale, allowing her to gather experience, material, and cultural information directly from the source. Using an Afrofuturist lens, Bey repurposes familiar brands, phrases, and portraits to create what she refers to as her “rule-based” and “process based” artworks. Across graphic design, installations, paintings, prints, collages, videos, and handmade artist books, she creates visual commentary on the world’s rapidly increasing set of issues. Bey considers her work a physical representation of “power dynamics destroyed and radically alien views.” Her utilization of witty humor, along with her close attention to texture and color are visually striking, purposefully drawing viewers to decipher the message before them. April Bey is both a practicing contemporary artist and art educator. She is currently a tenured professor at Glendale College and is well known for teaching a controversial course, Pretty Hurts, at the Art Center College of Design. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing in 2009 from Ball State University and her Master of Fine Arts in Painting in 2014 at California State University, Northridge in Los Angeles. Bey is in the permanent collection of the California African American Museum, the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, and Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas. She has exhibited internationally in biennials NE7, NE8, and NE9 in The Bahamas, and in Italy, Spain, and Ghana. Previous Next

< Back Andrew K. Thompson Andrew K. Thompson challenges photography's ideals of perfection through a playful and experimental approach. Guided by a simple “What if?” question, his work embraces research and discovery, exemplified by projects like Melting Cameras, where camera-shaped ice cubes made with Caffenol melt onto black-and-white photographic paper. Aiming to transgress the norms of photography, artist Andrew K. Thompson’s work critiques the perceived ideals of perfection typically associated with the medium. His unique practice and process beings with a simple question of “What if?”. This “What if?” factor has allowed Thompson the flexibility of research, play, and discovery, spawning projects such as his Melting Cameras series, which consists of camera-shaped ice cubes made with Caffenol, an alternate photographic process that utilizes unconventional photographic developer, melted onto black-and-white photographic paper. Thompson’s artistic ethos can be further seen in the gritty and ad hoc, handmade qualities in his work. The artist’s hand is an essential element of his process, with Thompson utilizing photography as a tool that is part of one’s artistic practice rather than just a strict medium. He notes that “I believe the tool doesn’t build a house; the hand that wields the tool does.” In all, Thompson’s practice pokes fun at the conventions and systems that make up photography, allowing photography itself to transcend its typical two-dimensional bounds. Previous Next

< Back This is a Title 01 This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Previous Next

back to list Tran Nguyen TRAN NGUYEN is an award-winning illustrator & gallery artist. Born in Can Tho, Vietnam, she currently resides in the peachy state of Georgia. Tran's paintings are created with a soft, delicate quality using colored pencil and acrylic on paper.

back to list Koko and Nuri Koko + Nuri are an Antelope Valley-based duo whose stylized, graphic depictions of flora and fauna are represented in a variety of media including illustration, design, and large-scale murals. Employing both traditional techniques and digital media, they have designed for Disney, storyboarded for Uber, illustrated for Airbnb, have a published picture book, and have painted walls at numerous sites around the Antelope Valley, including a mural with Walls Worldwide, as well as, in Flint, Michigan, part of the Free City Mural Festival. Nuri's Website Nuri's Instagram Koko's Instagram

2016 < View Public Art Projects Astral Challenger 2016 Permanent Art Project Commissioned by the City of Lancaster as part of the Arts and Public Places program, “Astral Challenger” was created by Los Angeles-based artist Shana Mabari. The sculpture was commissioned in honor of the thirtieth anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, and was installed at the intersection of Challenger Way and Avenue L. Challenger was assembled at the Palmdale Lockheed plant and used what is now known as Challenger Way as its transportation route from Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base. Formerly named 10th Street East, the street was renamed shortly after the disaster by the Lancaster City Council to honor the lives that were lost. The blue panels on the sculpture represent the seven lives lost, plus an additional panel for the remaining loved ones who still mourn their loss. The roundabout was opened in February, 2016, and “Astral Challenger” was installed in May.

< Back to ACTIVATION 1/4 Sergio Hernandez Chicano Time Capsule, Nelli Quitoani January 22 - April 17, 2022 For forty years, the late Chicano artist and cartoonist Sergio Hernandez has echoed important cultural topics and socio-political issues of the Chicano community. Early on, Hernandez began working for “Con Safos Magazine”, the first Chicano literary magazine. Upon being recruited by “Con Safos” member and artist Tony Gomez, Hernandez began to align his practice with themes related to the emerging Chicano Movement or “El Movimiento”. The Chicano Movement was and still is geared toward advocating for “social and political empowerment through “chicanismo”, the idea of taking pride in one’s Mexican-American heritage, or cultural nationalism.” Across painting, cartoons, and murals, Hernandez satires socio-political happenings and provides an intimate perspective of the Chicano community. Influenced by Chicano culture, iconography, and artists alike, Hernandez’s work became a beacon calling for action and attention to the harsh realities faced by the Chicano community. The artworks in this exhibition are a small yet compelling collection of Hernandez’s contribution to the Chicano art and power movements. The panel of comic strips on display belong to the “Arnie and Porfi” comic series. Struggling with the duality of his identity as a Mexican- American, Hernandez often battled with his internal desire to adhere to conservative family-views and his newly found chicanismo. Hernandez expressed this conflict through satire and comedic relief through the Arnie and Porfi comics, visualizing the dystopian world. In other words, through art and humor Hernandez exposes the political oddities and disproportionate disparity experienced by Mexican- Americans. Sergio Hernandez (1948-2021) was born and raised in Los Angeles, California in the South Central area known as the Florence/Firestone District. He received his Bachelor Degree in Chicano Studies from San Fernando Valley State College, which is now known as the California State University, Northridge. Previous Next

back to list Tina Dille Merging wildlife and contemporary art, Tina Dille is best known for her expressive watercolors in which creatures emerge from the canvas. Each painting's content is determined by its initial layer. The use of free flowing mediums and in-depth research of the animal provides her the opportunity to create something with its own voice that she offers the viewer to interpret.

back to list Amandalynn Amandalynn is a muralist and fine artist based in Northern California. Inspired by the feminine in all things, Amandalynn depicts the subtle beauty of the natural world and humankind, through illustrated line work and decorative patterning. Her works can be found in galleries and streets all over the world. She began developing her distinct Street Art style mural work in 2001, painting alongside the graffiti community of San Francisco. Amandalynn is very passionate about her outdoor mural work and still enjoys collaborating with a variety of different artists, as well as creating large solo works. Fine Art also plays a key role in Amandalynn's life, as she continues to develop her career as a professional gallery artist. She has a bachelor’s degree of Fine Art from the San Francisco Academy of Art, and recently has started teaching mural classes to middle and high school students. Amandalynn believes that sharing the creative process with others is the key to living an inspired life.

Samantha Martinez < Back Rosemary By Samantha Martinez Name Rosemary, Rosemary they say originally from the Mediterranean which in Latin means dew of the sea. Date of entry unknown: I remember being sprouted from a tough, dry ground, only receiving water once in a while, allowing me to expand my roots slowly. Around me were my three older plants, and later on, the pitiful woman I call mother gave birth to seven more despite my pleas. I would plead to her to stop sprouting because we were poor, POOR something she could not grasp. I was forced to take root much faster than my family as I was in charge of nourishing my siblings and washing their aromatic leaves, feeling how they were connected by a delicate stem pricking myself each time. However, after 21 years, I had my own seed to worry about. I still remember coming home each day, being unnourished from traveling miles in a pot, somehow finding my way home each time only to find that there was no food in the garden knowing better than to ask my mother plant I would withhold the pain I felt in my stem. The only thing my son received daily when in my womb was water and the nutrients my soil provided me with. In two years’ time, my sunshine was pulled away from me; I was being ripped away from my sprout by a man who picked me up from my roots and confined me until we reached what was known as “ the land where dreams came true.” I had made it; I had escaped my poverty but at what cost. The cost of leaving my tiny sprout behind with the motherly plant I hated? With the plant, I had promised to shelter him from? NO, NO, I could not accept this reality, so I went back, back, back on my own terms. I remember hiding through the bushes that seemed familiar, the sunshine that became the fear of being caught, the abuse I had to withstand each day ripping my long, skinny, and once beautiful leaves from my stem, allowing me to feel each emotion and temperature brush my skin. Then when I had given up all hope, I started to smell an air that I had grown to find comforting; I had made it, I made it back to my land to see my bud. Forwarding a couple of months, the MAN returned, pleading for me to grab my once rejected bud and go back to America. My innocent and fragile self back then thought it was the best thing to do. So I go back except this time my flowerlet is feeling the way the dirt becomes an accessory on our delicate green leaves, how the ground goes from cold to hot from dry to wet—counting the days that would go by, by taking note of when the sun rose and when it set. In a week’s time, we made it; I had successively done the impossible Twice. Nevertheless, life was not all sunshine and daisies but more like pouring rain and thunder. I was getting physically and mentally abused by this MAN who swore he was going to change. Plumule, my plumule, was asking for a sister because he felt lonely and unwanted, but I had learned from my momma plants flaws. I had learned not to bring an innocent seed into a world full of neglect. Then my Plumule told me something that shattered my heart; he missed his “mom,” he missed the motherly plant I had grown to hate. So we returned, we went back to the tunnels of darkness, the place where chills ran up and down your peduncle no matter the weather. The mountains that stunk of fear and desperation reminding me of my once comforting smell of bitterness with a slight sweetness. An aroma that would start to burn if you stood and smelt it for too long. Again my bud and I found ourselves in our Tierra, Linda, y Querida (land), and this time; I promised myself that I would start a life in the land I wanted to escape from so severely. But it is said that once you see shadows, they will never leave your side, and in 6 months, the man returned, and I was back by his side in the promised land. Again how could I be so naive to believe his trancing words? He would leave for months on end, leaving me alone in a tiny room in a city I did not know with no nourishment and no one to talk to. It got so bad that I felt as though I was shriveling and drying up in the corner I called home. One thing, however, did stay true about my promise to myself, and that was never neglecting my flowerlet as my mother plant did to me, which is why for ten years, I would attempt the impossible just to see my plumule for a few weeks until his wish came true and my daughter sprout was born. She was born, and the bud who wished for her so badly could not enjoy the blessing God gave me. He gave me this blessing to have someone to talk to in my solidarity and a guardian angel to guide me through my torment life. Always remember my kids the Name is rosemary, rosemary they say originally from the Mediterranean, which in Latin means dew of the sea. A journal that is written using the stories my vigorous mother told at “storytime.” By the daughter that became familiar with neglect through a different path. Previous Next

2014 < View Public Art Projects One Desert Sky 2014 Permanent Art Project By Brad Howe Drawing upon the stories of local Antelope Valley residents, artist and Antelope Valley native Brad Howe created the installation that now hangs in the atrium of the High Desert Regional Health Center, located on Avenue I and. Taking mental pictures from these stories, Howe turned them into actual images – 8,000 laser-cut aluminum plates painted blue. Spearheaded by the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, a naming contest took place with the winning name being “One Desert Sky” – an imagine invoked by the blue images and the stories behind them.

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