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< Return to Exhibitions Holiday 2012 Ann Marie Rousseau: Sight Lines sight lines jennifer-glass-cyanotypes_edited Accatino Collection 3 Kokeshi&Totem veritas300 Learn More December 6, 2012 - March 2, 2013 September 29, 2012 - January 1, 2013 Jennifer Glass: Cyanotypes December 6, 2012 - January 19, 2013 Madonna and Child: Selections from the Accatino Collection Kokeshi and the Totem: The Art of David and Kazumi Svenson Gary Baseman: The Seven Sacred Magi Winter Wishes: Letters to Santa Madonna Glass Totem Winter Rousseau Jennifer Glass: Cyanotypes Cyanotype Greek: kyano (blue; dark blue) + Greek: typos (type or form; print) English 1835-1845 Jennifer Glass captures moments in the life of women through her cyanotypes of vintage gowns. Selected from her private collection, these gowns are reproduced as cyanotypes through a process that the artist sees as a deeply metaphorical statement on the roles of women, politics, power, and fashion. Specifically, this body of work emphasizes the artist’s affinity for fashion as a polarized narrative. The large-scale reproductions are strong in their Prussian blue impressions while fragile in their ghost-like translucency. Glass explains that her connection to the world of fashion elicits a “strong emotional response to how [fashion] may either empower or constrain a woman depending on how she uses it”…she continues: “fashion has been used as a tool by women for years and although it has confined them in many ways, it also has liberated them…these garments belonged to someone.” Glass notes that although the women who wore these garments are now gone, in their time they danced, brought about new life, felt pleasure and pain, and likely changed policy, leaving their own imprint on the world however large or small. Glass’ prints are created through the deceptively basic methods of light exposure and chemical preparation on fabrics. The cyanotype was pioneered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel as a photographic method to quickly duplicate technical drawings that are normally time-consuming to draw and reproduce. Herschel discovered that when iron salts react with sunlight they leave a permanent blue imprint. When paper or porous fabric is treated with a solution of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide, almost any image may be reproduced if it is drawn on a transparent surface, placed over the photosensitive paper in a darkroom and then exposed to sunlight. The areas of the photosensitive paper (or canvas/fabric) that are concealed by the lines of the drawing remain white while the exposed areas turn into an insoluble blue, resulting in a reverse silhouette. In 1843, shortly after Herschel developed the cyanotype, his friend and colleague Anna Atkins, a recognized botanist, utilized the cyanotype method to catalogue her extensive botanical collection. By placing her algae specimens on the photosensitized paper, she created the first known volume of cyanotype photograms. Atkins went on to self-publish her cyanotypes in her book: Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. Atkins published three volumes and only seventeen copies were reproduced. As a photographer, Jennifer Glass is carrying on this tradition in contemporary times, a method that has gone underutilized since the advent of digital reproductions. A Florida native, Jennifer Glass earned a Bachelor of Art degree in Social and Political Science from Florida State University. Glass went on to study photography at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale along with taking workshops in New York with well-regarded photographers Debbie Fleming Caffery and Mary Ellen Mark. Glass currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark. Ann Marie Rousseau: Sight Lines Ann Marie Rousseau is a photographer, artist and writer formerly of New York City and currently living in southern California. She works with photography, painting and drawing on paper. Rousseau has a deep interest in line in all its manifestations - drawn, painted, photographed. Madonna and Child: Selections from the Accatino Collection The Museum of Art & History is proud to present an exhibition showcasing Madonna and Child paintings from the Tom and Christie Accatino Collection. Dating from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the selections feature Madonna and Child paintings from Russia, Ukraine, and Spanish Colonial origins. The Accatino’s are regional collectors, based in Riverside and Palm Springs, whose eclectic tastes range from California landscape painting to Asian artifacts. They have a particular interest in certain themes and approaches associated with the Old Masters, and over the past few years have amassed a group of portraits, still lifes, and religious subjects by various painters – many still unidentified – working in the Baroque and classic styles prevalent in their day. The selections here are in honor of the holidays and include a range of treatments of the Madonna and Child subject. Kokeshi and the Totem: the Art of David Svenson and Kazumi Kobayashi Svenson David Svenson and Kazumi Kobayashi Svenson are mixed-media sculptors based in the High Desert of southern California. They both share an affection for folk art traditions, in particular the kokeshi: wooden Japanese dolls, and the wooden totems of Pacific Northwestern tribes. This exhibition highlights the Svenson’s traditional kokeshi collection and its influence on David and Kazumi’s mixed media work, which includes hand blown glass, neon, wood and concrete. Through their artwork and teaching, David and Kazumi are helping to keep folk art traditions alive by sharing their collection with the public and creatively interpreting the kokeshi and the totem through contemporary art-making methods. Although the couple shares an affinity for folk art traditions and sculpting with glass, neon and mixed-media, they come from very different backgrounds. David Svenson grew up in the 1960’s among the many contrasts of southern California. He was surrounded by the flashy neon signage of historic State Route 66 standing out against the vast expanses of citrus groves that dominated the landscape at the time. David recalls the contrast of multicolored light emanating from the neon signs against the darkness of night as an important impression on his aesthetic development. David subsequently left California to study Tlingit art and culture in Alaska where he witnessed the breathtaking displays of the Aurora Borealis. Having a similar effect on his aesthetic development, the use of light became central to his studio practice. While working with the tribes, David was equally influenced by the way of life practiced among the Tlingit families that adopted him into their clan. There, art and life are intertwined in daily interactions and the overarching respect for life is honored through the arts and gift-giving. Totems are always made for someone else, to honor another family or clan. David recognizes kokeshi and totems as fine craft, and sees kokeshi as similar to the Pacific Rim totems because they both honor the family and the spirit of gift-giving. In addition to his studio practice, David teaches at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and has taught classes at the Pilchuck Glass School, in Seattle, Washington; the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; Urban Glass in Brooklyn, New York, and internationally. He continues to work periodically with a team of Alaska Native totem carvers. Learning, teaching, and sharing skills and knowledge about glass, neon, art and the cultures of the Pacific rim are central aspects of David's life and work. Kazumi Kobayashi Svenson was born in Sendai, Japan, the heart of kokeshi country. She creates miniature kokeshi as well as drawings and sculpture. Kazumi’s interest in kokeshi began while growing up with her mother’s traditional kokeshi collection, which consists of wooden dolls made in the 1930’s of Japanese maple, Cherry or Dogwood. The family collection contained examples from Onsen, an area in northern Japan renowned for its hot springs and kokeshi workshops that lined the streets offering the dolls for sale to tourists and locals. Traditional kokeshi are meant to honor the loss of a child or simply be given as a souvenir to bring happiness to the home. The floral and linear patterns painted on their kimonos have been developed and passed down through generations of kokeshi craftsman and are distinctive to the area where they are made. The 2011 Fukushima earthquake was centered in kokeshi country, a devastation that has taken an additional toll on keeping the tradition alive. Kazumi works in the relatively new “Creative Kokeshi” style which developed after the second World War as a departure from traditional doll making. Although many Creative Kokeshi retain the traditional limbless body, contemporary interpretations often show a more shapely body and additional features such as hair and perhaps a more colorful and exquisitely patterned kimono. The features, materials, and styles of Creative Kokeshi are always unique to their creator. Kazumi utilizes glass as her choice of material and creates in a range of scales from tiny dolls made of individual hand blown glass beads to the larger Italian glass and neon pieces. Because the traditional method of creating kokeshi was by lathe turned wood, it converts easily to glassblowing due to the similar methods of turning the material either by a blow pipe or in using a mandrel for bead-making. She often places her Creative Kokeshi miniatures in a mixed media ensemble of neon and old boxes, perhaps referencing her move to America and symbolically bringing the childhood collection with her. Kazumi recalls that the experience of coming to America afforded her the opportunity to see her own culture from a new perspective and allowed her to translate the traditional art form into her own visual language. Kazumi has been blowing glass for twenty two years as well as teaching the craft in Japan. She first began studying neon in the United States in 1994 and has continued combining neon with glass and exhibiting internationally. Gary Baseman: The Seven Sacred Magi MOAH is honored to bring the artwork of multitalented and internationally celebrated artist Gary Baseman to the Antelope Valley. Born and raised in Hollywood, the artist crosses many disciplines as a painter, illustrator, video and performance artist, animator, TV/movie producer, curator, and toy designer. His artwork captures the bittersweet realities of life: playful yet vicious, naughty but nice and always telling a story layered with the pleasures and pain that life brings across generations. Winter Wishes: Letter to Santa This charming exhibition showcased letters and drawings to Santa inside paper snow globes from local Antelope Valley school children. Baseman View or Download the Holiday 2012 Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.

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For sale collaborative literary works between the museum and artists. MOAH Publications SPACE A Collection of Essays and Images Curated by Shana Mabari and Andi Campognone An intimate meditation on an almost infinite subject, Space aims to explode an ordinary everyday word into a dazzling prism via an exploration of some of the many interpretations of the term. Artist Shana Mabari asked more than a dozen individuals from dramatically different walks of life—from an astronaut and a filmmaker to an art critic and a musician—what they think about when they think about space. Their answers, which alternate with exceptional work from contemporary Southern California artists selected by curator Andi Campognone, invigorate and inspire, and in turn become fodder for reflection upon our relationship to ourselves, to others, and to the universe at large. BUY NOW Melanie Pullen With essay by Shana Nys Dambrot Photographer Melanie Pullen collects old police blotters and forensic crime scene photos, organized in starkly poetic black and white archives whose narratives she often mines for inspiration in her own more colorful tableaux. “At one point I started to notice,” she says, “that, whether they were suicides or electric chair executions, women would dress up in their finest clothes in preparation for death.” Slips and new shoes, hats and jewels, suits or twin sets, lipstick and plucked eyebrows. Bruises, blood pools, snapped necks, burned fingers, broken legs. This book is available at MOAH, for more information and for purchasing please call (661) 723-6250. Laura Hipke and Shane Guffogg Circle of Truth Exhibition catalog for the Circle of Truth traveling art exhibition. Curated by Laura Hipke & Shane Guffogg Foreword by: Randy Hipke Preface by: Paul Ruscha The Circle of Truth project is a visual game of Telephone, sometimes called a Rumor Game. 49 artists, including Ed Ruscha, Shane Guffogg, Billy Al Bengston, Lita Albuquerque, Jim Morphesis, Charles Arnoldi, Robert Williams, and Ruth Weisberg, created works especially for the Circle of Truth exhibition, in absolute secrecy over a period of nine years. The catalog dedicates a full spread to each of the 49 artists with color images of the art they received and responded to, the art they created, as well as an essay they wrote about their experience. The catalog provides a rare look at the thought processes and studio practices of these unique and private people. This book is available at MOAH, for more information and for purchasing please call (661) 723-6250. David Allan Peters Catalog A catalogue of artwork by David Allan Peters Curated by Andi Campognone Essay by Shana Nys Dambrot A lot is happening in the Effusive Paintings of Favid Allan Peters -- and a lot more than that has happened in them already. In many of these chromatically activated compositions, it's been happening for years. Applying paint to wood panels using every tool but a brush, Peters buils up an incomprehensible number of skin-think layers of bright acrylic pigment in a geological accumulation akin to sedimentary drifts, stalagmite deposits, or the rings of a growing tree. BUY NOW Sant Khalsa Prana: Life with Trees The subject of trees has been a focus in Sant Khalsa’s creative work for nearly five decades. Prana: Life with Trees is the first in depth survey of Khalsa’s intimate connection with trees – her explorations, observations, perceptions and interpretations. Her unique perspective is expressed through a style that encompasses the documentary, subjective and conceptual. Her work evokes a meditative calm to what we often experience as a chaotic and conflicted world. BUY NOW Coleen Sterritt It showcases her work over a forty year period and includes an interview with artist Rochelle Botello and essays by Cooper Johnson, Carole Ann Klonarides, and Sue Spaid. Sterritt’s hybrid sculpture evokes the interplay between nature, culture, and lived experience. Her source materials are pulled from everyday objects and elements. Plaster, tar, pinecones, fishing line, found furniture, and studio refuse are just some of the components she uses to construct and express her richly evocative formal language. Questioning the diverse possibilities of sculpture in both scale and form, her eccentric, abstract structures present strong polarities possessing a resonance at once familiar and obscure. BUY NOW Dave Pressler Idea to Object Covering Emmy Nominated Artist Dave Pressler's four distinct areas of expression--drawing, painting, sculpture, animation--Idea to Object is the companion book to the comprehensive exhibition at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History. With a forward by Artist Anthony Ausgang and essay by Shana Nys Dambrot. Hardcover This book is only available at MOAH, for more information and for purchasing please call (661) 723-6250. Greg Rose 77 Trees Greg Rose has been documenting individual trees and the changes they undergo for the past eight years. It began while taking regular hiking trips through the San Gabriel Mountains. He started noticing the trees of this region were made rugged from enduring extreme weather conditions. Over time, he began regarding the trees by their individual characteristics and started to document them. First he maps, illustrates and photographs the trees, then he paints them. Softcover This book is only available at MOAH, for more information and for purchasing please call (661) 723-6250. Memory and Identity: The Marvelous Art of Betye, Lezley, and Alison Saar Betye, Lezley and Alison Saar have created some of the most powerful, important and deeply moving art in our contemporary world. Their compelling works forge idiosyncratic constructions of social memory and personal identity, as well as the cultural histories underlying them. All three Saars assemble two- and three-dimensional works based on unexpected juxtapositions of form and content. They deploy the flotsam of material culture, from discarded architectural components (old windows, ceiling tiles, wall paper) to domestic detritus (washboards, buckets, shelves) to historic photographs and printed fabrics. With essays by Betty Ann Brown and Sola Saar. Hardcover. BUY NOW Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment The roots of Dark Progressivism run deep in Southern California, grown from seeds planted over a century ago. Here the sunlight hides shadowy dreams, and the hot Santa Ana winds blow away all pretense. Nourished by cement and asphalt, nurtured by flashes of streetlights and spotlights, Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment reveals a bold and modern transmutation through our region's influence on its artists, and the other artists' impact on the world. With essays by Rodrigo Ribera d'Ebre and Lisa Derek. Softcover This book is only available at MOAH, for more information and for purchasing please call (661) 723-6250. Estate Italiana Catalog For Estate Italiana (Italian Summer), guest curator Cynthia Penna showcases six contemporary Italian artists as part of a cultural exchange between the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, California, and Naples, Italy-based ART1307. Southern California has always had an enduring love for all things Italian. From food and wine, to architecture and automobiles, furniture, product and clothing design, and the expert skill and fine materials of timelessly cosmopolitan, jauntily chic Italian style. Italy, for its part, is equally fascinated by California. The passion for Old Hollywood, new surf culture and futuristic materials, such as plastics and resins that originated here, have influenced Italian visual culture in myriad aspects of modern living. All of these cultural signifiers are represented in one way or another by the six Italian artists featured in Estate Italiana--Max Coppeta, Nicola Evangelisti, Carlo Marcucci, Antonella Masetti Lucarella, Alex Pinna, and Carla Viparelli. Softcover This book is only available at MOAH, for more information and for purchasing please call (661) 723-6250. Samantha Fields Ten years This book, a collaboration between Griffith Moon and Lancaster Museum of Art and History, will showcases Fields’ painting work, along with an essay by Eve Wood. In her work, Fields explores the experiential nature of light through painting – immersing the viewer in the ever-shifting mood of a specific time and place. Her subject matter includes landscapes consumed by disaster both natural and manmade. Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, ArtWeek, Art in America, Artillery, Art ltd., The Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Hardcover BUY NOW Charles Hollis Jones Mr. Lucite Throughout the art world, Charles Hollis Jones is known as the “King of Lucite”, and for good reason—he has continued to redefine the use of acrylic in furniture for over fifty years. Words such as innovative, craftsmanship, luxury and transformation populate descriptions of Jones’ work, beloved by classic Hollywood icons such as Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra, in addition to several prominent architects, designers and collectors. This book is only available at MOAH, for more information and for purchasing please call (661) 723-6250. Rebecca Campbell The Potato Eaters The Potato Eaters celebrates Rebecca Campbell’s 2016 exhibition at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Campbell’s new work examines aspects of familiar and cultural history, memory, documentation and nostalgia. The title is taken from Vincent van Gogh’s 1885 masterpiece that portrays Dutch peasants gathered at a meager meal. With essay by Betty Ann Brown. Hardcover BUY NOW Chie Hitotsuyama To Hear Your Footsteps A collaboration between Lancaster Museum of Art and History and MOAH:CEDAR and Japanese artist Chie Hitotsuyama, Griffith Moon introduces Chie Hitotsuyama: To Hear Your Footsteps is comprised of an introduction by Shana Nys Dambrot and Hitotsuyama’s animal sculptures and is made entirely from recycled newspaper. Hardcover BUY NOW Justin Bower Thresholds Born in San Francisco in 1975, Bower earned a degree in Studio Art and Philosophy from the University of Arizona in 1998 and a Master of Fine Arts from Claremont Graduate University in 2010. The artist has won and been nominated for several grants and awards, among them The Feitelson Fellowship Grant (2010) and The Joan Mitchell award (2010). With essays by G. James Daichendt, Shana Nys Dambrot, Cooper Johnson and David Pagel. Hardcover This book is only available at MOAH, for more information and for purchasing please call (661) 723-6250. Eric Johnson Legacy A 126 page monograph celebrating 30+ years of the acclaimed California artist Eric Johnson. Published in conjunction with Johnson's retrospective, Legacy, at the Lancaster Museum of Art & History (MOAH), in Lancaster, California. With essays by Jay Belloli and Jan Butterfield. Appreciations by Tony Delap, DeWain Valentine and Tom Jenkins. Hardcover BUY NOW Being Here and There Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name at Lancaster Museum of Art & History (MOAH), Being Here and There features the work of 26 photographic artists exploring issues of "place" in Southern California. Curated by artist, educator and activist Sant Khalsa, the book and exhibition features works by Laurie Brown, Stephen Callis, Cristopher Cichocki, scott b davis, Lewis deSoto, John Divola, J. Bennett Fitts, Robbert Flick, Corina Gamma, Alexander Heilner, Steve King, Meg Madison, Tony Maher, Douglas McCulloh, Thomas McGovern, Catherine Opie, Naida Osline, Christopher Russell, Mark Ruwedel, Julie Shafer, Nicolas Shake, Kim Stringfellow, David Taylor, Andrew K. Thompson, Tom Turner, and Amir Zaki. With essay by Sant Khalsa. Softcover BUY NOW Gary Lang Circles and Words A retrospective catalog, published in conjunction with Gary Lang's exhibition Whim Wham at Lancaster Museum of Art & History (MOAH). Introduction by Andi Campognone, with essays by Donald Kuspit, Janet Koplos, and David Pagel, and appreciations by Eric Fischl and James Turrell. Hardcover. BUY NOW Ruth Pastine Attraction Ruth Pastine Attraction is published on occasion of her first survey exhibition: Attraction 1993-2013 at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH), in Lancaster, California. The 84-page color monograph comprehensively documents the work of renowned painter and internationally exhibiting artist Ruth Pastine, and catalogs Pastine’s paintings and pastel works on paper spanning the last two decades. With essays by Donald Kuspit and Peter Frank. Softcover BUY NOW Hats Off Sally Egan and Amy Bystedt In this series, Bystedt and Egan give reverence to icons of photography that have influenced and inspired them throughout the years, playing the role of both photographer and subject in these emulations. The attention to detail in these recognizable photos was just as significant as choosing which photographer and image to replicate. Hats Off is a salute in the highest form to those who have come before them, whose trail blazing in the arts have paved the way for some of the most progressive images in photography. Bystedt and Egan literally tip their hats to artists such as Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, John Baldasarri, Nan Goldin and more. Softcover This book is only available at MOAH, for more information and for purchasing please call (661) 723-6250.

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.

Om Baboolall < Back Taking It All In By Om Baboolall From the day I can first sprout, I knew it was gonna be an interesting one. I can still see the remains of my ancestors all around me. Well, the ones they forgot to pick up. These new guys were always the lazy type. When the little one used the pool as a beach, her little plastic shovel remains to be found in her secret spot behind the slide. She used to barely step over the rock to get to her secret place, but now it's just like any other rock, nothing special. The boy was always big enough to step over the rocks, but now he's climbing to the top like it was never an issue. Sometimes I see him in the backyard late at night huffing and puffing when the rest of the house is asleep. I was there when the little girl snuck in some boy, laid down, and watched the stars till the sun came up. I hope she realizes he's texting "zoe" and not just scrolling Instagram. He sprinted out of there when he realized someone was awake in the house. I was in anguish when the little girl almost got caught; she doesn't deserve it. I hardly ever see the people who paid for the house. I overheard their conversations and that they're too busy to go in the pool or go in the backyard, or go on the swing and sit around the fire, or reminisce about the old apartment while sipping their drinks. I know these people won't be here for long. You always get that feeling about the owners when they first move in. Are they here for a long time or just because the brochure looked nice? These guys are just like the rest of them. I can't complain. I get watered every now and then. I mean, I'm next to the peppy rose bushes. I get whatever they don't drink. I wonder what the subsequent owners are going to be like. Are they gonna spend their nights hard at work or get drunk and throw up over by daffodils? Even better, maybe these new owners will fight back if the next-door neighbors try to bully them. The last time that happened, the cops were called. I hope that we can have an owner who cares about the house more than the rest of these mediocre families one day. Word gets out quick around here. Someone heard the front yard talking about getting a new pond. That's one thing nice these guys have decided to do. Who knows, maybe they can fix up the one back here too. Perhaps by then, my time will come. Maybe by then, I can have an owner that waters me first instead of just getting runoff. Until that time comes, I'll just be waiting here with nothing to do but take it all in. Previous Next

Eric Chen < Back The Siren By Eric Chen The siren blares as a firetruck turns and rushes down the street, growing more distant with each passing second. “And there it goes, yet another bout of insufferable shrieking from the firetruck,” Red Rose complains. “Just like every other day. It’s unbearable!” Her leaves flail as a gust of wind strikes her. “I wish there weren’t a fire every five minutes so those firetrucks would cease their incessant wailing!” A small bird perches onto one of Red Rose’s thorn-covered stems. “Maybe then I’ll finally be able to live in peace!” Having been poked by a thorn during Red Rose’s fit of fury, the bird takes off. Considering Red Rose’s fantasy, I address her exaggeration. “Are you sure the firetrucks are that active? I only hear them once or twice a day; less than a minute each time, too!” “Even if they don’t come out that often, it’s extremely painful when they do!” “Red Rose, I think you should focus on all the wonderful things in your life instead of the things that annoy you.” “How could I even manage to do that? It’s impossible to peacefully rest in my bed without a deafening motorcycle passing by and shattering the silence!” “There are a lot of pleasant things that can make you feel better after the vehicles go by. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the environment around us. The cool breeze and the warm sunlight make for a lovely day, don’t you think?” “The weather here is terrible. One moment there’s a drought, the next there’s a flood, and a day later I’m being blown by absurdly powerful gusts of wind that came out of nowhere!” “That may be true, but let’s truly experience our surroundings in the here and the now. Isn’t the soil nice and nutrient-rich? Aren’t the birds’ chirps pleasant to listen to? Don’t you just love the view of the beautiful setting sun? “All I know is that being planted here was a mistake! I should’ve been planted in one of those extravagant gardens owned by royals where the plants live with the best treatment and environment known to plant-kind!” “I understand that you want to live in a fancy home, but it’s not as amazing as you think it is. I once heard about Pink Rose’s experience living in a palace garden. The weather never changed and the flowers were constantly trimmed. There were never any birds, either. You’d find a whole different set of problems there.” “But there aren’t any loud cars near those gardens!” “You’ll always be able to complain about things no matter what lifestyle you lead. However, you can decide how you react to them. If you shift your focus from the noisy firetrucks and seemingly heavenly gardens to what we have in the present moment, you’ll find that your suffering will disappear.” “You’re right. I can’t do anything to stop the noise, but I can accept that it’s there and choose to be at peace with it. I understand now. Thank you, White Rose.” “Of course. Wanna watch the sunset with me?” “That would be lovely.” The siren wails as a firetruck turns and heads down the street, growing more distant with each passing second. Its pitch decreases as it drives further away from the fire station until it is no longer audible. Peace returns to the evening. The plants’ leaves rustle as a gentle breeze passes by. As the sun gradually sets below the horizon, the heavens are painted with several fiery shades of red and orange. A small bird perches onto one of Red Rose’s buds. There is nothing but the sound of leaves rustling in the cool winds. Having been content with the serenity of the environment, the bird sings a song. Previous Next

Renee Chowdhry < Back Diary Entry By Renee Chowdhry Dear Diary, As I near the end of my high school career, I realized how swiftly time moves. I feel like I remember the first day of freshman year as vivid as the color of a pink rose, as defined as the veins on a flower petal, as distinguishable as a singular rose in a vast desert. Yet, as I am nearing the end of junior year, I feel I have no recollection of the past three years. One bright afternoon I decided to drive to my last house to see where my academic journey began. As I reached the driveway, I suddenly became overwhelmed with a surge of melancholic emotions as I realized that this was once the driveway where I first rode a bike, and now I am driving a car. Soon after, a rose I planted over ten years stood in full glory. At this moment, I was joyous of the perseverance of the rose, so I started admiring its glorified features. I noted that the soil was fertile, that it had been receiving a steady amount of water, and quite shockingly, the bush was now several inches taller than me! Though there were all these differences, I couldn’t help but realize that there were similarities too. Firstly, we both spent our childhood in the same house, and now, after all these years, we have both matured. I wanted to further connect myself to the rose bush, so I put myself in the plant’s shoes, or better said it’s “roots”. I took a more augmented look at the surroundings and came to the conclusion that the rose bush had faced many hardships. First off, roses are not native to a dry, arid desert climate; therefore, there must have been a great struggle to become a thriving bush from just a few seeds. Additionally, I noticed the wear on the roses, as only a few were in bloom. I started to connect this back to my life. I realized that though the plant’s fate was against all odds, it somehow managed to rise stronger than ever. I thought back on all the hardships I have gone through, and every time I reflect, I realize that I have become a more resilient person after. So, I guess, even though my childhood is rearing towards an end, I have blossomed into a more mature person. Previous Next

Jillian Stebbins < Back A Pine Tree Doesn’t Know English By Jillian Stebbins It feels like a windy night. One of the nights that make you forget about the people behind the names. It feels like dancing, the kind of dancing that little kids do when they can’t keep their hands quiet. What I know about that is about as much as I know about trains, or stamps, or how to tell a human being I have my own little feelings. One of them is so nice. My feeling, that is. It feels like rain in my limbs and those dumb sparklers from the 4th of July are spinning like there was a brick wall older than my mother right behind. But it’s so calm. I think maybe it’ll be okay if I can be there. I don’t always know if I’m sick or just thirsty. It was dark, for a while, and I was sick. I’ll look back and think it was silly turning green. But it was silly, and that was the point. I was sick and then I was calm and then I could be green. Reminds me of a strawberry I met once. I’d like to be a strawberry, but I’m scared I’ll lose the green. Or get sick again. But I think maybe I’m just meant to be small forever because I get sick cyclically. That’s okay, I think. I used to be terrified of staying small, but I think that maybe I’d like it. If I could just figure out when to take a drink, I think I could live in a forest somewhere and learn to live without the music. There are three of us. I think I like being in threes. Or at least I have been a lot. It’s been at least three groups of three now, and so many stories. Maybe it’s okay to not know anything. I don’t know myself, or at least I didn’t for a long time. So stuck in being one of three. As within, so without. I have always been able to do a backbend, but I don’t think it’s innate knowledge at all because I don’t have it. Once, I met someone whose words made me think of orange and pink on a canvas and places I’ll never get to see. I wasn’t a zombie at the time. I heard a story, several years ago now, and I can’t distinguish it from any other story. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. Maybe with enough luck it’ll end up like raspberry or mistletoe. With cashmere there too. It feels like a story or two, like alliteration and the ghosts of Christmas past. I believe in dragons. I believe in dragons because if they didn’t exist, where would hummingbirds come from? I don’t like mushrooms. Every time I think about roots, I think about mushrooms. I wish they weren’t so pretty sometimes, but they make me flinch when I look at them. I miss my grandmother. I think my grandmother knew dragons, because she talked to hummingbirds and she talked to herbs like they knew the recipe for chocolate soda. I’m going to miss my grandmother. I don’t think angels come in visions, I think maybe we all just need to take a breath and let the angels alone. It feels like racing the sunrise. It feels like blurry summer nights and one time I married a boy in Paris. It feels like wanting to uproot myself just to see Vienna sooner. It’s all over, like no matter how cold the world is, there’s always a molecule that left me and tried to make the world a little warmer, and the world heard me and gave me summer. I’ve never seen a summer without Jim. At least in the winter, it doesn’t feel like splinters. It feels like once I knew a group of lemons and a lemon boy and I could always count on red. Yeah, I still have the windy nights, but prayers sound different when the hummingbirds don’t come say hi anymore. Previous Next

Elyse PignoletHystericalPrimarily working in ceramics, artist Elyse Pignolet has been inspired by and dealt with various themes including political and social issues, the dialectic between feminism and misogyny, and cultural stereotypes. Often projects reflect the urban environment from where she lives and works. < Back Elyse Pignolet, No Gods, No Masters, Installation (wall) Elyse Pignolet, No Gods, No Masters, Mural Elyse Pignolet, No Gods, No Masters, Installation (wall) 1/2 Elyse Pignolet Hysterical Primarily working in ceramics, artist Elyse Pignolet has been inspired by and dealt with various themes including political and social issues, the dialectic between feminism and misogyny, and cultural stereotypes. Often projects reflect the urban environment from where she lives and works. Pignolet relates the traditions and permanence of ceramics to the turbulent and dynamic nature of the contemporary world. Her works span from individual sculptures to more intricate installations and public murals. While rooted in traditional aesthetics, Pignolet’s ceramic works subvert the typical expectations of the medium. Blue and white pottery typically associated with the events and narratives of a bygone era tell the stories of a more current time. The decorative floral and vine motifs that are accustomed to adorning these vessels mingle with text and images that are politically confrontational and unapologetic. Pignolet fuses ornamentation with declaration, calling attention to the many social issues that society faces today. Previous Next

Edward Lee < Back Desertion By Edward Lee Darkness. I don’t know how I got here. I don’t want to be here. The first few months of my life. Easily the worst part of my life. No not easily, my whole life was bad. Very bad. From what I can remember, I was dehydrating most of the time in the soil. Only getting a load of water from the soil that seems to snatch the water away until it finally lets me have its leftovers. Those times were hard, but at the same time, it was a very short time. I remember when I first saw the light, the light that has fed me, made me beg for something to end me, crush me, and take me back into the soil, but I yearned for it when it disappeared beyond the mountains. I remember I continued to grow, my roots swirling and twisting the soil that took so much from me. But, as I grew taller to my mother’s carcass, her leaves started falling around like me like she was weeping. I then realized the emptiness that surrounded me, brown stretching as far as I can see, wrinkled and dead plants, just like me, lay periodically between the endless brown. I realized then, that the soil I hated so much, was just like me, laying in a world we knew so little about. Endless days and nights. But, life wasn’t always so endless. As I grew taller, I saw the endless brown in front of me change. Creatures. There they were so happy and energetic. They were very different from the big and small furry creatures. They seemed to love life. Something that I yearned for. As more time passed I saw more of these creatures and while I continued to wrinkle, worried about the text time the water would come and feed me, I saw those creatures become happier and happier. I wonder what was missing from my life that prevented me from feeling what they seem to be feeling. It's no matter. I can already feel some of my leaves falling, shrinking into a carcass like my mothers. Why do I even care? I am not sentient. I shouldn’t even have these feelings to begin with. But, Happiness. What a joyous looking thing. Previous Next

Hispanic Heritage < Return to Exhibitions September 13 - November 9, 2014 Guillermo Bert: Encoded Text Main Gallery Juan Delgado & Thomas McGovern: Vital Signs South Gallery Linda Vallejo: Make 'Em All Mexican East Gallery Johnny Nicoloro: Virgin Mary Education Gallery Luis Fileto: Pasajeros Vault Gallery Pageantry: Roping, Riding, Escaramuza Andrea Kaus, Leslie Mazoch, Omar Mireles, Libby Wendt & Robin Rosenthal Wells Fargo Gallery 2-_Cover-CatalogLowRes Vital Signs Book cover 047 Edited BobsBigBoy-Muchachote photo 1_edited Boyle Heights Guillermo Bert: Encoded Text Guillermo Bert's Encoded Textiles creates hand-woven, large-scale tapestries that combine electronic scanning codes with Indigenous design methods and the first-person voices of Native peoples. The series was inspired by the artist's observation that QR (“quick response”) codes, which electronically read data, closely resemble graphic designs in the textile arts of Native peoples. Using software that translates words into barcode patterns, the personal stories of indigenous participants become woven into the tapestries, forming new designs and relationships. By combining high-tech software and industrial processes with Indigenous design and loom techniques, and then translating spoken narratives into tapestries themselves, the artist highlights the interaction of the “ancient” and “modern” in our intertwined globalized world. Through the weavings, laser cut cubes, podcasts and film clips that comprise the exhibition, the artist offers his commentary on the issues of identity and cultural loss in our global society. Guillermo Bert and the Lancaster Museum of Art and History would like to thank Michael and Francis Weber and the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation for their support in making this exhibition possible. The narrative thread that forms the baseline for the project began through Bert's own personal journey as a Chilean artist among the Mapuche people of his home country. There, he interviewed weavers and other community members, bringing to light the relationship of symbolic culture, environmental concerns, and the impact of economic interventions on the Indigenous land base. By enlisting the input of Indigenous weavers to re-insert the codes into traditional design motifs, the artist collapses the duality of Indigenous/Contemporary and enables a new and more timely conversation to take place. The conversion of a poem or piece of spoken history into a high-tech bar code - and then its re-conversion back to a traditional weaving - represents the creation of an innovative cultural artifact that celebrates and revives traditional art forms. The Incubator cubes that form the sculptural element of the series derive from the same principles of recognition and reconciliation. Drawing from similarities in ancient symbols and contemporary matrix bar codes, the laser-cut cubes and their associated designs explore the link between the cryptic and the quotidian. Entering through the portal of the bar codes and QR codes, the viewer is transported into the world of oral traditions, poems, and first-person narratives from the Mapuche community of Southern Chile, Zapotec weavers from Oaxaca, Mexico, and Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. In effect, the artist Guillermo Bert serves as a visionary and curator to a much larger project – one that connects international communities through the forms best known to their own traditions, while centering our current modes of technological communication and commercialization into a growing awareness of the need to use them for greater purposes of inter-connectedness. Thomas McGovern and Juan Delgado: Vital Signs Vital Signs is a collaborative photography/poetry project about the Inland Empire region of Southern California, starting with the City of San Bernardino. The combination of images and words suggest the expansive nature of art-making where seemingly unrelated things, memories, impressions and relationships coalesce through the shared sensibility of the artists and viewers. The project began in 2006, when Thomas McGovern started photographing hand-painted signs and murals throughout the Inland Empire. His photographs are emblematic of the rich cultural heritage of the community and region and represent the recent past, when hand painted signs were an inexpensive way to advertise a business and decorate a building. As digital technology brings printing costs down and makes vinyl signs affordable, these unique icons are becoming obsolete. Unfortunately, as neighborhoods develop and prosper these signs— and the vitality and shared cultural heritage they represent—are painted over or destroyed, homogenizing what was once unique. Like Thomas McGovern, Juan Delgado has lived a major part of his life in San Bernardino, writing about the region for decades. His poetry for Vital Signs evolved through extensive discussions while the collaborators were driving, walking and celebrating their city. In Delgado's poetry, narrators focus on the unappreciated, exploring the relationship between identity and place. One poem celebrates vecinas (neighborhood women) who fight to regain their streets. Another narrative points to the closing of a local grocery store and the burdens of change on families. Some lament the tragic lives of people deeply rooted to this place, and others tell of journeys of migrants whose stories are uplifting because they embody the best of the human spirit. The fusion of cultures and the shared sensibilities of the artists are apparent in both the book and exhibition, which are a tribute to the region and a celebration of cultural diversity, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship. McGovern is a photographer, writer, and art professor at California State University, San Bernardino. His photographs are in the permanent collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Museum of the City of New York; and The Baltimore Museum of Art, among others. He received his BA from Empire State College, New York and his MFA from California State University, Fullerton. Delgado is an English professor and director of the MFA program in creative writing at California State University, San Bernardino. He has won the Embers Press Poetry Contest for A Change of Worlds and received the Contemporary Poetry Series Awards for his collection of poetry Green Web. He received his BA from California State University, San Bernardino and his MFA from the University of California, Irvine. The artists thank California State University, San Bernardino, for their support, and the Robert and Frances Museum of Art (RAFFMA) in San Bernardino for mounting the first incarnation of this exhibition. Linda Vallejo: Make ‘Em All Mexican Los Angeles-based artist Linda Vallejo consolidates multiple international influences gained from a life of study and travel throughout Europe, the United States and Mexico to create paintings, sculptures and installations that investigate contemporary cultural, political, spiritual and environmental issues. Critically acclaimed as breakthrough work, Vallejo’s Make ‘Em All Mexican re-contextualizes familiar iconography through a culturally personal lens by re-purposing objects ranging from postcards and posters to figurines and statues. Karen Mary Davalos, Professor and Chair of Chicana/Chicano Studies Department, Loyola Marymount University notes: “Vallejo has produced a provocative new series that re-appropriates Western and American icons. Using widely recognized images, such as Hollywood celebrities, Norman Rockwell paintings, Victorian figurines, classical European portraiture, and the school primer, Dick and Jane , Vallejo repaints the figures as Mexicans. From one perspective, Vallejo creates the fear of every anti-immigration activist and recolors the world with brown skin and black hair and eyes. Vallejo is conceptually performing two critical acts, first she defaces the work that she recolors, and second, she takes the image (and its history, power and meaning) and changes it for her own purpose.” Vallejo carefully selects her objects from antique stores, yard sales and estate sales then gives them new identities with auto body paints, acrylic, gold leaf, oil and Wite-Out. By transforming figurines of pop icons such as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe into chocolate-skinned El Vis and Mariela , Vallejo imbues her figures with the polarities between the iconic and kitsch and tongue-in-cheek humor while questioning the politics of color. These transformed characters bring questions of race and class to the forefront. Each item is potentially comical and unfamiliar all in one glance. For Vallejo these issues hit close to home; she states “even as a third generation American, I remain invisible in the cultural landscape. Thus, Make ‘Em All Mexican creates a space that is inclusive of the Latino community while at the same time exposing its absence and the cultural divides that exist in our country.” Highly accomplished, Vallejo has enjoyed numerous solo exhibitions of Make ’Em All Mexican at the Soto Clemente Velez Cultural Center in New York in 2014, the George Lawson Gallery and the University Art Gallery of New Mexico State University and at Arte Americas in collaboration with the Fresno Art Museum and the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art at California State University, San Bernardino. In 2014, Vallejo received the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs COLA Individual Artist Fellowship. She has exhibited at the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the San Antonio Museum and Mexico City Modern Art Museum. She was included in two exhibitions associated with the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945–1980 initiative: Mapping Another LA: The Chicano Art Movement , at the UCLA Fowler Museum; and Doin’ It in Public: Art and Feminism at the Woman’s Building , at the Otis College of Art and Design Ben Maltz Gallery. Her work is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard, California, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the California Multicultural and Ethnic Archives at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. The George Lawson Gallery in San Francisco, California currently represents Vallejo. Johnny Nicoloro: Virgin Mary Johnny Nicoloro is an award-winning artist who creates colorful layers of visual imagery by utilizing his signature technique of double-exposed compositions created entirely in his camera. Recently, the artist turned his lens to the Virgin Mary, one of the most revered and iconic figures in the world. In Virgin Mary , the artist layered images of the Virgin Mary with signs, objects and the commercial artifacts of urbanity in collages depicting the hardships and challenges of our times. Of note are his often-whimsical titles that share his deeply personal devotion for the protection and grace the Virgin Mary is honored for in communities across the Southern California landscape and beyond. His Virgin Mary series, showcased in the intimate setting of the Education Gallery, offers a contemplative space where the viewer may take in his personal and creative manifestations of the Virgin in relationship to contemporary times—times we all can relate to. The work of Johnny Nicoloro has been featured at the Farmington Art Museum in Farmington, New Mexico; The Latino Art Museum in the Pomona Art Colony in Pomona, California; The Annex @ Core New Art Space in Denver, Colorado and the Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts in Los Angeles, California. His work is also part of the permanent collection at The Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture in Los Angeles, California. Nicoloro, a native of Los Angeles with a BA in Theatre from UCLA and self-taught camera artist, has also taught Creative Photography for Personal Growth at The Village in Hollywood and has been an art and photography instructor for CoachArt, a non-profit charity providing free lessons in the arts to kids with life-threatening illnesses. Luis Fileto: Pasajeros Palmdale-based artist Luis Fileto’s current body of work is driven by action, emotion, intuition and his search for meaning through painting, photography and mixed media. Drawing from the legacy of abstract expressionist painters, his material application ranges from using nail polish to finger painting and action painting. In his work, Fileto embraces his connection to spirituality and the importance of family, friends and the big picture of life. Fileto has shown extensively across Southern California including KGB Gallery in Los Angeles, SCA Project Gallery in Pomona and Garboushian Gallery in Beverly Hills. Pageantry: Roping, Riding, Escaramuza A grand spectacle, a dazzling display—of flying manes and flaring nostrils, palpable air and rivers of dust, sun and shadow, silk and sweat, well-worn leather and glinting silver—this is the visual allure of rodeo. In a split second the unique moment is captured, and even what the camera can’t see—the smell of damp hide, the outburst of a bull’s wet snort, the skill, the pride, the centuries of tradition, the years of practice—the photographer knows, and all are present in the photograph. Pageantry: Roping, Riding, Escaramuza , guest curated by filmmaker Robin Rosenthal, invites the viewer to experience these sensory details and the timeless beauty of our shared rodeo heritage as seen through the eyes of photographers Andrea Kaus, Leslie Mazoch, Omar Mireles and Libby Wendt. Andrea Kaus first picked up an SLR camera under the instruction of her physicist father. “Those early lessons are mostly forgotten, apart from his introductory sentence that light is made up of photons and waves and a foreboding feeling that it gets a lot more complicated after that.” While undertaking fieldwork for a doctoral degree in anthropology, Kaus used photos as a way to connect with ranching families in northern Mexico. They taught her that a photograph is not taken but is instead a random moment captured as one might catch a wild horse. The thrill of photography remains for her the thrill of the hunt for a universally recognizable tick mark in time. Shooting rodeo allows Kaus to combine her own experience with horses with observations of people, in search of unpredictable and unrepeatable moments. The photos included in this exhibition were taken at rodeos across Southern California. Texas-born photojournalist Leslie Mazoch began her career on the Mexican border with a stint at The Brownsville Herald, and continued southward as an Associated Press photographer covering political, financial and social issues in Venezuela. She became a photo editor in 2007, and is now based at the A.P. headquarters for Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico City. Becoming a photo editor has allowed Mazoch the time to work on personal projects, chief among them her documentary photography series on the Escaramuza (“skirmish”)—the women’s sport in La Charrería. Rooted in the cattle culture of Colonial Mexico, Charrería blends the equestrian skills, handcrafted tack, elegant costumes, music, and food of that rich heritage into a living folk tradition. Between the men’s riding and roping contests, the escaramuzas charras perform their perilous, precision horse ballets, bending and twisting their galloping reining horses around each other in intricate synchronized patterns. Mazoch’s Escaramuza photographs have been honored with awards from the National Press Photography Association, and will soon be published in book form. Ten images from the series are here at MOAH. Omar Mireles’s body of work documents the Charrería tradition and culture he grew up with and sees daily. In his birthplace of Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico, Mireles’s grandfather schooled him in all things charro—horses, ranch life, coleaderos, charreadas. When his grandfather passed, Mireles devoted himself to photographing this lifestyle in his honor. From his current home in Oxnard, CA he began by shadowing the local escaramuza team Charras Unidas De Villa, and is now a well-known presence at charreadas throughout Southern California, capturing the characteristic combination of skill and artistry of all the participants —charras and charros alike. Mireles returns to Jerez every spring for his hometown’s Sábado de Gloria (Holy Saturday) celebration, a fiesta comparable to Mardi Gras. On the Saturday before Easter, charros gather from all over Mexico to break the Lenten fast. The main event of the day is a cabalgata (procession) of mounted charros numbering in the thousands. The photographs shown here are from a series taken at Sábado de Gloria Jerez in 2014. A tag-along to her best friend’s beginning photography class at Chaffey College in Alta Loma, CA started Libby Wendt down a 35-year path as a photographer—shooting everything from pro football to college and high school sports; newspaper features to breaking news; music concerts and CD covers to animal portraits. When her daughter began running for rodeo queen titles, Wendt put her sports photography background to good use, and started looking for those special moments in the rodeo events. Several of these photographs were taken at last year’s California Finals Rodeo at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, including two portraits of 2013 PRCA Specialty Act of the Year and Charro Ambassador Tomas Garcilazo and his matinee-idol stallion “Hollywood.” Guest Curator Robin Rosenthal is an independent filmmaker based in Littlerock, California. An avid horsewoman and rodeo fan, her most recent documentary, with Bill Yahraus, Escaramuza: Riding from the Heart , delved into the equestrian culture of La Charrería, deepening her appreciation for the connections between Mexican and American rodeo traditions. Rosenthal’s documentary practice draws from her background as an artist, educator, and motion picture industry professional. Rosenthal received her bachelors degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and went on to Queens College, City University of New York, for her Master of Fine Arts. She taught studio art at San Antonio College and the San Antonio Art Institute, and exhibited her video art throughout the Southwest, before moving toward documentary work. She edited Chamoru Dreams for Pacific Islanders in Communications' Pacific Diaries series, and the award-winning Mary Jane Colter: House Made of Dawn , both broadcast nationally on PBS. With filmmaking partner Bill Yahraus, she made the feature documentary A Circus Season: Travels with Tarzan (PBS) and the Eclipse-winning series On the Muscle: Portrait of a Thoroughbred Racing Stable . Robin also oversees a small niche market distribution arm for their company Pony Highway Productions. Bert Delgado Fileto Pageantry Nicoloro Vallejo View or Download the Hispanic Heritage Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.

< Return to Exhibitions Spring 2013 Gary Lang: Whim Wham Jorg Dubin: My Facebook Friends Guillermo Bert: The Bar Code Series Susan Sironi: Altered Books Gary Lang Shepard Fairey These Sunsets Are To Die For Thomas McGovern Jorg Dubin Guillermo Bert The Barcode Series Danial Nord Youtopia Susan Sironi Altered Books Learn More March 16 - May 5, 2013 Thomas McGovern: Sign Language, Notes from the High Desert Danial Nord: Youtopia March 16 - April 29, 2013 March 16 - May 11, 2013 Signs and Symbols: From Street Art to High Art Dubin Signs Bert Nord McGovern Lang Signs and Symbols: From Street Art to High Art Signs and Symbols: From Street Art to High Art showcases internationally renowned and groundbreaking works by: Keith Haring, Banksy, Barry McGee, Heretic, Cryptik, David P. Flores, Shepard Fairey, Robbie Conal and MearOne. Now a global practice, the artists in this exhibition span a geographic range from Los Angeles to New York and London and pioneered the street art movement by using the urban matrix as their canvas. They continue to create guerilla works of art using stickers, murals, paint, templates, wheat paste, and video projections to transform the dialogue about where art may or may not be placed and sanctioned. Collectively, the artists are master editors, using only the most relevant signs, symbols and materials to achieve the greatest visual impact in a short period of time. They question the commercialization of art by changing the materials they employ and selecting alternative places in which their works appear. The term street art is used to distinguish between two opposites: government and corporate sponsored public art works and the unsanctioned tagging of territorial graffiti. The practice is a form of visual activism by artists who often feel disenfranchised by the codification and standards of art-making in the public realm. Disenfranchisement is a strong motivator and the street artists represented here have revolutionized the way public space is utilized to convey socio-political messages to everyday people who may not frequent museums and galleries. The artwork is eventually taken out of its local context by commercial galleries and museums, the very institutions many artists intend to avoid. Other street artists welcome the influx of their work in the commercial realm, embracing it as an opportunity for their messages to reach larger audiences. Over the last decade, the street art movement gained considerable notoriety with the public through widespread acclaim for the element of surprise. As a new work of art appeared on the street overnight, neighbors and communities either relished or fought against the phenomena, generating a vibrant social currency that fuels the artists. Most street artists are working for the people and are driven by the effect of mobilizing the community into action. Gary Lang: Whim Wham The Lancaster Museum of Art and History presents Gary Lang: Whim Wham an intimate selection of Lang’s acclaimed circle paintings accompanied by his never before seen word paintings. The two bodies of work may at first appear unrelated, yet they are inextricably linked by a union of opposites and similarities—both through the process in which they are created and in Lang’s quest for reconciling the space between beauty and pain in contemporary times. Lang began working on his minimalist circle paintings in the 1980’s and quickly became internationally renowned for his ability to engender a physical connection to the sublime through his radiating color combinations. When viewed from a distance, his paintings propel the viewer into an unrelenting optical experience that transcends everyday concerns. The colors blend and shift, deepen and soften, and awaken and pulsate in conversation with one another, taking the viewer on a phenomenological joy ride. As one moves closer to the work, the artist’s hand—and his remarkable affection for the materiality of paint—is revealed. In the 1970’s, prior to the birth of his circle paintings, Lang had sustained a quiet practice of writing text on paper and painting words in books that he positioned on his paint mixing tables. He eventually began making word paintings in concert with his large canvasses. On the surface, the word paintings function as an immediate repository for the excess pigment left over from his monumental canvasses: he simply moves from the canvas to the paper to “clean” the brush. Lang’s improvisational cleansing process ultimately yields words and phrases that expose his deeply poetic response to the concepts of truth, religion, power and tragedy. Lang has methodically practiced this private ritual since the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Just days before 9 -11, Lang moved his family from their New York City loft—where the World Trade Center towers were visible from the kitchen window—to Southern California, where Lang was born. Lang expresses that this event turned him toward words “in an effort to understand how they are used, abused, and manipulated by agenda and temper as well as to serve the heart.” He has equally found that he associates the words "real" and "true” with the momentary quality of painting in the here and now. Exhibited together for the first time, Gary Lang: Whim Wham invites the viewer to witness the fruits of Lang’s private ritual, sparking an adventure among color-saturated objects that assist us in transcending the everyday to traversing the intellectual pursuit of words, asking of us to reconcile the beauty and mystery of life with the tragedy of the human condition. Jorg Dubin: My Facebook Friends Jorg Dubin: My Facebook Friends is a contemporary exploration of identity through the fragmented lens of social media. Dubin’s portraits are painted directly from his Facebook friends’ profile pictures, many of whom the artist has never met or whom mostly remain unknown to him. The power of the work emerges from the identity fragmentation that occurs in the virtual world, and is strengthened by the clues into the visage of social media that Dubin provides the viewer. By turning unknown virtual “friends” into his painted subjects, he delivers small treasures from which to begin questioning the motives of identity in the digital age. Dubin, a skilled painter, departed from his classical, representational training and has become well regarded for his expressive explorations of the human condition. His large figurative paintings depict the fragility of human physicality: many of his subjects have undergone physical harm through illness or misfortune or simply through the choices made in life. Dubin explores these realities by blanketing his subjects in oily, acerbic painterly color and roots them in surreal and often grotesque scenes. These larger works are generous visual narratives, whereas his small Facebook oil sketches convey only fragments such as an eye, nose or mouth. These singular sketches ask of us to fill in the gaps, prompting one to contemplate the concept of superficiality through the accumulation of friends. The installation as a whole creates an entirely new friend: one that questions our desire to be needed, to be seen, to be heard and investigates how social media has changed human interaction and communication. Dubin lives and works in Laguna Beach, California. He studied at the Art Institute of Southern California and is a lecturer at Laguna College of Art and Design. Dubin shows extensively in the region, with several solo and group shows at Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach; Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, CA; and Blue Gallery, Kansas City, MO among many others. His work is widely published in art journals and magazines including: ArtScene Magazine, Artillery Magazine, Orange County Register, Coast Magazine, Sacramento Bee and Riviera Magazine. Guillermo Bert: The Bar Code Series Chilean artist Guillermo Bert has long been fascinated with the concept of encrypting messages, language and ideas beneath the “skin” of his artwork. He embeds this concept by incorporating contemporary bar codes with Inca, Maya, and Mapuche religious icons, each rendered in gold, thereby creating hybrid relics and proposing a new mythology. His panels are engraved and carved, much like the stonework of ancient civilizations. This process of engraving and encoding allows Bert to question the price of core values such as democracy and justice, while blurring the lines between culture and commodities. Using the bar code—the quintessential symbol of consumerism and branding as a form of contemporary conquest—Bert provides a critical comment on the effects of globalization and the western consumerist model. Bert lives and works in Los Angeles and shows extensively in the United States and South America, including the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach CA, the San Diego Museum of Art in San Diego CA, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, the Museum of Tolerance and the Architectural Design Museum both in Los Angeles, and the Pasadena Museum of California Art. He is the recipient of many awards and grants and has been commissioned to create a number of public art works. Susan Sironi: Altered Books Los Angeles based artist Susan Sironi received her BFA from California State University, Long Beach and studied color still photography at Orange Coast College. Her early work in urban photography and assemblage lead to her collecting vintage materials with a focus on vintage books. Since 2003 she has used vintage books to express the inconsistencies and frustrations of a world that clings to past conventions while striving for future ideals. Her first altered books were text only and were meticulously cut page-by-page. The advent of the Internet provided Sironi with the ability to acquire multiple copies of books while scanning technology allowed for the precise cutting of entire books. This blending of old and new technologies is central to Sironi’s approach: each book promotes an alternative reading of the accepted norms and conventions of the past. By altering the information the viewer sees, Sironi transforms the books into new visual and conceptual forms while retaining clues from their former identity and history. Exhibiting primarily in Los Angeles, Sironi's work has also been shown at the Laguna Museum of Art and the Carpenter Center at Harvard University, MA. She is represented by Offramp Gallery in Pasadena. Thomas McGovern: Sign Language, Notes from the High Desert Sign Language, Notes from the High Desert showcases the distinguished work of Southern California photographer Thomas McGovern. McGovern’s new work was made specifically for and about the Antelope Valley and is part of a larger documentary project called Vital Signs. The Vital Signs series documents hand-painted signs and murals throughout the Inland Empire region of Southern California, starting with the City of San Bernardino. The great Mexican muralist tradition has an obvious influence in the region, but these signs and murals also suggest the economics of a recovering city where immigrants and established locals alike set up shop and try to provide for themselves and their communities. For his Sign Language, Notes from the High Desert project, McGovern expanded his range to include the Antelope Valley, a place recovering from similar economic pressures as San Bernardino and other rural communities throughout the country. With the Antelope Valley’s close proximity to Los Angeles and the proliferation of high definition billboards lining the ubiquitous eight-lane highways in our region, McGovern turned his lens toward the hand painted signs, murals and advertisements that punctuate our rural, two-lane highway landscape. McGovern provides a window into the minutia that is often taken for granted among the larger mass of “freeway culture” in the area. The photographs piece together fragments of the Antelope Valley’s vernacular style of architecture with the hand painted signs that are being replaced by homogenous strip malls and master planned communities. Many of the signs are deteriorating or were painted in a by-gone era, indicating how the valley is changing over time. Thomas McGovern is Professor of Art at California State University San Bernardino. He exhibits widely in California, New York and Germany and is represented in distinguished collections such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Brooklyn Museum of Art; Baltimore Museum of Art; Library of Congress; Museum Fur Photographie; Museum of the City of New York and The New Museum, New York among others. Danial Nord: Youtopia Danial Nord is an interdisciplinary artist who reinterprets the familiar language and trappings of mass communication. Nord’s installations draw from his accomplishments as an award winning designer-animator in the entertainment industry, as an internationally-based fashion designer, and as a scenic and prop artist for film, television and theater. Nord’s humorous new digital video Youtopia pokes fun at electronic communication and how automated search engines control the information we obtain. The video is based on an email he received with a link to a New York Times article titled: Guggenheim and YouTube Seek Budding Video Artists. Nord created virtual assistants to investigate the article. As the automated inquiries progress over time, they are eventually skewed by database hierarchies and software glitches, which produce amusing, convoluted associations and misguided conclusions. Youtopia underscores the current state of affairs in our quick-to-click culture. Nord earned his BFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and Rome, Italy. He continued with postgraduate studies in communication technologies and media at the School of Visual Arts and the NYU Center for Digital Multimedia in New York. Nord has exhibited his work in the US and abroad at World Expo 2010, Shanghai, China, Stadsmuseum Ghent, Belgium, and in New York at Freight + Volume and ISE Cultural Foundation. Nord lives, works and exhibits widely in Los Angeles including at California Museum of Photography, Fringe Exhibitions, HAUS, Pacific Design Center, and the City of L.A. Municipal Art Gallery. His work has been covered by the LA Times, LA Weekly, Artweek, Afterimage, and NPR. Sironi View or Download the Spring 2013 Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.