I am in quarantine. Not sure how long this will last. And like many others, in an effort to find something to do that isn’t staring into one of the several glass screens in my home, I am thinking this would be a good time to clean my office. I mean really clean my office. According to Kyle Chayka’s recent release, The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism, a new survey of the minimalism of the moment, I may be suffering from an abstract desire for a different and simpler world that will...
Waves of bright color undulated from the canvases that hung on the walls. Each piece carried an intonation of urban flair. Not one of the pieces resembled one another, but inside of the intimate enclosure that was the saltfineart gallery, they paid homage to the beauty of street art. Saltfineart gallery’s “Street – Art” exhibition was as bright as the turquoise-colored sea that was just a stone's throw away. Artist David Krovblit’s hand-cut collages were the first thing that caught my enamored...
The several dozen figurative and expressionistic paintings by Artemio Sepúlveda currently on view at Laguna Art Museum are so empathetic and deftly done, the casual viewer might think they were created by a widely-known artist. But beyond a small coterie of admirers and collectors—many in and around Laguna Beach—Sepúlveda (alive and well at age 85) is barely known. What’s even more surprising is the story of the artist’s life. The son of a miner...
In the current exhibition, “Slippage of a Strand,” at Grand Central Art Center in downtown Santa Ana, artist Flavia D’Urso attempts to convey the feelings of a queer woman and how identity and sex can cause feelings of unrest and at times, conflict with others. D’Urso thoughtfully utilizes repetition and replication with her symbolic works of art as she dissects the societal expectations of female and queer identity. There are many expectations in our society for women, including appearances,...
Blinky the Friendly Hen was memorialized Saturday by Los Angeles performance artist and curator Jeffrey Vallance on the occasion of the artist’s walk through of the Cal State Northridge gallery exhibition “Blinky the Friendly Hen: 40th Anniversary Exhibition.” Vallance, a 2004 Guggenheim fellow whose "Relics and Reliquaries" was exhibited at CSUF Grand Central Art Center in downtown Santa Ana in 2007, purchased Blinky the Friendly Hen in the frozen poultry section of a Ralphs supermarket on...
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Kyoto, Japan during peak fall season. As I understand it the last two weeks of November are the prime time in Kyoto to visit temples, explore zen gardens, and take in the sight's and sounds of this unique city, while the local foliage burns red, yellow and orange. In between visits to the many breathtaking temples and gardens, we found some time to take an art break and check out the fairly new contemporary art museum in Kyoto, the Forever Museum of...
Saturday night I made it to the opening of Re:Balance at the Irvine Arts Center. All around a great show but the stand out in the show was the work of Ching Ching Chen. I wanted to write something more detailed here but for the sake of transparency, I bought a piece from the show. That's how much I liked the work. As I was standing in front of one of the pieces from the Letting Go series, I overheard a couple behind me discussing the work. The woman said the work wanted to make her cry. I...
As I was watching the Price of Everything last night on HBO, the latest documentary to examine the white hot contemporary art market, I found myself one more time, in fascination with the art world. I love these sorts of documentaries, probably not for the reason the producers would hope for, because I imagine they would want me to walk away from this sort of project with a bit of amused skepticism, or exuberant cynicism. However, after this show was over, I was once again inspired, hopeful,...
This Saturday night a special show, curated by Jim Ellsberry and Suzanne Walsh, opens at the HB Art Center. Color Vision brings together scientifically and culturally engaging aspects of how we perceive and utilize color. Featuring a group of contemporary artists who use color not only as a medium, but as an element of their message. Presented in three dynamic groupings: The Architecture of Color, Color Theory, and The Practical Applications of Color. Don't miss it!
Typographic street artist and designer Peter Greco has spent his entire adult life learning the mastery of communication through language and lettering. His artwork celebrates the centuries old tradition of the art of calligraphy and the fascinating world of typography while paying homage to the many different cultures that have kept this tradition alive. He has shown all over the country, but based out of Los Angeles and teaching at Art Center College of Design, his artwork rarely makes it...
The worlds of rock music and fine art have long traded personnel back and forth, from John Lennon dropping out of art school to make music as one of the Beatles to Captain Beefheart dropping out of music to make paintings as Don Van Vliet. Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, whose solo show at the Akron Museum of Art just ended, is a more recent exemplar of the creative spirit who is able to walk in both worlds. Several more examples can be seen in the exhibition “Rhythm” at Irvine’s Great Park, which...
Hello OC Art Blog Friends- OC Art Blog founder Dr. Chris Hoff has teamed up with Dr. Cassidy Freitas for a day of inspiration and conversation. This interactive workshop is designed to expand your creative voice and provide a framework for jumpstarting the creative life you've always wanted. Register online at www.creativelivingworkshop.bigcartel.com. It's going to be so good folks!
Mark Zuckerberg by Ray Turner 6:45 p.m., Costa Mesa Mark Zuckerberg, having done as much as anyone who isn’t Steve Jobs to push us all headlong into the digital age (whether we wanted it or not) now tastes the revenge of the analog world in a show of paintings at Coastline Gallery. Curated by David Michael Lee, Like MARK features the Facebook founder’s face as portrayed by the likes of F. Scott Hess, Julio Labra and Bradford J. Salamon. “Revenge” may be overstating it a bit, but Hess’ portrait...
4:30 p.m., Venice Los de Abajo is a Southern California printmaking collective whose members strive to keep alive the Latin American tradition of printmaking while also experimenting with new techniques and individual expression. Their show "Division: Reflections and Shadows" at SPARC in Venice, Calif., an Art Deco former police station, is socially-engaged in a way uniquely appropriate to the coming Trumpocalypse, as in Yvette Mangual's Flight, inspired by the Caltrans immigrant crossing...
The Orange Coast Review is Orange Coast College's literary journal. The current issue (which I art directed) contains sixteen pages of art from mostly local artists working in various media, including works by Bradford Salamon, Lindsay Buchman, Pamela Diaz Martinez, Nguyen Ly and Riley Waite, who is represented by two pieces from his Playing With Fire series of portraits of young heroin addicts drawn with candle soot on paper. The cover painting by Fatima Jamil combines traditional realism...
Red, by John Logan, is a play about the business of being an artist — the commissions, the professional jealousies, the rivalries between generations and the physical and mental act of putting paint to canvas. Originally staged in London in 2009 and now at South Coast Repertory through February 21, the play features Mark Harelik as the painter Mark Rothko — at the height of his success in 1958, newly commissioned to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons Restaurant at Manhattan's...
Lindsay Buchman is an interdisciplinary artist working between Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Her practice explores positions of instability and disintegration through works on paper, installation, artist books, and photo-based approaches. Captivated by shared experience, she investigates interpersonal relationships while pivoting between text and image. Buchman is primarily focused on the implication of memory, and the dissonance between language and communication. Recent projects include: the...
Mark Landis is a curious little man, aged 60 years but looking much older, with a high-pitched, mumbly voice, pronounced ears and a residual wisp of hair at the top of his head. Known to dress up at times as a Jesuit priest, he would surely be played by John Malkovich in the movie of his life, but for the fact that his life lacks the requisite drama for a Hollywood biopic. As it happens, Landis plays himself in the documentary Art and Craft — seen in movie theaters in 2014 and premiering...
By Richard Chang Irvine resident Tim Schwab dons a few different hats. During business hours, he’s director of design and installation at Laguna Art Museum. When he’s not on the clock, he does freelance graphic design for several local companies and makes ceramic art. Trained as a bronze sculptor, Schwab now finds his passion creating artistic pottery. The BFA graduate of Laguna College of Art + Design is showcasing his recent clay creations in a show with painter David Michael Lee at F+...
The First Friday art walk in Oakland, California — known as Oakland Art Murmur — is a chance for galleries throughout the city, from uptown to downtown to Jingletown, to throw open their doors for an art-loving public. Current shows of note include Kurt Fishback’s “51 Portraits of Women Artists” through July 18 at Transmission Gallery in West Oakland and Chicago-based painter and textile artist Samantha Bittman’s “Material Data” through July 4 at Johansson Projects. The Friday commute is a...
The OC Art Blog was created in 2004 as a way to build community and promote the marginalized but dynamic Orange County art scene.
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British artist Natasha Caruana joins the OC Art Blog to talk about her ongoing exploration of intimacy, secrecy, and the rituals of modern relationships. Known for projects like Married Man and Fairytale for Sale, Caruana’s work blurs the line between truth and...
Join me for a walk through one of the world’s most influential contemporary art fairs, Frieze London 2025. From blue-chip booths to experimental installations, Frieze offers a snapshot of what artists, collectors, and institutions are thinking about right now. If...
In a landmark move for the region’s cultural landscape, UC Irvine has officially completed its acquisition of the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), forging a new unified entity under the name UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. UC Irvine News A Fusion of...
Installation view of Obsesiones/Obsessions at Golden West College Art Gallery. Photo by Tyler Stallings By Tyler Stallings Walking into Obsesiones/Obsessions at Golden West College Art Gallery feels both timely and uncanny. Timely, because the exhibition is...
By Tyler Stallings Brennan Roach, Garden of Earthly Absurdities, 2017-2025,paper, pencil, pen, acrylic, oil on triptych wood panel, 55 x 102 inches. Photo by Tyler Stallings.] Brennan Roach’s Visual Morphology, his first solo exhibition in twelve years, is less a...
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