Features

The landscape-painting industry has had a hold on Laguna Beach for so long that the very idea of landscape in the resort town by the sea is inevitably fraught with cliché, but Thursday night's art walk provided some fresh perspectives on the genre with the work of two master painters at the Laguna Art Museum and the photography of Tom Lamb at Forest & Ocean Gallery. [caption id="attachment_5729" align="alignleft" width="254"] Wayne Thiebaud's Waterland, 1996, oil on canvas[/caption] Wayne Thiebaud, raised in Long Beach and still painting at...

09 March, 2014 /

[caption id="attachment_5667" align="alignleft" width="229"] Carlotta Corpon, Space Composition with Chambered Nautilus[/caption] California’s identity is inextricably tied to its landscape, and has one of the most varied geographies in the Union. Attempting to capture California landscape art and its evolution for over a century is already ambitious in scope. However, California Landscape Into Abstraction: Works from the Orange County Museum of Art, OCMA's current exhibit, goes beyond an examination of 19th and 20th century California landscape and - as a result of thematic organization, a broad definition of...

26 February, 2014 /

By Jared Millar This weekend saw the opening of “STOCK | California” at Coastline College’s Costa Mesa-adjacent gallery which overlooks the (as yet) undeveloped coastal wetlands of the Lower Santa Ana River. Much of the work in the show consists of collage or mixed media, playing with the definition of “stock” that relates to paper stock or card stock. Standout images include Elena Mary Siff’s playful collages and unique book objects and Julie Easton’s striking construction of burned cigarette papers with iridescent paint. Also on exhibit is...

06 February, 2014 /

It is common enough to be considered a universal experience, taking place within the realms of childhood, that when the sun goes down the imagination has full reign. The shadows that exist in closets or under the bed become dense, so much so that anything a little person could possibly imagine could exist within them. Eventually our brains become trained through experience that nothing need exist out of nothing and that the world provides us plenty to think about without the aid of our imaginations....

01 February, 2014 /

What do you do if you are a respected gallery owner and a highly anticipated show looks like it won’t come to fruition just one week before the opening? If you're Peter Blake you somehow pull together three solo shows of leading LA-based contemporary artists, within days of the opening event. On Saturday night at the Peter Blake Gallery in Laguna Beach ­­it appeared as if this was the plan all along: the shows were as flawlessly put together as we have come to expect...

30 January, 2014 /

The second wave feminists of the 1960s famously coined the phrase "the personal is political". This is true of a vast number of issues, yet often times the very personal impact of political policies gets lost in the furious debates about fiscal impacts of laws or the hypothetical scenarios debated on television talk shows. At a time when immigration issues are hotly debated topic in United States politics, art can be a powerful tool that helps us connect to the personal stories within this multifaceted...

29 January, 2014 /

“Do some living and get yourself a typewriter.” ― Charles Bukowski, [caption id="attachment_5505" align="aligncenter" width="545"] Tim Youd at GCAC[/caption] On a recent Friday night Tim Youd sits in front of a small table at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana typing away on an Olympia SG-3 electric typewriter, shifting his gaze between the Phillip K. Dick novel to his left and the typewriter keys in front of him. When he reaches the bottom of the page he re-inserts the same sheet back in the typewriter and...

11 December, 2013 /

Tis’ the Season for the December OC Art Walks! This month we highlight some of the special events at each location including openings, receptions, books signings and parties (Fullerton is looking pretty lively this month). Get out there, have some fun, see some art and tell us where the best eggnog is: Text by Natasha Shah, graphic by Jared Millar...

05 December, 2013 /

I have been a fan of Maggie Taylor’s surreal dream-like images for almost a decade, ever since a friend used her digital collages as cover artwork for his homemade CDs. Taylor combines 19th century daguerreotypes, original photographs, scanned objects and old etchings, to produce fantastic, imaginative, and mysterious images. I first described her work while covering the Digital Darkroom exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography in 2011, and was excited to meet Taylor in person and discuss her art work during the signing of her latest...

22 November, 2013 /

Surreal, dream-like images inhabited by the solemn countenances of people from a bygone era, set in fantastical landscapes and surrounded by a strange assortment of animals, an arc of bees or random objects; these are the magical images of Maggie Taylor. Taylor creates astonishingly complex digital collages combining original photographs, 19th century daguerreotypes, scanned objects and vintage etchings, to produce imaginative and mysterious photographs. [caption id="attachment_5429" align="aligncenter" width="436"] The Nest[/caption] Walking through the Joanne Artman Gallery in Laguna Beach where her work is currently on display, the...

22 November, 2013 /

Orange County has solid museums, vibrant artists and several local art scenes, yet the cultural footprint of art in the community remains pretty shallow. Residents don’t venture too far from their neighborhood and the idea of a gallery event as part of an interesting night out doesn’t resonate with younger generations. So what’s missing? How can we break through suburban inertia and make the OC art scene something bigger?  Alex Amador, owner of the new 4,500 square foot DAX Gallery, thinks he has the answer. Amador believes...

13 November, 2013 /

For November's Art Walk we feature three galleries that are elevating the Laguna Beach gallery scene (and one honorable mention) by exhibiting art and artists that stand out amongst the typical Orange County fare. Since the galleries are spread out along the coast we chose one  to represent North, Central, and South Laguna (maps and gallery descriptions below). The current theme in Laguna Beach is Art & Nature though the artists we saw fused nature with industry or technology by using found objects, digital manipulation or mixing natural...

11 November, 2013 /

It’s that time again! The OC Art Walks are happening the first week of November. To help you celebrate after Halloween check out our OC Art Blog guide to the Orange County Art Walks (since October 31st falls on a Thursday Laguna Beach art walk is next week). Street maps for each of the walks with our highlights are below, let us know where you went and tell us some of your favorites.   OC ART BLOG ART WALK GUIDE More information and our photos from the October art...

29 October, 2013 /

Walking through Gods & Gifts: The Vatican Ethnological Collection is akin to traversing the globe while simultaneously travelling through time. Through February 9th over 70 objects from the Vatican Ethnological Museum are on display at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, the largest collection to ever leave Vatican City. The exhibit spans all six inhabited continents as well as 7,000 years of human civilization, and several of the objects have never been seen outside the Vatican. Collectively the objects in Gods & Gifts convey the incredible breadth,...

21 October, 2013 /

Get a room together of the most prominent photojournalists working today and you’ll hear a discussion about whether they perceive and document their subjects as “the Other,” or stated more bluntly, is there legitimacy to the question “who is the white person holding the camera?” The latest photography exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston strongly underscores that in documentary photography it is very important who holds the camera. She Who Tells A Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World hands over...

15 October, 2013 /

This past weekend the OC Art Blog hit the three major Orange County Art walks: Laguna Beach (First Thursday), Fullerton (First Friday) and Santa Ana (First Saturday) for a compare and contrast. From the red carpets of Laguna Beach to open mike night at the Fullerton Museum Center, it was a crash course on the diversity of the Orange County art scene, patrons and neighborhoods. Check out the following posts for our photos and breakdown on the October art walk scene, galleries, and our picks. [caption...

09 October, 2013 /

Concentrated on the pedestrian Second Street Promenade, Santa Ana had the liveliest street scene with DJs, street performers and multiple bands. The Santora Building has beautiful architecture but the galleries inside can be hit or miss. Get there anytime: from 6 to 10ish p.m. The Crowd: 20’s+, eclectic, families, and students The Art: Large scale installations, artists-in-residence, student art, performance art, video and everything in between What you won’t find: Established commercial artists, street parking Gallery Pick: OCCCA Check out: Cumulus at Grand Central After: Dessert at The Playground on Fourth Street [caption...

09 October, 2013 /

We had the most fun at the Fullerton Art Walk. It’s a little spread out with three distinct areas (see map) VioletHour-PÄS-Hibberton, the Fullerton Museum Center four blocks away and in between the  Carpe Diem Experience, a cluster of small galleries, craft tables and food trucks. You can find affordable art here, and we saw a lot of red dots. We enjoyed the industrial/renovated gallery interiors and blues at the Fullerton Museum Center open mike night. We recommend waiting out traffic: the crowd peaked around 8...

08 October, 2013 /

Laguna Beach is the most extensive of the art walks stretching from North Laguna Beach, through “downtown” to South Laguna (see map). Being a weeknight we only covered the north and select downtown galleries, as well as the Laguna Beach Art Museum (free admission the night of art walk). The art carries a higher price tag than the other art walks, but we enjoyed the free admission to the Laguna Beach Art Museum and free wine in the galleries. We recommend getting there early: the walk...

08 October, 2013 /

“Every flame contains fire, any bone from a dead body contains death, in just the same way as a single hair is thought to contain a man’s life force.” - Marcel Mauss, A General Theory of Magic Hello Reader There are three things that I sense about you in this very moment: you have recently come in contact with the work of the artist collective Finishing School, their provocative social sculpture Psychic Barber, or both. Lucky guess? Perhaps. Crystal ball? Sounds useful but, truth told, I have...

01 October, 2013 /