Reviews

By Meg Linton Daniel Porras, Distraction and Diversion with Direction, 2020, oil on canvas, 44”x33.5” As things are opening back up, yet again, I’ve been venturing out to look at art. I wound up in San Pedro and discovered Cornelius Projects, a contemporary art space run by artist and curator Laurie Steelink who shines a light on artists living and/or working in this seaside community located on Tongva Territory. The current exhibition on view through March 26, 2022 is called DUST & WISPS and features watercolors by...

23 February, 2022 /

According to The New York Times, a recent study showed that women artists’ artworks make up only eleven percent of collections held by top museums. The data, released late 2019, surveyed museum collections from 2008 to 2018 and found that the so-called progressive state of the art world had been dormant . Women make up a little under half of the world’s artists but are significantly underrepresented in the workforce itself. Data like this suggests that there is a treasure trove of artwork by women that has not...

22 March, 2021 /

Last month, over thirty artists from the 2020 Festival of Arts of Laguna Beach opened their private art studios and gallery venues for visitors to take a no-cost, self-guided journey through the Orange County coast in an event called “Art Along the Coast.” For two consecutive weekends, artists from San Clemente to Santa Ana shared their new art as well as works in progress to locals looking to support and connect with the art scene in their community. This was a great opportunity for both...

21 September, 2020 /

We know that reality is a construct and artistic expression is an attempt to relay one’s interpretation of that construct. Perception is everything—it is personal, how the world is viewed through one's eyes, and no two people can truly perceive reality the same way, even if those two people happen to be romantic partners. Currently, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA) is hosting an exhibition called “Terra Incognita,” which explores this concept by showcasing various works by five artist-couples and how despite being...

31 August, 2020 /

Paradise for SoCal art lovers during summertime is usually Laguna Beach. With three art festivals, the Pageant of the Masters, many art galleries displaying their treasures and rotating exhibitions at Laguna Art Museum, the city has been a garden of earthly delights for decades. Of course, this summer is different. The throngs of art-viewing tourists and residents — along with local artists eager to talk about and sell their work — are replaced by quiet streets and empty art venues, thanks to COVID-19. However, the abundance...

10 August, 2020 /

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus, the existentialist anti-hero, is punished for being so full of himself that, as he valiantly rolls his rock up the mountainside, the Gods have it roll back down just as he nears the top, doomed to do it again and again forever with the same result. In his way, he’s the perfect absurdist saint for artists: Daily work in isolation, never reaching the end of the journey, valiantly continuing, despite the cost of supplies, the inability to make rent, or difficulty...

29 June, 2020 /

Some traditions never die; and, one that has stood the test of time is art itself. Despite the trying times of the COVID-19 quarantine, the California Art Club and Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University are working together to bring the 109th annual “Gold Medal Exhibition” to the public virtually. The California Art Club was founded in 1909 with the intention of bringing together artists in California—a place to share ideas, teach, and hone their craft. A place where masters could gather and showcase their finest work. The...

04 June, 2020 /

On a bright, sunny day in Fullerton, a man dug a pickaxe into the soft earth of his front garden. His strenuous expressions were hidden behind the cover of a cloth mask. Directly across from his cottage-like home is the manicured lawn on the north end of The Muckenthaler Cultural Center, which has just installed a new contemporary sculpture. The steel sculpture towers at twelve feet high. It is one of the many new highlights at The Muck. The sculpture is called Godot, by contemporary Orange...

26 May, 2020 /

With the art world on lockdown, and with many of us desiring, even needing, to feed our art addictions, many visual and performing arts organizations throughout the OC are getting creative with how they remain relevant to the larger OC art scene. Luckily, many art organizations are offering opportunities for the public to still engage and enjoy art digitally, whether it be through live streaming, virtual tours, social media engagement, online art collection browsing, film screenings, videos of recorded performances, or through art-related lectures. This...

18 May, 2020 /

Who are we really? How do we fit into society? What parts of ourselves do we allow to be seen, and why? These are all questions that Brooke Shaden uses as inspiration for her digital show, “BEGIN AGAIN,” hosted by JoAnne Artman Gallery in Laguna Beach. In the virtual exhibition available online through May 30, 2020, Shaden explores the many layered notions of identity to fuel the work, but rather than conform to the expected notions, Shaden questions what it would be like to celebrate the difficulties, the struggles, and the...

04 May, 2020 /

Before the COVID-19 pandemic took our community by storm, a phenomenal exhibition featuring the iconic work of a fascinating artist was about to open up to the public in Fullerton. Sitting in silence, waiting for the dust to settle, the compelling environmentally-conscious artwork of Kim Abeles’ Smog Collectors series is expertly hung and patiently waiting its turn to show us what we’ve done to our world. “Kim Abeles: Smog Collectors, 1987-2020” was scheduled to open March 21 at the Begovich Gallery on the campus of CSU Fullerton. According to the Director...

27 April, 2020 /

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...

09 April, 2020 /

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 affections. He exhibited three...

24 March, 2020 /

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 Mexico, he grew up in grinding poverty, making it difficult for him to have the art education he...

16 March, 2020 /

Any kind of patriarchal poke in the eye is welcome, especially one that upends the tired visual dynamic of submissive women, but is there anything particularly revolutionary about replacing those suppliant female bodies with male figures in the same position? Additionally, if a painter’s intent is to subvert the ‘male gaze,’ why would they still include bound or nude women as the centerpiece of their imagery? Those questions are likely to hang in the air as you walk away from painter Katerina Olschbaur’s solo exhibition “Dirty Elements”...

09 March, 2020 /

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, activities and behaviors. I Will Not Carry You by Flavia D’Urso addresses...

03 March, 2020 /

Instruments of Change is a wholly original exhibit that shows dedication to culture and multi-medium mastery, currently showing at the Fullerton Museum Center through February 23, 2020, thanks, in part, to Thinkspace Projects. This inspirational exhibit, organized by Thinkspace features eight Latin American artists — Alvaro Naddeo, Curiot, Fefe Talavera, Fernando Chamarelli, Hilda Palafox, Paola Delfin, Saner, and Zezão in a groundbreaking show.  In just 10 days they created installations representing their heritage through street-based art that ranges from carefully crafted mosaics made of natural materials to larger...

22 February, 2020 /

The Brea Art Gallery is a small, distinct gallery that is often overlooked; however, its current exhibition, “Chapter One,” is a reminder that it is a staple of Orange County. An inviting display of imaginative multimedia artworks can be seen from the glass outside. What lies inside is an arena of fantasy and storybook beginnings. The exhibition’s central theme is tying together the importance of imagination and narrative-based art, which shows through its display of works from many different types of mediums. Visitors who come to...

11 February, 2020 /

[caption id="attachment_6942" align="alignright" width="345"] Blinky Exhumation Bone, Jeffrey Vallance[/caption]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 April...

19 February, 2019 /

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...

18 November, 2018 /