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...
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....
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...
The 2015 faculty exhibition opened tonight at Cal State Fullerton’s Begovich Gallery (a chance, perhaps, for students to grade the teachers). Fine artists in the show include Julie Orser, Joe Biel and Joe Forkan. Rebecca Campbell fills an oven with classic paperback literature in Liebe Mütti (courtesy of LA Louver), presumably to be cooked until done at 451° Fahrenheit. Jim Jenkins supplies a kinetic sculpture consisting of school chairs, dunce cap, globe and paper airplane entitled I Ain’t...
In the sculptural work of Portuguese artist Miguel Palma, a cast concrete block might mark the open page of a favorite book. A half-finished Erector set model of the Eiffel Tower might appear alongside a 19th century photograph of the real Eiffel Tower at a similar stage in its construction. Engineering, architecture, history and even biomechanics all provide stimuli for the artist’s toylike imagination. Currently wrapping up a three month residency at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica,...
An MFA exhibit currently on view at Cal State Fullerton installs a fantastical world of imagination in the campus' West Gallery, but like a wonderland apparition it's only up for a few days, so if you'd like to see it in person you'll have to visit soon! Tiffany Ma, who over the past few years has been involved with feminist collective performance art as part of the "Guerrila Gowns" project and was in the recent "Rage Bear" show at downtown Santa Ana's GCAC, studied photography as an undergrad...
San Antonio, TX. At the 2012 SSCA annual conference, this year held in The Alamo City, San Antonio, three Orange County writers were shocked and amazed by this fascinating and artistic city! Who would have thought that The Alamo City had good art! Ok, maybe Los Angeles and Orange County have warped my mind into forgetting about the other states outside of New York and California for art in America, but I stand corrected! Texas definitely has art. With a slew of public sculptures that brighten...
Fullerton, CA Sculptor, S.A. Hawkins had his MFA thesis exhibition open this past saturday at Cal State Fullerton and rocked it! Alongside the large and impressive Faculty exhibit, S.A. took both of the other galleries (The East Gallery and the West Gallery) on the CSUF campus and dominated the night. His abstract and hypnotic glass and metal artworks are surprising and comforting, compelling narratives involving abstract life forms made of glass, metal, rust, found objects, and brightly...
Anaheim, CA- Art walks are springing up faster than hipsters these days. Following the examples of established walks, many cities are publicizing an art walk, often forgetting the key to a good art walk: art. Two galleries and a handful of cafes and salons with art on their walls do not a “walk” make. However, that said, sometimes there is gems in these plentiful events....
If you have the chance, I recommend the journey from Orange County to our L.A. County neighbor, Long Beach, for the show Constructions and Excavations featuring the work of Southern California artists Jonathan Anderson and Nathan Huff. Curated by Jeffrey Rau of Sixpack Projects, a new curating collective. Anderson's body of work entitled "Constructions" and "Impasse" establishes a consistent conceptual framework that uses the flat surfaces of...
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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By Maggie Luy Paper decor fluttered overhead as baby doll dresses and flower crowns filled the crowd. Women-owned vendors lined the walkways as festivalgoers moved through the sunlight, surrounded by bursts of color and music. That vibrant atmosphere captured...
By Mason Fujikawa The Tipping Point is a two-story installation at the Laguna Art Museum by Einar and Jamex de la Torre. The de la Torre brothers, glassblowers by trade, are prolific mixed-media artists who have exhibited internationally for over thirty years. Born in...
By Maggie Luy Take another step and lean in. Ordinary objects reveal deeper stories than they first appear to hold. From delicate threads woven into a portrait to bold images capturing moments of social change, the 42nd Irvine Annual transforms familiar...
By Maggie Luy Where does the game end, and the art begin? A basketball court is usually defined by rules and competition. In “GAME! Basketball and Contemporary Art,” that definition expands as the court becomes a surface for design and intervention. The...
By Chris Hoff There’s a particular kind of vertigo that comes with watching a technology arrive faster than the culture can metabolize it. Photographers felt it in the 1840s. Painters felt it again when Photoshop showed up. Now it’s AI’s turn, and the stakes feel...
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