Gallery welcomes group art show, “Women of the New Contemporary"

“Women of the New Contemporary” will kick off Sun., Feb. 28 with an artist’s reception from 5 – 8 p.m. The exhibit will run through March 17. Most of the gallery exhibit will consist of paintings along with a few prints, photographic works and sculpture, including installations from artist Martha Rich of Philadelphia, Pa. and photographer Deanna Templeton of Huntington Beach. Five murals will be created on the exterior walls of the Visual Art Center complex which houses the gallery.

Curated by Laguna Beach gallery owner Torrey Cook, the broad display will feature the works of artists from around the United States, as well as England and the Netherlands. Approximately half of the artists are from Southern California. Eight artists will arrive nearly two weeks before the opening to paint the murals. Four Southern California artists will create a collaborative mural.

Rich will showcase a selection of  “speech bubbles” -- large text bubbles cut from wood and painted with brilliant text. The bubbles capture bits and pieces of colorful conversations that one might accidentally overhear.

Templeton will unveil a selection of photographs titled “What She Said.” The works are drawn from a long-term project consisting of portraits of girls who remind the artist of her own teenage experiences. She pairs the images with excerpts from her journals penned during her teen years.

San Diego County-based artist Casey O’Connell will paint a mural on the north side of the exterior wall of the gallery as well as exhibit a piece inside the gallery. “I’m really excited,” she said. “I wonder what the energy will be like, the dynamics of all of us working on murals.”

O’Connell, a painter who resides in the beach community of Leucadia in Encinitas has created a number of large murals over the past three years including nine this past year in Laguna Beach, Las Vegas, Atlanta, New Orleans, San Francisco, San Diego, Raleigh, N.C., and Austin, Texas. She uses acrylic paints and oil stain for her murals which evolve from sketches of ideas and detailed plans into scaled up versions on walls. Most of her murals have 15 or 16 layers of paint. “It’s like chasing the fleeting thought until you reach the answer,” she said.

Painting murals is a different experience from painting smaller pieces in a studio, in large part because of the public nature of the work, O’Connell said. “It’s so fun, it’s a completely different way of working. You’re exposed to people watching, and sometimes people say things,” she said. Additionally, varying climates can influence the content of the murals, she said.

San Francisco artist Velia de Iuliis, who creates colorful and detailed paintings of animals and plants, will use house paint to make a mural on the 30-foot-long front wall of the Visual Art Center. The work will consist of flora and fauna, “however I have still to finalize the exact species,” she said. “Seeing the mural location for the first time typically evokes a particular inspiration that cannot be accounted for prior to arrival.”

Iuliis usually prepares for mural paintings by referring to “old explorer journals with scientific illustrations, classical masterpieces and websites listing endangered and rare animal and plant species. My work usually illustrates a collage of interests and inspirations. I do a few thumbnail sketches but usually my ideas change once onsite. The mural should take about four days,” she said.

Iuliis is also preparing for her first solo exhibit which will open Feb. 20 in Cook’s gallery, Artists Republic.

“Torrey has done a great job at bringing together an amazing group of artists,” said Brandstater Gallery director and assistant art professor Tim Musso. “It will be exciting to see an exhibit that extends from the interior of the gallery to the more public exterior of the building itself.” 

The muralists will stay in dorm rooms on campus while creating their wall paintings, allowing for interaction with university students.

“There is a buzz among the students who are excited to meet the artists,” Musso said. “It is important for students to see working artists who have had success in their careers through hard work, focus and commitment.”

“Women of the New Contemporary” is the latest of roughly 200 exhibits Brandstater Gallery has hosted since its opening in 1984. The gallery was established with a legacy donation from the children of Roy and Frances Brandstater and has featured such prominent artists as Sam Francis, graphic designer Stefan Bucher, painter Josh Hagler, photographer Todd Baxter, and most recently, noted woodcut and print artist Roxanne Sexauer.

“My goal as gallery director is to put on a variety of exhibitions in terms of both media and accessibility,” said Musso. “It is important for me to select artists who are able to talk about their work in a way that gallery visitors from all backgrounds can understand.

“In the future we plan to have an annual exhibition that features the work of local academy students. This will be a way to connect the gallery with a wider education community," he said.

Admission to “Women of the New Contemporary” is free. Brandstater Gallery is open Mon. – Thurs., 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and is available by appointment by contacting Tim Musso at tmusso@lasierra.edu. Further information is available at 951-785-2170. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside. A campus map to reach Brandstater Gallery is available at https://lasierra.edu/fileadmin/documents/art/brandstater-campu-map.pdf.

Participating artists:

Amanda Marie (Denver, Co.)

Alea Nicole Hurst (McDonough, Ga.)

Camilla Taylor (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Casey O’Connell (San Diego, Calif.)

Dee Dee Cheriel (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Handiedan (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Hilary White (Florida)

Jovi Schnell (Berkeley, Calif.)

Kati Williams (Richmond, Va.)

Kelly Tunstall (San Francisco, Calif.)

Laura Berger (Chicago, Ill.)

Laurie Hassold (Costa Mesa, Calif.)

Lisa Congdon (Portland, Ore.)

Liz Brizzi (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Magdalena Wosinska (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Mel Kadel (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Paige Smith (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Super Future Kid (London, England)

Velia de Iuliis (San Francisco, Calif.)

Special installations:

Martha Rich (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Deanna Templeton (Huntington Beach, Calif.)

10 x 12’x12” works from Southern California artists: Jennie Cotterill (Huntington Beach), Chantal de Felice (San Clemente), Yevgeniya Mikhailik (Irvine), Camilla Taylor (Los Angeles), Suzanne Walsh (Santa Ana), Sara Walsh (Los Angeles), Jessie Keylon (San Diego), Lauren Over (Los Angeles), Nancy Chiu (Irvine), Erynn Richardson (Riverside).

Exterior Murals:

Casey O’Connell (Encinitas, Calif.)

Velia de Iuliis (San Francisco, Calif.)

Martha Rich (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Jennie Cotterill, Yevgeniya Mikhailik, Nancy Chiu, Suzanne Walsh

Zio Ziegler (Mill Valley, Calif.)

About The New Contemporary Movement

The New Contemporary movement, widely acknowledged to have begun in the early 90's on the West Coast, evolved in reaction to a conceptual turn in fine art. Founded in part on a rejection of the arbitrary division of visual culture that tends to elevate "high art" above the social and popular realms, the movement invoked the countercultural and drew content from an immersion in social experience. The standard of excessive academicism and abstraction, against which it grew, was commonly held in higher regard than more figurative, graphic or representational forms of art. This marginalization inspired the New Contemporary movement to set its own terms and create its own context for the reception of its work. With a renewed emphasis on technical skill, narrative and representation, it has encouraged a social return in art. Moving away from the standard art education model that demands graduate school, an excess of critical rhetoric and an art world careerism, these artists, many of whom are self-taught, have sought their own inspiration and voice instead, drawing on everything from popular culture and social media platforms, to street art, murals and graffiti. By creating a distinct community in support of the diversity of its visions and styles, the movement has mortared and upheld its own invisible school.

About Artists Republic Gallery

Since opening its doors in 2010, Artists Republic has been one of Orange County’s premier venues for New Contemporary art. Located in Laguna Beach, Calif., the gallery is dedicated to the support of emerging and mid-career artists whose work has impacted and influenced lives through youth culture. Artists Republic is located at 1175 S. Coast Highway and specializes in original works, prints, books and more. (http://ar4t.com)