LONG BEACH, CA.- The Long Beach Museum of Art opened its most recent exhibition this fall entitled Masterworks: Defining A New Narrative. From October 23, 2014 to February 1, 2015, visitors can experience a unique exhibition of 14 large-scale paintings featuring accomplished artists who, for the last decade or more, have been consistently exploring new narrative directions in painting. Each of the artists have been charged with providing a singular work that could be considered pivotal in their careers, to which they have dedicated considerable thought, time, and skill. Artists featured include Esao Andrews, Sean Cheetham, Natalia Fabia, Alex Gross, James Jean, Josh Keyes, Mario Martinez, Greg Simkins, Nicola Verlato, Eric White, Aron Wiesenfeld, Martin Wittfooth, and Curating Artist and Author Nathan Spoor and Co-curator Jeff McMillan.

The artists featured in Masterworks are from diverse backgrounds and their work connects a broad spectrum of genres, scenes and movements. Masterworks calls into question what a decade means to an artist, and summarizes the thoughts, theories, and personalities of each painter into one culminating work. Within each work, the artists’ individual perspective is explored through childhood fantasies, substantive objects, and sensational dreamscapes. The paintings in Masterworks drift between fantasy and reality while closely examining and disrupting conventional pictorial environments. Each painting represents a decade of dedication to artistic excellence and creative expertise and signifies the product of a career’s worth of experience into one masterwork.

“In the Museum’s 60-plus years of collecting and exhibiting art by contemporary artists, its relationship with them has been one of collaboration and respect,” said Ron Nelson, executive director of the Long Beach Museum of Art. “This exhibition is another example of that respectful relationship. The genesis of this exhibition came about in conversations with artists about their work and responses to today’s cultural environment, which is increasingly filled and stimulated with images due to our 24/7 online society.”