LONG BEACH, CA.- The Long Beach Museum of Art opened three new fall exhibitions on November 20 that highlight the works of Southern California artists Terry Braunstein, Barbara Strasen and Lori LaMont. The three exhibitions begin the LBMA 2016 programmatic season and it underscores the diversity of exhibits that the Museum will be presenting in the coming year.
Who Is She? — Terry Braunstein - November 20, 2015–February 14, 2016
Named after Long Beach artist Terry Braunstein’s eponymous 2013 installation, Who Is She ? — Terry Braunstein presents for the first time her original collage work, exhibited to date mostly in photographical reproductions. The exhibition highlights the artist’s process of culling and clipping, selecting and fusing what is separate and incongruous, the show lays bare the roots of Braunstein’s art, which include early 20th century European modernism and mid-century American assemblage. It also conveys a new appreciation for her exquisitely skillful and delicate technique in an age of easy digital manipulation. Additionally, the exhibition features original copies of Braunstein’s celebrated artists books, new assemblage sculptures, as well as models and photographic prints created in conjunction with the dance set Who Is She? Curated by Claudia Bohn-Spector and Sam Mellon, the exhibition features nearly 100 pieces and it is her first major museum career-spanning retrospective. It also features a small catalogue with essays by Bohn-Spector and by writer/poet Tosh Berman, and published by the Long Beach Museum of Art and Thistle & Weed Press. In her near forty-year career, Braunstein has engaged a breathtaking array of artistic media and settings—photography, painting, mosaic, printmaking, stone, steel, brass, public art, performance, site-specific sculpture, and even video— revealing layers of hidden meaning beneath the seemingly mundane and obvious. Engaging and provocative, with deep roots in the art of Surrealism, Braunstein examines life’s passages and other human experiences by creating a compelling visual syntax that is dreamlike, paradoxical, and highly poetic.
Barbara Strasen: Layer By Layer – November 20, 2015-February 21, 2016
Barbara Strasen: Layer By Layer highlights the remarkable mixed-media works of San Pedro artist Barbara Strasen. The exhibition features 24 works plus two installations that will engage viewers in multiple ways: her works appear to shift depending on the viewer’s point of view. She is interested in providing multiple points of view from great distance down to “nose-to-paper” closeness like SuperMegaMultiplexorama originally presented in New York City. The imagery ranges from natural history—birds, animals—to contemporary micro and macro images of vegetables, anatomy, fireworks and astronauts diving through space. Since her study of painting at the University of California, Berkeley, Strasen has had a long career of exhibitions as an international artist. The imagery she explores reveals the vast scope of her curiosity, interests, and enthusiasms. Decade by decade she has combined places and people, events and archeology, and the connections between nature and technology in colorful, layered, and intriguing contemporary collages and paintings.
Rather than depend solely on traditional materials, Strasen utilizes both acrylic paint and inkjet prints with contemporary materials like Tyvek, Plexiglas, and lenticular lenses. Her mastery of layering painted imagery over lenticular prints presents mysterious combinations of the world. Strasen finds beauty and harmony in seemingly unrelated things and re-presents the world in images that display the interconnectedness of all things.
Lori LaMont: Under The Influence – November 20, 2015-February 21, 2016
Lori LaMont: Under The Influence features one-large scale painting by local Long Beach artist Lori LaMont. Her painting is part of a series of watercolor paintings inspired by the camaraderie that sporting events incites in societies from all walks of life. At nearly twenty-one feet long and five feet high her work Camp Life in the Woods and Tricks of Trapping is the foundational piece in the series. It features animals engaged in all manner of sport, plastered with logos one would expect in NASCAR, along with every other sport – and sporting arena - around the world, including on the athletes themselves. It’s a modern folk tale that, though visually grand and dazzling, prompts foreboding and begs the question: what is the moral of the story? In the alluring tradition of animal characters directly being affected by the glamour of the constant avalanche of our ever changing popular culture, Under The Influence narrows the gap between nature vs. culture. Long Beach based artist LaMont has been painting professionally since 1993 and works exclusively in watercolor. Her large-scale paintings are executed with incredible precision, and utilize layers of bold, saturated color and meticulously rendered detail. her paintings have been commissioned for corporate collections, have been exhibited in many group and solo shows in galleries in several states, been featured in several museum exhibitions, and have been highlighted in numerous publications, both print and televised media.
“These three artists are symbolic of the Museum’s mission of showcasing California artists who are active in our thriving and growing art community,” said Executive Director Ron Nelson. “We are pleased with what the artists have created for their respective exhibitions and we look forward to our members and visitors noting how eclectic these exhibitions are.”
In addition, the Museum also opened a small exhibition entitled Revisited and Revealed: Selections from the Permanent Collection that features a selection of newly acquired artwork by women already in the Museum’s permanent collection. These new gifts of artworks by Helen Lundeberg, Judy Chan, and Thelma deGoede Smith are presented alongside works by these three artists, which came into the collection in years past. Having more than one work of art by an artist gives insight into the arc of an artist’s vision and technique over time. The exhibition in the Lane Oceanview Gallery also features new acquisitions in painting, fiber, and cast glass by Mylene Raiche, Joan Austin, Karena Massengill, and Gail Factor. These artists all have significant ties to the art of Long Beach and Southern California. This exhibition is open from November 20, 2015-February 21, 2016.
