Elements of Nature: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
Date: June 5, 2010 – August 29, 2010
Curated By: Billie Milam Weisman
Venue: Lancaster Museum
44933 N. Fern Ave,
Lancaster, CA 93534
Exhibited Artists:
Lita Albuquerque, Peter Alexander, Robert Arneson, Chrales Arnoldi, James Bachman, David Bates, Scott Brennan, Veronica Brovall, Roger Brown, Fernanda Brunet, Alberto Carneiro, Louisa Chase, Reed Danziger, Lesley Dill, Peter Erskine, Tracy Felix, Charles Fine, Mark Fox, Eric Freeman, Torben Giehler, Jimi Gleason, Jack Goldstein, Joe Goode, Brandon Graving, Karen Heagle, Todd Hebert, Wade Hoefer, Gegam Kacherian, Marina Kappos, Cheryl Laemmle, Cindy Loehr, Daniel Mason, Andy Moses, Emilio Perez, Aurora Robson, Thomas Rose, Ed Ruscha, Christoph Schmidberger, Ali Smith, Barbara Takenaga, Ryozo Tsumaki, Tyler Vlahovich, Robert Warrens, Neil Welliver, Lance Winn, and Dustin Yellin.
Elements of Nature: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
The Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery presents “Elements of Nature: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation” on view June 5–August 29, 2010, with a special public opening reception on Saturday, June 5th from 6-9 pm. Drawn from the collection of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles and curated by Foundation Director, Billie Milam Weisman, the exhibition features a number of internationally renowned contemporary artists including: Lita Albuquerque, Peter Alexander, Charles Arnoldi, Lesley Dill, Joe Goode, and Edward Ruscha. Many of these artists are represented in major museum collections, such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MOMA), and The Art Institute of Chicago, among others.
“This exhibition represents a major step, not only for the evolution of the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery, but also for the visual arts in Lancaster,” said Mayor R. Rex Parris. “The Weisman Art Foundation holds one of the best private collections of modern and contemporary art internationally and the City of Lancaster is pleased to offer residents an opportunity to view these remarkable works.” While “Elements of Nature” will be exhibited in the museum’s current facility, City Manager Mark Bozigian sees the show as indicative of the caliber of exhibitions that will be installed in the museum’s new space to be completed in early 2011. “Our new museum will afford us the opportunities to honor our local artistic traditions while simultaneously allowing us to attract and create exhibitions featuring works from artists and art collections from around the country and the world,” Bozigian said.
Centered around the classical conception that the universe consisted of four basic elements—fire, water, earth, and air—this exhibition explores how contemporary artists have drawn inspiration from these essential, natural states to interpret, replicate, and re-imagine the natural world. This collection of international contemporary artists explores diverse aspects of the natural environment inspired by personal experiences, as well as universal concepts. Viewing the world through the unique perspective of the artist, the power and beauty of the environment and the complex human relationship with it, begin to emerge.
This theme has particular relevance in California, where artists often turn to nature for inspiration. Edward Ruscha's witty images of letters floating in the air were inspired by the grandeur of the California sky. As in some of Ruscha’s images of the Southern California landscape, the skies that fill Joe Goode’s work have been interpreted as symbols of California and its mythic place in the American imagination. While enticing and emblematic of a natural paradise, an undertone of violence and disintegration, unease and ruin, coexists with the image of California as the land of “eternally blue skies.” Los Angeles Light and Space artists Jack Goldstein and Lita Albuquerque create images based on the infinity of space and time.
While many of the artists in the exhibition are from California, the roster is international and also includes painters such as German artist, Torben Giehler, who creates mosaic topographical patterns based on the earth's surface. Giehler is best known for his engagement with the genre of landscape painting–either through renderings of actual places, or entirely imaginary, futuristic vistas that combine references to perspective drawing, early modernist grid paintings, and the intricate surface of computer chips.