The Long Beach Museum of Art (LBMA) will open three new fall exhibits on Nov. 20 that will highlight the works of Southern California artists Terry Braunstein, Barbara Strasen and Lori LaMont. The three exhibits will begin the LBMA 2016 programmatic season and underscore the diversity of exhibits that the museum will present in the coming year.
Who Is She?
Nov. 20, 2015—Feb. 14, 2016
Named after Long Beach artist Terry Braunstein’s eponymous 2013 installation “Who Is She?” the exhibit presents for the first time her original collage work, shown to date mostly in photographical reproductions.
By highlighting 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?”
With nearly 100 pieces in the exhibit, this is her first major museum career-spanning retrospective. It will also feature a small catalogue with an essay by writer/poet Tosh Berman and published by the Long Beach Museum of Art and Thistle & Weed Press. In her near 40-year career, Braunstein has engaged an 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.
Layer By Layer
Nov. 20, 2015—Feb. 21, 2016
Barbara Strasen’s Layer By Layer will highlight the remarkable mixed-media works of San Pedro artist Barbara Strasen. The exhibition will feature 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 a vast scope of curiosity, interests and enthusiasms, according to LBMA. 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, according to LBMA.
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 represents the world in images that display the interconnectedness of all things.
Under The Influence
Nov. 20, 2015—Feb. 21, 2016
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 incite in societies from all walks of life.
At nearly 21 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 arenas— around the world, including on the athletes themselves. According to LBMA, it’s a modern folk tale that 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. 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, exhibited in many group and solo shows in galleries in several states, featured in several museum exhibitions and 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 LBMA 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, LBMA will open a small exhibition entitled Revisited and Revealed: Selections from the Permanent Collection that will feature 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 entered the collection in years past. 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 will be open from Nov. 20, 2015 to Feb. 21, 2016.
For more information, call (562) 439-2119 or visit lbma.org .
