The OC Art Blog was created in 2004 as a way to build community and promote the marginalized but dynamic Orange County art scene.

Creating Space for Imagination - Artist Katy Betz by Jennifer Cheng Katy Betz is a gallery artist, illustrator, children's book writer, and muralist, with an artistic statement, "I am an artist devoted to creating space for imagination." Recently featured in 944 Magazine, in the Orange County October 2010 - The Art Issue, Katy was selected as one of six rising artistic stars in Orange County. Katy is currently finishing her MFA at California State University, Fullerton, and teaches part time as a college professor. She uses her brush to...

10 November, 2010 /

  Graduate Candidate artist Daniel Porras is exhibiting a large installation of whimsical paintings based on hybrid forms of human and animal decent for the Savage Primitive exhibition this Saturday night, October 9th in the CalState Fullerton West Gallery, reception is 5-8pm.     Go check out Daniel's new paintings, they will draw you in to their own savage world.  The artist will be attending the reception so you can quiz him about the fantastical environments where his characters reside. And did I mention there will be free food...

07 October, 2010 /

I just got an email from Ed Giardina (that's him just below the cat w/glasses) and Finishing School about their film 54.  It is a participatory film that examines the role of art biennials in the contemporary art market.  Sounds interesting.  They even plan on taking it to the oldest and most established of Biennials (or Biennale as we pasta eating people like to call it) in Venice, Italy.  Yes, of course you are all invited.  If you haven't made it to Italy yet here is the perfect opportunity...

07 October, 2010 /

  Put this one in your calendars, you won't want to miss this huge survey of California's rock-star contemporary artists.  That's right, it's time for OCMA'S  California Biennial.  This year promises to be like none other.  Their savvy curator Sarah Bancroft has searched long and hard for California's finest. Here is some info on the show:   2010 CALIFORNIA BIENNIAL  October 24, 2010-March 13, 2011     The Orange County Museum of Art proudly announces the upcoming 2010 California Biennial. The Biennial exhibitions are a cornerstone of OCMA's program and highly anticipated by...

07 October, 2010 /

Looking for something to do tonight in the OC? FREEEEEE PERFORMANCE!!!   There is one night left, so grab your camping gear (you'll need a comfy chair for the two hour show), some friends, and get on over to the Orange County Performing Art Center for the last evening of the Project Bandaloop's awesome wall dancing!  The group performs free for the public on the exterior wall of the Segerstrom Hall, right in front of the Richard Serra monolithic steel sculpture. You'd better get there early because the...

02 October, 2010 /

Andrea Geyer's opening reception at the UAG Gallery, UCIrvine. (photo by: Joanna Grasso)   Last night I had an adventure, with camera and compass in hand I made my way over to Irvine for the opening reception of the University of California, Irvine (UCI)  UAG Gallery solo exhibition entitled Criminal Case 40/61: Reverb by artist Andrea Geyer. Geyer's six channel video projection revisits, unpacks, and investigates the crimes against humanity trial of Adolf Eichmann's, Israeli Supreme Court (1950). For those of you history buffs out there here is a...

01 October, 2010 /

When you go see Cacophonius at the West Gallery on the CSUF campus I suggest you bring eight friends.  In Cacophonius artist Geoffrey Schorz has produced nine iconographic paintings on a series of interactive, audible, reliefs-instruments…Medieval instruments.  (Schorz himself is an accomplished musician trained on the dudelsack-German bagpipe) As an M.F.A. candidate Schorz is a painting major, but he has spent the last year painting and fashioning these kinetic masterpieces.  The artworks are the result if innovation, engineering and a little alchemy-the artist mixes his own...

26 September, 2010 /

    This week, the Americans for the Arts Action Fund graded our U.S. senators on their support of the arts.  While 28 members received a failing grade, both California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein did well with Boxer receiving an A+ and Feinstein a B+.   Criteria used to grade senators included: keeping jobs in the arts, supporting public art, supporting museums, showing initiative in the arts by cosponsoring arts legislation, showing leadership in the arts by signing the "Dear Colleague Letter" for more...

24 September, 2010 /

    Even as I write this, I have six windows open on my laptop, my cell phone just inches away, and my earphones blasting music. Me? Addicted to technology? No way! At California State University Fullerton’s Begovich Art Gallery, curators Jennifer Frias and Lilia Lamas present a timely exhibition examining our social constructs created by new media and digital technology. Metadataphile: The Collapse of Visual Information suggests that over-communication through technology has lead to miscommunication.  Visually, the exhibition is a sensory experience of video, sculpture,...

19 September, 2010 /

What is a toilet alarm spokes-mime, exactly?  Zoot Velasco in Very Odd JobsThursday, September 2nd, 7:00 PM, Free Davis Barber Productions presents Zoot Velasco in Very Odd Jobs. Zoot Velasco, our Executive Director, will take the audience on a journey from street kid with a bum leg to his jobs as robot, mime, wax figure, mannequin, table centerpiece, toy soldier, break dancer, toilet alarm spokes-mime, RoboCop, Ronald MacDonald finalist, Soul Trainee, Music Video dancer, Crash Dummy, prison artist, storyteller, and rapper...

31 August, 2010 /

Ed Templeton talks art, life, and inspiration with Juxtapoz magazine co-founders Greg Escalante and CR Stecyk at OCMA tonight. Talk is free with admission and it starts at 6pm.Funny, I was just thumbing through Beautiful Losers a couple of days ago.. ...

12 August, 2010 /

Announcements continue to come out of the TEDx Fullerton camp. The most recent is that Kimberly Brooks will be added to the line-up on Friday Sept 10th. TEDxFullerton’s special guest speaker is Kimberly Brooks, who recently conceived and launched the Arts Section of the Huffington Post, a new “vertical”, where she serves as Arts Editor.   Ms. Brooks is also a contemporary American painter and new media artist; her works have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, LACMA to name a few.  ...

12 August, 2010 /

  The line up of the upcoming TEDX Fullerton happening on Sept 10th is starting to leak out. Some of the speakers that will be present include: Karen Atkinson, The Creation of a Hybrid (Artist)   Bruce Babad, Exposing the hidden notes   Amy Caterina, Vivacious, cheeky and kind   Peter Clothier, Rousing the Creative Spirit   John Crawford, Intermedia software artist   John Eger, “Building Creative Communities”   Jill Anjuli Hansen, Revolutionary, creative, entrepreneur   Andrea Harris-McGee, Infectious Enthusiasm and Fun §  Joe Jewell, Contemporary Guitar Virtuoso   Frank Peters, Angel, artist,...

05 August, 2010 /

Hey there, just stopped in to New York for a few days on my way to Rome.   Landed in time to hit the streets for a much needed jog around central park and trek down to the financial district for Canadian dancer/photographer Paul-Andre' Fortier's live performance infront of 1 New York Plaza.  Every day for 30 days Fortier will perform for 30 minutes at high noon inside a taped off square (30' x 30' of course) right in the middle of the outdoor area of...

29 July, 2010 /