OC Art Tag

While baby boomers are the first generation raised with television as a major life influence, Jeff Gillette surpasses most of his contemporaries with his fascination for TV images, particularly for animated characters. The Costa Mesa-based artist recalls his earliest major artistic influence to us in an interview, “I grew up in Michigan in the 1960s through ‘80s, often watching The Wonderful World of Disney, and I loved the shows, especially the cartoons.”  Yet when Gillette first visited Disneyland in 1978 in his teens, he hated the experience...

Any kind of patriarchal poke in the eye is welcome, especially one that upends the tired visual dynamic of submissive women, but is there anything particularly revolutionary about replacing those suppliant female bodies with male figures in the same position? Additionally, if a painter’s intent is to subvert the ‘male gaze,’ why would they still include bound or nude women as the centerpiece of their imagery? Those questions are likely to hang in the air as you walk away from painter Katerina Olschbaur’s solo exhibition “Dirty Elements”...

The Brea Art Gallery is a small, distinct gallery that is often overlooked; however, its current exhibition, “Chapter One,” is a reminder that it is a staple of Orange County. An inviting display of imaginative multimedia artworks can be seen from the glass outside. What lies inside is an arena of fantasy and storybook beginnings. The exhibition’s central theme is tying together the importance of imagination and narrative-based art, which shows through its display of works from many different types of mediums. Visitors who come to...

Typographic street artist and designer Peter Greco has spent his entire adult life learning the mastery of communication through language and lettering. His artwork celebrates the centuries old tradition of the art of calligraphy and the fascinating world of typography while paying homage to the many different cultures that have kept this tradition alive. He has shown all over the country, but based out of Los Angeles and teaching at Art Center College of Design, his artwork rarely makes it past the orange curtain. His...

Local artists Alyssa Arney and Liz Flynn are very aware of the superficial nature of Southern California, where beauty is valued over health, and the constant presence of advertising is louder, brighter, and more attractive than honesty. Finding their way, separately, toward fiber arts, was an important journey for each artist, but finding their way toward each other, and creating an open dialogue with their community, other women, and internally, has fueled their artwork and their collaboration with meaning, purpose, and passion. Their collaborative exhibit, “Pleasure Objects,” curated...

Trace Mendoza creates hypnotic work that makes you feel inspired, inquisitive and strangely euphoric.   A seemingly schizophrenic fixation with cultural iconography, his Southern California homeland, psychedelic design, deconstructivism, and unlikely pairings, OC artist Trace Mendoza finds strange and fascinating narratives in his creations that are just as fantastical and weird as the artist himself. With an overtone of whimsy, Mendoza’s artworks combine the darkness of the unknown spaces in each of us with the bright and colorful obsession with advertising, capitalism and cultural pressure that is inherent...

In many areas all over the world, the dirtiest, grimiest places are also the places where the creative people are. Whether it be for low rent, more space, the love of the metropolis, or to invigorate communities through gentrification, sometimes the art is just better in the shitty neighborhoods. With low brow art movements originating in grimy areas of cities like NYC, L.A., Paris, Berlin, etc—Orange County is no different. The grimiest of grimy cities is also our beloved art-hub, the glorious downtown Santa Ana. The...

[caption id="attachment_4577" align="aligncenter" width="545"] Wayne White's "Impossible"[/caption] The new location for Newport Beach's community college and art gallery is breathtaking. A massive new structure on the bluff overlooking the ocean made of steel, cement and glass is sure to be reason enough for anybody to go back to school. The art gallery at Coastline Community College is equally as impressive, and their new show, Commodores--the brainchild of Director and Curator, David Michael Lee--is a show not to be missed. Ships in bottles, classic harbor seascape paintings, contemporary...

[caption id="attachment_4094" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="The Cut-Off Men"][/caption] Santa Ana, CA.  Downtown Santa Ana Artist’s Village gets a kick in the contemporary art butt with newest creative addition, Grand Central Art Center’s (GCAC) new Director and Chief Curator, John Spiak. Spiak is a whirlwind of creative energies, and his expertise in Relational Aesthetics and Social Practice are giving the Artist’s Village a transformative new take on the art scene in Orange County. Spiak is bringing in artists from all over the world, to engage and exchange with the...