OsCene 2010 is a survey of contemporary art and culture in the OC featuring some of the most provocative painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, multi-media installation, video, architecture, performance, music, and design that Orange County has to offer! This year's OsCene will extend into Long Beach and San Pedro, often considered the blurred boundary between Orange and Los Angeles counties.

OsCene 2010 opening night reception (video courtesy Michael Farmer Photography)
View and dowload photos from the opening night reception on our Flickr site

In the face of international biennials, world-wide art fairs, and attention to the ever-changing cities as the next "it" place for art and artists, OsCene 2010 features the works of fifty artists with an eye towards regionalism. What is regionalism today? Over the last several years, the idea of regionalism in the art world has taken on a negative connotation. In this wave of international focus, it is worth reminding ourselves of (and discovering) the art-making practices happening close at hand; looking at art here and now.

Rapid population growth in the nineteenth century led the California legislature to divide Los Angeles County and create Orange County as a separate political entity on March 11, 1889. Today, Orange County has a population of three million, just behind that of the city of Los Angeles, the state's largest city. Orange County is an amalgam of theme parks; nature preserves; and the extroverted subcultures of choppers, punk rock, and conservative politics. In our master-planned communities, we experience diverse demographics in an area with a remarkably homogeneous history of ranchers and missionaries.

The names of places that define Orange County cities go back hundreds of years--San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, and Los Alamitos. The names of ranchers and land barons continue to resonate with significance today: Yorba, Sepulveda, and Irvine. What was once Rancho Los Nietos (1784-1834) today encompasses areas of both Los Angeles and Orange counties, including the cities of Long Beach, Lakewood, Downey, Norwalk, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, and Garden Grove, to name just a few. With this geography in mind, OsCene 2010 looks at artists working in Orange County, but then crosses the imperceptible northern boundary, taking a peek at artists working in and around Long Beach and San Pedro.

OsCene 2010 aims to characterize the complexity of a region represented by a diverse group of artists. The artists are comprised of teachers and their students. Some at mid-career, some just emerging. A few are self-taught. Some were raised in the Southland, but most are transplants. Within this geo-historical framework of the OsCene, viewers are asked to consider an amalgam of perspectives that might--or might not--help define a geo-regional character for art being produced in Orange County. Motifs focus primarily on the social landscape of the region-popular culture; domesticity; a captivating and altered landscape; hybridization of cultures, identities, and biology; artists pushing the limits of their medium; memory; decay.

Perhaps, collectively, the works in the OsCene form a deeper plot. In a region known for the development of "bedroom communities," domesticity is strongly present in the exhibition. Lurking beneath the ever-present sunshine and appearance of wealth, there are undertones of darkness and struggle-the mold that creeps across the toile wallpaper, the loneliness of aging, and the quiet struggle of day laborers-all stand on shifting fault lines within the entropy of suburbia.

MoblMedia and Laguna Art Museum have partnered to bring patrons the MoblMuseum iPhone application which debuts during the OsCene 2010 exhibition. This application, designed specifically for OsCene 2010, can be downloaded for free on iPhones and iPod Touches, and is intended to provide patrons with an interactive and informative tour of the exhibition. The application will include audio clips, interviews with artists, and more information on the art featured in OsCene 2010.

"This new generation of tours is available to museum visitors both on-site and at home, is capable of delivering multimedia at high speeds, and offers potential for brochure replacement, visitor-to-visitor conversations, as well as museum-to-visitor conversations." ~ Max Weiss, MoblMedia

>> The Laguna Art Museum app can be download for free from the App Store! Search: "Laguna Art."

>> Rent an iPod Touch for only $5.00 when you visit Laguna Art Museum, and take advantage of this informative tour!

OsCene 2010 Curators

Grace Kook-Anderson, Head Curator
Grace Kook-Anderson is Curator of Exhibitions for Laguna Art Museum. She was a co-founder of InSitu (2007-2008) and co-curator for InSitu: Richmond at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2008). She was the exhibition organizer for Amateurs at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art in San Francisco (2008). Her curatorial projects focus on contemporary art with an emphasis on the investigation of place and social change. Grace has been at Laguna Art Museum since 2008 and most recently curated WoW: Emeregent Media Phenomenon.

Jacqueline Bunge, Education Curator
Jacqueline Bunge is Curator of Education at Laguna Art Museum and coordinates all programmed events for each exhibition. Jacqueline received her BA in Art History from ChapmanUniversity in 2003 and received her MA in Exhibition Design and Certificate inMuseum Studies from California State University, Fullerton in 2008. She was a guest curator of The OsCene 2006:Contemporary Art and Culture in OC at Laguna Art Museum and co-curated the exhibition Domestic Departures at the CSUF Main ArtGallery.

Ashley Eckenweiler, Guest Music Curator
Ashley is an independent consultant specializing in the programming and production of live music events. Prior to consulting, Ashley implemented the highly successful concert series "Orange Crush" where notable acts such as Sonic Youth, Matt Costa, Cold War Kids and Silversun Pickups performed. She then went on to independently program various live music events including Orange County Performing Art Center's 2008 "Off Center - Indie Bands" monthly concert series at Samueli Theater and gain title as Director of the annual event, OC Music Awards.

Keiko Beatie, Guest Film Curator
Keiko Beatie is an independent film curator and writer. Some of her current curatorial projects include Ombak Exhibition Bali, Wavescape Festival South Africa, Mostra International De Arte Cultura Surf Festival, and Laguna Beach Film Society.

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OsCene 2010 Visual Artists

>> Interested in sponsoring an OsCene 2010 visual artist?
Click here for more information!

Robert Allen and Antoinette LaFarge Stephanie Bachiero Barbara Berk Wolfgang  Bloch Cheeming Boey Sierra Brown Ryan Callis Kendell Carter Jennifer Celio Kyle Chew Cheryl Cotman Preston Daniels Diana Donaldson Cheryl Ekstrom Julie Easton Rebecca Erbstoesser

McLean Fahnestock Shannon Faseler Joe Forkan Jeff and Gordon Jocelyn Foye Suvan Geer Gina Genis Ed Gomez Darren Hostetter Jim Jenkins Virginia Katz Dameon Lester Robert Mah James Miller Brad Moore Nobuhito Nishigawara

Naida Osline Ya'el Pedroza Andrew Printer Robin Repp Molly Schulps Betsy Seder Jennifer Shaw Fran Siegel Ali Smith Noah Thomas Melissa Thomson Timothy Tompkins James Verbicky Suzanne Walsh Yasuko Jenny Yurshansky

OsCene 2010 Film and Video Artists

>> Click here for information about our film series screenings

Kevin Acevedo Adnan Ahmad Matt Brailey Raymond Cinemato Rachel Earnest Christina Fugate Rhianon Gutierrez Andrew Hellesen

Jeff Hornbaker Mark Jeremias David Jibladze Amy Kaczur Alborz Kamalizad Candace Jade Lewis Elliott Fuster Masters Alex Melli Suyen Mosley

Bryan Nest Victor Pakpour Malachi Rempen Austin Silvers Alex Sosin Nolan Wang Gordon Winiemko Carole Zava

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Sponsored by: 

       
  

Reception Sponsors:

  

 

Media Sponsors:

                 

Artist Sponsors:

Stephanie Bachiero
>> Sponsored by Rick Silver

Cheeming Boey
>> Sponsored by The Samia Family

Cheryl Ekstrom
>> Sponsored by the Arts Council

Nobuhito Nishigawara
>> Sponsored by Joni Rehnborg

Andrew Printer
>> Sponsored by Robert Hayden III

Fran Siegel
>> Sponsored by Fred Page/Grace Lane Gallery, Corona del Mar

Become an artist sponsor today!

The Upstairs Gallery will feature select works from Northern and Southern California artists included in the Museum's permanent collection. Laguna Art Museum's collection consists of works from the early nineteenth century to the present day and features significant examples from all periods of California art.

Artists in California represents art from the early twentieth century and includes artists William Wendt, Joseph Kleitsch, Matteo Sandonà, Charles Rollo Peters, Frank Cuprien, Granville Redmond, Donna Schuster, and Mabel Alvarez, among others. Alvarez's In the Garden is the most recent gift to the collection from Nancy Dustin Wall Moure.

This exhibition will be on display in the Upstairs Gallery during OsCene 2010: Contemporary Art and Culture in OC.

>> Click here for visitor information

The Young Artists Society Gallery presents Plaster Friezes of the OC by 3rd Grade Students from St. Mary's School in Aliso Viejo. This exhibition will take place during OsCene 2010: Contemporary Art and Culture in OC.

The Young Artists Society Gallery is a museum gallery space located on the lower level of the Museum that features exhibitions of K-12 works of art from Orange County Schools. Students in YASG exhibitions receive recognition and value for participating in artistic activities and are introduced to the inner-workings of the Museum. This program is a hands-on process that can include concepts of exhibition development, coordination, and installation. This program provides a direct connection between the artists, their families, and Laguna Art Museum.

>> Click here for visitor information