On opening weekend, artist Fred Tomaselli will discuss his work, including his unique approach to creating collage-based resin paintings and his engagement with topics such as global warming, the impact of the pandemic, and today’s most pressing social issues. Although he has lived and worked in New York since 1985, Tomaselli’s artistic sensibilities were formed during his early years growing up and attending art school in Southern California. Influenced by the fantasy culture and natural beauty of the coastal environment, these are among the themes that are prominently reflected in his artworks.

The artist will discuss his work in an illustrated lecture, followed by a conversation with guest curator Rochelle Steiner.

Fred Tomaselli: Second Nature is organized by Laguna Art Museum and guest curated by Rochelle Steiner. Major support for the exhibition provided by Elie Weaver and Hilton Weinberg; generous support provided by The Offield Family Foundation. Generous support for the publication provided by James Cohan, New York.

Advance tickets recommended.

Museum members: $12

Non-members: $18

Fred Tomaselli was born in California (Santa Monica, 1956), and has lived in Brooklyn since 1985. Solo exhibitions include Fred Tomaselli at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha (2019); After California at the Oceanside Museum of Art (2018); Keep Looking: Fred Tomaselli’s Birds at the Toledo Museum of Art (2016); Focus at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2014); The Times at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor (2014) and the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California (2015); Monsters of Paradise at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh (2004); New Paintings at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo (2003); and Gravity’s Rainbow at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris (1999). The survey exhibition Fred Tomaselli opened at Aspen Art Museum in 2009 and toured to the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery in Sarasota Springs, New York, and the Brooklyn Museum in 2010.

Tomaselli has participated in international exhibitions—including the Biennale of Sydney (2010), Prospect.1 New Orleans (2008), the fifth SITE Santa Fe, and the Whitney Biennial (both 2004)—and his works are in the collections of museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

Rochelle Steiner is a Los Angeles–based curator, writer, and educator, and serves as curatorial fellow for Laguna Art Museum. Previously, she was chief curator and director of public programs and education at Palm Springs Art Museum; associate director and chief curator at Vancouver Art Gallery; director of the Public Art Fund, New York; chief curator at the Serpentine Gallery, London; and associate curator of contemporary art, Saint Louis Art Museum. She has curated monographic exhibitions of the works of Glenn Brown, John Currin, Jay DeFeo, Lari Pittman, Gabriel Orozco, Elizabeth Peyton, Cindy Sherman, Gary Simmons, Monika Sosnowska, Rirkrit Tiravanija, as well as forthcoming exhibitions on Carole Caroompas. Her recent publications include Sarah Charlesworth (DelMonico•Prestel, 2017) and Do Ho Suh Drawings (DelMonico•Prestel, 2014).