Established in 1940, Laguna Art Museum’s (then known as the Laguna Beach Art Association) collection was initially shaped by donations of artworks by the artists who had flocked to Laguna Beach at the turn of the 20^th Century. By the 1970s, the Art Association evolved into a museum, attracting significant donations from collectors as the museum’s mission focused on California art.

Judith Vida-Spence and Stuart Spence took interest in Laguna Art Museum, and together became benefactors of cutting-edge Southern California art for decades as well as Laguna Art Museum trustees. For more than thirty years, the Spences formed personal relationships with the contemporary art they lived with in their home in Los Angeles while also lending pieces to exhibitions and making significant donations to art museums—most notably LAM.

Judy and Stuart Spence’s history of giving to Laguna Art Museum now constitutes a significant 119 artworks by California artists and has become an important part of the museum’s collection. These gifts span California Conceptualism, West Coast Pop and Los Angeles’s Lowbrow art movement with works from the 1970s to the present.

This exhibition has been made possible through the generosity of the Joan B. Rehnborg Exhibition Fund.

Kim Abeles, Deborah Aschheim, John Baldessari, Annette Bird, Sandow Birk, Chaz Bojorquez, John Boskovich, Laurie Brown, Jo Ann Callis, Barbara Carrasco, Lynn Coleman, Russell Crotty, David French, Gomez Bueno, Mark Heresy, Gifford Myers, Theresa Pendelbury, Raymond Pettibon, Elizabeth Pulsinelli, Allen Ruppersberb, Jaime Scholnick, Jim Shaw, Rena Small, Corey Stein, Sarah Tamor, Jeffrey Vallance, Chris Wilder, Suzanne Williams and Bruce Yonemoto.

Read the Exhibition Press Release here.