"The Next Wave: New Painting in Southern California"
2000-06-04 until 2000-09-10
California Center for the Arts
Escondido, CA, USA United States of America

The Next Wave presents the work of 20 Southern California artists who are redefining and expanding the medium of painting. They are called SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ARTISTS because they live and work within the coastal corridor that spans Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego, but like many residents of this area, they originate from disparate parts of the country and the world.

The Next Wave includes approximately 70 works that havebeen created within the past few years, a number of them especially for this exhibition. This survey aims to illuminate a diverse range of aesthetic and thematic concerns in contemporary painting in this region; it does not, however, attempt to define a regional style or movement. And while some of the works included make reference to aspects of the landscape and history that are peculiar to Southern California, a far greater number of works deal with issues that relate the practice of painting to a larger contemporary culture.

Many of these artists evoke past styles and genres, from traditional still life, landscape, history painting, and portaiture to modernist abstraction, colorfield painting, conceptual and installation art. What unifies the broad spectrum of artistic concerns represented here is a critical interest in exploring the possibilities of painting from the vantage point of the present moment - one that takes into account ongoing debates about representation as well as new ways of thinking about visual culture in our fast-paced society.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Los Angeles-based photographic artist Judi Russell will present specially commissioned portraits of each of the participating artists, which will be shown along with statements about their work.

IMAGE:
Stephen P. Curry
Then and Again, 1998.
Oil on canvas,
60 X 72 inches.
Collection of Mark Andrus.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of California

Other Important Exhibitions in California