"In Our Midst: Work by Susan Beiner, Richard Johnston, and Don Woodford"
2001-04-11 until 2001-05-19
San Bernardino County Museum, Fisk Gallery
Redlands, CA, USA United States of America

The art work of Susan Beiner, Richard Johnston, and Don Woodford will be showcased in an exhibit called In Our Midst at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. Beiner, Johnston, and Woodford are faculty artists of California State University, San Bernardino.

Susan Beiner, a ceramics artist who lives in Colton, California, earned her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Michigan School of Art. She presently chairs the ceramic department at CSUSB. I take everyday objects and push them to their limit, she states, using a riotous, built-up surface decoration. In doing this, I impart a ceremonial, celebratory quality to the work, taking cups and teapots from the ordinary to the fantastic. Her work has been shown in exhibitions throughout the United States and she was a recent participant in the Color and Defining Moments in Studio Ceramics exhibits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Richard Johnston, also a resident of Colton, is Professor of Art at CSUSB and former director of the Robert Fullerton Art Museum. He graduated in Studio Art from CSU Long Beach and gained an MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art. He was previously on the faculty at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and was director of the Salt Lake Art Center. His sculpture has been exhibited in over 100 exhibitions and since 1975 he was worked extensively in the public art arena. The internationally-known scuptor has executed public art projects from Washington D.C. to Hiroshima, Japan. The tools and techniques are fundamental to the process. The object that is produced becomes only a record of that process and the real importance is the effect that the process has had on me, Johnston explains. I have an irresistible urge to make things.

Born in Kansas City, Kansas, Don Woodford now lives in San Bernardino and holds a professorship in art at CSUSB teaching painting and drawing. My newest paintings are about accumulation and abundance, states Woodford. They are about organization and storage, growth and decay, the color of ripe fruit and the atmosphere of twilight. They are about seed pods and constellations and fireflies in a jar. This long-time faculty member, a well-established painter and collage artist, travels frequently and extensively in Europe. He earned his BA at Cornel College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, his MA at Illinois State University, and his MFA from the University of Wisconsin.

In Our Midst: Faculty Artists of California State University, San Bernardino is curated by Marilyn Prescott. Prescott is an artist, writer and curator living and working in Orange County. Long known as an outspoken proponent of accessible art programming, she has been active in curating shows geared toward educating a general public in what to look for in contemporary art. Streamlined art history lessons, easily understood wall text, and a taste for beautifully-executed two and three dimensional artwork are hallmarks of her exhibits

IMAGE:
Susan Beiner,
Victorian Punch Bowl
Ceramic

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of California

Other Important Exhibitions in California