Russell Crotty Ojai — NOCTURNES: Refrains from the Backcountry

PORCH GALLERY | RUSSELL CROTTY
***310 East Matilija Street*** | June 9 – August 1

Crotty’s drawings and globes are singular episodic fragments of the natural world. They are a collection of seemingly small yet momentous moments: wanderings on abundant Los Padres trails; camping under star-strewn skies; scrambles amongst roughened boulders asking to be climbed; detours down the back roads of bucolic California ranch lands; or gazing at stars setting over jagged peaks as silhouettes of the ridges west of Ojai deepen at dusk. These experiences fill his mind with images and words that ponder an ever-growing concern for the uncertain future of the natural world, increasingly threatened by encroaching overdevelopment… an urgent desire arising to capture the landscape before it’s gone. How does the artist grapple with the reality of this degeneration yet hang on to the poetry of the moment?

Emily Thomas Ojai Artist Abstract Landscape — Landscapes

FARMER & THE COOK | EMILY THOMAS
***339 West El Roblar*** | RECEPTION: JUNE 10, 6 - 7:30 PM

Emily Thomas is an abstract painter based in Ojai focusing on landscape as a point of departure.

“Maine is where I grew up, and went to college in New Hampshire where I received a BFA in studio art, concentrating in printmaking and drawing. I love the printmaking process and continued to work with intaglio and lithography after I graduated. Eventually, finding a printmaking studio to work in became difficult, so I started painting more and it seemed to be a good transition from printmaking. Some of my work on paper is layered on existing prints, and I incorporate that whenever I can.

Most of my inspiration is from nature and color, especially the color of overcast mornings and how the light affects the clarity of detail, creating a blurred environment and vibrant tone.

Subconsciously absorbing colors of the coasts and mountains I run and backpack in, my work takes on an ethereal quality. Simplifying complex ideas, layering textures and colors while creating a minimal composition are of special interest to me. I believe what isn’t there is as defining as the elements that are present.”

Ojai Studio Artists Student Scholarship Show

OJAI VALLEY MUSEUM | GROUP SHOW

130 W. Ojai Avenue | May 28 - June 26 | Open Fri - Sun 10 AM - 4 PM

The Ojai Studio Artists has awarded $10,000 in scholarships to six talented high school and college students living in the Ojai Valley. The winning students were honored and presented with their awards at a special reception at The Ojai Valley Museum. Works are for sale to benefit the student artists.

Malia Barreras-Float, a sophomore at Ventura Community College age 19. The Marta Nelson Award

Maddie Brannan, a senior at Nordhoff High School age 18. The Gayel Childress Award

Krystal Lau, a senior at Villanova age 17.

Violet Ruby (pictured), a senior at Parson’s the New School age 17. The Beatrice Wood Award

Esmeralda Velasquez, a sophomore at Ventura Community College age 20

Grace Wynn, a senior at Oak Grove School age 17. The Horace Bristol Award

Taft 2022 Residency Show

TAFT GARDENS AND NATURE PRESERVE | JANE MULFINGER & STEPHANIE WASHBURN
***HWY 150*** | June 4, 5 pm to 8 pm | **SOLD OUT**

Jane Mulfinger paints images inspired by Taft Gardens and surrounding landscapes with words tucked into them. Each phrase is chosen from a collection of texts she extracted from literature and daily weather reports over time. She reveals temporal preoccupations — and awe — over a realm we cannot grasp in an attempt to describe something much more significant than ourselves. Expressions that are ostensibly about fleeting climate conditions reflect much more about human perceptions than the words and phrases matter of fact of factly state.

Stephanie Washburn explores a series of sky drawings and related hand-drawn animation. Washburn creates the atmospheric imagery through layers of additive and subtractive work in ground graphite. She then slices the drawings in various configurations, leaving the papers' structural integrity barely intact. The work activates a material awareness, an uneasy sense of both delicacy and physical violence, in relationship to the Romantic skyscape imagery.

A･BOD･E

ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION OF SANTA BARBARA | CARA LASELL BONEWITZ
***229 East Victoria Street*** | May 13 – June 25

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara presents A･BOD･E, a solo exhibition of recent paintings and sculptures by Ojai-based artist Cara Lasell Bonewitz.

The word “abode” most commonly raises ideas of a place of residence, a home, a locus of consistency, but the definitions that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers also relate to that which is impermanent: a sojourn, a temporary stay, a wait, or delay.

The definitions of “body,” meanwhile, extend well beyond the most familiar of “the main part of a plant or animal” to include that which “embodies or gives concrete reality to a thing.”

A･BOD･E presents a collection of recent paintings and sculptures alongside selections from Bonewitz’s earlier work. The newer paintings depict spaces Bonewitz once inhabited and exist between the visual language of still-lifes and interiors. They present specific personal belongings, remnants of interrupted moments, and mundane debris from daily life.

Alongside these paintings, Bonewitz offers abstract paper-maché sculptures that hover between the vague and the precise. In each sculpture, she makes visible many associations, such as: the architectural details of the exhibition space, the mementos featured in the accompanying paintings, and even Bonewitz’s body. Slowly crafted by building thin layers of paper-maché and plaster, the sculptures evoke a sense of consistent, obsessive physical contact that transmutes a familiar material into the unrecognizable. The objects offer themselves as reimagined artifacts, fossils, and tokens of a human presence.

Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Ojai — Fragile / Fiber

CAROLYN GLASOE BAILEY FOUNDATION | GROUP SHOW
***248 South Montgomery Street*** | May 20 - July 31

Fragile / Fiber is a group exhibition exploring contradiction and materiality, funds raised will benefit the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation and the Artists.

Participating Artists Include:

Mark Churchill
Sally England
Porfirio Gutiérrez
Elizabeth Herring
Jmy James Kidd
P.Lyn
Shana Mabari
Tara Jane O’Neil
Rosha Yaghmai

canvas and paper ojai — Ivon Hitchens

CANVAS AND PAPER | THREE WORKS
***311 N. Montgomery Street*** | May 19 – July 17

Above:

Red, Black and White Tulips, 1968
Oil on canvas 18" x 41½”
© 2022 artists rights society (ars)
New York / Dacs, London

71%: Honoring Vital Waters

CHANNEL ISLANDS MARITIME MUSEUM | MARY NEVILLE & SHANNON CELIA
***3900 Bluefin Circle, Oxnard*** | May 10 - August 22

Both Celia and Neville delve into the beauty of our world's waters through figurative expressionism and colorful abstraction, including oceans, freshwater lakes, rivers, swamps, glaciers, and ice caps. 71% examines the maritime history and present‐day ecology, exploring how marine factors shape our culture, food, art, and recreation. From the dreamlike salt flats of Badwater Basin to the dark depths of the Mariana Trench, come and witness how the beauty of our waters shapes our experience on Earth.

Matters of Gravity

MALOOF DISCOVERY GARDEN | TANYA KOVALESKI & MARTHA MORAN
***5131 Carnelian Street, Rancho Cucamonga*** | June 5, 2021 – May 31, 2022

From Maloof Foundation:

Matters of Gravity presents the work of two Ojai sculptors grappling with gravity in very distinct ways.

Tanya Kovaleski’s dynamically engineered wooden structures arch skyward in gravity-defying angles and curves, all painted in bold colors.

Martha Moran’s rock stacks deal with mass and balance, rooted to the earth. Her Buddha Beach Maloof installation is an array of small rock stacks, inspired by Buddha Beach in Sedona, Arizona, a vortex spot filled with thousands of stacks.

Photos by Deborah Lyon for Ojai Studio Artists.

BYOB

OJAI VALLEY MUSEUM | GROUP SHOW
***130 W. Ojai Avenue*** | July 15, 5 - 7 PM (ish)

FREE at Ojai Valley Museum on THIRD FRIDAY

BYOB (Bring your own Beamer aka Projector) to 3rd Friday. BYOB is an event originally created by Rafael Rozendaal. Here is a website that explains it all: http://www.byobworldwide.com/

This is an Open Call for artists with projectors to show their work (images only, no sound).

What you need to bring: your projector, extension cord, computer or whatever you will show your work from.