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Los Angeles, CA – Dave Pressler, the most prolific “robot artist” in the world, is exhibiting a full retrospective of his 20+ year career at Lancaster’s Museum of Art History (MOAH), from August 4 to September 30, 2018. The opening reception will be Saturday, August 4, 2018 from 4pm – 6pm. The self-described “Blue Collar Artist” has been working for over two decades in every medium, including drawing, painting, sculpting, character design, stop-motion animation, animatronics, and even co-creating the Emmy-nominated Nickelodeon show “Robot And Monster.” Titled “Idea to Object,” the exhibit will map out the narrative of Pressler’s career, divided into sections focusing on each different medium he’s worked in and how he made his ideas a reality. “I don’t look at this exhibit as just a retrospective on all the work I’ve done,” says Pressler. “What I really want it to do is de-mystify the creative process and demonstrate to people that art is just doing the work to take the ideas in your head and bring them into the physical world. There is a way for you to create them for a living.” “Pressler’s work appeals to audiences of all ages,” says Andi Campognone, Director of MOAH. “His work is a great example of the combination of strong contemporary concepts and expert craft, and we are so excited to exhibit his work for both the Lancaster and Greater LA communities.” “Idea to Object” will be on view from August 4 to September 30, 2018, with an opening reception on Saturday, August 4 from 4pm – 6pm. The Lancaster Museum of Art History is located at 665 W. Lancaster Blvd., Lancaster, CA 93534. MUSEUM OF ART HISTORY LANCASTER presents DAVE PRESSLER “IDEA TO OBJECT” CAREER RETROSPECTIVE OPENING RECEPTION Saturday, August 4, 2018 | 4pm – 6pm ON VIEW August 4, 2018 – September 30, 2018 MUSEUM OF ART HISTORY LANCASTER 665 W. Lancaster Blvd., Lancaster, CA 93534 About Dave Pressler Dave Pressler, the “blue collar artist,” is an Emmy nominated television producer, character designer, animator, illustrator, sculptor and painter, all skills he combines to make him one of the most prolific (and foremost) “robot artists” in the world. Over the past 20 years he has designed characters and IPs for a variety of kids entertainment companies, as well as co-created the Emmy-nominated Robot and Monster for Nickelodeon, and the stop-motion animated series How to Do Everything With Garrick and Marvin for DreamWorksTV. All the while, he’s been making designer toys, sculptures and paintings that have sold in galleries all over the globe. Most recently he has added book illustration to the list of achievements. Dave is based out of his studio in Los Angeles, where he is committed to making at least one robot a day. www.DavePresslerArt.com @davepressler

Robert Benitez (MOAH) and Suzy Silvestre (LPAC) completed the 9 month fellowship in Cultural Policy through the Arts for LA ACTIVATE Program. They graduated last night at a ceremony at the California African American Museum (in Exposition Park) sponsored by Boeing, Department of Cultural Affairs City of Los Angeles, Hewlett Foundation, ArtsEd Collective, Rosenthal Family Foundation and the Lewis L. Borick Foundation. This fellowship designed for emerging leaders was highly competitive with over 250 nominees of which 72 were chosen. We are so proud of Robert and Suzy for their Bridging the Arts Initiative – implemented here in Lancaster connecting performing artists and visual artists together for the benefit of young AV students. The first Bridging the Arts program included a talk between Black Violin and MLK activist photographer Wyatt Kenneth Coleman that was attended by over 50 guests the majority of them students from AV High School – after the talk the students were given comped tickets to the Black Violin performance at LPAC.

Saturday, May 12, 2018 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm Lancaster Museum of Arts and History 665 W Lancaster Blvd, Lancaster, California 93534, Lancaster CA 93534 In Town — Los Angeles and environs “High & Dry: Land Artifacts,” an exhibition comprising work by writer/historian Christopher Langley and photographer Osceola Refetoff, opens at MOAH on Saturday, May 12 with a reception from 4-6PM. The cross-platform show is part of a long-term collaboration between Langley and Refetoff that explores the realities and myths of the California desert and the people who live there. Refetoff’s infrared photography and Langley’s thoughtful text focus on both the remnants and destiny of these vast, open spaces – arid terrain that historically has been used for resource extraction, toxic dumping, and military-industrial exercises. Now, this dramatic topography faces a future dominated by immense wind and solar farms, and the complicated dynamics of critical resource allocation. The show runs through July 15. Through “High & Dry: Land Artifacts,” Langley and Refetoff seek to raise awareness about the changing utilization of the desert through engaging visual and literary storytelling, presenting the land itself as a principal character. The exhibition examines the things we’ve left behind and what they reveal about our civilization – as well as the legacy to come, to be written by the emergent energy-harvesting industry whose remains will undoubtedly include an abundance of huge turbines and photovoltaic cells. The artists’ hope is that their work will be part of a meaningful conversation regarding the choices being made in the land rush to install wind and solar arrays – and that those involved will consider development in the context of best serving the desert environment and its inhabitants. Their collaboration grew out of inspiration from legendary 20th century partnerships between writers and photographers commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Farm Security Administration (FSA), including the work of Walker Evans with James Agee, and Dorothea Lange with Paul Taylor. In the spirit of those legendary projects, “High & Dry: Land Artifacts” seeks a balance of words and images, supporting each other via different perspectives – social, economic, geographical, and historical. Throughout his work, Los Angeles-based photographer Osceola Refetoff’s interest is in documenting humanity’s impact on the world – the intersection of nature and industry, and the narratives of the people living at those crossroads. He chose to record images for “High & Dry: Land Artifacts” through infrared exposures because of the medium’s aesthetic quality, and its ability to capture dramatic landscapes in “bad” midday light. The raw intensity of the desert’s vastness, and the graphic relationship between land and sky are accentuated. “It’s another kind of light, one we can’t actually see with our own eyes,” says Refetoff, “yet an accurate representation of the world, just through a different wavelength.” Christopher Langley is a life-long educator who has lived in and studied the Mojave Desert for more than 45 years. He and his wife, who met in the Peace Corps, wanted to raise a family, in a “severely rural” location outside the stream of everyday life; they love the desert and positively contributing to its evolution. Working as a film historian, founder of the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine, and Inyo County Film Commissioner, he focuses on the desert’s complex relationship with cinema, and how land plays an essential role in the story of our lives. Co-founder of the Alabama Hills Stewardship Group, Langley’s environmental advocacy has won the National Conservation Cooperation Award. His writing is widely syndicated and includes three books on California’s arid landscape. Langley and Refetoff have collaborated since 2013 on High & Dry, which is a regular feature on KCET’s Emmy-winning program Artbound. “High & Dry: Land Artifacts” will be the first art exhibit to incorporate elements from MOAH’s permanent collection of historical artifacts. The artists encourage visitors to bring a single item – something non-toxic – that they would like to leave behind for future generations in a time capsule to be created in conjunction with this exhibit. Pictured: “Resting Place, Abandoned Kaiser Plant,” by Osceola Refetoff http://www.desertdispatches.com/ https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/projects/high-dry http://www.ospix.com/

High & Dry surveys the legacy of human enterprise in the California desert. Together, writer/historian Christopher Langley and photographer Osceola Refetoff document human activity, past and present, in the context of future development. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, A poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more…. – Macbeth (c. 1605), Act V, Scene 5, Line 23, Shakespeare We are all going to die — every last one of us. We leave everything behind as a kind of tally of how we lived. We leave our children, our thoughts, our possessions, our garbage, our beliefs and especially our bodies: the blood, gristle and bone Three Crosses - Infrared Exposure - Rosamond, CA - 2013 | Osceola Refetoff We leave everything we had, made, earned or stole behind. If judging is called for, we are judged by what we leave behind. We will never know just what that is for we will be gone. If there is awareness after we die, our attention will be on where we are going, not where we have been. Those before us: individuals, families, communities, tribes, states, nations and even empires have also left everything behind. Then the question while we are still alive is what can we learn from what has been left behind from before us? Nowhere are these instructive legacies and endowments more exposed than in the California deserts. Pioneer Cemetery - Infrared Exposure - Lone Pine, CA - 2013 | Osceola Refetoff Our lives are short. When compared to the landscape around us — the mountains, rivers, rocks, sand, volcanoes and earth fault disruptions — we are the proverbial mayfly. Given the brevity of our mortality, we swell with pride or shutter from embarrassment about what we have done to our home. The global impact of our human endeavors has been given a name: the Anthropocene. This dispatch and video accompany our exhibition “High & Dry: Land Artifacts” at the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster, California. The exhibit explores the meaning of things we leave behind in the desert and what they tell us about who we are as a culture. Incorporating many of these infrared photographs with historical objects from the museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition opens May 12, 4-6pm and runs through July 15. Visitors are encouraged to bring a single, meaningful item to leave in a time capsule for future generations. Examples of artifacts in the desert are the soda ash plants that formed an industrial necklace around Owens Dry Lake in Inyo County, California, now a gigantic reclamation and dust mitigation project undertaken by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). From a ruin perspective, the former Kaiser plant is perhaps the most fascinating. Owens Lake was once the largest single source of particulate pollution in the U.S. Windblown Sand - Infrared Exposure - Highway 136 North of Keeler CA - 2013 | Osceola Refetoff From a distance, the Kaiser Soda Ash ruin is diminutive. Its angular and geometric silhouette entices the inquisitive vision of the attentive traveler speeding by on Highway 395. At high speeds, seeing the turnoff is tricky. When you come up to the ruin, the stillness of the concrete forms, varied in size, shape and unknown in purpose, beguile the imagination. The setting spreads out to the east in a gaping vista. The playa of the dry Owens Lake, not far from Cartago, California, dances and shimmers in the heat, its mineral crust of trona effervescent like diamonds in the refracting desert light. Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns - Infrared Exposure - Owens Lake, CA - 2013 | Osceola Refetoff The Kaiser soda ash factory remains enthralling because the workers were inexplicably drawn away before the structure was fully demolished. The ruin has eight rhomboid concrete prisms in two rows of four each. Two of these forms are molded together, poured separately but abutted. They have buttresses, which support the last two prisms, for unknown reasons. Holes pierce these prisms for either steel or wood supports or pipe connections. There are four cement frames filled with broken bricks marked by mortar. To the north are what appear to be giant pedestals — geometric mushrooms with square, thick caps and substantial stems. Some are upright as intended. Others have fallen on their side and can’t get up. Octagonal holes are cut into solid walls. Everywhere rebar rest like twisted bones once coupled to the machinery now long gone. Resting Place - Abandoned Kaiser Plant - Owens Lake, CA - 2016 | Osceola Refetoff Is Kaiser more a ruin or a wasteland? We celebrate ruins and denigrate wastelands. I would argue that wastelands are the denigrated ruins of modernity. With horror or despair, we stare at the wasteland, matching within us our loss of hope, faith and love. The wasteland mocks and reflects the futility of our failed cultural, social, and economic endeavors. Today, we watch as disintegrating trailers and transitory dwellings inevitably make way for massive solar utilities, themselves undoubtedly becoming ruins in turn as our energy economy evolves. I kneel before an automobile grill of a totally imploded, rusted car that now grins like a lipless death's head at the Kaiser ruin. The teeth are metal, sunk into the jaws. They are long, sickly yet arrogant. It is a Cubist Picasso sculpture of a head. Can a photograph conjure meaning from the wastelands, the mines, the dead factories and the weathered crosses all drained of vitality by the cruelty of life in the desert? Mountain Shack Above Owens Lake - Infrared Exposure - Cerro Gordo, CA - 2014 | Osceola Refetoff Besides our feelings of wasted resources in these wasteland landscapes, an additional source of anxiety is the sense of decay of our cultural heritage. The landscape evolves from ruins that show cultural balance and continuity to rust that announces waste and disillusion. Any aware person is worrying about the limited future of natural resources, the expansion of pollution and the instability of social and political structures. As with car wrecks we drive by on the freeway, it is difficult to avert our eyes from the wasteland. We are irresistibly drawn there, our staring eyes at least. There is a macabre beauty that sings to our soul of our true situation. So, it is with the wasteland. It is about hope and the loss of hope. We fear we are in decline. It is a personal and a collective fear. In the desert things are left behind to tell the story of change, impermanent success and the total failure of human enterprise. Crews began the takedown of the superstructure but gave up at the cement forms, rectangular prisms, pyramids and blocks with pre-made apertures. Exactly why they stopped could have been the difficulty of dealing with so much cement, or because the salvage of materials was of little or no value. Our Churches (Sierra Wave) - Infrared Exposure - Trona, CA - 2011 | Osceola Refetoff I sit in the ruin until nightfall. The yellow golden light rusts to red, and then slowly fades to dark beige as the Milky Way appears, growing stronger in the darkening sky. The stars wink and twinkle. It is very peaceful. Looking from these ruins, I see the strange beauty of this opalescent yet desolate landscape that has been savaged because it harbored minerals, water and game. We have been an animal that sacrificed our homeland for what we wanted or what we thought we had to have. We use and plunder the earth without much thought to the repercussions. Yet now we want to restore the damaged landscape, forced by laws, public opinion and the wavering intention to do what’s right as long as it doesn’t unduly erode the bottom line. Kaiser has set the scene. Now we move on to memorials. The desert is dotted with plaques commemorating events and famous or infamous folks. Although I would argue today we are drawn to forgetting, there is still some allegiance to history, especially if it is odd or unusual. Leaving Trona - Infrared Exposure - CA Highway 178 - 2011 | Osceola Refetoff As you near Trona, a once vibrant mining town, there is a memorial plaque celebrating the brave souls who ventured out of Death Valley looking for water in Searles Lake. The water is so brackish as to be undrinkable. For one of the groups traveling to the gold fields, it is a kind of Donner Party in the desert: no snow, no cannibalism, but significant death. The memorial states: NO. 443 VALLEY WELLS - In this area, several groups of midwestern emigrants who had escaped from hazards and privations in Death Valley in 1849 sought to secure water from Searles Lake. They turned northward and westward in despair when they discovered its salty nature, and with great difficulty crossed the Argus and other mountains to reach settlements of Central and Southern California. Searles Valley Minerals Plant - Infrared Exposure - Trona, CA - 2010 | Osceola Refetoff In those days, the deserts were a terrible place that had to be endured. Now they are seen as harsh but beautiful, rich in resources and not just made for toxic chemical dumping and nuclear testing. But as the plaque commemorates, the desert can be bitter. It defeats through economic and social factors towns such as Trona, once a thriving settlement extracting valuable minerals from the saline waters. While some of the remaining residents don’t see Trona as dying, many more have relocated. Nearby Ridgecrest is a prime area with most of the amenities modern life affords. In Trona, a desert wasteland is invading and will eventually swallow up the town, if not the mining operations. Abandoned, now burned out residences stand as warnings that economics is one of the biggest challenges in the deserts. Fiscal concerns are greater than natural forces. Budgetary acumen is as important, more important, than proper clothing, housing, food and water. We learn that from the wastelands and memorials, as well as the ruins. Remains of the Minecart Trestle - Infrared Exposure - Cerro Gordo, CA - 2012 | Osceola Refetoff The mining industry has left many kinds of bones and industrial structures, some old and useless, others still working. A complex of pulleys, conveyor belts and machinery at the Red Hill cinder mine reminds me of an alien parasite sucking at the earth. Up at Cerro Gordo silver camp in the Owens Valley, a mining structure becomes a giant praying mantis. The huge factory at Trona reminds me of a ragtag town devoted to processing soda ash from the lake brine. Carrying borax out of Trona, a train curves out towards the desert horizon. Infrastructures are laid bare in arid lands. A cylindrical water tank holding the small town of Lone Pine’s water contrasts with the rounded foothills of the surrounding mountains. Of course, water is usually the number one topic in these areas. The big city to the south long ago absconded with the valley's water to quench its thirsty hordes. Silos now scar the landscape, agricultural tombstones marking the dead farms. Abandoned PPG Plant - Infrared Exposure - Bartlett, CA - 2012 | Osceola Refetoff Still, there are many signs of faith that residents rely on to get through the dark desert nights. A sign in Trona says “Prayer Changes Things,” just as the modern angular Catholic church seems to await the faithful’s return. Three crosses near Highway 14 in Rosamond proclaim someone’s theological idea, perhaps of the Trinity. Near the Salton Sea, a dead tree is festooned with giant stick nests of lesser egrets and other marsh birds that land, breed and migrate on, reminding us that nature can still prevail. The arid lands of California are littered with personal artifacts from pioneers, developers, businessmen and tourists. It may start as abandoned garbage or structures, but given fifty years, it can become a protected artifact. Cans and bottles are a collector’s treasure and their market and trade are easy to find on eBay. Also left behind to become artifacts and gain a new kind of repurposed value are tools for mining, ranching and building. These artifacts tell stories, have a rusted yet bemusing lost purpose and a distinct rustic beauty. They are now collectibles. St. Madeleine Catholic Church - Infrared Exposure - Trona, CA - 2010 | Osceola Refetoff Often groups of people are known through archeological analysis of dumps and abandoned work areas, understood primarily by the refuse thrown out. The Tropico Gold Mine outside of Rosamond, California has one of the biggest time capsules around. It was purposely assembled and sealed in one of the mine’s tunnels. However, the sign on the metal door was stolen. It is to be opened in a thousand years. It is not uncommon to see areas of the desert littered with broken glass, rusted tin cans, garbage, refuse and trash. Those are some of the names for abandoned material that is deemed to have little or no value. Piles of household objects are left abandoned, particularly useless, scarred, vandalized and discarded furniture that no one would give household room. Particularly common are broken and ravaged recliners, sofas and over-stuffed chairs. They sit in the desert decaying as if waiting for someone to come, pause, sit and watch the desert fill with light, or be concealed in the growing darkness of sunset. But the chairs wait for no one, for that’s who is coming. Every great society or empire has left behind a network of roads. In time, however, the roads lead to places no longer populated or profitable. Even the best-laid routes will eventually succumb to the dust. Serpentine Boxcars - Infrared Exposure - Searles, CA - 2010 | Osceola Refetoff Edward Humes, a Pulitzer-prize winning author, gives us lots of facts about our world in his book “Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash.” He reports that in a year we throw out collectively 390 million tons of rubbish, or “municipal solid waste.” Statistics abound, and they are scary. Many persons carelessly or purposefully dispose of garbage because the desert is seen as a vast, useless dumping ground. Much of our project work to prove otherwise. Hume’s comments, “Landfills are usually thought of, when they are thought of at all, as out-of-the-way places. Nobody really wants to think about what they contain… The material that seeps out of (them), a noxious brew called ‘leachate,’ is so toxic that it has to be contained by multiple clay, plastic and concrete barriers.” The good news is significant strides are being made from various quarters to address what these brief facts threaten. Just one example in the desert is the giant waste “mountain” called the Lancaster Landfill and Recycling Center. Lancaster is striving to be a “net zero” city with energy saving, green energy production, organized recycling, education and cutting-edge strategies for dealing with garbage. More and more cities across our land are following suit. Meanwhile, the mountain of trash remains the highest land feature in the area. Small House with No Doors - Infrared Exposure - Argus, CA - 2015 | Osceola Refetoff Continuing research and education on buying less, limiting packaging and eliminating food waste can greatly reduce garbage production by individuals and their families. But carelessness, ignorance and greed in our consumer society push back. Next to the issue of “garbology” are destroyed landscapes due to waste products from various military/industrial processes. Often ignorance and budgetary needs are responsible. Slowly, ways to clean the desert areas are being found through human ingenuity. The cleanup is expensive, and many companies have not made proper funding preparations to fix the damage they have caused. Solar plants will need to be torn down or totally rebuilt. These costs need to be built in as construction begins. Many county administrations just see the positives of development and fail to take in the eventual costs of deactivation, reconstruction or dealing with toxic landscapes. Water Tank - Infrared Exposure - Lone Pine, CA - 2013 | Osceola Refetoff One example of the good news is the cleanup of the Whittaker-Bermite Gunpowder Company, a location in the center of Santa Clarita, California. Through the years, this private company developed military armaments as well as fireworks, not realizing until too late the poisoning aspect of dumping perchlorate waste products in the canyons. The pollutant worked its way into the groundwater, ruining the wells in the center of this growing desert city. Scientists developed practical ways of cleaning the soil using anaerobic (non-oxygen dependent) bacteria to break down perchlorate in sealed cells activated by sunlight. Ultimately chlorine gas is left to almost harmlessly dissipate into the air, leaving the soil not in a pristine state, but to a quality commensurate with future intended uses for the land. Lone Tree & Posts - Infrared Exposure - Cinco, CA - 2012 | Osceola Refetoff Studying what we leave behind in our desert areas of California reveal many negative consequences, but life there is not without hope. We see by looking at ruins, memorials, wastelands, garbage, personal artifacts and restored landscapes that what we leave behind while discouraging, also challenges humans to rise to their very best natures and develop solutions for previous destruction. The biggest impediment then is greed, expense and the lack of will to address the challenges in today’s deserts. All of this calls forth individual responsibility. For in the end, it is the single person whether working alone or together in groups that have the final duty of learning from what we leave behind and acting accordingly. The California desert remains at the forefront of the ecological challenges that face our country and the world. With the de-watering of California’s Salton Sea, we confront an immense dying ecosystem that threatens the health and livelihood of the Los Angeles area and beyond. While a roadmap for its rehabilitation has yet to come into focus, sites like Whittaker-Bermite and Owens Lake offer a glimmer of hope and suggest a path towards redressing the mistakes of past. The land, we are told, is on loan to us by our grandchildren. Today, we are creating its future for generations to come. Our children’s children will read of our success or failure in the traces we leave behind in the sand.

On May 12th from 4pm to 6pm writer/historian Christopher Langley and photographer Osceola Refetoff will be having an opening reception at MOAH (Lancaster Museum of Art and History) for their exhibition “High & Dry: Land Artifacts.” This is part of a long-term collaboration between Langley and Refetoff who have been collaborating on High & Dry since 2013 and their work regularly appears on KCET’s Emmy-winning Artbound. Their partnership has birthed a book and this exhibit using Langley’s historically influenced writing contextualizing Refetoff’s dramatical infrared black and white images. Their collaborative efforts offer both historical and personal perspective. Refetoff put it this way, “From the beginning of human time we have been leaving things in the desert. Those things, when you look at them, tells you about the people who lived there before.” The idea of documenting human activities through these remaining artifacts to what appears to be pristine environment is telling. These remains littering these arid lands speaks volumes of people hopes, aspirations, losses and failures. It is the natural extension of the human spirit and mind to speculate and to wonder why it happened or what went wrong? These artifacts captured in Refetoff’s black and white images are the ghost and bones of human habitation: of failed lifestyle experiments or doomed enterprises. Langley and Refetoff attempt to offer written resolutions to these remains and photographic evidence we all can relate to in this exhibition of High & Dry. One of the goals of “High & Dry: Land Artifacts” is to raise awareness about what we leave behind in the desert and the kind of legacy we want to leave to future generations. Energy harvesting has been wholeheartedly embraced in the Mojave Desert, but what will become of these turbines and solar farms? What is the environmental impact of leaving these things behind? Langley and Refetoff are hopeful that their work will be part of a meaningful dialog on how and where wind turbines and solar arrays will be used in a sustainably responsible way, saving the desert environment, and not to have them become abandoned relics as part of lingering detritus littering the desert floor. In my discussion with Refetoff, I discovered he has a cinematic background graduating from NYU and in keeping with that theme he referenced 3 important influences on his photographic work. In regards to visual arts and composition in black and white, he looks to Orson Welles, Fritz Lang and Jean-Pierre Melville composition and content. In each of his photos, Refetoff wants to conjure up an idea or is some way to tell a story. These black and white images of his set on a matte finish, which are rich and painterly to the eye. These images are both impressions and documents, imagination and the tangible remains of human visitations and moving arid vistas. Langley has been an educator for the majority of his life. He has lived in and studied the Mojave Desert for over 45 years. His work as a film historian, founder of the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine, and Inyo County Film Commissioner focuses on the desert’s complex relationship with cinema, and how land plays a primary role in the story of our lives. Langley’s environmental advocacy has won the National Conservation Cooperation Award. His writing is widely syndicated. He has written three books on California’s arid landscapes. Langley and Refetoff mutual interest in cinema make for a nice pairing with an eye to making the most of both words and images. Both see themselves collaborating in a similar manner like other 20th century partnerships of writers and photographers: referencing, Walker Evans with James Agee and Dorothea Lange with Paul Taylor, who was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Roosevelt administration. “High & Dry: Land Artifacts” will be the first art exhibit to incorporate elements from MOAH’s permanent collection of historical artifacts. Langley and Refetoff encourage visitors to bring a single item, something non-toxic, that they would like to leave behind for future generations in a time capsule to be created in part of this exhibit. “High & Dry: Land Artifacts” books and photographs will be available to peruse and purchase. Top Image: Infrared Exposure – First printed: 2018

Land Artifacts – Solo Show – Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Lancaster, CA – 2018 Exhibition: “Hight & Dry: Land Artifacts” May 12 – July 15, 2018 Opening Reception: May 12th 4-6pm Artists Talk Sunday, June 3 1pm Address: Lancaster Museum of Art (MOAH) 665 W. Lancaster Blvd, Lancaster. MOAH is about an hour away from DTLA for those interested in an adventure and an experience. Infrared Exposure – First printed: 2018

Land Artifacts – Solo Show – Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Lancaster, CA – 2018
Open Desert – Palm Springs Art Museum – 2016 Infrared Exposure – First printed: 2018 Agriculture is no longer a significant enterprise in the Owens Valley. Most of the region’s farms failed after the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. High & Dry covers the story for KCET’s Artbound here:
www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/the-silos-of-inyo-county-tombstones-of-the-ghost-farms

Land Artifacts – Solo Show – Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Lancaster, CA – 2018 Infrared Exposure – First printed: 2014
 Scapes – Solo Exhibit Curated by Hayley Marie Colston – Unita – El Segundo, CA – 2018 Pinholes & Infrareds – Chungking Studio – Los Angeles, CA – 2016 Haunted Landscapes – Art Share LA – 2015 Infrared Exposure – First printed: 2018

Land Artifacts – Solo Show – Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Lancaster, CA – 2018 Infrared Exposure – First printed: 2018

Land Artifacts – Solo Show – Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Lancaster, CA – 2018 Infrared Exposure – First printed: 2018

Land Artifacts – Solo Show – Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Lancaster, CA – 2018
 Open Desert – Palm Springs Art Museum – 2016 Largest single source of particulate pollution in the United States. Infrared Exposure

January 20-March 3, 2018 Monica Wyatt’s mesmerizing solo exhibition Continuum, takes the viewer for a ride through a theme park of the imagination. Born of a synthesis of art and science—both artistic invention and intervention—formerly quotidian objects morph into dreamlike assemblage constructions. Objects once forgotten, abandoned, discarded or overlooked are first re-envisioned, then reincarnated into prominent new roles as the components of whimsical creations held together with the glue of magic. Zip ties, glass marbles, wire, mattress springs, dominoes, hairnets and (shades of Noah Purifoy) sardine tins; these are just a few of the items Wyatt has salvaged from a treasure trove of once-disparate things whose orbits might never have intersected in their original, strictly utilitarian roles. Re-deployed by the artist, once-incongruous objects find new meaning, fitting together like puzzle pieces into an unexpected formal harmony, such as an array of electrical capacitors that assume the guise of lichen-like plant forms. Wyatt composes these new configurations with an eloquent and seamless craft that might cajole the viewer into believing they could have evolved that way organically. The artist’s debut solo exhibition, her first collaboration with curator jill moniz, occupies three distinct spaces. In the entryway, a sampling of assemblage works is mounted on the walls, an overture to the larger body of work. Adjacent in the right hand gallery is an intriguing mini-survey of Wyatt’s assemblage work from 1999 to the present. Among these are a few pieces contained within rectangular framing devices such as wooden boxes. Leveraging this construct, the artist has deliberately focused her vision, confining the compositions so each element thoughtfully interacts with its counterparts as well as with the self-imposed parameters of the box or frame. Inside the third gallery space, the notion of borders or frames is utterly abandoned. Concealed behind curtained doorways leading to the room on the left, strategically-aimed soft lighting filters down on an amorphous cloud-like constellation of cascading, enrobed, acrylic orbs suspended from the ceiling. The space, which the artist described as “womb-like,” feels like a secluded and remote enclosure far removed from the outside world. When Shadows Chase the Light, the artist’s most recent assemblage, defies the confines of a box– although in a way, the room itself could be construed as a giant box. In her appropriation of this space, Wyatt makes it thoroughly her own, inviting the viewer to enter and experience the installation almost as a participant. Floating on the perimeters of the room are complementary works including, Continuum 1, 2 and 3, richly burnished wood and rock structures that infuse the atmosphere with the essence of an enchanted forest. The prevailing palette is quiet, reflecting colors seen in nature: gray tones, sepias, umbers, white, black and ivory, such as might be found on the landscape of a driftwood strewn beach on an overcast day. Rust—the color as well as the actual oxidized substance—appears prominently as the powdery patina acquired on old metal. Left intact, the rust seems a memento of mysterious past narratives, which the artist has made a point to respect and preserve. Its presence adds layers of nuance and meaning—a symbolic continuum of references—that deepen the resonance of Wyatt’s work.

Nestled in the desert landscape between the San Gabriel Mountain Range to the south and the Tehachapi Mountain Range to the north, in the heart of the burgeoning bedroom community of Lancaster, is an unexpected oasis of art and culture. Founded in 1986 as the Lancaster Museum/Art Gallery, today, the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) is aggressively advancing an agenda of art appreciation and artist engagement in the Antelope Valley—and beyond. MOAH is located on a welcoming block of Lancaster Boulevard in the BLVD Cultural District. Here piped music infuses the air, murals make the outside walls come alive and high school students drop by Thursday afternoons when the museum stays open late. Even the art cognoscenti of Los Angeles—those with access to the competing world-class art attractions of the big city—make the 70-mile trip to check out MOAH’s ambitious curatorial program. The museum’s agenda wasn’t always so far-reaching. Originally housed in an 8,000 square foot building on Sierra Highway, its mission focused then on showing the work of local artists and preserving a permanent collection of artifacts and records related to Antelope Valley history. As the city grew, the museum evolved. In 2010, the City broke ground on a new site, the outcome of a public/private partnership between the City of Lancaster and Steve Eglash and Scott Ehrlich, founders of InSite Development. MOAH’s manager and curator, Andi Campognone, came aboard in 2011 to help steer the museum’s vision in concert with the new building, which opened in 2012. Since then, MOAH has gone on to do much more than just organize exhibitions. In fact, art shows account for a mere two percent of its activities, said Campognone in a recent interview with Fabrik. The thrust of the museum’s agenda is focused on public engagement: connecting with school kids, local residents and artists. “Everyone always goes back to, ‘Oh, the museum has this great show,’” said Campognone, formerly a curator at Riverside Art Museum. “They think it’s just this building that houses exhibitions, and for two and a half months there’s this kind of static engagement with these inanimate objects.” Campognone is emphatic about correcting this misperception. “It’s not just our job to show the work. It’s also our job to create the next generation of human beings who are interested in understanding culture on any level. Just plopping a museum in the middle of the desert and hoping that the handful of people who are sophisticated enough to value the arts will show up… that’s kind of like the icing on the cake. The most important part is having that museum supplement all the young people with experience and education and engagement. That’s where it starts.” Unlike most museums, MOAH is a municipal institution, overseen by Lancaster’s director of parks, recreation and arts, which gives Campognone considerable leeway in charting the museum’s course “When it comes to the agenda for the museum, it’s me and another curator,” she said, referring to Robert Benitez, curator of MOAH: Cedar, the museum’s nearby satellite exhibition space. “We have a foundation board, but their sole job is to fundraise, so our collecting is based on what is relevant and what fits our mission, not supporting our board members’ collections,” said Campognone. “Our collecting mission and our exhibition mission revolve around accessibility for the community.” Addressing the need for public engagement, especially in a somewhat remote location, MOAH has a vast range of outreach initiatives. For example, the museum’s foundation pays for school buses so local kids can visit. They get a tour, engage in hands-on art making in the MOAH classroom and view the outdoor murals. “We talk [to them] about public art, and in that component, for young people, it’s pride of ownership in your own community,” Campognone said. Not a kunsthalle, MOAH also has a permanent collection. To kick off the museum’s contemporary collection, Eglash and his wife, artist Gisela Colon, donated several pieces, hoping to inspire other collectors to do the same. The collection has grown each year since MOAH opened. As Campognone noted, it’s crucial for the collection to reflect the relationship between the aerospace industry—long centered in the immediate vicinity—and movements in contemporary art. “We wouldn’t have the resin artists, we’d have none of the Light and Space artists, none of the Finish Fetish culture, none of what’s happened in painting. All of that directly comes from materials that were developed through aerospace and the military; and that happened in the Antelope Valley,” she said. Edwards Air Force Base, Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop Grumman are all nearby. Leveraging this aerospace connection, the museum is planning a show with NASA in 2020. Also vital is the museum’s dedicated effort to engage emerging and mid-career artists from the LA area, one of the reasons Campognone said she decided to stay at the museum when her initial contract ended in 2012 after the opening of the new building. “Right around that time there was all that uproar happening at MOCA. This was an opportunity to support the LA art makers. MOCA, when it started, that was its mission, to focus on contemporary art being made in Los Angeles. Over the years, it just got further and further away from that, where now it’s blue chip shows from artists from everywhere else but Los Angeles. I was hearing from all these [local] artists, ‘Where do we go? There isn’t a quality exhibition space that supports us.’ I thought, ‘I want to be here because I think I have an opportunity to fill that void.’” Filling that void has paid off for artists and MOAH alike. “It’s been a kind of a blessing,” said Campognone. “There’s so much work being made in Los Angeles that’s valid and relevant that isn’t even getting two looks by the larger museum organizations, but we have this beautiful space, why not show it? Why not support it, and why not be a steppingstone for emerging artists. Why not help some of those mid-career artists who need that book produced or who need that film made, or to help them in that part of their career?” Fittingly, the current exhibition, It Takes a Village (through April 22, 2018), features the work of LA artists. Curated by Betty Ann Brown, the headliner exhibit, Memory & Identity: The Marvelous Art of Betye, Lezley and Alison Saar, is a survey of the work of the extraordinary artist family: the mother and her two daughters. MOAH has published a catalogue to accompany the exhibit, because, as Campognone said, “The show doesn’t end when the show ends.” Related exhibits by Richard S. Chow, Lisa Bartelson, Jane Szabo, Wyatt Kenneth Coleman, Rebecca Campbell and Scott Yoell, investigate the theme of family, identity and community from different angles. It’s no coincidence that the community theme echoes the museum’s mission—and raison d’être. The last exhibit at MOAH Cedar, Monica Wyatt: Continuum, (January 20-March 3), showcased the work of the Los Angeles based assemblage artist.

The BLVD The BLVD is a portion of downtown Lancaster where you will find restaurants, bakeries, candy shops, stores, and museums. It is paved with bricks and you will find beautiful murals peeking out around every street corner. They have a Farmers Market there on Thursday evenings. MOAH Lancaster I love art museums and so we made sure to stop by the MOAH Lancaster. The exhibits were lovely and unique; each one of us had a different favorite piece. I love hearing what my children think that paintings and sculptures mean. Outside of the museum was one of the beautiful murals in the cultural BLVD district. We had a lovely getaway to Lancaster, a hidden gem of a town in the California desert. We love exploring this multi-faceted state of ours as a family and hope this inspires you to do the same!

Wyatt Kenneth Coleman's work on display at MOAH When spending time with photographer Wyatt Kenneth Coleman's work, it's not uncommon to be filled with a sudden and unmistakable warmth that isn't unlike the feeling you might get from hugging an old friend. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the man behind the lens is just as warm and friendly as his pictures -- a trait he maintains has helped him get the best of his subjects, his camera and himself through his 50 years as a freelance photojournalist and artist. Coleman's work is currently being feature in the Lancaster Museum of Art & History's newest exhibit, It Takes a Village. His section of the exhibit, which is entitles Beyond the Village, is located on the second floor, in the south gallery, and includes dozens of pieces that document the plight of Civil Rights activists and the people who aim to create positive, peaceful change in the world through kindness, loving and understanding. "I don't treat (my subjects) any differently than I would treat someone in my family," the Lancaster resident said during a recent phone interview. "You become part of them and they accept you. You become one with them and then they don't even notice the camera. "The camera is just an extension of my personality," he added with one of his infectious laughs. As a teenager, Coleman was inspired to start taking photos after his brother, Eugene McMiller, a Brooks Institute alum who graduated with honors, began working in the field. "He had a studio and I was fascinated by some of the assignments and work he was doing," Coleman said of his late brother's passion that became his own. "I didn't know anything about photography, but it looked exciting to me! I decided that I was going to do that same thing, in other words: to follow in his footsteps." While serving overseas during the Vietnam War, from 1964-'66, Coleman began studying photography at the United States Air Force Photography School. It was there he gained the skills that would follow him throughout his military career and various artistic and professional endeavors (he has been features in publications like 3M, Ebony and Jet, among others). Coleman's work was featured in an exhibit last year at MOAH:CEDAR which focused on his photography of Civil Rights activists, but for this new exhibit, he attempts to show the many ways of life that human beings build for themselves in a modern America. "If we treat each other as half-way decent, we can all get along and see one another as human beings," he said. Coleman, 74, takes his photos with an old Nikon and occasionally uses a Hasselblad -- equipment he likens to an "old friend." He largely shoots in the monochromatic majesty of black and white, but will also be showcasing some color photography in this exhibit. "I don't actually like doing color to be honest!" he said with a laugh. "With black and white, you have to look at it and really see -- and hopefully think about -- what I was trying to say with that image. But with color, it can sometimes overpower whatever it is I'm trying to say or do." He made the accommodation in an effort to show how various cultures use colors in their everyday lives. "It's probably the most color work I've ever shown," he admitted. One of that show's most mesmerizing pieces is called We Are More Alike than Unalike (a title he culled from the writings of Maya Angelou), which Coleman completed in a 1994 collaboration with friend Jason Chang. "It was done after the riots in Los Angeles," he said. "What we were trying to show with that was: if you look on one side, you see an African American family. If you look from the other end, you see the Korean family. If you look in the middle, you see them standing together. That's kind of what the show is about in a way." Through his are and humanitarian practices, Coleman has made frequent attempts at bettering the community surrounding him. He has documented the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and even established a collaborating with Coretta Scott King which was active until her death in 2006. Since settling in Lancaster with his wife Linda in 2001, Coleman has engaged with the Antelope Valley community to do just that. He was recently recognized for his volunteer work at Elm Ave. Community Garden by Assemblyman Tom Lackey and received an award from the Lancaster City Council for his continued contributions to the community. "I try to show that people are just human beings We don't have to go through all the nastiness that is sometimes exhibited," he said. "I've done a lot of things in my life. I'm very blessed, very fortunate." Coleman will lead a special talk and tour of his work at 2 PM on Sunday, February 18 at MOAH. A natural people-person, Coleman is excited to speak with others about their experience with his work. "MOAH being there and allowing me to show this work and what I was trying to say ... has been very important to me," he said. "I'm looking forward to it! There isn't anything I won't answer if anyone wants to know how I did this or that. I just try to make life better for everyone that comes in contact with my image." For those who make it out to the exhibit, there isn't any doubt he'll succeed. More to see at MOAH's 'It Takes a Village' In addition to Wyatt Kenneth Coleman's photo journalistic work, It Takes a Village also features the work of five other artists, all of whom will be holding their own upcoming community engagement sessions. Lisa Bartleson: Kindred When: 2 PM Saturday, February 17 Where: East Gallery What: Referencing the Japanese tradition kintsugi (the art of repairing broken pottery), Bartleson uses resin and ceramics to create expansive works in two and three dimensions. This large-scale installation is composed of over 200 porcelain houses to convey a community in the process of shared healing. Enhancing the experience is the repeated aural drone of heartbeats ( her own, and a baby's still in the womb) to remind onlookers of the universal, shared experience of life. Scott Yoell: Tsunami When: 2 PM Saturday, February 24 Where: Moore Family Trust Gallery What: A recent fascination with trinkets has lead this traditional and electronic media artists to create Tsunami, a striking collection of three thousand four-inch-tall figures formed in an imposed wave of nostalgia and community. Guest are encouraged to look closely: you'll notice superficial differences and imperfections that are a by-product of being cast from the same mold. Richard S. Chow: Distant Memories When: 1 PM Sunday, February 25 Where: North Gallery What: The Hong Kong native, Richard S. Chow, imagines a childhood under the sunshine of Southern California in this series of black and white documentarian and conceptual images. Human interest colors these dozens of black and white photos that feature shots of the beach, the ocean, the city -- memories he never lives as a young boy and now imagines in his adopted home. Memory & Identity: The Marvelous Art of Betye, Lezley and Alison Saar When: 12 PM Sunday, March 25 Where: Main Gallery What: Betye, Lezley and Alison Saar explore their cultural history with a collection of striking mixed-media pieces. From sculptures and high-concept installations to paintings and photography, this family of creatives mix "low" and "high" art forms, they create something wholly new and deeply invigorating. Every objects tells a story. Jane Szabo: Family Matters When: 2 PM Sunday, March 25 Where: Wells Fargo Gallery What: Photographed against crushing black backgrounds, Szabo's pictures evoke a feeling of home, displacement and sentimentality. Using fabrication and household materials, she explores complicated family dynamics in tableaus that redefine what it means to be a daughter, mother and caretaker.

MOAH CEDAR; Ark Gallery; Chinatown Exciting art opened all over the greater Los Angeles area this past weekend, from Lancaster to Chinatown. Monica Wyatt’s exciting mixed-media show in Lancaster, “Continuum,” drew a crowd north on the freeway to MOAH: CEDAR, curated by Jill Moniz. The adjunct gallery space to the main Museum of Art and History building, Wyatt’s lustrous work filled the new space with bursts of light and texture. Monica Wyatt with her installation Large-scale and site-specific, When Shadows Chase the Light is a dazzling array of 4000 acrylic globes, 10,000 nylon hairnets, 23 industrial light lenses, fishing wire and lighting, that resemble an “organic, biomorphic form.” The artist’s series of wood and rock assemblages San Andreas Variations, along with larger-scale rock and wood sculptures are another highlight; inanimate objects imbued with life. Through March 3rd ; artist’s walk-through February 10th. Jill Moniz, Monica Wyatt In Chinatown, downstairs at Charlie James gallery, “It’s OK,” curated by Sacha Baumann, features seven artists in a rich exploration of adaptation. Works evoke strange plants, mysterious memories, or magical realms. Nadege Monchera Baer’s mixed media dazzles in textures and palette; Megan Mueller places objects—here, flowers—on a flatbed scanner, distorting and duplicating. Stephen Neidich’s kinetic, steam-punk sculpture is compulsive viewing. Also impressive: Molly Segal’s lustrous, intimate dream-like landscape; Luke Whitlatch’s deep, abstract world. With Kottie Paloma and Hayley Barker; through March 3rd. Art critic Shana Nys Dambrot with photographer Osceloa Refetoff at The Good Luck Gallery Across the plaza at The Good Luck Gallery, a solo show of the late Andrew Frieder’s woodblock prints offered a wide range of images to an appreciative crowd, many eager to purchase the self-taught inventor and artist’s vast collection of hybrid creatures, turtles, dragons and masks. It’s a seemingly limitless panoply of work, displayed through March 11th. Kristine Shomaker Shomaker's art Altadena’s Ark Gallery opened Kristine Schomaker’s intensely moving “Plus,” comprising fresh, joyful, luminous nude images. “Plus” was a spontaneous creation by the artist during a hotel stay, inspired by the light behind a frosted-glass sliding door, shot on the artist’s iPhone. The gallery was packed with an enthusiastic crowd; the changing quality of light on framed prints and suspended transparency films made the crowd linger. Through March 18th with an artist talk February 11th. All photos by Genie Davis

With the first week of the new year coming to an end on Sunday, Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster held a zinefest/artist panel to celebrate and educate their community on the exhibition currently on display, Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment (L.A. TACO link here). Here are some photos from photographer/zinester Joe Forney, who was in attendance. Left to right: L.A. TACO contributor Desilu Munoz & Joe Segura of Applesauce Industries. On the left, exhibition participant Louis Jacinto displaying his photography collection. Photographer/zinester Alyssa Ruiz (right) slanging prints, zines, and film. Photographer/zinester Erwin Recinos next to his photographs for the exhibition. “New Noir” panel discussion with “Big Sleeps” Cavazos, Jim McHugh, Joe “Prime” Reza and Rafael Reyes of the band Prayers. The discussion was led by Dark Progressivism filmmaker/curator Rodrigo Ribera d’Ebre. Artist Alex Schaefer draws some loose sketches of the panel discussion. Big Sleeps signing some prints as the panel discussion and zinefest comes to and end. This is your last week to visit Lancaster Museum of Art History for the Dark Progressivism exhibition. Museum is open all week from 11 AM – 6 PM. All images provided by Joe Forney.

Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment delves into the impact the manmade landscape has had on the residents of Southern California: housing projects, commercial developments, freeways, the Los Angeles River and the Metro system. Dark Progressivism is an artistic style that developed organically out of graffiti and tattooing, consciously and unconsciously influenced by German Expressionism, film noir, typography, and the design elements present in Southern California. Participating artist and LA TACO senior photographer Erwin Recinos brings you a look at opening night of this exhibit… Artist and K2S member Joe “Prime” Reza in front of his piece at the opening. Prime also contributed a “street-corner” installation inside the museum for the exhibition. Stunning set of pieces by artist Carlos Ramirez, using signage mixed media to create a stylized installation. Artist Gajin Fujita and photographer Steve Grody chopping it up during the opening. A detailed look at Jaime Scholnick and her stylized acrylic painting style. Artist Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez with his contribution to the exhibition. Musician Leafar Seyer of PRAYERS next to his piece for opening night. “213” collab between photographer Jim McHugh, Prime and Big Sleeps. Mixed media including collaged 8×10 polaroid stills. Street scene from the city of Boyle Heights painted by artist Manuel Lopez. Dark Progressivism curator Rodrigo d’Ebre talking about the origins and ideas behind the exhibition. 6th Street Bridge survey by photographer Estevan Oriol before it’s destruction in early 2016. A unique light painting construction by Lynwood based artist Felix Quintana. On the title card of the exhibition is this painting by Michael Alvarez. I was told this painting took just over a year to create. The color and depth wonderful. Installation in the museum hall by artist Prime which is made set in place for visitors to contribute to during the life of the exhibit at MOAH. Dark Progressivism: The Built Environment will be on display til January 14th 2018. Two upcoming events coinciding with the exhibition: Art & Science Discussion Panel on Sunday December 10, 2pm. Dark Progressivism Zine Fest on Sunday January 7, 12pm – 5pm. Follow @darkprogressivism for more information and details about the upcoming events.