Search Results

Continuum Monica Wyatt January 20, 2018 - March 3, 2018 Back to All Exhibitions Monica Wyatt is an artistic alchemist, transforming collected materials into precious objects. She fuses the history of the materials together to create new beginnings, representing the cyclic nature of all things. By reimagining objects and their composition, Wyatt is able to more uniquely speak about her inspirations, interventions and intentions. The objects she creates make space for the viewer to enter, navigate, commune, and reflect. The works on display are transformations of man-made objects into forms that signify qualities of nature. Wyatt challenges her audience to consider the aesthetic traits of each object rather than judge them by their intended use. In her assemblage, electric capacitors resemble plant life and zip ties mimic deep sea creatures. She dissembles pianos, organs, cables, sieves, and other utilitarian items from a past when people valued human production and craftsmanship. Continuum is Wyatt’s first installation in her ongoing collaboration with curator Jill Moniz.

CEDARFEST 2020 Antelope Valley Union High School District April 3, 2020 - May 3, 2020 Back to All Exhibitions Participating Schools include Highland HS, Lancaster HS, Knight HS, and Quartz Hill HS

Best friends and partners for over two decades, Nay and Julie share an unusual bond. Their unspoken understanding of one another, coupled with their ever increasing desire to challenge the limits of clay create the ideal scenario for collaboration in sculpture. Benefiting by their merged strengths, their concepts evolve into surreal creations revealing a light-hearted, innocent charm and organic nature with a spontaneous quality all their own.

Illumination Devices Spenser Little July 18, 2020 - September 20, 2020 Back to All Exhibitions Presented in collaboration with Thinkspace Projects, Los Angeles Spenser Little is a self-taught artist who has been bending wire and carving wood for almost 20 years, allowing his creativity to morph into images that range from simple wordplay to complex portraits. He has related his wire work to a mixture of playing chess and illustration, as the problem-solving component of the work is what continues to inspire himself to create larger and more complex pieces. Some works contain moving components and multiple wires, but mostly the pieces are formed from one continuous piece of wire that is bent and molded to Little’s will. He has left the wire sculptures all over the world, in locations that range from the Eiffel Tower to the bottom of caves, their location selected with little discernment, only for the piece to be finally realized at the moment that someone discovers the surprise piece of art. Little has taken part in numerous POW! WOW! mural festivals in the past few years, which has exposed his work to an entire new audience via their network of art sites/blogs and having his work shared all over the world including the likes of the Antelope Valley (Lancaster, California); Long Beach, California; Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Honolulu, Hawaii; Israel; and San Jose, California. Regarding his new body of work, Spenser shares “To me, all art is a form of illumination devices. For this exhibition I have built a new series of mixed-media kinetic lamps. The lamps serve as bright facades for inner, hidden chambers. Looking through their constantly closing and opening doors, viewers are offered a peak at what makes them tick. Like the different layers we develop throughout our lives, we only allow certain people to see our most inner workings, while the majority are only able to see our polished exteriors. The lamp building process begins with the wood carving of the central character's head. I then weld a round bar frame for the outline of the body. I don’t put much forethought into where the design will go, aesthetic or engineering wise, which allows me to adapt any spontaneous idea during the build. Once I have the legs and body welded out and sized to the wooden head, I begin to problem shoot the kinetic portion of the build. Which is the unnatural part for my purely sculptor’s brain. Once all of the kinetic components are complete, I clean and bake the paper skin on the lamp, allowing them to come to life.” www.thinkspaceprojects.com

Collateral Damage “collateral damage n. : injury inflicted on something other than an intended target; specif : civilian casualties of a military operation” -Merriam-Webster Dictionary "Collateral Damage is an immersive installation that speaks of the damage and harm in nature that we, humans, are causing unintentionally. As the gardeners of our environment and lives, we need to become aware of our destiny, while sharing the responsibility and love for nature and all life as an indivisible global network that needs sunlight, air and water to continue its survival. The impermanence of our own existence is immersed and inseparable from this blue island, in the black lonely universe. The immersive and interactive aspects of the installations intend to bring an awareness to the warning signs of unintended destruction of the ocean, coral reefs and water resources via playful interactions with different kinds of beauty, set up in a possible post-apocalyptic plastic-fantastic-future." -Snezana Saraswati Petrovic

The Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) and MOAH:CEDAR are excited to announce the 39th Annual All-Media Juried Art Exhibition for this year. Artists of all ages and experience levels from around the Antelope Valley and the 5th Supervisorial District of Los Angeles County can participate in the exhibition, submitting pieces of various art mediums. On Saturday, June 1 from 4PM to 6PM artists will be honored during an award ceremony were over $1,000 will be granted by the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation and various small businesses, community organizations, public officials, and other sponsors. The exhibition will run from Saturday, June 1 to Sunday, July 20, 2024.

Juried Art Exhibition 2021 Various Artists May 22, 2021 - June 27, 2021 Back to All Exhibitions The Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) and MOAH:CEDAR are thrilled to announce the 36th Annual All-Media Juried Art Exhibition. In this annual exhibition, artists of all ages and experience levels from around the Antelope Valley and the 5th Supervisorial District of Los Angeles County are welcomed to participate.

Curated by Juri Koll, the artists in this show use watercolor, inks, and other liquid media for a variety of reasons - some love the risk of not being able to alter the result once it hits the paper. Others have a more formal reason for the process. Some use the medium as a contemplative, almost reverential experience, or for "quiet meditation or being present in the moment," as Shana Nys Dambrot says. All these motivations inspire these works and engage the audience with the here and now, regardless of when the work was completed. Many of the artists have been influenced in some way by Japanese Sumi painters or modern artists such as Sam Francis. The Sam Francis Foundation sponsored the catalog, a copy of which has become part of the Sam Francis archives at the GETTY Museum Research Institute Library.

Deception Kira Vollman June 23, 2018 - September 2, 2018 Back to All Exhibitions Blending traditional mediums such as painting, sculpture, photography and sound with found “treasures”, Kira Vollman gives discarded items a second life. Her work brings together disparate objects and differing points of view in an attempt at reconciliations. She creates imaginary landscapes and alternate worlds. Vollman is interested in the symbols representing ascension as can be seen in her Deception installation here in the MOAH:CEDAR Galleries.

Fairyland Leonard Greco February 23, 2019 - March 31, 2019 Back to All Exhibitions This recent body of work he's called Fairyland has developed a definite camp sensibility (not dissimilar to the theatrical confections of Cecil Beaton in the 1920’s). Camp, having been described as the lie that tells the truth, is an innate language he has been reticent to explore until recently. Perhaps internalized homophobia has left him hesitant to make work so boldly queer – in every sense of the word – making art so openly flamboyant. Purposely stamped with informed wit and a wry knowing humor, this new work is first and foremost intended to visually delight and be taken seriously . Among other things, it touches on the weighty tableau of the Temptation of St. Anthony of the Desert and the perilous trials of Herakles. His aesthetic expression is influenced by his instinctive inclination to lighten somber somewhat ponderous existential themes with a gay touch (consciously using this word in both its current identity-laden fraught understanding and the anachronistic yet more delightful sense). While the work possesses decidedly camp sensibilities it is never ironic as is so often the current fashion. He finds irony frequently cynical; his work is never cynical for no other reason than the inherent affection he holds for his motley crew of heroes, saints and sinners .He draws indiscriminately upon diverse seemingly unrelated archetypes and themes from many sources, including Classical mythology, British folklore, Wagnerian operas and the biblical text of my Catholic youth, doing so in order to touch upon that which is culturally familiar to him, to others – and if we believe Jung – found deeply rooted as archetypes in our souls. These eternal themes provide me ample, seemingly endless, means of interpretation. As a person steeped in the Western tradition of literature and the visual arts, it is a rich fertile field he feels most comfortable in adopting. The work presented at Fairyland are these familiar themes, explored many times over by countless artist; yet this time re-imagined through a prism of his own. His play upon cultural themes hopefully adds a sentence or two to this ongoing cultural conversation. Working in variety of mediums, and a fabulist by nature, it is my intention to create a theatrical spectacle that is peculiar, visually arresting and deeply personal. Although the work is made solely for his own delight, He hopes others find the work meaningful in some way. He also hopes visitors feel inspired to resist the siren call of selfies and pause instead, if only for a moment, as these works are visually dense and to add their own voice to this enriching and frequently neglected conversation. With that, welcome to his Fairyland.

Lakes and Valleys Art Guild Various Artists July 23, 2016 - September 17, 2016 Back to All Exhibitions The Lakes and Valleys Art Guild is a nonprofit organization founded in 2003 by a few local artists. Begun in the Lakes area of the Antelope Valley, the Guild has grown over the years to an average annual membership of around 75 – 100. Members are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds, from professional artists to those who have a strong interest in and love for art. The goal is to give local artists mutual support and a place to display their work. Each summer, members have helped support the Fine Arts section of the Antelope Valley Fair by setting up, taking in, and hanging entries, working with fair staff to monitor and sell art for the benefit of a scholarship fund. One of the Guild’s biggest events is its annual Fundraiser and Art Auction, held each September. This event draws people from all over Southern California, offering attendees a chance to bid on original works by some of the Antelope Valley’s premier artists. Membership to the Guild is only $36 per year for an individual, and $48 per year for a couple or two family members. Art students pay just $12 per year. For more information on the Lakes and Valleys Art Guild, find them on Facebook or visit their website: www.lakesandvalleysartguild.org. Email lakesandvalleysag@gmail.com to subscribe to their monthly newsletter, the ARTiculator. The Guild can also be reached at 661-724-1312. Particpating artists include AJ Currado, Al Miller, Ann Sly, Ben Tomlinson, Carolyn Smith, David Walker, Donna Weil, Heather Sandres, JoGayle Gerner, Joyce Hatton, Judy Rankin, Kathy McGauley, Kristi Arzola, Lora Fenmore, Lynda Pasztor, Sal-Silvestre Vasquez, Tena Wagner, Teresa LeClerc, Terry Cervantes and Thaddeus Grzelak.

Love, Peace & Equality Wyatt Kenneth Coleman January 14, 2017 - March 4, 2017 Back to All Exhibitions On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and spoke the words that would change the course of history and be remembered by Americans of all races for generations to come. In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King vocalized the issues at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, calling for peaceful protest, justice, and equality. He was a leader, a pastor, and an accomplished scholar, but above all, Martin Luther King, Jr. lived to serve his community. Dr. King has this in common with one of the men who chronicled his legacy--photographer Wyatt Kenneth Coleman. “In the mid 1970’s,” says Coleman, “I began documenting people striving to make a difference.” A Vietnam Veteran, Coleman’s dedication to helping others is evident in both his artistic practice and humanitarian contributions. In addition to documenting Dr. King’s legacy, the artist established a collaboration with Coretta Scott King in 1979, which remained active until her death. Coleman was interested in the effect that the Civil Rights Movement had on the lives of ordinary people, stating, “When a person is committed and makes a contribution to their community, lives are changed and doing the right thing is really key.” As such, much of his work documents every-day people participating in non-violent activism by committing acts of kindness and working towards social justice. In these images, Coleman seeks to emphasize the importance that engagement and oral history play in passing down the value of serving one’s community and family. It is through this body of work that MOAH:CEDAR is excited to provide an intimate look into the artist’s personal legacy. Wyatt Kenneth Coleman is a freelance photojournalist whose career spans over fifty years. While serving in the military, he studied at the U.S. Airforce Photography School, gaining skills that would benefit him in both his military and artistic careers. He has certifications from the Winona School of Professional Photography, the University of Minnesota and Santa Fe Photographic workshops. Coleman is a member of the International Freelance Photographers Organization and has had his work regularly shown in several publications, including 3M, Ebony and Jet Magazines, The Daily Word, and TV Guide Canada. He received an award of appreciation from the late Coretta Scott King for a visual presentation he helped create, promoting the establishment of the Martin Luther King Center for Non Violent Social Change in Atlanta. Coleman has been awarded for his unselfish volunteer service in the communities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and was recognized for his volunteer work at the Elm Avenue Community Garden by Assemblyman Tom Lackey, in addition to receiving an award from Lancaster City Council, for his contributions to the community. Wyatt Kenneth Coleman currently lives in Lancaster. A Lancaster resident, Coleman is a freelance photojournalist with a career that spans more than 50 years. He first became interested in this medium as a direct result of his older brother’s photograpy studio, which ignited a passion in him that continues to this day. During his service in the U.S. Air Force, Coleman studied at the U.S. Air Force Photography School, learning skills which would benefit both his military and private professional careers. He went on to further his education by receiving certifications from Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, the Winona School of Professional Photography, and the University of Minnesota. His work has been published in Ebony magazine, as well as many other articles and publications.