Lynn Beldner, Untitled, 2001. Mixed media (balls and felt).

Oakland has long been home to a vital and diverse community of visual artists. In celebration of the city's 150th anniversary, works by a selection of these artists will be on view in the exhibition Being There: 45 Oakland Artists, at the Oakland Museum of California from Feb. 23 through May 12, 2002. This invitational exhibition features works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography and mixed media, by contemporary artists who live and/or work in Oakland.

Participants were selected by Chief Curator of Art Philip Linhares from among more than 700 artists, based on portfolios and many studio visits. The exhibition includes two works by each of the participating artists. About half of those selected for the exhibition have established reputations and careers in the Bay Area and beyond; the others are artists whose reputations and careers are emerging in a highly competitive art world.

Robert Ortbal, The Alchemy of Time, 2001. Tea bags, piano, Collection of the artist.

Attracted by affordable studio space and East Bay college and university art departments, a large number of artists maintain a studio and/or residence in the city of Oakland. They inhabit a variety of workspaces, ranging from Seyed Alevi's studio in an old firehouse to Winston Branch's apartment bedroom studio to Mark Bulwinkle's West Oakland outdoor work space filled with hundreds of sculptures. The variety in these artists' sensibilities and chosen media is reflected in the works in the exhibition, selected on the basis of quality and representation of the range of art that is being created in Oakland.

Although there is no overarching theme, three general observations can be made about the kinds of works seen in the exhibition. First, despite long-standing claims in the art world that painting is dead--along with, more recently, photography as we know it--there are still a number of artists in the exhibition who create works that can be called traditional. There is, however, a noticeable increase in the use of digital media, in which the computer is used both to generate images and to manipulate them. And finally, a number of the artists in the exhibition, including about half the artists working in three dimensions, are using recycled and found materials.

"I'm also finding," says Curator Philip Linhares, "that, having just come through a time of affluence, more artists are graduating from art schools. As a result, there's beginning to be less of a regional identity to local art."

Linda Geary , Untitled, 2001. oil/mixed media on wood.

Being There: 45 Oakland Artists is the first major event of its kind since the museum's popular and critically acclaimed 1990 exhibition Oakland's Artists '90. Artists who exhibited in the 1990 exhibition were not eligible for this new presentation. Many of these artists have gone on to achieve national and international acclaim--artists like Garry Knox Bennett, Squeak Carnwath, Enrique Chagoya, Colette, Sono Osato, and Alan Rath--and are now represented in the museum's permanent collection. During the presentation of Being There: 45 Oakland Artists, works by many of these artists from the 1990 exhibition will be highlighted with special labels in the museum's Gallery of California Art.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a 20-page brochure containing a color reproduction of each artist's work and brief biographical information on each artist.

Public programs presented by the museum's Education Department in connection with the exhibition will include Sunday afternoon gallery talks by some of the artists.

In conjunction with the exhibition, members of The Garden Club of America presented Visions 2002 - Art! among the artworks in the museum's Great Hall April 12-14, 2002. This exhibit included flower arrangements created in response to the artworks in the exhibition.

Being There: 45 Oakland Artists is made possible by the generous support of the Oakland Museum Women's Board and the California Arts Council.

Also at the museum in celebration of Oakland's 150th anniversary is Scene in Oakland, 1852 to 2002: Artworks Celebrating the City's 150th Anniversary, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, watercolors and photographs dating from 1852 to 2002 features views of Oakland by 48 prominent California artists. The scenes depicted include a wide variety of the city's landmarks, districts, architecture and activities. Scene in Oakland is on view from March 9 - August 25, 2002.

© 2002 Oakland Museum of California | Credits |Phone: 510-238-2200