In and Far-Out

Art made its way throughout Ventura County in 2000 in both expected and unexpected ways.

Take, for example, the annual Ojai Studio Artist Tour in October, with its familiar roster of artists and their work spaces. Alongside it was the fringe “Art Detour,� offering an alternative of the perhaps less-familiar. So it goes in the art scene here, a generally balanced system with outlets for the inherently varied world of artists.

The county has a potpourri of museums, although only the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard devotes itself, in name and function, to art. This was a banner year for the Carnegie, which hosted shows of Picasso posters, a pop art exhibition called “Soup to Nuts� and an eye-opening show by assemblage specialist Andy Schuessler, called “Sounding Boards: Electro-Mech Redux.�

A show titled “Defining the Sublime: Gifts from the Eileen and Peter Norton Collection� represented a badge of honor, with the Carnegie having been singled out for a gift from the software magnate’s respected contemporary art collection.

The Maritime Museum, in the Channel Islands Harbor, is all about things nautical with an art emphasis. In fact, one of the finest exhibits of 2000 was this fall’s “Art of the Sea: 17th Century Dutch Masters and Their Legacy,� featuring dazzling and lustrous paintings by Willem Van de Veldt and other Dutch and English painters.

The Union Oil Museum in Santa Paula can be counted on as a good, though intermittent, venue for local art, including the “De Colores� exhibit in time for Cinco de Mayo.

The Ventura County Museum of History and Art concentrated more on history than art this year, although it hosted fine exhibits by cowboy artist Edward Borein, veteran Santa Paula artist Douglas Shively and painter Susan Petty, whose work is now on display.

Ventura College’s two galleries continued their much-valued practice of ushering in exhibitions by artists from beyond the county, including Diana Jacobs and Nicholas Brown.

Art of a high order, and in a wonderful ambience, could be found at the Studio Channel Islands Art Center. Gerd Koch, one of the center’s founders, had a great retrospective show of paintings there last spring. Other shows of note included “In Contemplation of Now� and works of Connie Jenkins and Priscilla Bender-Shore.

Koch, a former Ventura College teacher and one of the finest painters around, also had a two-person show, “Objects in a Landscape,� with sculptor Paul Lindhard, another pillar of the Ventura art scene.

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The show interacted beautifully with the rustic aura of the gallery at Art City, Lindhard’s stomping grounds. Art City’s exhibition schedule also included a more or less annual erotic art show, this one dubbed “Beaus and Eros.� Nicole Duet and Alexandra Morosco also had a fine two-person show in the space.

Downtown, art could be found at the Upstairs Gallery at Natalie’s Fine Threads, including memorable shows by gauvin--with the memorable title “The Temple of My Familiar.� Two blocks away, the Buenaventura Gallery offered its slow, steady parade of work, from solo shows--including Timberly Dunn, Carlisle Cooper and Kathleen McGuire--to monthly rotations of work by members of the Buenaventura Art Assn.

In the east county, the Thousand Oaks Community Gallery is an ample, well-lighted space host to a variety of group shows, including the recent impressive photography exhibit by members of Camera Illuminata. Meanwhile, the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza filled its walls with art, mostly for the edification of theater-goers. The Arts Plaza’s highlight in 2000 was a show by the exotic Spanish artist Jesus Villalonga.

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Out Ojai way, the Childress Gallery presented several provocative shows, including last January’s “Adoorable U,� a conceptual group show in which artists imposed their artistic notions on Volkswagen car doors. Other Childress shows of note were Mike Hammer’s “No Things� and the group show, “Real Women.�

To coincide with the Ojai Festival in June, the Ojai Center for the Arts presented a three-person show by local artists Bert Collins, Gayel Childress and Marta Nelson, the engagingly cheeky work of Wendy Maharry and photographs by noted music patron Betty Freeman.

All told, Ventura County’s art scene is both scattershot and institutionalized, speckled with delights and an amiable intensity. It boils down to a timeless theme: Artists must make art and show it, quite apart from profit motives. For local art watchers, that truism continues to be reassuring good news.

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Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].