California Visions

In January 2005, the Long Beach Museum of Art will launch California Visions, a twelve-month series of exhibitions and programs celebrating the remarkable achievements of California-based artists. Throughout this year-long series, the Long Beach Museum of Art will highlight the extraordinary work of artists such as John Frame, Elsa Rady, George Henry Melhcer, Eugene Berman and Mineo Mizuno.

(PRWEB) January 1, 2005 -- In January 2005, the Long Beach Museum of Art will launch California Visions, a twelve-month series of exhibitions and programs celebrating the remarkable achievements of California-based artists. Throughout this year-long series, the Long Beach Museum of Art will highlight the extraordinary work of artists who were raised in the Golden State or who immigrated to California attracted by its beauty, its embrace of innovation, or its promise of hope and opportunity. Among the highlights of the year are the following exhibitions:

Enigma Variations: The Sculpture of John Frame, 1980-2005
January 7 -- April 10, 2005
This exhibition features the work of contemporary sculptor John Frame, an extraordinary artist who creates evocative figures in wood, exploring such compelling and current issues as spiritual yearning, hope and the desire for rebirth and renewal.

Elsa Rady: The Cycladic Swing
February 4 -- May 14, 2005
Internationally recognized, Los Angeles-based ceramic artist Elsa Rady creates a new series of work in connection with California Visions
inspired by her investigations of the remarkable sculptural forms produced by the Ancient Greeks.

California Visions: Art Auction XI
April 29 -- May 14, 2005
This exhibition, which will fill the entire Museum with a grand celebration of California talent, includes over 125 works in all media. All works will be available for sale in a Museum-wide auction benefiting California artists as well as the Museum.

California Landscape
June 3 -- August 21, 2005
California Landscape features over forty paintings, watercolors, photographs and prints surveying the history of California landscape from the early 20th century to the present, including works by Maurice Braun, Dana Bartlett, George Henry Melcher, Rex Brandt and Ann Lofquist.

High Drama: Eugene Berman and the Legacy of the Melancholic Sublime
September 9 -- October 30, 2005
High Drama presents the paintings of Surrealist artist Eugene Berman within the context of his times, shown beside the work of artists
Joseph Cornell, Giorgio De Chirico, Frida Kahlo, Kay Sage and others. High Drama was organized by the McNay Art Museum in
San Antonio, Texas. Long Beach is the exclusive west coast venue for this highly important exhibition.

Crossing Boundaries: The Ceramic Sculpture of Mineo Mizuno
November 18, 2005 -- January 15, 2006
The final exhibition features Mineo Mizuno, a Japanese-born, California-trained ceramic artist, whose internationally recognized
work explores new sculptural forms.

Throughout the year, in an effort to provide an historic perspective for California Visions, the Long Beach Museum of Art will feature a
selection of work from its acclaimed collection of California paintings. Among the artists represented are early 20th century California

Plein Air painters Maurice Braun, George Henry Melcher, Dana Bartlett and Jean Mannheim; painters of the 'California Scene including watercolorists Phil Dike, Rex Brandt and Roger Kuntz; Southern California Modernists such as Lorser Feitelson, Helen Lundeberg and
John McLaughlin; Bay Area painters such as Paul Wonner, Roland Petersen, William Wiley, and Joan Brown; and contemporary
visionaries Sharon Ellis, Peter Zokosky and Laura Lasworth.

Complementing these installations will be a series of lectures entitled Conversations on California" in which artists, poets, and writers will discuss California as a subject of or inspiration for their work; a musical series performed by California-based musicians; and a series of workshops for children entitled Kidsvisions California in which California youth share their vision of our state in work that will be featured in the Museums Kidsvisions Art Gallery.

California Visions extends the Long Beach Museum of Arts 54-year commitment to the visionary artists who live and work in the State of California. From its inaugural exhibition Design for Todays Living presented in 1951 until today, the Long Beach Museum of Art has served
as a showcase for work produced by California-based artists.

About the Long Beach Museum of Art:
Located on a magnificent bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the Long Beach Museum of Art features a lively schedule of changing
exhibitions, artmaking workshops for all ages, an historic mansion and carriage house, expansive galleries and gardens, a café (Craigs at the Museum), and a popular Museum Store. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday (Museum Café opens at 8 a.m.), open until
8 p.m. on Thursdays; admission is $5/adults, $4/students & seniors, free for Museum Members and children under 12, and free for everyone the first Friday of every month. Free parking is available one block west of the Museum. For more information, call (562) 439-2119 or visit www.lbma.org.

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