ORANGE COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART ANNOUNCES SECOND SEASON IN TEMPORARY SPACE, OCMAEXPAND IN SANTA ANA

Seven new exhibitions will highlight contemporary Pacific Rim artists and

OCMA’s permanent collection

April 7 – September 1, 2019

 

(Santa Ana, CA)—After a successful inaugural season in its temporary space in Santa Ana, the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) announced today that it will present six new exhibitions of works by Pacific Rim artists and a seventh show featuring objects from the museum’s collection—on view from April 7 through September 1, 2019. Through a wide range of media including interactive installations, photography, and site-specific interventions, the works touch on notions of value, control and power, and truth and reality, responding to some of today’s most pressing global socio-political concerns.

For this second season at OCMA EXPAND-SANTA ANA, OCMA will continue the strategy of considering its interim location as a laboratory for artistic experimentation, taking the idea of the Pacific Rim as a research question. “The season of exhibitions by artists Diego Berruecos, York Chang, Victoria Fu and Matt Rich, Fritzia Irizar, UuDam Tran Nguyen, and Hiromi Takizawa continues OCMA’s proud history and trajectory as a leader in presenting the freshest art of our time,” says Todd D. Smith, OCMA’s director. and CEO. “We look forward to a robust exchange of ideas born out of showing these artists, especially in such a public-facing space.” Located in South Coast Plaza Village, OCMA EXPAND-SANTA ANA is the

Museum’s temporary venue while it builds its Thomas Mayne-designed new home at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

 “We are also delighted to have an opportunity to continue exhibiting objects from our permanent collection of more than 4,500 works of modern and contemporary art during this time of change and growth as we prepare for our new home,” says Smith. The new iteration highlights small-scale

sculptures and includes works by many artists who are central to the art history of Southern California, including Chris Burden, Vija Celmins, Judy Chicago, Ken Price, and others.

The spring exhibitions are:

Diego Berruecos: Only A Shadow

Known for his biting investigations into power structures in Mexican politics, photographer Diego Berruecos offers two bodies of work that together demonstrate the Mexican artist’s insightful and nuanced take on the effects of globalized economic power on rural or economically disadvantaged

communities in Mexico. His series 26 Used To Be Gas Stations in Mexico features former state-run Pemex gas stations and shines a light on the impact of the global oil industry on Mexico. His Red Bull series documents Mexican farmers trying the energy drink for the first time. The images call attention to the implications of multi-national economic power dynamics in the context of this farming community.

York Chang: To Be Wrong with Infinite Precision

Los Angeles-based artist York Chang’s exhibition’s To Be Wrong with Infinite Precision probes how we make sense of the tumult of information we are confronted with today and how we struggle to decipher fact from fiction. The title of the show comes from an essay by Nassim Nicholas Talib, in which he describes our tendency to organize complexity (statistics, data, images, and random events) into invented narratives that reinforce pre-existing beliefs. Through sculpture, photocollage, painting, and performance, Chang sheds light on the fragile nature of truth and reality, especially in today’s media

environment. The exhibition reveals how—more often than not—what one might have trusted as true may be inaccurate.

Victoria Fu and Matt Rich: Monster A.

Monster A . joins the artistic practices of San Diego-based artists and collaborators Victoria Fu and Matt Rich. Fu’s screen-like images and textures combine with Rich’s bold palette and painterly surfaces on sewn fabric elements that take the form of aprons. Their installation consists of a series of

site-responsive vignettes that draw together the aprons with neon sculptures and vinyl wallpaper-like elements. The theatrical display challenges the traditionally utilitarian nature of the apron and the implications of gender and labor associated with it, while also suggesting the familiar bodily experience of wearing one.

Fritzia Irizar: CaCO 3

Mexican artist Fritzia Irizar’s work explores the concept of value relative to precious materials such as diamonds and gold. CaCO 3 focuses on the pearl and uncovers its vast, historic web of influence as a commodity for centuries and across civilizations. Through video, sculpture, and ephemera, this

exhibition examines the implications that the international trade of this precious material has had on natural resources and labor, with a particular emphasis on the history of pearl production in Mexico.

UuDam Tran Nguyen: TIME BOOMERANG California Edition — From S.E.A. Atolls to the Next Dead Stars

Vietnamese artist UuDam Tran Nguyen’s ongoing Time Boomerang project began in 2013 when he set out to explore China’s historic claim over the islands in the South China Sea, which were also claimed by Vietnam, The Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia. To Nguyen, this declaration was a bold exercise of power on the part of China, confusing the territorial map on an international scale. Nguyen began to consider this somewhat arbitrary and subjective approach to measuring ownership, and recalled as a child how he would use his own hand with fingers outstretched as a unit of measure. He created a bronze cast of his hand, cut off the fingertips, and set out to drop each one in oceans bordering five continents. OCMA’s exhibition documents the stages of this project already completed in Europe, Australia, and Japan. It also includes an interactive element in which visitors are invited to break plaster maps Nguyen has created for different phases of the work. As part of the exhibition, the artist will complete the California phase of Time Boomerang in the Pacific Ocean.

Hiromi Takizawa: Open Air

Born in a small mountain village outside Nagano, Japan and now living in Santa Ana, California, Hiromi Takizawa investigates identity and the immigrant experience through themes of distance, time, space, and longing. Takizawa’s exhibition consists of site-specific glass and light installations and new sculptural works exploring the wonder and phenomena of nature, inspired by contrasting landscapes on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Takizawa has deftly pushed traditional notions of glassmaking to create delicate glass sculptures and immersive installations of neon lights, blown glass, and natural sunlight.

Closer Look: Intimate-Scale Sculpture from the Permanent Collection

Co-curated with exhibiting artist Hiromi Takizawa and the Orange County Museum of Art, this exhibition provides a focused look at small sculpture in the OCMA permanent collection. Selected for their innovative materials, playfulness in scale and function, and historic importance within the context of

significant art movements and artistic careers, each artwork in Closer Look is intended to be viewed at a close distance, providing the viewer with an intimate moment to make slow and careful observations about content and construction. Artists include Libby Black, Chris Burden, Vija Celmins, Judy Chicago, Joel Morrison, and Ken Price, among others. Admission to and parking at OCMA EXPAND-SANTA ANA are free.

Admission is free .

Hours : Thursday 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Friday – Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Location : South Coast Plaza Village, 1661 W. Sunflower Avenue, Santa Ana, CA 92704

Website: www.ocmaexpand.org