3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Laguna Art Museum taps Ana Teresa Fernández to highlight Art and Nature
Laguna Art Museum has commissioned Ana Teresa Fernández to supply the headlining exhibit for its annual Art and Nature festivities this fall.
Fernández, a Mexican-born, San Francisco-based artist, will produce a project to be titled 'SOS,' or, in this case, 'Save Our Seas.'
The multi-phased activation will include a structural element called 'An Ocean in a Drop,' as well as a photography station, 'We Are Water,' to be displayed with the work. A collection of 800 circular mirrors will be incorporated into the featured exhibit.
'Selecting the commissioned artist for Art and Nature is always a meaningful challenge,' Laguna Art Museum Executive Director Julie Perlin Lee said in a statement accompanying the announcement. 'It is a moment to invite audiences to engage deeply with pressing global issues through the lens of creativity.
'Ana Teresa Fernández's work is bold, poetic and urgent. 'SOS' will create space for contemplation while reminding us that change begins with individual and collective action.'
Art and Nature, which has coupled artistic expression with environmental awareness for a dozen years, returns to take over the museum from Nov. 1 through Nov. 10.
The museum will continue to bring temporary art installations to the beach. On Sunday, Nov. 9, the museum is planning to have 800 volunteers participate in the use of Fernández's mirrored artwork to form shapes at Main Beach, which has become a trendy spot to bring art into public view.
The beach served as a prime location to have hundreds take in 'Ocean Ions,' an interpretative dance collaboration between commissioned artist Christian Sampson and the Volta Collective.
In 2023, Cristopher Cichocki brought 'Rising Inversion' to the sand along the hillside at Main Beach Park. The biomorphic light painting flashed a light across a phosphorescent surface, offering up a turquoise glow not unlike the phenomenon of bioluminescence.
Museum officials have also decided to bring back the upcycled couture fashion show, which debuted last year. It will serve as a kick-off event to Art and Nature on Saturday, Nov. 1. There will also be a community block party the following day.
After Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley secured a $50,000 grant for the museum, the local art institution will offer free admission for the entire month of November.
Foley, who is the vice chair of the Board of Supervisors and represents the Fifth District, called artistic expression 'the name of the game' in Laguna Beach.
'The grant, in part, funds the museum's 13th annual Art and Nature program, … connecting more than 20,000 members of the public with thought-provoking art installations along Main Beach,' Foley said. 'I look forward to thousands of residents and visitors enjoying this one-of-a-kind — and free — visual experience.'
The Art and Nature programming will continue into the new year with two indoor exhibitions. 'Silence and Solitude: Conrad Buff and the Landscapes of the American Southwest' will display the work of Buff, a modernist painter, from Sept. 20 through Jan. 20.
'Eternal Construction: Photographic Perspectives on Southern California's Built Environment' will bring together artwork from the museum's permanent collection that, in part, will foster conversations around development, land use and urbanization. Those pieces will be part of an exhibit that will be on view at the museum through Jan. 5.
