"TEN : Orange County" Group Exhibition closes at AR4T Gallery in Laguna Beach this Sunday. : Cartwheel Art

“TEN : Orange County” Group Exhibition closes at AR4T Gallery in Laguna Beach this Sunday.

Posted by Cindy Schwarzstein

Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow, a gallery that we have been following in Laguna Beach, who showcases contemporary art from various regions, with a focus on artists connected to the action sports culture, has a show that we highly recommend seeing before it closes this Sunday, March 22nd. The show is called “Ten : Orange County”. It is a group show featuring ten artists living and working in Orange County, California.

The participating artists are: Ben Brough , Chantal deFelice,  Jennie Cotterill , Jeff Gillette,  John Sollom,  Mark Oblow,  Shag,  Suzanne Walsh , Tim Hendricks  and Trace Mendoza. They were selected by AR4T, for their talents and the impact that they have made on the Orange County art community and beyond. Their pedigrees range from emerging to world-renowned. Together they are a great representation of the depth and power of the work being created in Orange County.

The Gallery hours are Wednesday- Sunday 12:00pm – 6:00pm. Their address is 1175 South Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.

If you miss this show however, Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow will be continuing the Ten series through their programming over the next several years. Their choice to feature local artists in the first presentation of Ten was based on that they are approaching their five year anniversary as a gallery in Laguna Beach, California, where they commented that they are “very proud to be a part of the exploding new contemporary arts movement here in Orange County”.

Following the details about the artists below, are photos of the work taken by Cartwheel Art Tours a couple of weekends ago. Also, check it out here for photos by Eric Minh Swenson from opening night.

More details about the artists (provided by AR4T Gallery):

Ben Brough (Costa Mesa) : Ben Brough is a self-taught American artist working in painting, illustration and collage. From the Big Island’s Kona coast and now living in Costa Mesa, California, his work is a visual balance of “Debris meets the Sea.” His minimalist collage work and spectacular figurative abstract paintings provide a view into Ben’s wide range of media and capture the significance of his Pacific and urban upbringings. With a take it or leave it attitude and a D.I.Y aesthetic, Ben guides us through a narrative of surf and skate culture mixed with a cartoonists’ wit and a visual slaughter of color and shapes. His art has been widely shown internationally, as well as in the United States and his commercial work has been seen throughout the action sports world within the last decade among surf company giants such as Volcom, O’Neill and others. His work is currently on tour with the Mana Films feature length documentary.

Chantal deFelice (San Clemente): Chantal deFelice is as accomplished an artist as she is comely. She is an admirer of vegetables, butterfly guardian and champion of cnidarians. She’s been known to frequent beds of kelp and gently decomposed marine creatures – camera & magnifying glass in hand. Chantal works in a variety of media, including video, photography, painting, woodwork and ink drawing. Her subject matter is an analysis of nostalgic urban landscapes, analog technology and the tiny unseen universes in natural artifacts. She was raised in Oregon, graduated from Laguna College of Art and Design and is now dwelling in San Clemente.

Jeff Gillette (Costa Mesa): Jeff Gillette is from the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal in the late 1980s, he moved to Southern California to get out of the snow. In 2001 Jeff achieved an MFA in Drawing and Painting from Cal State Fullerton. A major portion of Jeff’s output is paintings of Third-World Slums where he often adds a small element of the First-World into the settings of Urban Blight. Inspiration for these “Slumscapes” comes from first-hand experience of the worst shanty-towns in the world, most often in India. Following along the theme of worst-case scenarios, Jeff’s other work shows Post-Apocalyptic Debris Fields, Landfills, and detritus cluttered Deserts. The Juxtaposition of Disney themes and characters into these dystopias conveys best his view on present-day social, economical and philosophical contradictions and absurdities.

Jennie Cotterill (Huntington Beach): Jennie Cotterill is an artist and musician based in Southern California. After leaving the Midwest in 2001, she received her BFA and MFA in Illustration from California State University, Long Beach. Her art draws inspiration from swap meets, cartoons and astrophysics. Jennie has worked in television, apparel, animation, community outreach, and taught Drawing and Illustration at Long Beach State. She also is a member of the all girl rock band “Bad Cop Bad Cop,” recently signed by Fat Wreck Chords, and tours across the US and Europe.

John Sollom (La Mirada): John Sollom was named OC Weekly’s Best Visual Artist of 2012. John graduated from Long Beach State with a Bachelor of Fine Art. His current work mixes bits of figurative, minimalism, and a bit of abstraction with pop graphics.
Mark Oblow (Costa Mesa): Born and raised on Oahu, Hawaii and sponsored for both surfing and skateboarding in the 80′s, Oblow’s creative spark was clear when he picked-up the camera and had his first paid photograph published in Thrasher Magazine by age 14. An acute eye for photography, fashion, graphic design, art and penning poetry daily, a natural trajectory towards utilizing all of his tools to create his own artwork has been a constant thread throughout his life. Drawing inspiration from connections with people, Oblow turned his photographs into multi-layered, multi-media pieces, continuously exploring and expanding and essentially immortalizing the people he photographs into stark and beautiful finished pieces. Published in books by Tom Adler to David Carson with openings in California, Sao Paulo, Brazil and Japan. Oblow currently lives in Southern California.

Shag (Lemon Heights): Shag is a painter, designer and illustrator working in Southern California. His distinctive artistic style draws from commercial illustration from the past five decades, but the work is imbued with an attitude and sly sense of humor which is unmistakably of our time. Solo exhibitions of Shag’s work have been held in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and South America. The paintings themselves celebrate consumerism and consumption on vividly colored, sharply rendered panels, the characters drink, smoke and eat in lavish, stylish surroundings. But Shag sees the visuals of his work as window-dressing or stage scenery. He is more concerned with the themes and narratives in the paintings, and the meanings a viewer might find when looking at a piece of Shag art.

Suzanne Walsh (Santa Ana): Suzanne Walsh aka Ashes In Orange Peels is a writer, photographer, designer and fine artist, passionate about applying what she knows to the business of art. She is the director of saltfineart in Laguna beach as well as contributor to a number of Orange County based arts organizations. Ongoing personal projects through her website AshesInOrangePeels.com include Together Magazine and AIOP Recordings.

Tim Hendricks (Costa Mesa): Tim Hendricks is a second-generation artist, taught by his father at a young age. Tim has been tattooing since his mid-teens in the early nineties, beginning with the Hispanic hoodlums and punk rockers in his neighborhood. Tim’s lust for life and continued pursuit of knowledge, growth and travel combined with his background of a lengthy tattoo career have shaped his style of art into something described as unique and diverse. Tim spends most of his time drawing, skateboarding and surfing away his days and nights, and at the moment is working on new pieces involving pin-ups, painting large scale, and using mixed media. Tim previously appeared on the TV show Miami Ink and can currently be seen on NY Ink.

Trace Mendoza (Fullerton): Trace Mendoza grew up drawing and painting in Orange County, CA, where his influences began with skateboard graphics, punk rock, cartoons and various aesthetics in art history. After studying illustration (with an emphasis in drawing and painting) at Laguna College of Art and Design, his range of picture making extrapolated with printmaking and painting large scale murals. Trace now shows frequently in galleries while pursuing a career as a freelance illustrator and muralist.