Laguna Art Museum's 12th Annual Art + Nature Reveals New Exhibitions And Events

Laguna Art Museum has announced the return of its 12th Annual Art + Nature, a vibrant celebration that explores the relationship between art and the natural world.

Starting the week of November 1, this dynamic event brings together thousands of attendees and continues to be one of LAM's marquee events. Art + Nature cultivates a deeper connection between art, community and the environment, encouraging reflection on the world around us.

"The 12th annual Art + Nature exemplifies the ongoing dialogue between art and the natural environment, reinforcing our museum's commitment to preserving California's creative experience," said Julie Perlin Lee, Executive Director of Laguna Art Museum. “It's an invitation to imagine how art can inspire environmental awareness and positive change.”

This year's Art + Nature will feature a full schedule of exhibitions and community events, including:

Ocean Ions by Christian Sampson:

This year's Art + Nature featured artist, Christian Sampson, presents Ocean Ions, a captivating installation exploring the intersections of light, color theory and spirituality. Installed in Laguna Beach's Heisler Park and Main Beach, Sampson's work reflects how ions, charged particles in the environment, influence both nature and human perception.

Jay DeFeo: Trees: September 21, 2024-January 12, 2025

Jay DeFeo: Trees presents rarely seen drawings from the artist's Tree series (1953-54) and her later photographs of trees from the 1970s. These works, which span decades, showcase DeFeo's artistic evolution and love for nature. Jay DeFeo: Trees is organized by Laguna Art Museum and guest curated by Rochelle Steiner. Major support for the exhibition was provided by Elie Weaver and Hilton Weinberg, and The Segerstrom Foundation. Generous support was provided by The Jay DeFeo Foundation. Additional support was provided by Barbara and Tad Danz. Major support for the publication was provided by Nancy Dustin Wall Moure. Generous support was provided by The Jay DeFeo Foundation.

Fred Tomaselli: Second Nature:

This exhibition highlights the celebrated work of Fred Tomaselli, a Southern California native known for his intricate fusion of art, nature and contemporary culture. Tomaselli's work is on display from October 6, 2024 to February 2, 2025. Fred Tomaselli: Second Nature is organized by Laguna Art Museum and guest curated by Rochelle Steiner. Major support for the exhibition provided by Elie Weaver and Hilton Weinberg; generous support provided by The Offield Family Foundation. Generous support for the publication provided by James Cohan, New York.

Event Highlights:

Saturday, November 2, Art + Nature will kick off with Art + Nature: Upcycled Couture, an elevated fashion show that brings together the creative talents of students and faculty with the impactful missions of LAM's community partners. The runway will feature one-of-a-kind sustainable and upcycled designs, which artfully interpret and illustrate the partner organizations' missions, blending sustainability with high fashion. This exciting showcase highlights the powerful synergy between art, nature and our community.

Saturday, November 9, the day will begin at 10:00 a.m. with Art + Nature: Portrait of Place. This community art project is led by Laguna-local artist and scientist Oriana Poindexter, who blends art and science to showcase the ocean's beauty. In celebration of LAM's Art + Nature initiative, the collaborative artwork will embody a "portrait of place" by using historic photo techniques to create a portrait of the marine ecosystem of Laguna Beach. Participants will study ocean specimens with Oriana and collaboratively create detailed artworks that celebrate underwater life. This project provides a special chance to contribute to a collective view of the ocean and deepen connections with it.

Also on November 9, Christian Sampson will debut Ocean Ions with a captivating performance on Main Beach at 4:00 p.m., blending movement and sculpture. Sampson's vision includes vibrant circular forms, animated by sunlight and the graceful movements of dancers from the Volta Collective Volta Collective, choreographed by Mamie Green in collaboration with Christian, draped in costumes painted by Ariel Dill. This immersive collaboration will bring art, nature and performance together in a visually stunning and dynamic display.

On Sunday, November 10, Laguna Art Museum invites guests for Art + Nature: Free Museum Day! From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. admission is completely free, giving guests the chance to explore the Art + Nature interior exhibitions. A variety of engaging art activities designed for all ages, refreshments, giveaways and guided tours led by LAM's team of docents will also be available. 

Art & Nature 2024 Events Schedule:

• Saturday, November 2: 

  • 5 - 8 p.m.: Art + Nature: Upcycled Couture

• Sunday, November 3: 

  • 1 p.m.: Live! at the Museum

• Thursday, November 7: 

  • 10 a.m.: Ocean Ions outdoor installation opening

  • 5 p.m.: First Thursdays Art Walk

• Saturday, November 9: 

  • 10 a.m. – Art + Nature: Portrait of Place a community Art Workshop led by Artist Oriana Poindexter

  • 4 p.m. – Ocean Ions performance

• Sunday, November 10:

  • 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. – Free Museum Day 

• Monday, November 11:

  • 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. – Drawing for the Planet Art Workshop

About the Artists

Christian Sampson- Christian Sampson was born in Bradenton, Florida. 1974. He earned a BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design in 1998 and an MFA in 2004  from Hunter College, NYC. His works have been exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France and Centre Pompidou-Metz, Lorraine, France, Dorsky Foundation NYC, Brand Library, Glendale, California.  Sarasota Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida.  Southfirst Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; Turn Gallery, New York, New York; Essex Flowers Gallery, New York, NY; Jackie Klempay (Situations US) Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. Sampson lives and works in Los Angeles, California and Sarasota. His large glass site-specific artwork “Sol Lucet Omnibus” is in the permanent public collection of the city of New York.

Christian Sampson uses light as a medium to create site specific installations of color, form, projections and reflections that create illusions that oscillate between dimensional boundaries. His installations are created in response to the architectural space–from museum galleries, to public gardens, to performance spaces, to intimate settings. While his installations align themselves with the minimal visual  language of the California Light and Space Movement artists and can be linked to early 20th century cinematic animation and handmade effects of filmmaking experiments, his knowledge and use of contemporary technologies positions his work in the present and future.

Jay DeFeo (1929–1989) was born in Hanover, New Hampshire and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her BA in 1950 and MA in 1951 from the University of California, Berkeley. Over the course of a career spanning four decades, DeFeo experimented with a range of materials, exploring painting, sculpture, drawing, collage, photocopying and photography, often in unorthodox ways.

DeFeo was a pivotal figure in the historic Beat community of artists, poets and jazz musicians in San Francisco. Her first major solo exhibition was held at the Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, in 1959 and the same year she was included in Dorothy Miller's historic exhibition Sixteen Americans at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Championed on the West Coast by curator Walter Hopps, DeFeo was included in group exhibitions at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles and had a solo exhibition there in 1960. She completed her monumental work The Rose in 1966 after laboring over it for eight years. First exhibited in 1969 at the Pasadena Art Museum, the work was subsequently installed at the San Francisco Art Institute, before being acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1995. In 2012 the Whitney organized Jay DeFeo: A Retrospective, which premiered at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Her work has been the subject of many exhibitions and publications, including Jay DeFeo: The Ripple Effect, Le Consortium, Dijon, France in 2018, which traveled to Aspen Art Museum and Undersoul: Jay DeFeo, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California in 2019.

Throughout her career, DeFeo taught at the San Francisco Art Institute; California College of the Arts, Oakland; and Mills College, Oakland, where she was tenured faculty from 1981 to 1989.  DeFeo's works are in the collections of many museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Menil Collection, Houston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Tate Modern, London; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Fred Tomaselli was born in California (Santa Monica, 1956) and has lived in Brooklyn since 1985. Solo exhibitions include Fred Tomaselli at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha (2019); After California at the Oceanside Museum of Art (2018); Keep Looking: Fred Tomaselli's Birds at the Toledo Museum of Art (2016); Focus at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2014); The Times at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor (2014) and the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, California (2015); Monsters of Paradise at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh (2004); New Paintings at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo (2003); and Gravity's Rainbow at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris (1999). The survey exhibition Fred Tomaselli opened at Aspen Art Museum in 2009 and toured to the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery in Sarasota Springs, New York and the Brooklyn Museum in 2010.

Tomaselli has participated in international exhibitions—including the Biennale of Sydney (2010), Prospect.1 New Orleans (2008), the fifth SITE Santa Fe and the Whitney Biennial (both 2004)—and his works are in the collections of museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

For more information about Art + Nature and Laguna Art Museum, visit lagunaartmuseum.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.