Tri-County Juried Exhibition
‘At the Edges’ at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art through June 19
School’s out at Westmont College, meaning it’s time for the enticing annual tri-county artist showcase at the school’s Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. Noted Tijuana-born artist Marcos Ramirez ERRE curated At the Edges: Tri-County Juried Exhibition, a rich, hip, varied, socially conscious aesthetic assortment.
Among the well-known area artists included are Inga Guzyte, who won first prize for “The Pearl Girl Savior,” which fuses cultures with guts and an uncanny eye, and assemblage artist Susan Tibbles, who was honored for a tragi-candied ode to Trayvon Martin.
Cooled irony and the altered everyday figure in Jim Bess’s minimal, retooled tools and in the guitar-strap chic of James Van Arsdale’s “Alive in the Present Moment” (such a timely message). Gail Pine combines a found photograph with a pressed leaf to wistful ends in a miniature work, while Jo Merit wields vivid colors and jagged edges in her color field painting gone gonzo. A reminder of our times seeps through in Jean-Marie Hamel’s rightly hero-worshipping “Brave Warrior,” a portrait of a nurse. This show is a ripe excuse to visit the idyllic campus and museum.
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