These artists give papers pictorial permanence

Artists in The Collage Lab, a Buenaventura Art Association offshoot started in 2014 to experiment in collage and mixed media, will show new works in “Ephemera,” a July 5-Aug. 31 exhibition in Studio 99 at Bell Arts Factory, 432 N. Ventura Ave., #99, Ventura.

Participating members — Janet Black, Karen Hoffberg, Darlene Roker, Wendy Winet, Janna Valenzuela, Karen L. Brown, Joyce Lombard, Dorothea Heger and Tasia Erickson — will be on hand for First Friday receptions from 6-9 p.m. July 5 and Aug. 2. The group meets monthly to set creative challenges, share ideas and results, demonstrate techniques, and occasionally to visit galleries.

Collage is from the French verb coller, to glue — a pictorial art form that can include paper and many other materials. Ephemera is defined as “items of memorabilia, often written or printed on paper, originally meant to be discarded after use but that have become collectibles.”

The displayed works will incorporate many such items, including postage stamps, handwritten letters, packaging and wrapping paper. Obviously, collectibility is in the eye of the collage artist.

Many group members are not primarily collage artists, but accomplished printmakers, painters, quilters, photographers, weavers, graphic designers, encaustic painters and watercolorists. Some pieces in the exhibit result from challenges by individual members to use a particular material, color, theme, size, etc.; others are works independently created by the artists. Subject matters vary widely, as do techniques.

They also assembled $10 make-your-own-collage packets, for those who’d like to try the fascinating medium. The packets include several kinds of ephemera in different combinations collected by Collage Lab artists.

A collection of the group members’ previous collage artworks is available online for $10.50 at https://www.blurb.com/b/11624966-the-collage-lab and some will be at the gallery.

Buenaventura Art Association, this year celebrating the 70th anniversary of its 1954 founding, operates Studio 99 at 432 N. Ventura Ave., which is open noon-4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and has an outlet at Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts and a display at SpiceTopia, a Ventura retail store.

Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts, at 1559 Spinnaker Drive, Suite 106, in Ventura Harbor, is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. seven days a week. SpiceTopia, at 576 E. Main St., is also open daily, but its hours vary.

To learn more about BAA and its programs, call the gallery at 805-648-1235 or visit buenaventuraartassociation.org.

Beatrice Wood, 1922, Photograph by Jesse Tarbox Beals, Courtesy Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts.

Kevin Wallace, Founding Director of the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, will offer a free Powerpoint presentation on Saturday, July 6th at 4 pm, in conjunction with the closing reception for the Center’s American Ceramic Society exhibition.

Beatrice Wood was part of the Dada Movement and, in sharing her story with visitors at the Center, the question regularly comes up – What is DADA?

It is not an easy question to answer, largely because the artists refused to be defined or categorized. It was also an international movement with a different group of Dadaists in Zurich pursuing somewhat different agendas than those in New York City, or with later incarnations in Berlin and Paris.

At its heart, Dada was an anti-establishment movement created in reaction to World War I, with artists believing that a civilization that embraced such a senseless and tragic war needed to be reinvented. The artists did this by exploring new approaches to art, music, dance, fashion, entertainment, and language itself. The Dada Movement was hugely influential, and its impact is obvious in contemporary art today. While there was no official end to the movement, it segued into Surrealism, with many of the same artists going on to be associated with that art movement.

In his lecture, Wallace will discuss the fascinating artists who were part of the Dada Movement, the philosophies they embraced, and the works they created. It promises to be a fun, educational and thought-provoking event.

The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts is located at 8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Road in Upper Ojai.

Shifting Dimensions, Torn paper collage, Janet Black

Artists in The Collage Lab, a Buenaventura Art Association offshoot started in 2014 to experiment in collage and mixed media, will show new works in “Ephemera,” a July 5-Aug. 31 exhibition in Studio 99 at Bell Arts Factory in Ventura.

Participating members — Janet Black, Karen Hoffberg, Darlene Roker, Wendy Winet, Janna Valenzuela, Karen L. Brown, Joyce Lombard, Dorothea Heger and Tasia Erickson — will be on hand for First Friday receptions from 6-9 p.m. July 5 and Aug. 2. The group meets monthly to set creative challenges, share ideas and results, demonstrate techniques, and occasionally to visit galleries.

Collage is from the French verb coller, to glue — a pictorial art form that can include paper and many other materials. Ephemera is defined as “items of memorabilia, often written or printed on paper, originally meant to be discarded after use but that have become collectibles.”

The displayed works will incorporate many such items, including postage stamps, handwritten letters, packaging and wrapping paper. Obviously, collectibility is in the eye of the collage artist.

Many group members are not primarily collage artists, but accomplished printmakers, painters, quilters, photographers, weavers, graphic designers, encaustic painters and watercolorists. Some pieces in the exhibit result from challenges by individual members to use a particular material, color, theme, size, etc.; others are works independently created by the artists. Subject matters vary widely, as do techniques.

They also assembled $10 make-your-own-collage packets, for those who’d like to try the fascinating medium. The packets include several kinds of ephemera in different combinations collected by Collage Lab artists.

A collection of the group members’ previous collage artworks is available online for $10.50 at https://www.blurb.com/b/11624966-the-collage-lab and some will be at the gallery.

Buenaventura Art Association, this year celebrating the 70th anniversary of its 1954 founding, operates Studio 99 at 432 N. Ventura Ave., which is open noon-4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and has an outlet at Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts and a display at SpiceTopia, a Ventura retail store.

Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts, at 1559 Spinnaker Drive, Suite 106, in Ventura Harbor, is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. seven days a week. SpiceTopia, at 576 E. Main St., is also open daily, but its hours vary.

For more about BAA and its programs, call the gallery at 805-648-1235 or visit buenaventuraartassociation.org.

Sacred Spring, Delphi by Gerd Koch. Courtesy of BAA

A free, four-day exhibition at the Museum of Ventura County next month will celebrate seven colorful decades of cultural contributions by members of the Buenaventura Art Association.

Visitors can enjoy “Retrospective: BAA’s 70th Anniversary Celebration” from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. June 13-16 in the Martin V. and Martha K. Smith Pavilion. A reception from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, June 15 will feature awarding an Honorary Lifetime Membership to a couple of current members for service to the group and the area arts community, plus a presentation about recent BAA accomplishments.

Distinguished top-tier BAA artists, both current and past, and their collectors are lending pieces for the show, which will include artworks by Gerd Koch, Norman Kirk, Dorothy Hunter, Hiroko Yoshimoto, Gail Pidduck, Len Poteshman, Rex Kochel, Don Fay, Margy Gates, Carlos Grasso and more than 20 others, many of them BAA Honorary Lifetime Members.

The association’s roots date to the April 1954 founding with city help of the Ventura Arts and Crafts Association to promote interest in and participation by schoolchildren, adults, and professional and amateur artists. The group arranged art classes, exhibits and an annual Ventura arts festival. Initial endeavors also included drama, dance, literature, minerals and rocks, and science as well as painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography and weaving.

A formal meeting a month later at the Pierpont Inn set the association’s structure, leadership and goals, and work began on bylaws and articles of incorporation. The first general meeting was Sept. 24, 1954, and that year 76 people paid dues to join. Charter members paid $5 that first year, then general memberships were $3 a year. Students paid $1, and a lifetime membership cost $100.

The association currently operates Studio 99 in Bell Arts Factory, 432 N. Ventura Ave., downtown Ventura, and Harbor Village Gallery & Gifts, 1559 Spinnaker Drive, Suite 106, in Ventura Harbor. For more about BAA and its programs, phone the gallery at 805-648-1235 or visit buenaventuraartassociation.org.

The County of Ventura’s Older Americans Month art exhibit will be unveiled next week. The exhibit, which will feature artwork produced by older adults in the county, is a collaboration between the Ventura County Area Agency on Aging (VCAAA), the Optimal Aging committee of the VCAAA’s Advisory Council, the Ventura County Arts Council (VCAC), and County of Ventura Arts & Culture. Approximately 50 residents from across the county registered their artwork for the show.

The exhibit will open next Monday (May 13) at the County of Ventura’s Hall of Administration Atrium Gallery (800 S. Victoria Ave. in Ventura). The Hall of Administration is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The artwork will be displayed through the end of June.

The opening reception will be at the Hall of Administration next Wednesday (May 15) from 5-7 p.m. In addition to viewing the works of art and the potential opportunity to meet some of the artists involved, there are plans for an intergenerational poetry reading. Light refreshments will be provided.