When I moved to Laguna, I realized there weren’t that many galleries really specializing in Laguna painters. So I decided to make that my niche. —Paul Jillson   I walk into Pacific Edge Gallery at midday on a weekday. Two collectors come inside looking to buy or commission a painting. Paul Jillson, the owner, is jumping from one phone call to the next. Business seems to be going well, and by all accounts it is. A week before, the gallery commemorated 25 years in Laguna Beach with the opening of an anniversary show featuring work by all of the artists hand-picked by Paul: Maria Bertran, …

As a famous Mark Twain quote about Irvine goes ... Just kidding. There are no famous quotes about Irvine, which isn't to mean there have been no viable creative responses to the Irvine experience. Far from it. Just see the work of recent Mark Twain Prize recipient, Irvine-born Will Ferrell. Or better yet, see Laguna Art Museum’s latest exhibition, Best Kept Secret: UCI and the Development of Contemporary Art in Southern California, 1964-1971. Decades before Irvine bloated into the tract-home-parking-lot-apartment-complex-business-park flatland of evenly-spaced boulevards and toll roads that …

“Gallery” is a rather subjective word—a space where art is shown. Ideally, of course, it’s a space where your mind gets blown. Sometimes you seek out this effect at a museum, or a gallery that specializes in a genre that has blown your mind in the past; other times, you just so happen upon this effect. Maybe a song comes on the radio and your car becomes the gallery. Maybe you stumble out of South Coast Plaza and into Noguchi’s permanent gallery of stone: California Scenario. Or maybe you run into the Laguna Coffee Company on your way to work, only to find yourself standing at the counter, …

In the Laguna Art Museum’s main gallery, you find yourself standing before “What is Sculpture? Akari from the Venice Biennale,” one of the exhibits that’s part of the current “Noguchi: California Legacy” show, and you could swear something shifted in the Earth’s gravitational field. And if not just for you, then for the Akari light sculptures as well. And if not just for you and the glowing/floating lanterns, then for the entire museum. But the Akari, which means “illumination” in Japanese, are what connect you with the illusion of weightlessness (a quality implied by the word’s definition), …

Sandstone Gallery, the oldest on North Laguna’s historic Gallery Row, celebrated 30 years this month since it was first established in 1981 by 10 women from the then-Laguna Beach School of Art (now the Laguna College of Art and Design). At a time when men by and large were calling the shots in the art world, the opening of an all-women’s gallery was groundbreaking, and to the surprise of many—not excluding the women’s instructor, Sueo Serisawa, who told them it wouldn’t even make it three months—the gallery is still open in the 21st century, still relevant, and still pushing boundaries. One …

[Editor's note: To read Part One of Time Traveling Through the Laguna Art Museum, click here.] Wandering down to the bottom floor of the Laguna Art Museum, Landscape and Figuration from the Collection: Early to Mid-Twentieth Century confronts you from all angles, luring you into the midst of a half-century-long transformation of the arts in the Southwest. Delving into a multitude of aesthetic movements—tonalism, impressionism, synchronism, regionalism, social-realism, modernism—the exhibition seems to articulate the artist’s ever-adaptive passion to create new realms of self-discovery, …

Wandering the three exhibitions on display through May 15 at the Laguna Art Museum -- Extract; Landscape and Figuration; and Brad Coleman: Reproductions -- it would be difficult not to be moved in some unexpected way. Unless your eyes are closed. Extract: Developing Exhibitions Inspired by the Collection occupies the central floor. Focusing on underrepresented artists, Extract offers a motley collection of small, one-person shows of interest for future exhibitions. The works span more than 80 years, dipping into various art movements and counter-movements, from the dynamic symmetry of Elanor …

Last month, the 210 Ar4t Space opened up the show "Futureland." The concept was simple: 17 views of the future through the eyes of graphic designers who were given free reign to communicate their vision, the only specification being that the idea be materialized in the form of a 30 x 40” Tomorrowland-style poster. In this video, shot and edited by Laguna Beach Patch contributor Carly Layne, gallery director Torrey Cook talks about the exhibit, her ideas behind it, and her views on art in general. Music in the video provided by the following bands: Chasing Kings - www.chasingkings.com The New …

Drawing inspiration from cubism, fauvism, and minimalism—from the colors of Paul Gauguin and Milton Avery, to the shapes of sculptor Thomas Houseago, to the line of Egon Schile—Colombian-American fine artist America Martin paints in a style and voice all her own, redefining the term “melting pot.” Infused in her work are elements from a multitude of art movements, ideologies and philosophies, all synergistically working together to create dreamy, spirited, emotionally honest and charged depictions of lives being lived. You can discover for yourself America Martin’s work, showing through the …

Whether transported to a time when the human mind was more in tune with nature—where human history meets biosphere meets geosphere in Lynn Welker’s abstract narrative paintings—or plunged into the recesses of your own memories by way of Elyse Katz’s mixed-media abstracts of the English countryside, you’re likely to experience some sort of sensorial immersion. Open for over 29 years (30 years this fall), Sandstone is the oldest gallery on the city’s historic Gallery Row. It showcases an eclectic selection of contemporary abstract fine art by some of the most established California artists. …

“Mirror, Mirror,” an exhibition at Salt Fine Art featuring new paintings from Luis Cornejo and Andriy Halashyn, is certain to do at least one of the following: make you laugh, feel sad or confused, point, stare, and reflect on your priorities. You might also relive childhood memories of Disneyland, Super Mario Brothers, WWII documentaries, playing in the dirt, or drawing bunny ears on serious faces in fashion magazines. In other words, the paintings do their job—they enthrall your imagination into a rich chaos of emotions and ideas. Gallery owner Carla Tesak Arzente, born and raised in El …

Since Townley Gallery opened in 2006, its mix of contemporary visual art—including paintings, jewelry, photography and sculpture—has proved a success. And judging from the current “Mode of Consciousness” show, it has another winner on its  hands. Granted, “Mode of Consciousness” is partly made up of work by founder and director Shane Townley, whose mesmerizing, ethereal landscapes are reason enough to stop by for a visit. Take Silent Marsh, which appears lit up in the gallery’s front window. Townley adroitly captures the mix of sky and fog, the fog with the plants poking out of the water and …

JoAnne Artman, a 30-year Laguna Beach resident, had owned galleries in other cities, but she had always wanted to have a space in her home town. Two years ago, her dream became reality when she set up shop on Coast Highway. "When the space opened up, I was thrilled and nervous," says Artman. "It was my best decision!" To celebrate her second anniversary, the JoAnne Artman Gallery is currently exhibiting Because the World Is Round ... It Turns Me On ..., which features a kaleidoscope of pieces that are all infused with a veneration for "pop" art and the lyrics of the Beatles. On view through …

The mood was jovial at the JoAnne Artman Gallery on Dec. 2, mere moments before Laguna Beach artist Barbara Berk began her performance piece Circling. Outside, a crowd gathered around the gallery's large front window. Berk seemed to embrace the environment, the space and the audience as she walked around meeting people. Then, without missing a beat, she stepped in front of a graphite-colored wall. The music and lights were cut off, and, for a moment, Berk disappeared. A bundle of cord appeared, glowing with a faint blue hue. The gallery buzzed with street noise. Berk began to unravel the …