Current & Upcoming Exhibitions
Floral States
May 16 - August 2, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 16, 2026 (5 - 7 pm)
VITA Art Center
28 West Main Street, Ventura, CA, 93001
Exhibiting Artists: Penelope Gottleib, Dan McCleary, John Nava, Janet Neuwalder, Astrid Preston
This exhibition brings together a range of artistic responses to flowers as both subject and symbol. While flowers are often associated with beauty, they also suggest resilience, renewal, and persistence. In a time marked by uncertainty, these works consider what it means to turn toward forms that offer both visual pleasure and deeper meaning.
Each artist approaches the floral theme through a distinct lens, revealing the many ways flowers can hold strength, fragility, joy, and presence at once. Together, the exhibition makes space for beauty not as escape, but as a way of remaining attentive to vitality and possibility in difficult times.
Gallery Hours: Saturday/Sunday 12-4 pm
Why Paint a Landscape?
Selections from the Permanent Collection
March 20 - June 7, 2026
Long Beach Museum of Art
2300 E. Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA
In his book To See Is to Think: Looking at American Art, Joshua Taylor asks, “Why paint a landscape?” At first, the answer appears simple. However, throughout the long history of art, painting a landscape for its own sake rather than just as a background for another subject is relatively recent. Among the landscape paintings in the Museum’s permanent collection, several responses to Taylor’s question emerge, indicating motivations that go far beyond just pleasant wall decoration.
Featured Artists: Pat Berger , Maurice Braun , Darlene Campbell, Michiel Daniel , Gail Factor , Clara G. Force , Robyn Horn , William Hunter , Jacqueline Kamin , Ann Lofquist , Agnes Pelton, Astrid Preston , Bret Price , Carol Shaw-Sutton
Museum Hours:
Thursday - Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm
Monday - Wednesday: Closed
Now on Record: Selections by the
Collection Inventory Team
March 27 – July 12, 2026
Laguna Art Museum
307 Cliff Dr. Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Museum Hours:
Tuesday-Sunday: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Monday: Closed
In recent years Laguna Art Museum turned its attention inward to the care and understanding of its permanent collection. Nearly 6,000 works of art were inventoried through a collaborative effort led by staff and supported by dedicated volunteers. The work was careful and methodical and created several moments of discovery and excitement. As paintings, sculptures, photographs and works on paper were examined, cataloged and documented, many artworks were encountered that had not been closely looked at in years.
As part of the project, each participant was invited to select three to five artworks from the collection that had not been exhibited in the last five years. They were asked to respond personally and to share why a particular work resonated with them. These reflections form the exhibition Now on Record. The exhibition highlights individual taste and curiosity while revealing the remarkable breadth of the museum’s holdings. The result is a range of perspectives shaped by those who care for the collection and those who help bring it into view.
Now on Record also exists in dialogue with Latest and Greatest, on view in another gallery, which highlights recent acquisitions. While that presentation focuses on what is newly entering the collection, this exhibition brings renewed attention to works that have long been part of it but have not been recently on view. Together they reflect the evolving life of a museum collection, shaped both by new additions and by ongoing care, reconsideration and rediscovery.
