Sub-Urbane Art

The opening of Rio Hondo College's Art Gallery exhibit Sub-Urbane on Sept. 14 was considered a huge success with all four of the artists, whose artwork is on display, spoke candidly about their work which reflects their views of suburban city life and its separation from nature. The talk was presented to a captivated audience filled with Rio Hondo students and was followed by a reception where students mingled with the artists.

Artist Lynn Aldridge spoke about her piece titled Baptistry, 2003. According to Aldridge, the artist wanted to start with what's ordinary in Southern Californian's lives.

She bought a book on pool designs and gold leaf painted everything on each page except for where there was a pool or window.

"I thought a window would let light into the space, water would represent cleansing and renewal. I was thinking of the archaic notion of baptism, something cathartic for our culture. We are so busy and distracted that we barely have that longing for the sacred anymore. It came from a desire to have the viewer slow down and get off the fast track,." Aldridge said.

Artist Amir Zaki discussed his series of sprinkler pieces titled Sprinkler Green, 1998, Sprinkler, Chkchkchk, 1998, Sprinkler, Gold Blue, 1998 and Sprinkler Yellow, 1998. The art pieces are painted portraits of sprinklers with no lawn in sight. Zaki stated that he purposely left out the lawn in order to show an ordinary object standing alone separated from its normal use.

Brian Andrews discussed his art piece titled Tools for Survival, 2002. The artist portrayed his ideas on suburbia through a two channel DVD installation. The images on the monitors are that of a fireplace and a mounted dog in front of it and the other, a BBQ with smoke swirling above the grill. A mounted dog sits beside the BBQ. The artist's focus was on man's best friend.

Artist Kristen S. Wilkins spoke about her art, which mirrors the memories of her grandmother who passed away.

She contemplated on the life of her grandmother and her memories were brought to life through her art. Untitled (grandma's lamp), 2005 and Untitled (the bedroom mirror), 2005. Both are made of light jet print, plexi and sintra.

"The memories made me think of the American dream," Wilkins said.

Artist Nikko Mueller focused his attention on the arial view of Los Angeles. His art pieces titled Rosedale Cemetery, 2005, Avenue E. Palmdale, 2004 and Foothill Plaza, 2004 courtesy of Angles Gallery are all made with acrylic on canvas over panel. After having flown into Los Angles from the east coast, the artist observed how spread out Southern California is as compared to his hometown of Philadelphia, "Flying into Los Angeles there's not a whole lot of tree tops. When you get that overhead view it becomes really noticeable," Mueller Said.

Art Gallery director Sheila Lynch was drawn to these art pieces because of her own childhood. Lynch grew up in a new developing Southern California city.

"I was raised in an environment where there was new construction all the time. The town where I went to highshcool was in a brand new community called Mission Viejo. It was a tiny place then and the fact that hillsides change into housing tracks is very interesting to me. I have to admit that it is also kind of sad when you see a beautiful canyon turn into a housing track," Lynch said.

There is also a student gallery where students have the opportunity to show their work according to Arts Dean Joanna Downey.

"We usually do three professional shows per semester and there's always a gallery talk the first week of the show. We're here in the basement of the B Building until we get our new Arts Building. It's kind of a hidden treasure and we hope that students will discover us and come and wander around. The talks are a great way to better understand the artwork but at the same time we're open during the run of the show," Downey said.

The Sub-Urbane art exhibit will run through Oct. 4 and is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. For more information log onto to Rio Hondo college's website at www.riohondo.edu.