Landscape Through the Eyes of Abstraction

On View February 18-June 19 2022

"With the natural world rapidly changing around us, and the fabric of our landscape evolving, our exhibiting artists provide important examinations of our surroundings, making this a timely moment to think more critically about what the earth is and how we live with it.”

- Lynn Farrand, Senior Curator, CMATO

Landscape Through the Eyes of Abstraction invites modern contemplation of the concept of landscape art – one of the most popular artistic genres with a long and established history.

Through an array of mediums, internationally renowned artists Luciana Abait, Kim Abeles, Charles Arnoldi, Laddie John Dill, Cynthia Ona Innis and Claudia Parducci explore the possibilities of landscape from a conceptual perspective, offering a provocative and inspired take on a subject that has remained a fixture in the history of art, stretching the boundaries of traditional landscape art.

Luciana Abait

Abait is a visual artist working with mixed media and installation to create site-specific work focusing on climate change and mysterious landscapes to explore themes of human presence and absence. Her artwork has been featured both nationally and globally, with solo shows at Mackey Gallery in Houston, the Miami-Dade Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles International Airport, Grados de Arte Contemporaneo in Buenos Aires and Taikoo Place in Hong Kong. Abait is currently a resident artist of 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, Calif.

Kim Abeles

Abeles’ installations and community projects cross disciplines and media to explore biography, geography, and environment. Experimentation with unusual materials and new processes are central to her art. She has created artwork in conjunction with a unique range of collaborators such as the Bureau of Automotive Repair, Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project, California Science Center, natural history museums in California and Colorado, and the Lakota Indians of South Dakota. Abeles received her M.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of California, Irvine, and is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Northridge. Her work is in public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art Library Collection, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Berkeley Art Museum; Sandwell Community History and Archives, UK; and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, Richmond, Virginia.

Charles Arnoldi

In a boldly graphic and colorful aesthetic, abstract painter and sculptor Arnoldi employs a wide range of abstract visual language, from hard-edged geometric compositions to fluid, lyrical linework. He often incorporates tree branches and plywood in creating dynamic arrangements which simultaneously suggest architecture, Modernist painting and tropical plant life. Arnoldi has been widely exhibited in the U.S. and abroad, including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Museum of Modern Art. His work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., LACMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, among others.

Laddie John Dill

A central figure in the California Light and Space movement, Dill has been crafting light and earthy materials like concrete, glass, sand and metal into luminous sculptures, wall pieces, and installations since the 1970s.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1968, Dill worked with artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein, and in his pursuit of alternatives to painting, was inspired by environmental artists such as Robert Smithson and Dennis Oppenheim. His work is owned by many private collectors and can be viewed in the permanent collections of more than 25 museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. Dill has been recognized with Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships, and has lectured at UCLA, UC Irvine, Art Center in Pasadena, Otis Art Institute, and numerous universities and art institutions across the United States.

Cynthia Ona Innis

Innis is a visual artist, currently living and working in Berkeley, Calif. She received a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and a MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Her mixed media paintings are included in the permanent collections of the San Jose Museum of Art, the collection of the US State Department Art in Embassies, the Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Among awards she has received are two James D. Phelan Awards, one for printmaking and another for painting, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship and residency, a Kala Fellowship and residency and a 2014 Sustainable Arts Foundation Award. Innis has been a visiting art professor at the San Francisco Art Institute, the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University and the Maine College of Art.

Claudia Parducci

Parducci’s work spans a multi-disciplinary practice that includes drawing, painting, and sculpture. Since receiving her MFA from CalArts in 2006 Parducci’s work has been shown in Los Angeles, nationally and internationally, most recently at MAAAC Museum in Cisternino, Italy. Based in Los Angeles, Parducci uses the image and idea of architecture to convey both the collapse and chaos of war as well as to communicate endurance and survival. The architectonic structural underpinnings have led her to create art that speak of instability and loss and in recent works to convey metaphors of hope and endurance.

WHAT HAS CHANGED?

The Earth’s natural landscapes are being destroyed, threatening the survival of nearly one million plant and animal species — and our own future, too.

CMATO visitors share a personal memory of something they have seen change or disappear from the natural world, inspired by the landscape scenes from Landscape Through the Eyes of Abstraction.

Exhibition Sponsors

For their generous support of this landmark exhibition and related educational programming, CMATO wishes to thank: