Oceanside Museum of Art Exhibition Celebration Revisited: Photos

OCEANSIDE, CA — Art was living, breathing and mouth-watering at the 2021 OMA Exhibition Celebration. The evening featured artists from five of the museum’s current exhibitions, MartyO: Social Security, Saki: Birds of a Different Feather, Beata Mierzwa: Beauty of Science, Duke Windsor: Nothing’s Impossible and Neil Kendricks: Temple of Story with music by Mike Mare.

Local art lovers had the opportunity to meet the artists and learn more about their work while exploring the sights and sounds throughout the museum. Executive Director of the Oceanside Museum of Art, Maria Mingalone, was on-hand to greet visitors and share news about upcoming plans and events.

Our tour began in the upstairs gallery that was shared by the genre-bending work of Marty Ornish and Saki, the co-winners of last year’s Night of The Living Art: An Art After Dark Fashion Extravaganza.

SAKI: BIRDS OF A DIFFERENT FEATHER

Artist Saki presents an assortment of fabulous rockstar-inspired dioramas, each presenting a character inspired by a species of bird. Saki says, “Sexual dimorphism, though prevalent in the animal kingdom, is perhaps most visually striking and recognizable in birds. Peacocks, parrots, birds-of-paradise—it's always the males who get all dolled up, sing, dance, and bend over backwards for a chance to prove themselves worthy of a mate.

While performing with local rock bands, Saki developed a passion for costume design with an emphasis on stage performance and audio-visual integration. Saki was selected for this exhibition as one of the Juror's Choice winners from OMA’s virtual art fashion event in 2020, Night of the Living Art: An Art After Dark Extravaganza.

MARTYO: SOCIAL SECURITY

This exhibition represents a shift in the evolution of MartyO as an artist from creating beautiful wearable art ensembles and art quilts out of worn deconstructed and reconstructed patchwork quilts to using this medium, and embellished objects of domestic life, for commentary on the stereotypic, disempowering, and repressive roles projected onto women in our society over the last century.

Through her art, MartyO examines the 20th century’s changes in women’s roles and cultural mores, ushered in by women’s suffrage in 1919, the Social Security Act in 1935, and “the Pill” in 1961. MartyO was selected for this exhibition as one of the Juror's Choice winners from OMA’s virtual art fashion event in 2020, Night of the Living Art: An Art After Dark Extravaganza.

DUKE WINDSOR: NOTHING'S IMPOSSIBLE

This mouth-watering exhibition explores the emotional connection we have with food through art through a true American icon…the burger. Duke Windsor explores how you can illicit other senses through art and with just a picture we can imagine the smell and taste of our favorite burger.

There is art in creating the perfect burger and perfect bite, and that is something that is captured through this exhibition. Duke uses gold leaf throughout each of the paintings to pay tribute to the delectable burger and create a luminance. Inspired by traditional Dutch still lifes and skillfully rendered using time honored traditional painting techniques, Windsor's Burger Series presents modern culinary choices in a literal visual feast.

TEMPLE OF STORY

Neil Kendricks wrote the short stories and created the drawings and New York-based composer/ musician Mike Mare created the music and sound design. "In collaboration with composer and musician Mike Mare, Temple of Story offers a fascinating exploration into the process of how my stories are created in a fusion of images, sound, and text.

In this exhibition, viewers take a stroll through a forest of fables with drawings on the walls to illuminate their path. Graphic narratives erupting with bursts of magical realism are integrated with Mare’s atmospheric music and sound design, allowing them to discover an intimacy with an unseen storyteller."

BEATA MIERZWA: THE BEAUTY OF SCIENCE

“I am a molecular biologist and artist who combines science, art and fashion to share the beauty of biology with the world. My artwork focuses on the molecular level, showing processes that make all life possible. Each illustration requires breaking down the essence of complex scientific information and translating it into aesthetic visuals, using metaphor and abstract imagery that highlight biological concepts in intuitive ways.

I also design science-inspired fashion printed with drawings and microscopy to share visually stunning scientific images with the world—offering a glimpse of what has fascinated scientists and scholars for centuries."

Beata Mierzwa was selected for this exhibition as the People’s Choice winner from OMA’s virtual art fashion event in 2020, Night of the Living Art: An Art After Dark Extravaganza.

View a highlights video of the Exhibition Celebration, including interviews with the artists and a special message from Maria Mingalone, Executive Director of the Oceanside Museum of Art.

About Oceanside Museum of Art

Since 1997 OMA has served as an anchor and catalyst for change in North County San Diego by serving as the premier art venue along the cultural corridor between Los Angeles, San Diego and Tijuana. OMA's exhibitions showcase artists’ works, presenting innovative and dynamic exhibitions of significant local and regional art. The museum’s galleries are redesigned for each exhibition, surprising visitors with a fresh, exciting visual transformation for every new installation. For more information on Oceanside Museum of Art, visit www.oma-online.org

Related article: Oceanside Museum Of Art Live Models + Burger Themed Exhibition

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