An Exhibit Whose Time Has Come

Phyllis Plous admits that six years is a long time to put together any exhibit. Her timing seems auspicious, however. When the curator began organizing a show of abstract painting in 1982, in her words, the art form was “relegated to the dust bins.” Today, as “Abstract Options” is about to open, that is all changed.

“There’s been a definite acceleration of interest in abstraction since the mid-’80s,” said Plous, who with Frances Colpitt co-curated the 32-painting exhibit, opening Friday at UC Santa Barbara’s University Art Museum.

The project began when Colpitt, a critic and art historian, arrived at UCSB to teach, said Plous, University Art Museum curator. “Neo Expressionism was so rampant at the time and we began to wonder why we only saw Abstract art in artists’ studios.”

Ten contemporary artists from the east and west coasts are represented in the show. The co-curators chose artists that differed in their treatment of surface and form, but shared a preference for a lush richness.

“The show perhaps is about sensuality and the process of painting,” Plous said. “Unlike Neo-Geo, this is not dry illustrative abstraction. I don’t like the word pretty very much, but I think it’s going to be a beautiful show.”

Artists in the exhibit are Edith Baumann-Hudson, Moira Dryer, Heidi Gluck, Nancy Haynes, James Hayward, Mary Heilmann, Julian Lethbridge, John M. Miller, Paul Mogensen and Stephen Westfall. It is scheduled to run in Santa Barbara through Feb. 26, then travel to Evanston, Ill., and Santa Clara, Calif.

RETIRING: Artist La Monte Westmoreland, who established Los Angeles’ most active high school-based gallery, will retire this month to concentrate on his own artwork after 10 years as director of Roberts Art Gallery at Santa Monica High School.

“I just need to have more studio time,” Westmoreland said, now making mostly mixed-media collages shown at Lizardi/Harp Gallery in Pasadena.

Lita Albuquerque, John Swihart, Laddie John Dill, Guy Dill and Sandra Mendelson Rubin lead an illustrious list of local artists, many of them alumni of the high school, who regularly took part in Westmoreland’s exhibits.

Santa Monica-based artist Peter Alexander, who for several years donated works for annual auctions to support the gallery, lauded Westmoreland’s efforts that he said turned the space, founded in 1935, into a unique showcase for local emerging and established artists that particularly benefited the high school’s students.

“The whole deal was La Monte’s doing,” said Alexander, one of this city’s best-known painters whose two daughters went to Santa Monica High School. “His enthusiasm, in terms of bringing work to the students, has been quite extraordinary.”

Ann Goodwin, a painting instructor at the high school, will succeed Westmoreland, whose final exhibit, “Paintings and Sculptures,” Jan. 5 through Jan. 26, features eight artists. (See art openings for details.)

LACE GRANTS: Local interdisciplinary artists developing new work may apply for grants from Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), now in the fourth year of its Grant Program for Interdisciplinary Artists. More than $30,200 are available for individuals or groups of artists working collaboratively. For information and an application, call LACE at (213) 624-5650. June Scott heads up the program.

IN PUBLIC: Public art and its preservation, issues of increasing concern nationwide, are the theme of a new publication. “Going Public: A Field Guide to Developments in Art in Public Places” was produced with the input of 30 nationally recognized artists, public art administrators, design professionals and others brought together by the National Endowment for the Arts to examine public art issues. For information, contact the Arts Education Service at the University of Massachusetts, (413) 545-2360.