IT WON’T BE PRETTY : But Better Aggresive Than Brain-Dead, Says Curator of OCCCA’s ‘12th Annual Juried Exhibition’

Adolfo V. (Al) Nodal is “scared to death” to walk into his own home--not because he lives in a high-crime area, but because of the art on his walls, he quips.

“The kind of stuff I’m (drawn to) isn’t the work that tries to be beautiful or tries to put across the bucolic and beautiful image of the world,” says Nodal, who owns graffiti and guerrilla art, Robbie Conal’s caustic political posters, and photographs by the late, controversial Robert Mapplethorpe.

Nodal, general manager of the city of Los Angeles’ Cultural Affairs Department, is curator of Orange County Center for Contemporary Art’s “12th Annual Juried Exhibition,” and, to be sure, his taste for art that squarely confronts society’s underbelly and contemporary Angst influenced his selections.

“It’s not a beautiful show,” he said with a chuckle in a recent telephone interview from his City Hall office.

Forty works--mostly painting, sculpture, photography and mixed-media--by 14 emerging artists from Los Angeles and Orange counties, elsewhere in California and from Oregon, make up the exhibit.

Nodal chose from among some 500 entries from seven western states. OCCCA, a cooperative established in 1980 to serve Orange County artists, always invites a prominent arts professional to guest curate its annual regional show.

Nodal “has worked all across the country, so he had an overview we wanted,” said OCCCA member Patrick Merrill, who helped organize and install the exhibit. “I also liked the fact that he comes from another culture entirely.”

A Cuban immigrant, Nodal organized exhibits national in scope as head of the Washington Project for the Arts in Washington, director of exhibitions for L.A.’s Otis/Parsons School of Art & Design, and director of the New Orleans Contemporary Art Center. All that was pre-1988, when he stepped into the top municipal arts post in Los Angeles, where this year he’s overseeing distribution of the city’s roughly $10-million arts budget to artists and arts organizations.

“When I took this job, I essentially quit curating, which is something I really miss,” said Nodal, glad for the chance to research art made outside of Los Angeles again.

Actually, more than a third of the works he chose--from unnamed, untitled slides which listed no addresses--are by Los Angeles artists. But everything he picked had a similar feel and theme: “Aggressive,” strife-ridden works that spoke of, or against, “war, disease and urban environmental destruction,” he said.

“Most of what I gravitated to was in one sense or another making a political statement or a statement of some sort of rebellion,” he said.

“Thankfully, artists are . . . affected by issues in our society and trying to affect society through their work. They’re not out there, brain-dead, painting pretty pictures.”

As for technical quality, “the work I selected was outstanding, as much as you can judge something through a slide,” he said.

Nodal’s approach to the OCCCA show comes as no surprise. His department’s master plan above all stresses multiculturalism. Secondly, it promotes “the social and environmental responsibility of art and artists” over art that doesn’t carry a banner. He’s faced criticism from some who disagree, but he stands firm.

“I also collect Plein Air paintings and that (kind of art) is fine, too,” he said. “But that alone--we wouldn’t be learning anything. Art is not an escape from reality. Anyone who thinks that art is somehow on a pedestal or separated from this world has got a lot to learn. That kind of attitude keeps artists outside of the system, and I think it ghettoizes artists as unimportant members of society who don’t matter.

“Artists matter in society. They can do a hell of a lot to help the world.”

What: “12th Annual Juried Exhibition.”

When: Through Aug. 7. Hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, 3621 W. MacArthur Blvd., Space 111, Santa Ana.

Whereabouts: San Diego (I-405) Freeway to Harbor Boulevard exit. North to MacArthur Boulevard. Center is between Harbor and Fairview Road, in a business park on the left.

Wherewithal: Admission is free.

Where to call: (714) 549-4989.