The Arts Gallery : Show of Local, Global Paintings Opens at Civic Arts Plaza

The paintings were expensive, the hors d’oeuvres plentiful and the admission free. In short, the recipe for a successful art opening.

On Monday evening, Thousand Oaks stretched its suburban arm a little farther toward the world of high culture with an exhibit of 96 canvases by local and international artists at the Civic Arts Plaza.

Hanging works by six painters, the Civic Arts Plaza Visual Arts Committee transformed the pale purple walls of the theater’s lobby and hallways into a museum-like exhibit space.

An eight-by-six-foot abstract painting by the Russian Vadim Grinberg dominates the uppermost hallway of the Probst Theater. Canvases by Newbury Park resident Barbara Bouman Jay and Thousand Oaks resident Stephen I. Newman line the walls of the second-floor hallways. Inside the Founders Lounge, Los Angeles-based Don Greenwood’s painting “To Be Continued,” showing two woman gazing off into an abstract background of vibrant colors, covers nearly half a vast wall.

Works by Polish-born Monika Malewicz and Santa Monica-based Sally Lamb are also on display.

Members of the Visual Arts Committee don’t necessarily expect Thousand Oaks residents to embrace all six of the painters, but they hope the free show--which continues through Nov. 6--will arouse curiosity and enthusiasm for the medium.

“I think they’re going to like some of it, and I think they are going to hate some of it,” said member Bob Duncan, who is an instructor at the California Art Institute in Thousand Oaks. “That’s art. It’s controversial.”

But if opening night is any indication, Duncan need not worry. The hundreds of people circulating through the theater foyer seemed completely enamored of the exhibit.

“We love it,” said Simi Valley resident David Boatman, with wife Gayle, making their first visit to the Plaza. “We’re happy this is so close to us. It’s just over the hill.”

For painters Bouman Jay and Newman, the combination of exhibiting their works in a facility the size of the Civic Arts Plaza and being able to show so close to home is particularly rewarding.

“It is very gratifying to have an opportunity to exhibit your work in the area where you live,” said Newman, who painted a large canvas specifically for the exhibit. “You can really hear reactions to your work.”

Standing in front of her richly colored canvases on the first floor of the theater, Bouman Jay said she hopes the exhibit will change the way the Thousand Oaks community looks at the building, and at art in general.

“Having the paintings hanging just warms up the place and enlivens it,” she said. “And when you think of the sheer numbers of people coming through here, it is going to slowly educate the person who might not be so inclined to seek out art.”

Ideally, “First View,” as the committee has christened the exhibit, will help fund an ongoing series of two-month-long shows. If any of the paintings sell--they range in price from $800 to $16,000--the committee receives a 25% commission. But Chairwoman Marta Timm said the group will rely less on art sales and more on donations and grants.

So far the group has operated on a shoestring budget. They scraped together just enough money to install a hanging system on the walls of the Civic Arts Plaza, thanks to a $4,500 donation from the Westlake Village Art Guild. Then they went looking for artists, choosing six from many submissions.

Jeff Phillips, a Los Angeles curator, volunteered to hang the paintings. Faced with no funds to insure the show or pay for advertising, Timm called up two friends, Michael and Patricia Armstrong of Los Angeles, who donated $5,000 to get the group over the final hump. Then Timm persuaded a dozen local restaurants to make finger foods for the opening.

Before Monday’s reception began, Timm strode through the hallways to do a last-minute check of the paintings. Finding a few of Bouman Jay’s canvases hanging crookedly, she stopped to fix them.

“I remember walking through here and looking at bare walls and thinking, ‘This is not going to happen,’ ” Timm said.

“I could always see it in my head,” she added, hopping up on a love-seat to adjust an uneven set of hanging wires. “But to actually have it happen, to see it in this space, that’s really something else.”

The paintings can be viewed whenever the theater is open for performances and by special arrangement. Free guided tours can be arranged through the Civic Arts Plaza box office.