Ojai’s Art Scene Is a Work in Progress

Running an art gallery can be an inspiring and trying endeavor, driven by idealism and tempered by the realities of a wavering art market. That accounts for the regular turnover and changing shape of the art gallery map, which affects Ventura County as much as anywhere.

Suddenly, the art gallery scene in Ojai seems to be flowering quite nicely, sparking optimism. In the summer, Leslie Clarke’s Nomad Gallery opened in the new building at 307 E. Ojai Ave. downtown, formerly the site of a bank. Next door, the Carlton Gallery and Frame shop began showing work by local artists.

Then, on Friday, the same building gained yet a third gallery, called Milagro’s Nest Gallery. Two blocks from the downtown arcade, the new Sweet Art Gallery is gearing up for a grand opening. A new wave of art has come to town. Fingers are crossed and eyes are open.

Although it’s a space on a humble scale, Milagro’s Nest Gallery opened with a bang, showing drawings and ceramic works by Ojai’s grand dame of the arts, Beatrice Wood, as well as work by respected ceramist Otto Heino. Pieces by ceramist and gallery owner Nanci Martinez are also on view, in addition to those of the fine quasi-folk-art painter Kris Nelson-Tinker.

Wood’s art on exhibit here varies--from spare, gently erotic drawings to assorted ceramic pieces. As always, the work stands on its own merits, but we can’t help but reflect on the artist’s amazing longevity. Wood, witness to 20th century art history--and to history, period--will celebrate her 104th birthday March 3.

Her ceramic works include vases with angels in relief, a ceramic piece that is half angel and half butterfly, and pottery that has lustrous surfaces at once refined and earthy. Wood’s deceptively breezy, softly seductive drawings of female nudes capitalize on the power of suggestion.

Figures are pared down to a few well-placed lines, with tiny red highlights--nipples, lips and a navel. Cryptic bits of anatomy enter into the pictures, from an unexplained elbow to a silhouette of a man’s face, as if peering at the female forms on view.

There’s nothing explicit, yet nothing coy, about Wood’s explorations into the secret life of sex. A quote on the wall, from one of her books, reads, “We are here on account of sex, though we do not understand its force. There is glory when the sexual force is used creatively, when it is open to the magic of the universe.”

When Wood speaks, we listen. When she exhibits, we admire.

Otto Heino moved to Ojai with his wife and ceramist partner, Vivika, decades ago, at Wood’s urging. And since Vivika’s death two years ago, Heino has continued to show his impressive work, which is of another ilk from Wood’s--more stoic, but beautiful in its own elegant way.

In another corner, literally and stylistically, Nanci Martinez’s ceramic work includes semi-functional pieces with a glistening, metallic finish.

On the walls, Nelson-Tinker’s vivid, conscientiously folk-y paintings provide a nice counterpoint to the other art. The artist goes about creating her “naive” imagery in a deliberate, skilled way, not from some obscure hollow in Alabama, but from her home in Pacific Palisades. To some, that could draw into question her pedigree as a folk artist.

But, letting the art speak for itself, Nelson-Tinker’s paintings buzz with good-natured Americana and an amped color palette. Dense, color-drenched imagery comes straight from the American heartland, as we’ve come to know it.

Around the Corner

Meanwhile, at the Carlton gallery these days, we find Venae Warner’s bold semi-abstract canvases commandeering the downstairs wall, all squiggly forms and fluid gestures. Gretchen Greenberg’s spindly sculptures and Diane Severtson’s pocket-sized pastel landscapes line the gallery’s staircase.

Upstairs, Chloe Murdock’s enticingly ambiguous paintings leave narrative rationale and edges blurred, as with the self-explanatory “Nude With Wolf.” On more lucid turf, Vickie Carlton-Byrne’s photography celebrates landscapes and the evanescent charm of clouds.

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BE THERE

Beatrice Wood, Otto Heino, Kris Nelson-Tinker and Nanci Martinez through Feb. 13 at Milagro’s Nest Gallery, 307 E. Ojai Ave. #104 in Ojai. Gallery hours: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday; 640-1453.

Carlton Gallery and Frame, 307 E. Ojai St. in Ojai. Gallery hours, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays; 646-1902.