A Diverse Showing

For years, the annual group show known as the Assembly of the Arts brought to the Ventura County Museum of History and Art a fairly sprawling hodgepodge of local talent. It was an occasion to take stock of a broad range of art being made in our midst, as decided by a jury with little curatorial coherence.

When Tim Schiffer took the reins as the museum’s curator three years back, one of his first instincts was to tame the sprawl and bring a different sense of order to the tradition. Last year the show restricted its purview to photography.

This year, the print is the thing. Which is not to say that this year’s assembly is homogenous. On view are the works of 10 artists representing various aspects of the printmaking medium, bringing differing visual and contextual interests to their art. The show’s message is that while there may be a lot of worthwhile printmaking activity in Ventura County, there are no fixed movements afoot.

Like other shows organized by Schiffer, this one has an integral educational element attached, with texts explaining the different aspects of printmaking.

In the case of Lindsay Scott’s lithograph “Mystic Moon,” an image of buffalo in a fog-shrouded field, we see successive stages of the process leading up to the end product. We trace back to an original pencil drawing, later amended with numerous color plates.

Audience interactivity even enters the picture: Richard Peterson’s “Cholo Altarpiece,” a print folded into a three-dimensional cardboard vehicle, is also available for purchase as a do-it-yourself art kit in the museum store. Other prints are also available: One of the advantages of the print medium is its reproductive nature, unlike, say, paintings.

Venturan Carol Rosenak combines etching, silk-screen and embossing as in her “Self-Portrait.” Images of domestic interiors, which double as art studios, have a kind of languid repose. The figures are often nude but seem caught between the acts of modeling and just lounging. Rosenak depicts these scenes in varying degrees of detail, now tight and intricate in the drawing, now loose and respectful of empty space.

The art of drawing is central to the subtle appeal of Paula Odor’s work, in which the simple, lucid form of a boat or a picket fence is inspiration enough. Karen Lewis, on the other hand, works up a kind of muted panache in her swirly abstraction “Opunta.”

Kitty Botke, part of the illustrious art clan that includes Santa Paula’s Jesse and Cornelius Botke, shows enigmatic landscapes in which atmosphere and ambience take precedence over details. Her work couldn’t be in more stark contrast to those of Bruce Freeman, whose serigraph in his “Sumo” series is a huge, multi-paneled view of the backside of a huge wrestler. Sports is not really the issue here: It’s about an iconic form in space, underscored by a sly wit.

Another study in contrasts becomes apparent as you walk past Mary Michel’s pleasant fashion-conscious figures and floral scenes and bump into the vaguely abrasive work of Alberta Fins. The Ojai-based Fins’ work, which shifts restlessly among media--including printmaking--tends to charge a gallery space with a sense of unsettling mystery. A murky wash clouds her work “Addiction Two,” with glimpses of Christian imagery and a length of rope suggesting religious skepticism.

Richard Peterson, another local artist who likes to mix and match assorted media, shows works seen in town before; but seen together, they reflect his eclectic touch. His images of a nude male swimmer, whose form is distorted by rippling water, naturally recall Hockney, but his unflinching AIDS-oriented images can be arresting.

“Nine Lives of Johnny Gomez” is a elaborate digital print assemblage structured in a crucifix-shaped frame, telling the sad tale of an AIDS victim, while the stark “Death Sentence” finds a man, learning of his HIV-positive test, screaming with an Edvard Munch mouth.

Printmaking is a time-honored but also evolutionary medium, as seen in the use of computer-generated processes in the show. From a more primitive, hands-on perspective, ceramic artist-cum-printmaker Shirley Judd’s innovation is to make prints from clay slabs doubling as printing plates.

All things considered, this year’s assembly manages to welcome diversity even as it maintains its focus.

It’s a sprawl with a cause.

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BE THERE

Assembly of the Arts Invitational Exhibition, through July 27 at Ventura County Museum of History and Art, 100 E. Main St., in Ventura. Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Sunday; 653-0323.