Visions of 2000

Poring over a year of notes and memories of art in the San Fernando Valley in 2000 instills a sense of confidence. When a columnist logs countless miles and precariously juggles coverage, something is abuzz.

Early this year, the trusty Orlando Gallery moved out of its central location in Sherman Oaks and reopened in a larger space in Tarzana. The 2000 exhibitions started with the group show “We Are Back” and included impressive work by David Hidalgo, David Whalen’s wonderfully surreal “Fantome de le Femme” and a return by genial abstractionist Jenik Cook, whose show closes today.

Sylmar’s Century Gallery had its share of group shows corralled into more or less self-explanatory themes, such as “Ambiguous Images,” “Marks Expanded” and “Sum of the Parts.” Some of the same artists, including Roxene Rockwell and Nicholas Fedak II, also showed at the Brand Library in Glendale.

Art watchers can generally find solace at the Brand’s Skylight and Atrium galleries, aside from its valued resources as an arts-oriented library.

Among the high points of the Brand’s art year were exhibitions by Mark Hix and Kurt Kornacki, Arlene Waxman and Rockwell, and Kristan Marvell and Nicholette Kominos’ “Opposition on a Common Road.”

The University of Judaism’s Platt Gallery is another solid contributor to the art circuit. High points in 2000 included Tom S. Fricano’s “Transformation: The Nature of Abstraction,” a group show called “Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day)” and a historically keyed photography exhibition chronicling the largely Jewish “Abraham Lincoln Brigade” in the Spanish Civil War.

Once considered a stronghold in the Valley art scene, the Lankershim Arts Center has had less activity than we would like. The fine gallery space had a threadbare exhibition schedule in 2000, as did the Cal State Northridge Art Dome, which went dark this fall in preparation for the opening of the new permanent gallery on campus next spring.

Last February in the Art Dome, the shows “Textures of the Night: Photographs by James E. Sefton” and “A Matter of Life and Death: A Transatlantic Millennium Exchange” typified the gallery’s valuable perspective.

Also in Northridge, the VIVA Gallery kicked off a year of group shows with the impressive, revealing “Russian California Artists.” SOHO Gallery, the lone, brave art gallery in Studio City, provided much to look at, including work by Lula Flores, Cindy Suriyani, Lynn Bernay and Reg Loving.

Down the street, Utopia Design included a few official art exhibitions, including a bold one featuring Albert Fins and Rachel Yinn.

Some of the memorable work this year showed up in delightfully unexpected spaces, including the Bigoudi salon in Woodland Hills, where Fred Hauptman’s paintings exerted an infectious, wild style. The Encino Business Center lobby was hardly all business when a two-person show by notable area artists Murray Schiff and m. Rheuban set up their work.

All told, a fair and encouraging amount of activity appeared on the area’s radar screen in 2000. As in years past, we have no reason for cultural alarm in the Valley. Art will win out.