Urban art comes to town

The urban environment will be the focus of three new exhibitions that will debut at Laguna Art Museum on Sunday: “East Coast/West Coast and Beyond: Colin Campbell Cooper, American Impressionist,” “Jeremy Kidd: Fictional Realities,” and “Fast Forward Laguna: Art from St. Catherine’s Catholic School.”

The Cooper show will run through June 3; the Kidd and St. Catherine’s exhibitions end May 27.

The Cooper retrospective, which was organized by Laguna Art Museum, was first on view in New York. Cooper’s career in the early twentieth century was divided by his time on the East Coast—where he developed his craft and the concept of the urban landscape—and his later years on the West Coast, where he developed a love of the California missions and local flora.

Cooper painted from Europe to India to Yosemite, which afforded him a reputation for being worldly and ambitious. He was known for both his technical acuity and his impressionistic interpretations.

The exhibition is co-curated by Dr. William H. Gerdts and Dr. Deborah Epstein Solon; the former concentrates on Cooper’s East Coast life, and the latter focuses on his California days. It comprises approximately 65 works; a catalog is available.

Gerdts will hold an introductory lecture on Cooper’s art and significance at 1 p.m. Saturday at the museum, and Solon will speak on his West Coast art at 1 p.m. on March 18. Both talks are free with museum admission.

Former chief curator Tyler Stallings, now at a museum in Riverside, returned to the museum to guest curate the Kidd exhibition.

After taking hundreds of large, extended-exposure photographs at a particular location, including at night, Kidd created a large cityscape from a patchwork of images which was then mounted on aluminum and covered with Plexiglass.

He said by doing that, he is better able to convey the human experience of seeing; each piece takes up to three months to complete. Born in London in 1964, Kidd now resides in Los Angeles. This is his first museum exhibition.

Kidd will give a free (with museum admission) lecture on his work at 1 p.m. May 20.

The museum’s Young Artists Society Gallery will house a new series of works by St. Catherine’s students about the town they live and go to school in.

Founded in 1918, the museum focuses on California art, from the historical to today’s pop subcultures.

The museum, at 307 Cliff Drive, is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; admission is $10 for adults and $8 for seniors and students, and children under 12 are admitted free. Visitors may enter for free from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. during the first Thursday of each month.

For more information, call (949) 494-8971 or visit www.lagunaartmuseum.org