IN THE ARTS

SoCal Artists hold inaugural exhibition

The Southern California Artists Assn. (SoCal Artists) will hold a reception for its inaugural figurative art exhibition “Go Figure! 2008,” from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, with 55 pieces of original art, all having to do with the human form.

The exhibition was open to artists working in any two-dimensional medium and was juried for both entry and awards by Dennis Power, president of Laguna College of Art and Design, and Miriam Smith, founder of the Art Resource Group.

“Go Figure! 2008” will be in the organization’s newly renovated studio and exhibition space, located within the Laguna Canyon Artists Complex, 3251 Laguna Canyon Road, Unit F-3. Refreshments will be served and all work will be available for sale.

SoCal Artists President Fred Hope said an innovative feature of this competition allows each artist to choose whether to enter in either the professional or non-professional category. This has proven to be very popular and will be used in the group’s subsequent shows, with the next, “Points of View ““ Modern Landscape Painting,” scheduled to open Sept. 27.

Go Figure! will remain on display during the following times and dates:

Noon to 6 p.m. Sunday; 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 1 to 6 p.m. July 25; 6 to 8 p.m. (exhibition potluck wrap party) July 26; and 1 to 6 p.m. July 27.

The Southern California Artists Assn. is a 501(c)(3), California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation and a member of the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts. It supports a broad spectrum of arts and educational programs in Laguna Beach, Orange County and throughout Southern California. For more information call (949) 715-6767, e-mail info@socalartists.org, or visit www.socalartists.org.

New photo studio, gallery opens

David Tosti, photographer and owner of Tosti Studios, will debut his contemporary art and photography space at 210 N. Coast Hwy from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday.

Tosti focuses much of his attention on photographing weddings, families and events. He will also be hosting art shows at the gallery space. Works by local emerging artists Isaac Anderson, Jennifer Tenace, and Phil Womack will be on exhibit.

“I am so fortunate to live here in town with my wife and daughter for the past six years, and now to open the gallery, I am so honored and thrilled to be even more so involved in the community,” Tosti said. “We have had such an overwhelming response to the opening, and local support from other businesses and artists such as Peter Blake, Brad Coleman (LCAD), Richard Tawtel, Gallery McCollum, I am so grateful for the true community that we have. “

For more information, call (949) 715-9621 or e-mail david@tostistudios.com

College hosts ‘Reflective Realism’

Laguna College of Art & Design will present “Reflective Realism,” works by realist painters Richard Maury, Stephen Brown and Linden Frederick from Aug. 22 through Sept. 24 at the college gallery, 2222 Laguna Canyon Road.

Exhibition hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Complimentary parking is available.

A mature American painter living in Florence for the past 20 years, Maury is at the height of his career of rendering both figurative and still life paintings.

Born in Washington in 1935, Maury studied at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

He is represented in various public collections including The Arnot Museum in Elmira, N.Y.; The Arts Students League in New York, N.Y.; The Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Mich.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, N.Y.; New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Conn.; and the Uffizi Gallery in Italy.

Originally from Colorado, Brown is now a resident of New England, and is a permanent member of the painting faculty at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.

The 1994 winner of the Academy Award in Art at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Brown was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1999.

There, he was awarded the Benjamin Altman Award for landscape in 1994 and the Gladys Emerson Cook Prize in 2001.

Brown has also twice received the Coffin Grant, a competitive grant awarded to a member of the University of Hartford faculty.

Formerly of upstate New York, Frederick moved to Maine in the mid-1990s.

He depicts the New England landscape, especially nondescript places such as shopping centers and industrial landscapes.

His paintings reflect everyday places of a mobile society, places where people live and work. Frederick is a full-time painter who works from a 750- square-foot studio on the third floor of an old Victorian brick building. He studied at Ontario College of Art and the Academy of Fine Art in Florence, Italy.