BECKSTRAND & NORRIS GALLERIES
June 19 - July 25 , 2009

PVAC Instructors Exhibition

When they aren’t in the Art Center classroom helping you with your paintings, prints, pots or photos, our talented faculty members are busy in their own studios creating their own unique works of art.

“We are proud of our instructors,” said Angela Hoffman, education coordinator. “They are all excellent artists in their own right, which we believe offers a little extra for our students. Our faculty members teach from their own experiences not merely from theory.”

“This exhibition gives our students and potential students a great opportunity to gain insight into individual instructors’ styles, interests and artistic visions,” she continued. “Who knows, looking at faculty members’ work side by side might help someone identify the perfect teacher for his or her needs.”

Participants include Catherine Balcom, Robin Bott, Karla Commins, Donald Crocker, Bernard Fallon, Andrew Foster, Kent Hirakawa, Jill Kiefer, Young Kim, Yukari Kouchi, Roy Kunisaki, Frank Minuto, Mario Mirkovich, Hiroko Momii, James Murray, Jan Napolitan, John Nelson, Dael Patton, Blu Rivard, Jennifer Siegal, Jeff Stellges, Mark Teague, Stephanie Trueman, Valter Varderesian, Lauren Volk, Scott Washko, Sandi Wilson, James Wisnowski and Virginia Wyper. 

2009 Alpay Award Recipients

Work from the nine student recipients of this year’s Beverly Alpay Awards in the Visual Arts will also be on display.

Included are four MFA candidates from Cal State, Long Beach. Shaden Mousa creates whimsical ceramic figures, while Michael Walash combines mathematics and art in his stark steel and bronze sculptures. Emily Quest paints California plein air scenes in oil on canvas and Claudia Morales-McCain experiments with abstract visual language in her vivid paintings.  

Jessica Lah, a Cal State, Long Beach junior, paints primarily scenes from her studies abroad.

Also included is work by three 2009 high school graduates who will major in the visual arts in college. There are photographs by Kaori Funahashi, Palos Verdes High, and paintings by Danbee Ha, West High, Torrance, and Julien Nguyen, Mira Costa High, Manhattan Beach. Finally, there is digital art by Alexander Woody, a Redondo Union High sophomore, who received a youth awards.

WALKER GALLERY
June 19 – July 26, 2009

Helen Mallet Retrospective

Born in 1919, Helen Moler Mallet has been drawing and painting since she was a toddler. She won her first awards at county fairs in Saskatchewan, Canada, where she grew up on the family farm.

She spent two years before World War II at Art Center School of Design in Pasadena, attending classes during in the day and working for room and board at night. During the war and after, she worked in the aircraft industry, married and had three sons. Art was not in the picture.

Then during a break from a sewing class at the old Redondo High, she “smelled turpentine and linseed oil, and there was Davis Miller’s class. I was hooked. My husband took care of the boys and I signed up. I’ve never stopped doing art since then.”

A whole new world opened up. She joined art groups, began winning awards, showed in small galleries and, eventually, traveled the world attending painting workshops. And through it all, she “hung out” at the Palos Verdes Art Center, taking painting, life drawing, printmaking and sculpture classes.