Coso Room Gallery
The gallery provides a synergistic role in the mission of the Maturango Museum by providing a professional exhibit space, including an audio-visual projection system and correct lighting for:
- Visually pleasing art exhibits by local, visiting, and traveling artists to be experienced by our local community and all visitors.
- Informative workshops for children and adults
- Concerts
- Lectures
- Docent activities including storytelling and art programs
- Meeting space
- Curator exhibits including the Annual Wildflower Show
Kern River Valley Art Association Exhibit at Maturango Museum
Saturday, April 13 – Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Opening Reception Sunday, April 14, 1-3 pm
Opening receptions are always free and open to the public.
The Kern River Valley Art Association (KRVAA) goes on the road! The KRVAA, located in the beautiful Kern River Valley, was founded in 1962 as an all-volunteer, non-profit organization to provide artistic venues and opportunities for artists in the valley and beyond. Early on, the KRVAA mainly organized two art festivals per year, on Memorial and Labor Day. COVID brought the creation of the Arm Chair Gallery where monthly exhibitions were held online via ZOOM. Art works were shown and the artists discussed the works with the audience. The Arm Chair Gallery was very popular and helped to sustain and grow the KRVAA during that difficult time.
Today, the KRVAA operates several buildings in Wofford Heights: The Art Gallery, where monthly themed group shows as well as solo exhibitions by local artists and middle school students are shown. The gallery also holds classes in drawing and painting, crafts, jewelry making, and more. Industrial arts classes such as blacksmithing, metalwork, stained glass making, and more are offered at a nearby Industrial Arts Complex that houses music classes and monthly music events, as well as, workshops in improvisational theater and comedy. A coffee shop in the same complex is currently under development.
The KRVAA wishes to thank the Maturango Museum for the opportunity to showcase the work of the many talented artists who reside in the Kern River Valley and beyond. The artists included in the show represent the incredibly broad range of talent we are lucky to support. Thank you!
Now Available
Information guidelines and applications for future shows are now available including Artist Prospectus & Application, Coso Room Diagram, and the Application Guidelines Presentation.
Contact Andrea Pelch – Gallery Coordinator | gallery@maturango.org
Past Exhibits
Frances Nichols’ Retrospective Art Legacy Gallery Exhibit
January 6 – March 31, 2024
Opening Reception Sunday, January 14, 2 – 4 pm
The artwork in this exhibit will include many subjects from around the world painted over a lifetime of experience. The art will be for sale and an opportunity to view a body of work from a very lovely lady with outstanding talent. The paintings are made in watercolor, pastels, and oils – some framed, some not. Frances Nichols passed away a few years ago and left an abundant amount of artwork. Her family has been gracious to share her artwork with us.
The spirit of this exhibit is to spread Fran’s Art Legacy to people who like and appreciate her work.
For her 2020 exhibit at the museum, Frances said, “My passion is landscape. I try to etch a memory of a place, beginning with an idea of the finished piece, but leaving myself open to the work evolving. I work in plein-air on-site or from my own photos in the tradition of the early California Impressionists. Realistic representation is balanced with the Impressionistic play of light and color on the landscape. For me, the landscape is a prism where the time of day can transform the light moving through it into a constantly changing color. My subject matter is the Indian Wells Valley, Owens Valley, Antelope Valley, and the Eastern Sierras, ranging from desert washes, and mountain canyons, to the explosion of spring color in the desert. This exhibit includes works in pastel, oil, watercolor, and gouache. As the song says, ‘Love the one you’re with!’ I enjoy working in all media and my favorite is the one I’m using that day. I do love the immediacy of pastel with its instant color and layering, and the drama underpaintings can bring, but I also like the richness of oil and the fresh luminosity of watercolor.”
Creativity
November 4 – Dec 30, 2023
The “Creativity” Exhibit will feature artwork from 22 artists. Various subjects in watercolor, oil, pastel, acrylic, metal, wood, and ceramics. The Opening Reception is free and open to the public.
The Desert Artists’ League (DAL) was founded in 1957 by a group of artist friends. We are a talented group of people who work in a variety of media: watercolor, acrylic, oil, encaustic, ceramics, pastel, mixed media, and fiber arts. We love to share camaraderie, enthusiasm, tips and techniques.
General meetings are held on the first Monday of the month (unless it falls on a holiday, then we meet on the second Monday) from September through May. Currently, we meet at the Church of the Nazarene 571 N. Norma St. Ridgecrest at 6:30 PM. Meetings are open to anyone interested in art, whether making art or simply enjoying art. Guests are welcome. There is no charge to attend the first time, afterward, we ask guests to pay $5.00.
See the DAL website at desertartistsleague.org/ for more information.
“Archaeoclay - Glyphs of the Earth”
Patrick Crabb’s Art Exhibit “Archaeoclay – Glyphs of the Earth” June 3 – August 19, 2023 Opening Reception same time.
Artist Statement
Patrick S. Crabb
My life passion is working in clay. This material is the reason “I rise with the sun”, working creatively for nearly 50 years. Clay is my material to express in countless ways, leading my hands/heart/mind thru life. Archaeology and anthropology have been my guideposts. I look to ancient cultures and their histories to guide me in the present and onward into the future.
The images shown here on the walls are my reflections of rock art. Their mysteries have plagued my mind for decades. And now, I am attempting to make personal reflections from their influences. The images are not site specific. My technical approach is gestural in its imagery along with its construction.
The clay bowls have influences from my love for the ancient Mimbres Cultures of the American Southwest. The black-white graphics reflect the simplicity akin to that culture.
www.patrickshiacrabb.com
The Open Studio Tour
In the Coso Room October 22 – 23
Joy Gonzalez’s Art Exhibit
“A Sense of Light”
In the Coso Room July 2 – August 26
Joy says, “I am a third generation native Californian and have grown up loving the western landscape. I am primarily a traditional oil painter, but my goal is to paint expressively and capture the beauty we have all around us. The Eastern Sierras and the Pacific coastline are especially inspiring!
My love for California and the Southwest was fostered by growing up in a family with a long California history. My great-great-grandparents homesteaded in the Sierra Nevada foothills and started a ranch and orchard. My father loved the mountains and the ocean and took our family camping on vacations. I still love camping and backpacking and find that it inspires my artwork. In this increasingly chaotic world, getting back to nature seems to restore sanity and serenity, and that is what I try to bring to my artwork.
My goal is to paint expressively, yet maintain a sense of realism, and to convey my deep appreciation of the beauty of nature. My goal in painting outdoors is to capture the ever-changing light and deepening shadows, and my studio work builds on the knowledge of nature’s colors learned from observing and painting outdoors.”
ARTifacts! 2022
Museum Members’ Artistic Interpretations of Curated Objects
Our museum curators have chosen objects from collection storage and our museum members have artistically interpreted their assigned item and made an “art object”.
Benny Alba – “Dusk and Blue Horizons”
