Contemporary creativity

From kitschy, pop-culture takes on Bob’s Big Boy to arresting mannerist portraits, there’s something for everybody at Laguna Art Museum’s “OsCene II: Contemporary Art and Culture in O.C.”

Featuring the talents of a first-time curator, the show opens on Saturday, Oct. 29, and runs through Jan. 21, 2007. An opening reception will be held Saturday night, and panel discussions and other events will be held periodically throughout the run of the exhibition.

“I’m very proud of this show,” said Jacqueline Bunge, guest curator.

The exhibition serves as a counterpoint to the Orange County Museum of Art’s concurrent, broader-themed 2006 California Biennial.

At the time of the first OsCene, it had been more than 20 years since a survey exhibition of contemporary art in Orange County had been organized by a museum.

This year’s exhibition includes painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, multimedia installations, video/film, fashion and kustom kulture.

“Kustom kulture” refers to the aesthetics of the custom-car and motorcycle movement, which began in the 1950s with the first greasers and continued with drag-racers, lowriders and today’s obsession with shows like “Monster Garage” and “Orange County Choppers.”

Bunge is pleased that the show could attract new pieces created specifically for it, as well as site-specific pieces that were fashioned on the museum’s walls.

She described the planning and installation periods as intense, but “it all is worthwhile,” she said.

This is the first major show for Bunge, 26; after working as chief curator Tyler Stallings’ assistant on the first OsCene in 2004, she stayed on at the museum as curatorial assistant.

She said that she chose to pursue a Master of Art with a focus on museum studies at Cal State Fullerton based on Stallings’ mentorship.

“He is 100% my inspiration,” she said.

When she finished her bachelor’s program at Chapman, she initially planned to teach, she said. But her work at LAM grew on her.

“It became a fulfilling labor of love,” she said. “I stayed on because I couldn’t bear to leave.”

While Stallings and museum director Bolton Colburn were discussing whom to invite as curator for the OsCene 2006, they suddenly realized that as they’re featuring emerging artists, they may as well encourage emerging curatorial talent, Stallings said.

“When we thought about what this show was about, Jackie was the obvious choice,” he said. They approached her early last year.

“In Orange County, relative to L.A., there aren’t a lot of independent curators,” Stallings said. “For somebody to decide to do that shows a lot of vision.”

Stallings went on to describe that vision as “expansive,” which allowed Bunge to create a notable mixture of works.

“She doesn’t just gravitate toward her own peers,” Stallings said. “There’s less of a generation gap in the show, and more of a cross-section of ages.”

Bunge and Stallings are both Huntington Beach residents; Bunge is a native of the town, and went to Chapman University to study art history.

Despite her age, Bunge said she has spent 10 years in the antiques trade, dealing in vintage photographs; her particular area of interest was post-mortem photography, which was a common practice in the Victorian era.

Such sentimentality weaves like a ribbon through her life. When she got engaged recently, her fiance chose a sapphire-and-diamond engagement ring from Tiffany and Co., but they ultimately chose to use her grandparents’ ring and bands to symbolize their union. The Tiffany ring will be worn on her right hand.

They also plan to move into her grandmother’s house in Garden Grove when they are married; for now, Bunge is busy juggling her new show, 15 master’s units and wedding planning.

After receiving more than 300 submissions for potential inclusion in the show, she narrowed that list down to about 80, and visited the studios, homes or schools of all 80 artists, designers and groups before achieving her final number of 38.

“The studio visits are very different,” she said; they allowed her to gain a greater sense of the pieces’ colors and textures than would be possible in a slide or photograph.

She said she was also able to gauge a sense of the life situations that went into the works from such personal visits.

Bunge said that attention to detail and craftsmanship is important to her, and that it shows a “certain level of commitment” that she admires.

The selections intentionally were not clustered around a particular theme, she said.

“In a survey show, it’s not so much about a theme as diversity and dialogue,” she said, adding that she would come back from her studio visits and visualize the pieces on the museum’s walls, putting together groupings in her mind.

No individual artists from the first OsCene were chosen for this year’s OsCene, other than individuals who are now part of the famous Legacy Project, a nonprofit documentary undertaking on the closure and transformation of the base at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

The project’s six photographic artists made headlines when they created the world’s largest photograph in June 2006, using the world’s largest camera — a former airplane hangar at the site.

Using a 4mm pinhole that created a camera obscura effect, a 37-foot by 111-foot image on muslin was created.

A smaller version of the finished product will be on view at the OsCene, along with a test strip and documentary photos.

Several Lagunans are in the show.

Laguna College of Art & Design instructor Brad Coleman’s highly detailed sketches and paintings of roosters, vegetables and other items take up a prominent section of one wall.

Carrie Yury, who grew up in Laguna Beach, will feature two photographs from her “Things in the Grass” series.

Jeff Peters’ haunting images of branches hang beside a newer, hazy but saturated work depicting a deer and snake.

David Milton’s watercolors of vintage signage will also be included, including one of a “graveyard” of past Las Vegas hotel and casino signs.

Jecca, a video artist who also exhibits in New York and Paris, will show “Untitled Technology Stereotyping,” featuring a vintage typewriter on a desk with a video of typing hands.

A wishbone sits in a jar in “In Case of Emergency,” a dreamy yet highly representational painting by Debra Davidson, who shows at Sue Greenwood Gallery.

And several diptychs from photographer Ron Leighton depict found objects that take on a haunted, almost damaged quality.

Bunge said that Orange County residents have much to be proud of, given the level of talent and interest among local artists.

“You don’t necessarily have to go to L.A. all the time to see amazing works,” she said.

Saturday’s opening party will be from 7 to 10 p.m. at the museum. There will be a DJ and a no-host bar. There is a $15 admission charge for non-members, or $10 for non-member students with identification.