California Art Club exhibit at USC in June

The California Art Club will present the 102nd Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition at the USC Fisher Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Southern California from June 2 to 23, 2013.

     While this annual display of contemporary-traditional art, ranging from landscape paintings to figurative works and sculpture, is being staged at this venue for the very first time, the event returns to Exposition Park where 26 of the first 35 Gold Medal Exhibitions were displayed.  The last exhibition presented at this historical park was the 35th installment, on view in the fall of 1944 at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art, which is now the Natural History Museum.

     The upcoming Gold Medal Exhibition will feature nearly 200 never-before-seen works of art, created using time-honored fine art techniques, but modern in their messages.  Addressing wide-ranging issues from cultural diversity to environmental preservation and urbanization, the exhibition is unthemed to encourage artists to take risks and raise the bar with their art. Among the exhibiting artists are nationally renowned artists Meredith Brooks Abbot, Peter Adams, Clyde Aspevig, Belá Bácsi, Brian Blood, Dennis Doheny, David C. Gallup, David Leffel, Michael Obermeyer, Ray Roberts, Mian Situ and Christopher Slatoff.

     The exhibition’s rich history pays tribute to early Club members, who believed fellowship and education were important aspects of progressing as artists and building appreciation of traditional art forms. Among these pioneering artists was California Impressionist William Lees Judson, who founded the USC School of Fine Art in 1895.

     “The California Art Club is honored to join forces with the USC Fisher Museum of Art in presenting the 102nd Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition, as both organizations share not only a heritage with the California Impressionist movement, but also the philosophy of complementing traditional art forms with innovation,” said American artist Peter Adams, who has served as the organization’s president since 1993.

     During the exhibition, the California Art Club will present events and educational programs that enable art enthusiasts to meet the participating artists and learn more about traditional art forms.  These activities will include demonstrations, artist-led tours and Artists’ Gala Reception on Saturday, June 1.  Program information will be posted as the opening of the exhibition nears at www.californiaartclub.org.