Tony Labat, Day Labor: Mapping the Outside (Fat Chance Bruce Nauman), 2006, Courtesy of the artist and Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco
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Matt Lucero, The Closer to the Ground the Better—for My Grandfather, 2008, Site-specific intervention for the 2008 California Biennial in MacArthur Park and other downtown Los Angeles locations; Part of LA><ART Public Art Initiatives with ForYourArt
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Patrick “Pato” Hebert, Text Messaging: 1,000 Points of Might (proposal sketch), 2008, Mixed-media installation, Courtesy of the artist
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Raymond Pettibon, No Title (I Thought California), 1989, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Photo: Joshua White
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Daniel Joseph Martinez, Call Me Ishmael or The Fully Enlightened Earth Radiates Disaster Triumphant, 2006, United States Pavilion Cairo Biennial, Installation view, Collection of the Artist, Photo courtesy of the artist and The Project, New York
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Jedediah Caesar, No Title, 2008, Road-trip performance and sculpture, Mixed-media installation, Courtesy of the artist, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, and D’Amelio Terras, New York
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Julio Cesar Morales, Interrupted Passage, 2008
Film still, from a performance by Julio Cesar Morales with Max La Riviere-Hedrick, Norma Listman and Daniel Gorrell, Courtesy of the artist and Julio Duffo, 2008
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The relatively young California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art succeeds where other biennials and fairs have often failed: in developing its own inimitable style. Here, in a response to the globalized art world, the focus rests decidedly on local features. This year's program with 55 contemporary artists will reach more viewers than ever before. The works will not only be shown in the building of the OCMA, but in all of California. Works and installations of the 2008 California Biennial can be seen from October 26 through March 15 on beaches and highways everywhere from the Mexican border to San Francisco.
The works address themes such as California's hybrid culture; the American idea of "anything goes"; the early-day pioneer spirit of the European immigrants; and the influence of Latin American culture. The billboard of the Cuban-American artist Felipe Dulzaides on the museum building's entrance façade illustrates this perfectly. At first glance a classic advertising poster of the kind that can be seen everywhere on American roofs and highways, it confronts visitors with the colorful style of Cold War Cuban propaganda posters of the '60s and '70s.
The biennial juxtaposes paintings, videos, and installations of the most important west coast artists, such as Yvonne Rainer, Sam Durant, or Raymond Pettibon with the works of their younger colleagues like Jedediah Caesar or Matt Lucero. The result is a surprisingly diverse pool of mutual influences, artistic languages, and aesthetic strategies. What visitors can witness at the California Biennial is nothing less than an exciting revival of the legendary West Coast art scene.
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