Filtering by: current
Los Gatos History Project: Uncovering Untold Stories
Oct
15
to Aug 3

Los Gatos History Project: Uncovering Untold Stories

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The Los Gatos History Project is NUMU’s unprecedented effort to catalog and dive deeper into its permanent collection. This exhibition, the first to come out of the project, presents a selection of objects that have given the museum more questions than answers. By taking a critical look at these objects and the stories they tell, the exhibition will prompt visitors to ask: Who made these objects? Why did the museum collect them? What can we learn from them? And whose stories are missing? Through this exhibition, visitors will gain a greater understanding of museum collecting practices, and a greater appreciation for the hidden complexities of Los Gatos history.

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Collections Lab
Sep
29
to Sep 29

Collections Lab

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Opened in September 2023, this demonstration and prep lab serves as a dedicated space to display artifacts, conduct conservation efforts, and present public educational programs. In this space, NUMU demonstrates that history is anything but static! The Collections Lab is open Friday-Sunday during museum hours.

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Mitra Fabian: Seeping Through Domestic Dissonance
Jan
24
to May 18

Mitra Fabian: Seeping Through Domestic Dissonance

  • NUMU New Museum Los Gatos (map)
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Mitra Fabian creates a surreal and somber mixed-media installation that intersects the natural world, built environments, climate change, and human interference. This project will include Fabian’s recognizable organic sculptural forms as well as the use of resistors, capacitors, and diodes. But it will also reveal animal elements and a wooden shelter ravaged by fire. This installation is a contemplative conglomeration of her six years living in the Santa Cruz Mountains where she and her wife encountered first-hand experiences of the CZU fires, catastrophic rain, wind, and downed trees.

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In the Artist’s Studio: Carly Slade
Feb
7
to Jun 15

In the Artist’s Studio: Carly Slade

  • NUMU New Museum Los Gatos (map)
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Carly Slade presents miniature, mixed-media vignettes of real-world structures as they appear in digital images from satellite mapping cameras. Composed of ceramics, building materials, and needlework, the layers of planning and effort within these miniature artworks mirror the human effort and experiences that activate the location in the real world.

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Made of Memory
Oct
25
to Mar 16

Made of Memory

  • NUMU New Museum Los Gatos (map)
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New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) presents an exhibition of five women artists who explore concepts of memory as it pertains to generational and cultural experience, immigration and migration. Through various media, they explore their experience of inherited memories and unveil personal stories of family and heritage while inviting us all to consider the deeper themes that connect us with the past, and with each other. Engaging with culturally significant materials and symbolism, these works examine the vicarious nature of memory, and present implicit meanings carried in ancestral artifacts that are passed from one generation to the next. Each artist meaningfully conveys the idea that we are all shaped not only by our personal experiences, but by those of past generations.

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Holly Lane—In the Artist’s Studio
Aug
23
to Jan 26

Holly Lane—In the Artist’s Studio

  • NUMU New Museum Los Gatos (map)
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Holly Lane—In the Artist’s Studio offers a rare opportunity for access into Lane’s meticulous step-by-step artistic process. Hiking photographs, along with sketchbooks, design layouts, color trials, preparatory diagrams, drawings, and paintings, plus painting and woodworking tools, and works in process will provide invaluable insight into the studio of a contemporary artist whose methods are more closely aligned with a Medieval-era artisan’s workshop.

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Holly Lane—Not Enough Time to Love the World
Aug
2
to Jan 12

Holly Lane—Not Enough Time to Love the World

  • NUMU New Museum Los Gatos (map)
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Holly Lane—Not Enough Time to Love the World, showcases a range of Lane’s work garnered from the previous ten-plus years of a multi-decade career. As an art undergraduate, she began considering the relationship of frame to picture. She has since reimagined it into a new art form of her own invention, in which each component—painting and frame—is fundamental to the work as a whole.

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Full Circle: The Director’s Circle Artwork Collection
May
3
to Aug 11

Full Circle: The Director’s Circle Artwork Collection

  • NUMU New Museum Los Gatos (map)
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Each year the Executive Director, in partnership with the Curatorial Team, commissions a Bay Area artist to create a limited edition series of works as part of the Director’s Circle Program. The artist chosen to participate in this annual program also donates two pieces from the commission to the museum: one which stays in the Permanent Collection, the other is used for fundraising. In this way, the Director’s Circle program not only supports personal collecting, but also helps to build NUMU’s Permanent Art Collection. See past works in this retrospective exhibition and the reveal of this year’s work by artist Kiana Honarmand in an upcoming event (details coming soon)!

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Paint the Town: A Mural in Action
Feb
23
to Jul 21

Paint the Town: A Mural in Action

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In partnership with Local Color, we’ve invited muralist Tomas ‘Wisper’ Talamantes into the museum for a dynamic look into his creative process. Wisper will create an original mural at the museum, exploring the untold stories, people, events, and variety of cultures that have contributed to Los Gatos and its surrounding areas. During three live sessions, visitors will enjoy the special opportunity to see Wisper in action and learn about his creative process and philosophy. Alongside the developing mural, visitors can see photographs of the artist’s past work, Freedom, as documented by photographer Buggsy Malone

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Greater Bay Area Open: Potentiality / Actuality
Nov
17
to Mar 9

Greater Bay Area Open: Potentiality / Actuality

  • NUMU New Museum Los Gatos (map)
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The Greater Bay Area Open (GBAO) is a juried fine-art-only competition and exhibition presented by the Los Gatos Art Association (LGAA), designed to promote fine art and artists from the greater Bay Area. Starting in 2015 and held biannually, the GBAO is now in its fifth showing and is presented biennially. This exhibition forges an exciting and dynamic association between the LGAA and NUMU, host to this collaboration.

Spanning twelve Bay Area counties, from Sonoma to Monterey, this juried event draws artists to compete for awards and recognition but also brings exposure to respected jurors, galleries, and art collectors from the region. The GBAO embraces artistic excellence, accepting both two-dimensional and three-dimensional fine art into a premier venue.

In every moment of creativity, there is an option to explore one’s perspective and expression. For this exhibition, LGAA invites artists to push work past usual boundaries to embrace the movement between potentiality and actuality. All artists are encouraged to interpret the theme, “Potentiality / Actuality” in their own way.

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The Hiking Club: A Vocabulary of Yearning | Linda Simmel
Oct
13
to Feb 4

The Hiking Club: A Vocabulary of Yearning | Linda Simmel

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A solo show featuring artist Linda Simmel.

Through evocative drawings, etchings, and paintings, Linda Simmel explores personal and cultural connections between landscape, memory, and history. The Hiking Club: A Vocabulary of Yearning intertwines the story of being the daughter of an immigrant, with the sublime in nature. The works in the show are in part homage to landscape, trees, and the histories they’ve lived in, as well as Simmel’s immigrant father and the time in which he lived. For the artist, the work reveals the process of unraveling the burden of history that defines her, which ultimately presents a sensitive inquiry into intergenerational cultural identity, loss, and renewal.

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In the Artists’ Studio: Featuring RREVV Studio
May
5
to Nov 12

In the Artists’ Studio: Featuring RREVV Studio

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On view May 5 through Nov 12, 2023, In the Artists’ Studio: Featuring RREVV Studio will introduce visitors to the artists behind the Santa Cruz-based design studio, Rachel and Rigel Hunter. Dive into their shared creative process to develop and execute new works by following along with a piece of unique wearable artwork as it goes from concept to raw material, to a collectible object. RREVV Studio will discuss negotiating the tensions inherent in working between the realms of art and design, as well as the pressures that come with being practicing artists who manage businesses to support their work.

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Reclamation: Aboriginal Ancestral Homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe
Dec
9
to Apr 23

Reclamation: Aboriginal Ancestral Homeland of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe

  • NUMU New Museum Los Gatos (map)
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NUMU is collaborating with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, San Jose State University, and Mosaic America on this art exhibition, featuring photography of their aboriginal ancestral homeland by Tribal Photographer Kike Arnal. Visitors to the exhibit can also explore with the Mosaic Atlas Cultural Mapping Project, an interactive map highlighting places of significance to local indigenous peoples and other regional cultural groups.

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Marie Cameron | Critical Masses, A Very Low Tide
Jun
17
to Oct 23

Marie Cameron | Critical Masses, A Very Low Tide

  • NUMU New Museum Los Gatos (map)
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In her series Marie Cameron | Critical Masses, A Very Low Tide (June 17—Oct 23), Los Gatos artist Marie Cameron presents views of human impact on our delicate ecosystem, with a series of 9 pieces that explode with color, dense pattern, and familiar objects colliding with natural elements. For this exhibition Cameron adds 3 new pieces to the growing series that reminds the viewer of the fragile, causal relationships that affect the fate of our shared ecosystems.

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RETAZOS: New Works by Alexander Hernandez in Residence at New Museum Los Gatos
Jun
3
to Oct 9

RETAZOS: New Works by Alexander Hernandez in Residence at New Museum Los Gatos

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New Museum Los Gatos endeavors to continually engage and elevate artists who work in media, themes, or content that are new ground for NUMU. NUMU’s Artists in Residence is an initiative to support artists in telling their own stories, in their own words and media, for the audience of Los Gatos and the greater South San Francisco Bay Region.

During the development of the exhibition, NUMU invites the artist in residence to mine the NUMU collection for objects and stories to uniquely weave the sense of place and history into their contemporary practice, resulting in an exhibition that neither NUMU, nor artist, would have otherwise created.

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In the Artist's Studio: Featuring Tony May
Feb
5
to May 9

In the Artist's Studio: Featuring Tony May

In the Artist’s Studio: Featuring Tony May opens in the Michael and Alyce Parsons reception area on February 5th. The visitor follows May on his journey of creating the site-specific installation for the San Jose Museum of Art, Variable Book Construction (Bookmobile), (1991-1995). With behind-the-scenes photos of May's T. House, workspace, and drafting table, as well as a few select tools that help May get the job done, visitors will learn about the artistry in the time and the care that May dedicates to his tasks.

To further engage visitors and illuminate the process behind the creative concept, May’s Bookmobile Maquette, recently donated to NUMU’s permanent collection, will also be on view. This maquette is a component in the process of creating Variable Book Construction: Bookmobile, which is in the collection of the San Jose Museum of Art.

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In the Artist Studio: Featuring Lauryl Gaumer
Sep
25
to Jan 24

In the Artist Studio: Featuring Lauryl Gaumer

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This exhibition will showcase the work of this local metalsmith, jewelry artist, and glassblower.

Gaumer’s (Un)Wearable series fuses these ornate ancient crafts to broach sometimes painful conversations about expectations of beauty, feminism, power, and self-worth. The adornments she has styled combine materials that simultaneously project strength and fragility, inspiring the viewer to imagine how it would feel to be in the position of the wearer. NUMU visitors will get an intimate glimpse into the handbuilt workspace that Gaumer has fashioned, as well as the process she developed to create the lux glass respirator.

Exhibition curated by Julie Ericsson.

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Image + Object
Jul
10
to Nov 29

Image + Object

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An exhibition exploring innovations in alternative process photography, featuring works by Bay Area artists, Chris McCaw, Moira McDonald, Klea McKenna, and Meghann Riepenhoff

New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) is pleased to present Image + Object, an exhibition that explores alternative process photography through the unique photographic works of four Bay Area contemporary photographers, each of whom challenges our notions of photography as reflection, documentation and separation.

Image + Object is curated by Allison Railo.

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BERNARD TRAINOR: Grounded
Sep
27
to Feb 9

BERNARD TRAINOR: Grounded

An investigative exhibition of fine art and design by acclaimed landscape designer and artist, Bernard Trainor.  The exhibition is the premiere viewing of Trainor’s paintings presented in concert with elements from his landscape designs, architectural renderings, site photographs, and studio and plein air sketches. Grounded reveals the unfolding layers and practice that inspire Trainor to create meaningful landscapes – outside the studio walls and on canvas.

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Los Gatos Art Association's Greater Bay Area Open Exhibition
Jun
28
to Sep 8

Los Gatos Art Association's Greater Bay Area Open Exhibition

New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) is proud to host the biennial exhibition, Greater Bay Area Open (GBAO) organized by the Los Gatos Art Association (LGAA). This juried exhibition titled “Journeys” is juried by esteemed artist and Executive Director of the Richmond Art Center, Ric Ambrose.  Works in a range of mediums, reflect the exhibiting artists wide interpretations of the show’s theme.  Artist submissions originate from the greater Bay Area, spanning Walnut Creek to Pebble Beach. The exhibition opens June 28 and runs through September 8, 2019 at NUMU. A public reception with the artists will take place on Friday, June 28, 6pm to 8pm at NUMU. More information on the exhibition opening reception is available here.

Los Gatos Art Association President, John Giannotti states, “We are thrilled to be partnering with NUMU to present this special biennial fine art showcase that brings together extraordinary artists in the Greater Bay Area.”

For many years the former Museums of Los Gatos (now NUMU) regularly featured both member and open juried exhibitions organized by the LGAA. NUMU hosted GBAO in 2015 and 2017. "We are excited to continue our longstanding collaboration with the LGAA and host the 2019 exhibition,” says NUMU Executive Director, Maureen Cappon-Javey. “We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with artists and creatives in the community through this dynamic exhibition that serves to shine a light on exceptional works and practices from across the region.”


During his long career, GBAO Juror, Ric Ambrose has managed art collections and curated over 300 art, science and history exhibitions at Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo, Colorado, the Fresno Metropolitan Museum, the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences in Charleston, the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto, and the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley. Ambrose taught studio art at Colorado State University, West Virginia State University, and Arapahoe Community College inLittleton, Colorado.  His large-scale drawings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the United States, most recently at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara in spring 2019. His work is represented in numerous public and private collections. Ambrose received his MFA in drawing at Colorado State University, and a BFA in studio art and art history at the University of Oregon.

For more information about LGAA and the exhibition please visit www.lgaa.org

Generous support for the exhibition provided by:
Los Gatos Art Association
Los Gatos Community Foundation

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Warren Chang: Voice of the Fields
Feb
22
to Jun 16

Warren Chang: Voice of the Fields

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Warren Chang: Voice of the Fields
February 22-June 16, 2019

Warren Chang, ​Lunch Break​, Oil on canvas, 40” x 24”, Courtesy of Monterey Museum of Art

Warren Chang, ​Lunch Break​, Oil on canvas, 40” x 24”, Courtesy of Monterey Museum of Art

Monterey artist Warren Chang presents an exhibition of paintings​ titled Voice of the Fields. The exhibition showcases​ Chang’s large scale luminous paintings of the community who labor in the farms around the Salinas Valley. Chang was born and raised in Monterey and California’s agricultural environment is part of his daily life. Influenced by the John Steinbeck tales of his youth, Warren was drawn to field workers as subjects for his recent series of paintings. Voice of the Fields​ is on view in NUMU’s Spotlight Gallery through June 16, 2019.

A contemporary realist whose primary focus is figurative, Warren’s striking series of paintings of farmworkers provides a revelatory glimpse into the communal experience and hard physical labor of producing our food. The lives and experiences of farmworker families often tend to be invisible, even though their labor supports some of the most productive agricultural land in the country. Chang skillfully depicts the old and young, men and women, hoeing, pruning, harvesting, at break time, and leaving the fields at day’s end. Deeply personal yet forthright, these beautifully realized paintings compel our attention and empathy to tell an important story that has been too long overlooked.

Download press release here.

Voice of the Fields is generously sponsored by The Winfield Gallery.

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Circle of Truth
Oct
19
to Mar 11

Circle of Truth

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Circle of Truth
October 19, 2018 - March 10, 2019

Shane Guffogg, oil on canvas, Courtesy of the Artist

Shane Guffogg, oil on canvas, Courtesy of the Artist

NUMU is pleased to present the first public showing of the traveling exhibition, Circle of Truth, a wholly unique collaboration of 49 contemporary artists, each sequestered and unknown to one another, working in absolute secrecy. Taking a full nine years from launch to completion,  Circle of Truth is a modern, visual take on a common childhood classroom exercise wherein a secret message was whispered from student to student, often referred to as the Rumor Circle, or the Telephone Game.

The Circle of Truth Project was launched in 2009 and completed in 2016. The exhibition makes its debut at NUMU on October 18, 2018 and runs through March 10, 2019. It will travel to the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster, CA in August 2019 and the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art (OCCCA) in Santa Ana, CA in October 2019.

Ed Ruscha, oil on canvas, Courtesy of the Artist

Ed Ruscha, oil on canvas, Courtesy of the Artist

The LA-based Project was conceived by artist, Laura Hipke and co-curated with artist, Shane Guffogg. Exhibiting artists from Los Angeles, Arizona and New York include:  Kim Abeles, Lisa Adams, Lita Albuquerque, Charles Arnoldi, Lisa Bartleson, Billy Al Bengston, Justin Bower, Virginia Broersma, Randall Cabe, Rhea Carmi, Greg Colson, Jeff Colson, Stanley Dorfman, Cheryl Ekstrom, Jimi Gleason, Rives Granade, Ron Griffin, Alex Gross, Shane Guffogg, Lynn Hanson, Doro Hofmann, Tim Isham, Kim Kimbro, Bari Kumar, Cal Lane, Margaret Lazzari, Mark Licari, Dan Lutzick, Deborah Martin, Susan McDonnell, Christopher Monger, Jim Morphesis, Andy Moses, Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez, Gary Panter, Daniel Peacock,  Bruce Richards, Michael Andrew Rosenfeld, Ed Ruscha, Eddie Ruscha, Paul Ruscha, John Scane, Vonn Sumner, Matthew Thomas, Alison Van Pelt, Michelle Weinstein, Ruth Weisberg, Robert Williams and Todd Williamson.

The forty-nine works of art by forty-nine artists were created specifically for the project. Mostly oil paintings, the works are all the same size and are displayed in the order in which they were created by the collaborating artists.  

Viewers of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities and levels of education will be able to quickly understand the meaning of the exhibition. There are no prerequisites or any fundamental knowledge needed to appreciate and recognize truth. The experience relies simply on the viewers’ inherent human nature. The exhibition provides many levels of interest, from superficial amusement, to existential explorations.

The Project Rules

The first painting (“visiting painting”) created by Shane Guffogg, was delivered along with a blank canvas to the second artist in the Circle. The second artist was not given the identity of the first artist, nor what the painting was about or represented.  The only instruction was to find "truth" in the first painting and then use the blank canvas to create a work of art in response (the “response painting”). When finished, the painting and a new blank canvas were delivered to the third artist, and the first painting was placed in storage.  This procedure was repeated by the participating artists who were asked to keep the secret until the project was complete. The final/forty-ninth painting was created by Ed Ruscha. The artists did not sign their paintings or talk about the project to anyone. Each artist was asked to write an essay about their experience. Excerpts of the essays are included in the exhibition. The accompanying exhibition catalogue, with its sequential layout and essays by the artists, provides a lasting record of the experience.

What transpired over the course of the project – what truths were explored and discovered, how the artists were affected – broadened the scope of the project from an interesting exploration of sensitivity and creativity, into an unexpected examination of what truth means sociologically and spiritually.

What is truth? How do people feel about their access to truth? What is our responsibility to preserve truth? Is truth still important or even relevant? How does the subtle erosion of our confidence in truth affect our sense of well-being? The exhibition touches on a need that resonates deeply in the human psyche – access to meaningful, truthful contact with others. This truthful contact is the secret ingredient in the Circle of Truth Project.  

About the Curators

Laura Hipke and Shane Guffogg are artists living in the Greater Los Angeles Area. They are former members of Pharmaka (co-founded by Guffogg), a defunct painter’s group museum/gallery in downtown Los Angeles.

Shane Guffogg was born in Los Angeles, California. He received his B.F.A. from Cal Arts, and during his studies he interned in New York City.He relocated to Los Angeles, where he lived in Venice Beach and worked as a Studio Assistant for Ed Ruscha from 1989 until 1995. Guffogg’s work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, Fundación/Colección Jumex, Mexico City, The Imperial Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia, The Gallery of the Museum Center, Baku, Azerbaijan, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles and other public collections. Guffogg is also a celebrated curator, lecturer and television host.

More information: shaneguffogg.com

Laura Hipke is a Los Angeles based artist and curator. Thematically, Laura explores the interiors of the heart and what it means to be human. Her work includes painting and printmaking, as well as ongoing projects that require the input of strangers. Laura has been described as an intuitive. She is self-taught, except for briefly attending California Institute of the Arts when she was sixteen.

More information: laurahipke.com

Circle of Truth is generously supported by the following sponsors.

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This exhibition is presented in partnership with the “New Terrains: Mobility and Migration" South Bay exhibition and program series.

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Sis Boom Bah! The Life and Times of Los Gatos High School
Sep
8
to Dec 29

Sis Boom Bah! The Life and Times of Los Gatos High School

This three-dimensional yearbook-style exhibition explores what it has meant to be a LGHS Wildcat over the course of the school's 100 years+ history.  Visitors to the exhibition will experience highlights of Wildcat dominance in sports, the arts, student activities, and the social events that created lasting friendships and a distinct campus community.  Visitors will also learn about the evolution of high school events and traditions over the last century, and check in on notable alumni who left their mark locally and on the world stage.

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In the Artist’s Studio: George Rivera and Kristin Lindseth
Jan
19
to Jun 17

In the Artist’s Studio: George Rivera and Kristin Lindseth

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In the Artist’s Studio: George Rivera and Kristin Lindseth

January 19, 2018 – June 17, 2018. Free admission for all visitors

With this first installation of In The Artist’s Studio, visitors are invited into the studios of George Rivera and Kristin Lindseth for an introduction to their work, creative process and lives as artists. In this virtual studio visit, a selection of the artists' works, art making tools and personal items, along with rarely seen photographs of private studio spaces - rarely open to the public - are on view. 

An artist’s studio is both a sacred creative space and a functional workshop, each as unique as the individual artist. The studios of artists provide a treasure trove of insight into their practices and personas. Examples from art history include painter Francis Bacon, known for working amongst a disheveled hoard of creative material. Georgia O’Keefe’s adobe home studio is filled with found bone fragments and rocks, and punctuated with windows that provide magnificent views - all informed and inspired her creative process. Constantin Brancusi’s workspace was chock-full with not only his sculptures, but also his own handmade furniture. 

George Rivera and Kristin Lindseth, like O’Keefe and many other artists throughout time, work in their home studio and the adjacent outdoor spaces. The studio space, where Rivera does most of his work, is filled with a collection of things, almost like a living collage or assemblage, along with guitars, amps and motorcycles. For Kristin Lindseth, she is most often working just outside the studio or in the foundry, venturing up the mountain trails near her home where ideas come to her as she hikes. Both artists bring to their studio practice their life experiences, skill, imagination, passion, memorable responses to works from art history and, most importantly, the magic that occurs only in the artist’s studio.

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Waterlines
Oct
6
to Mar 18

Waterlines

Waterlines

Christel Dillbohner. Frozen in Time, 2012-14, Oil, cold wax on linen, 55” x 72”, Courtesy of Don Soker Contemporary Art, SF

Christel Dillbohner. Frozen in Time, 2012-14, Oil, cold wax on linen, 55” x 72”, Courtesy of Don Soker Contemporary Art, SF

New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) presents Waterlines, an art exhibition that delves into our deep connection with one of Earth’s most important elements.

Californians often think and talk about water. Both in its abundance and scarcity, this essential natural resource is part of our collective consciousness. Our concern for water manifests in our technological innovations, our public policy and our creativity. Even the name of our region, Bay Area, expresses our geographic connection to water and informs our community identity.

Through the art of sixteen artists, working in diverse media including drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, installations and sound, Waterlines presents unique interpretations of meaning and relationship with water. Exhibiting artists include: Judith Belzer, Barbara Boissevain, Marie Cameron, Matthew Chase-Daniel, Christel Dillbohner, Linda Gass, Nancy Genn, Liz Hickok, Theodora Varnay Jones, Pantea Karimi, Cheryl E. Leonard, Danae Mattes, Marsha McDonald, Klea McKenna, Ryan M. Reynolds and Linda Simmel. 

Curator Marianne McGrath explains, “Water has been the subject of many exhibitions and with Waterlines, NUMU aims to contribute to the conversation about this vital resource. Along with being a basic need for all life, water is a source of pleasure, it is exalted in religion, and throughout history it has been a route for trade and travel. In every way we understand water, artists offer us new ways to explore its meaning and substance.”

Major support for Waterlines is provided by Badger Meter. Helping protect the world’s most precious resources, Badger Meter is a market leader in flow measurement technology with more than a century of helping our customers throughout the world manage their operations and minimize waste.

Curated by Marianne K. McGrath
 

Additional support is provided by San Jose Water Company and Kumiko Iwasawa, Iwasawa Oriental Art

More information including high res images for download may be found on our Press Resources Page.  Read press coverage for the exhibition on the NUMU in the News page. Sign-up to receive our Press Releases.

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Art & Environment: The Paintings of Andrew P. Hill
Sep
15
to Apr 15

Art & Environment: The Paintings of Andrew P. Hill

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Art & Environment: The Paintings of Andrew P. Hill

Featuring rarely seen works from The Charles and Peggy Bergtold Collection

Andrew P. Hill, Indian Headwaters of the American River, 1889, Oil on canvas, Courtesy of Charles Bergtold

Andrew P. Hill, Indian Headwaters of the American River, 1889, Oil on canvas, Courtesy of Charles Bergtold

New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU) is pleased to present Art and the Environment: The Paintings of Andrew P. Hill, an exhibition featuring works from The Charles and Peggy Bergtold Collection, the largest privately held collection of Andrew P. Hill paintings. Featured are 12 rarely displayed paintings by Andrew P. Hill depicting Santa Clara Valley landscapes and portraits of prominent San Jose citizens from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Hill’s wife, Florence Hill, Jane Stanford, Julia Farney, and the Rea family.  Other exhibition highlights include rare photographs of Hill’s San Jose photography studio before it was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, collectable books featuring Hill, and select photographs taken by Hill of the Santa Cruz redwood forests, courtesy of the Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History in San Jose.

Born August 9, 1853, Andrew Putnam Hill was a painter, photographer and leading environmentalist.  He was best known for his successful efforts to save the redwood trees from destruction in California’s Santa Cruz mountains, leading to the establishment of Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California’s oldest state park. In 1899 while on a magazine photography assignment, Hill was approached by the owner of the property who demanded he turn over his photos. He boldly told Hill that he planned to log the forest and turn the trees into railroad ties. Hill recorded his feelings of the encounter: 

“…the thought flashed through my mind that these trees, because of their size and antiquity, were among the natural wonders of the world, and should be saved for posterity. I said to myself, I will start a campaign immediately to make a public park of this place.” – Andrew P. Hill, on saving the redwoods.

Hill would go on to fight against the destruction of Northern California’s redwood forests. He organized groups from Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and mobilized scientists and local activists to join him. 

For two years the group lobbied California legislators to save the redwood trees from decimation and to create a public park. They raised $250,000, an enormous sum in those days to secure the land and in 1902 Big Basin Redwoods State Park was opened.  In addition to taking hundreds of photographs of the redwood trees surrounding Santa Clara Valley, Hill was also an avid painter of the natural beauty that he fought so hard to save.

The Charles and Peggy Bergtold Collection

As a longtime resident of Los Gatos, Charles Bergtold grew up in a time when there were still vast orchards throughout the Santa Clara Valley. His interest in the history of the valley extended to exploring local historic sites, abandoned houses, and searching the area for old cars and antiques. His love of local history eventually led to a forty-year career collecting and selling antiques in Los Gatos.

Bergtold’s interest in Hill began when he read books published on the Santa Clara Valley, which included Hill’s illustrations and photographs of early ranches, vast orchards and the pioneers who settled in the area.  After reading Grand and Ancient Forest, by Carolyn de Vries about Andrew P. Hill, Bergtold was inspired to include as many Hill works as he could find in his art collection. 

Peggy Conaway Bergtold is a former Los Gatos Library director and leading Los Gatos historian. She has written five books on the history and people of Los Gatos and received the Pat O’ Laughlin Contribution to Literature Award. She writes a Los Gatos history column for the Los Gatos Weekly, a publication of the Bay Area News Group.

Art & Environment: The Paintings of Andrew P. Hill is supported in part by The Charles and Peggy Bergtold Collection.  Selected photos are provided by the Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History in San Jose CA.

More information including high res images for download may be found on our Press Resources Page.  Read press coverage for the exhibition on the NUMU in the News page. Sign-up to receive our Press Releases.

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Cement Prairie: The History and Legacy of the 1952 American Indian Urban Relocation Program
Nov
4
to Jun 25

Cement Prairie: The History and Legacy of the 1952 American Indian Urban Relocation Program

Cement Prairie is an exhibition that explores the genesis, rollout and impact of the American Indian Relocation Program initiated by the US government in 1952.  This  significant yet little-known chapter in American Indian migration history will be viewed through a collection of personal stories, ephemera, primary source documents and support programming. The exhibition will focus specifically on the San Jose, California relocatee community and those who followed in their footsteps to the urban communities. The exhibit will examine the program’s successes and failures, the rise of Indian activism in the 1960s, and how today’s Pan-Indian community has adapted and preserves its native culture in the new “urban rez.”

In the 1950s, America’s general perceptions of Indians was formed by cultural and historical stereotypes of  “the noble savage” wearing a feather headdress, living in a teepee, kidnapping women and children; or the Lone Ranger’s stoic sidekick Tonto, characterized in popular literature. While these indelible images permeated American culture, the reality presented a stark contrast. The Indian reservation system became another failed attempt by the U.S. government to solve the “Indian Problem,” and as a result, many Indians suffered in poverty and cultures began to erode.

In an attempt to address this problem, the US government created the Indian Urban Relocation Program in 1952 to move Native Americans to major metropolitan cities to improve the community’s standard of living. In its first phase, an estimated 100,000 Indians left their reservations and settled in cities across the U.S. Today, over 70 percent of Native Americans live in urban centers, marking a significant migration period that has forever changed the Native American community and culture.

“We are privileged to have this opportunity to work directly with our local Indian community and offer a forum where they can tell this little-known but important chapter in contemporary Native American history, “ said Amy Long, NUMU history curator.

“The San Jose Indian community has long-attempted to create a visual platform to tell this story.  We are very excited to partner with NUMU to make this dream a reality, explains exhibition advisor, Al Cross, Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara, North Dakota.

In conjunction with this exhibition, NUMU is proud to present, Back From Extinction, an exhibition that focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area Native Indian tribe, the Muwekma Ohlone, and its struggle to gain federal recognition and its efforts to counter the myth of its extinction.

Cement Prairie is supported in part by San Jose State University’s Anthropology Department, the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, the National Archives, The Bancroft Library, the Indian Health Center, Bay Area photographer, Ilka Hartmann, and notable Bay Area American Indian community members.

The Oral Histories of members of the San Jose American Indian community are recorded here. Courtesy of a collaboration with San Jose State University.

This channel contains the video voices of American Indians who experienced urban relocation in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s in San Jose, California.
Taking Alcatraz, a film by John Ferry and produced by Grace De Soto, covers the Native American occupation of Alcatraz from November 20, 1969 to June 11, 1971. Panelists include: Ilka Hartmann, Eloy Martinez, Sacheen Littlefeather, Allan Harrison, Dr. Larry Brilliant, Mary Crowley, and John Ferry.
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 Making Contact: SETI Artists in Residence
Oct
28
to Mar 5

Making Contact: SETI Artists in Residence

This group exhibition features artists from the SETI Artist in Residence (AIR) program, including Danny Bazo, George Bolster, Charles Lindsay, Marko Peljhan, Rachel Sussman, Martin Wilner and Karl Yerkes. Making Contact marks the first SETI AIR group exhibition.

The work in Making Contact expands upon the SETI Institute’s mission to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe. The exhibiting artists bring fresh perspectives to help navigate difficult concepts and help build bridges to broaden awareness of the science carried out at the SETI Institute. Additionally, many of the works have never been exhibited to the public.  “We’re excited to bring together the art, science and ideas of this unique international program and share it with our community,” says Marianne McGrath, NUMU art curator.

SETI AIR Exhibited Works

The artist team of Danny Bazo, Marko Peljhan and Karl Yerkes has created Somnium which examines both the micro and macro when considering planetary potential within a swath of the universe captured by the Kepler telescope. George Bolster’s film, The Moon, McMoons, and The Moon Museum illuminates our human endeavors to preserve culture relating to our fascination with the Moon. The sculpture and mixed media works by Charles Lindsay manifest in the confluence of re-purposed technology and Apollo images to create imaginary machines and lunar landscapes. In exploring the origins of our universe, Rachel Sussman integrates intention into the quest to understand the nature of the cosmos and our role as its inhabitants. Artist and psychiatrist Martin Wilner renders his series of monthly conversations with SETI scientists using a calendar format, creating spectacular illustrated diaries of correspondence with his subjects.

About SETI and SETI Institute
SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is an exploratory science that seeks evidence of life in the universe by looking for some signature of its technology.

Our current understanding of life’s origin on Earth suggests that given a suitable environment and sufficient time, life will develop on other planets. Whether evolution will give rise to intelligent, technological civilizations is open to speculation. However, such a civilization could be detected across interstellar distances and may actually offer our best opportunity for discovering extraterrestrial life in the near future.

The SETI Institute’s mission is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe. It is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research, education and public outreach. Founded in November 1984, the SETI Institute began operations on February 1, 1985. Today it employs over 130 scientists, educators and support staff. Research at the Institute is anchored by three centers, the Center for Education, the Carl Sagan Center for the study of life in the universe, and the Center for Public Outreach. For more information: http://www.seti.org

Making Contact Artist/Scientist Panel Discussion will be held at NUMU on on Saturday, November 5th from 3pm-4:30pm. 

Making Contact is generously supported by The Robert Lehman Foundation, The Applied Materials Foundation, The SETI Institute, Montalvo Arts Center and The Lucas Artists Residency Program. NUMU gratefully acknowledges support from the Town of Los Gatos and its many donors and members. Additional funding provided by UBS.

Making Contact is curated by Marianne McGrath.

Views of the installation, as photographed by Charles Lindsay, SETI AIR Program Director.

Below is a time lapse video of artist Rachel Sussman creating the Cosmic Microwave Sand Mandala, installed in Making Contact.

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McMoons: How a Band of Scientists Saved Lunar Image History
Sep
23
to May 14

McMoons: How a Band of Scientists Saved Lunar Image History

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Dennis Wingo, McMoons Building, Moffett Field, 2008, Courtesy of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP)/Skycap

Dennis Wingo, McMoons Building, Moffett Field, 2008, Courtesy of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP)/Skycap

The McMoons exhibition’s mission is twofold: to shine a light on the 50th anniversary of  NASA’s (1967-68) Lunar Orbiter Project that collected lunar images integral to the safe landing on the first Apollo landing on the moon, and to tell the little-known story of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) that began in 2008 to recover the original NASA Lunar Orbiter images.

McMoons will take the visitor on an extraordinary journey from a dilapidated storage space to a veterinarian’s garage in central California and on to an abandoned McDonald’s restaurant on the Moffett NASA campus in Sunnyvale. California where archival space history is still being made today.

The exhibition includes original prints from the Lunar Orbiter Project and digitized prints of the original film including a wall-sized reproduction of the first restored image - the Earth rising. Visitors can also see and touch the original film canisters and tapes and listen to original audio recordings from the Lunar Orbiter Project. Also on view are prints and video of the LOIRP Project still underway at the McDonalds “lab” on the NASA campus.

Background

In 2008, working out of an abandoned McDonald's on the NASA campus in Sunnyvale, a group of dedicated scientists, former NASA employees, and three 12-year-old interns began a project to recover the original NASA Lunar Orbiter images from 1966-67. Due to neglect and indifference over time, the original data, stored on large tape reels, was nearly lost. Now, fifty years after the Lunar Orbiter project, this vital piece of lunar mission history has been saved, enhanced and is being digitized thanks to the tenacity and foresight of a handful of self described “techno-archaeologists.”  

A Members and Special Guests Preview Party will be held on Thursday, November 3, 7pm-9pm.  A Public Opening Celebration will be held on Saturday, November 5th, 11am-5pm

NUMU is proud to collaborate with the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project and NASA on this exhibition.

We need your support!
You can support the McMoons exhibition through the crowdfunding website Indiegogo, and receive perks from limited edition prints, stickers, VIP tickets and so much more. Your donation is 100% tax deductible and directly supports this exhibition. 

Thank you to our Media Sponsor, Photographer Winni Wintermeyer.

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A Visible Journey in Time: Los Gatos History Project
Sep
22
to Apr 2

A Visible Journey in Time: Los Gatos History Project


A Visible Journey in Time: Los Gatos History Project   This series of landscape wall murals by Santa Cruz-based artist Andrea Borsuk, charts a course through the Santa Cruz Mountains to Los Gatos, exploring the character of the Town of Los Gatos and its changing landscape and history. These murals lead the viewers through time and place, incorporating historical artifacts from NUMU’s permanent collection. The first phase of this project that opened on September 2016 is called, The Painter’s Journey: On the Road to Los Gatos. Its interactive component will invite the public to add their wish on a flag, completing the three-dimensional quality of the installation. 

Local artist Andrea Borsuk is a painter whose work explores notions of time and destiny. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from UC Santa Cruz. She is an art instructor at Cabrillo College and a visiting lecturer at The Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland, Oregon. She is the 2010/2011 recipient of the Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship. Her solo and group exhibitions include: The Riverside Museum of Art, The Nevada Museum of Art, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Monterey Peninsula Community College Art Gallery, The Sanchez Art Center, and the San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art. Her work can be found in numerous private collections.

The installation and the permanent history exhibit are made possible by the generous support of our partners, lenders and sponsors, Los Gatos Community Foundation, The Town of Los Gatos and Donors to NUMU’s Annual Campaign.

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Billy Jones and the Wildcat Railroad: Making Tracks from the South Bay To Disneyland
Nov
7
to Apr 3

Billy Jones and the Wildcat Railroad: Making Tracks from the South Bay To Disneyland

NOVEMBER 7, 2015—JULY 24, 2016 

Billy Jones and the Wildcat Railroad: Making Tracks from the South Bay To Disneyland

Billy Jones, creator of the Wildcat Railroad, built a lasting legacy to honor his two sons who were killed during World War II. His railroad inspired not only his community, but studio and theme park mogul Walt Disney. The exhibit will explore this relationship and its ties to Los Gatos. 

 

Billy Jones aboard a train.

Billy Jones aboard a train.


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It Takes a Village: A Trip Back in Time to Frontier Village, Santa's Village and Lost World
Nov
7
to Apr 17

It Takes a Village: A Trip Back in Time to Frontier Village, Santa's Village and Lost World

What do a cowboy, a candy cane and a dinosaur have in common? They are all symbols of magical theme parks from a bygone era in the South Bay. For those who grew up in the area, each park holds special meaning and memories. 

While the country was booming from post World War II prosperity, Walt Disney showed children that there was a place you could visit that supported your imagination and let adults know that you’re never too old to be a kid. Building on the success of Disneyland, theme parks began to dot the landscape, and the South Bay to the Santa Cruz Mountains was no exception. 

In 1961, Frontier Village opened its saloon doors off Monterey Highway and celebrated the country’s fascination with the Wild West. Kids spent endless days watching gunfighters fall from the balconies of the old Saloon, navigated through the park on a train, or took a spin on one of the many rides. 

Just off Highway 17 at the summit, Santa’s Village became the first franchised theme park, providing a Christmas wonderland for thousands of visitors year round. 

Up the road from Santa’s Village, in the forest of Scott’s Valley, children in the back of station wagons marveled at the life-sized dinosaurs towering over the side of the highway and the botanical wonders of the magic tree forest of Lost World.

The parks were more than just a place to spend the day. They were connections to an era and a time when childhood was defined less by technology and more by activity, imagination and play. This exhibit will transport the viewer back in time to explore these local places of enduring legacy and memory. 

It takes a village to build a village. As a non-profit 501c3, community support of this project is crucial for its success. Please consider a personal or business sponsorship to help make this an amazing exhibit for all generations to enjoy. 

 

Thank you to our Sponsors

Maria West, Castellano Family Foundation

In Kind Sponsors

Ace Hardware, Los Gatos Blvd
Burdick Painting
Goodwill Industries, San Jose
Jay's Art and Sign Scotts Valley
John A. Saunders, Economy Lumber, Campbell

Sustaining Sponsor

Town of Los Gatos

 

Exhibition News... People are talking see what they have to say:

Los Gatos Weekly TimesA chance to visit some forgotten theme parks

By Judy Peterson July 24, 2015

 

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