TORRANCE ART MUSEUM PRESENTS
adjacent, adjacent
Plaza mirage II
sprouts, sown days ago

December 7 - 21, 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jason Jenn, Outreach Specialist
310-781-7163
JJenn@TorranceCA.gov

TORRANCE ART Museum closes out 2019 with special exhibitions this december

VENUE: Torrance Art Museum
LOCATION: 3320 Civic Center Dr, Torrance, CA
DATES: December 7-21, 2019
Opening Reception Saturday, December 7 from 6-9pm
Artist Walkthrough Saturday, December 14 from 1-3pm
Closing Event Saturday, December 21 from 1-3pm

TORRANCE, CA – Torrance Art Museum (TAM) closes out the year with a run of special exhibitions from December 7-21. TAM’s Main Gallery hosts Adjacent, Adjacent, a culminating exhibition of FORUM 2019, a 10-month mentorship program with a cohort of fourteen art professionals. Gallery Two hosts Plaza Mirage II, featuring brand new works by artists Zach Trow and Theresa Sterner. The Dark Room features a series of video and document clips pertaining to FORUM 2019 events.

Main Gallery – Adjacent, Adjacent
Adjacent, Adjacent is a reflection on relationships between the participants of the FORUM 2019, some of whom will carry forward beyond the exhibition as the art collective Museum Adjacent. The exhibition provokes the artists to consider where they are (both in location and career trajectory) and how that relates to what they make.

FORUM is an annual 10-month mentorship residency for emerging artists, curators, gallerists and writers who wish to build a career in contemporary art. This empowering program is designed as a practical guide to navigating the art world via Q&A sessions with successful professionals (artists, curators, critics and gallerists), culminating with an exhibition in the Main Gallery of the Torrance Art Museum, with the program’s participants. More information about the program and applications for FORUM 2020 are now available at www.TorranceArtMuseum.com/forum.

 The FORUM 2019 participants are: Henderson Blumer, Leslie Foster, Kim Garcia, Sharon Levy, Kim Marra, Hagop Najarian, Larissa Nickel, Dakota Noot, Amoral Poem (Devion Law & Joshua Ross), Molly Schulman, Christina Shurts, Josh Vasquez, and Surge Witrön.

Gallery Two –  Plaza Mirage II
In Plaza Mirage II, Zach Trow and Theresa Sterner work collaboratively to articulate the landscape of Isamu Noguchi’s commissioned public plazas through fragments and facsimiles, exploring themes of leisure vs. labor, maintenance as ritual, and the void.  They are interested in the functional life these public spaces serve to the surrounding community as well the evidence of daily use. Through images and observations, an installation of sculptures are presented that tow the line between model, monument, and utilitarian object.
This project was made possible with support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and Yucca Valley Material Lab.

Dark Room – Sprouts, sown days ago
The Dark Room features a series of video works pertaining to the participants of FORUM 2019 events and activities leading up to Adjacent, Adjacent: documentation from previous exhibitions, event openings, conversations between curators and artists, and clips of previous works by the artists involved in FORUM 2019.

Exhibition run from December 7 – 21, 2019
The Opening Reception will be held on Saturday, December 7 from 6-9pm
An Artist Walkthrough will be held on Saturday, December 14 from 1-3pm
Closing Event Saturday, December 21 from 1-3pm
For more information, please visit: TorranceArtMuseum.com

CLICK IMAGES BELOW TO SEE FULL SIZE AND DOWNLOAD

Here's a preview of some of what the new year 2020 has in store.

It's going to be a thrill-ride, starting with DEATH CULT from January 18 - March 14. Skulls. Motorcycles. A moment of impact. Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, January 18 from 6-9pm. The obsession with Death has always been a fundamental pivot for much of art throughout history and across geographical boundaries. As Western contemporary culture moved into a period of youth sub-cultures in the mid-1950s the skull took on various signifiers for myriad groups and has maintained that tradition. From the early bikers, often soldiers returning home from World War Two, with a drive for excitement and camaraderie - with Heavy Metal, Punk and other musical genres along the way - through to todays skateboarders, making use of the human skull as signifier for risk taking youthfulness and rebellion.

This exhibition focuses on the ubiquitous skull and relates it to these sub-cultures, with a particular focus on the motorcycle world lifestyle, as they have one of the highest mortality rates amongst these sub-cultures. A death wish, a rage against the dying of the light, or the instinctive aligning of danger and excitement in a world that many see as too bland and corporate?

CO/LAB 5 features artists-run gallery/spaces from around the world (from as far away as Johannesburg, Stockholm, and Seoul to name just a few) working with Los Angeles based gallery/spaces to create 8 mini-exhibitions from April 4- May 16, Opening Reception on Saturday, April 4 from 6-9pm.

In the third iteration of STUDIO SYSTEM, the museum gallery space becomes the working studio for artists. Experience them creating throughout the month of June, culminating in a Closing Reception where you can see the exciting results of the process on Saturday, June 27 from 6-9pm

About Torrance Art Museum:
Founded in 2005, the Torrance Art Museum is the premier visual art space to view contemporary art in the South Bay. The museum encourages all people to develop and increase their understanding and appreciation for modern programs, artist talks, lectures, and symposia. Through its emphasis on contemporary artistic expression in Southern California and globally, the Torrance Art Museum brings together visual artists and community members; fosters experiences in the arts to strengthen creative and critical thinking skills; and builds bridges between the visual arts and other disciplines in the humanities and sciences. Torrance Art Museum is a program of the City of Torrance Cultural Services Division of the Community Services Department.

For more information visit www.TorranceArtMuseum.com or call 310-618-6388.

Museum Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Admission to the Torrance Art Museum is Free.

Torrance Art Museum
3320 Civic Center Drive
Torrance, CA 90503

TorranceArtMuseum.com
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facebook.com/TorranceArtMuseum
Instagram: @torranceartmuseum
Twitter: @TorranceArt 

For press info on other past shows:

Fall Exhibition (Material Matters, To Save The Day!, Intentions), please visit: http://www.torranceartmuseum.com/fall2019
Summer Exhibitions: GENERATION W(ar) & Run Straight Through, please visit: http://www.torranceartmuseum.com/genwpr
Spring Exhibitions: CO/LAB 4, Ryan Taber, The Beacon Project, please visit: http://www.torranceartmuseum.com/colab4pr