2008 CALIFORNIA BIENNIAL
26 October 2008 - 15 March 2009
Orange County Museum of Art


Border and Biennial :
: Expansion and Dislocation

How does a regional biennial serve artists and audiences? What is distinctive and different about cultural production at this point in time, in this context? How does one approach contemporary artistic practices based on locational parameters?

Guest-curator Lauri Firstenberg's concept for presenting the works by more than 50 established and emerging artists at the 2008 California Biennial questions regional biennials in a world of globalism and transnationalism. For the first time off-site projects with collaborating venues from Tijuana to Northern California are incorporated into the California Biennial.

Lauri Firstenberg is the founder and director/curator of LA><ART in Los Angeles.

fig.: Raymond Pettibon, No Title (I Thought California), 1989; Lithograph; Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Photograph by Joshua White

The spontaneity and flexibility of independent organizations collaborating in the biennial complement the work at the museum and represent a model for exhibiting art based on risk and experimentation. Off-site installations include projects by Karl Haendel, Raymond Pettibon, and High Desert Test Sites at locations in Los Angeles, Culver City, Hollywood, and Joshua Tree, ...

Catalogue An accompanying 208 pages catalogue is available. You will find each artist of the biennial featured on two to four pages with reproductions and an interview conducted by a curator, critic, or fellow artist. Also included in the catalogue is an introduction by guest-curator Lauri Firstenberg and two guest essayists: René Peralta on the culture of the border and Joshua Decter on the nature of biennials.

Check out details at www.ocma.net.

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