Last Saturday we attended a terrific little art auction at the brand spanking new Claremont Museum of Art, which has only existed for about six months but managed to amass a nice selection of works to bid on. There were some big names - including Karl Benjamin and Harrison Macintosh - and there were some emerging artists, including students from several of the nearby universities.
The piece that caught our fancy is by Hollis Cooper - not a huge name (yet!), but definitely not a new-to-the-art-world student. She actually teaches in the art department at Cal State San Bernadino (which has a great art department, by the way).
So after much hang-wringing and cocktail sipping, we broke our promise to not further deplete our art funds, and started bidding. Low and behold, a bidding war ensued! Her piece was such a hit. All the bidding just made us more determined to own the piece, so we were resolute and hovered and growled and stalked until we wore down our competitors. And now this wonderful piece, Alpheta is ours! I love the energy and color, with thick, globby paint and a really cool 3D texture to it that's hard to discern here. It's mixed media on panel, 15"x24". How lucky are we?! In her work, she frequently combines digital imagery, architecture, and painting. Her large scale installations are so cool. Hollis definitely has new fans in Eric and me!
After the auction we stayed at a lovely little boutique hotel that just opened right across the street from the museum. Casa 425 is lovely and serene in all its bright white modern-ness.
1 comment:
It's gorgeous! Can't wait to see it in person.
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