Email Author DAVE BARTON

2012 Stories by DAVE BARTON

• OCCCA's New Photography Exhibit Hits You With Its Best Shots

  published December 27, 2012

  Reviewing a juried, group photography show is a lot like finding an old box of photographs hidden in a closet. Peel open the box, and you... More >>

• 'ex•pose: macha suzuki' Exposes the Beauty of Fail

  published November 21, 2012

  Mitt Romney's epic failed run for the presidency last week is still being dissected as I type these words and will likely continue in the weeks... More >>

• 'Dark Matters' Is One Giant, Conceptual Stain

  published October 18, 2012

  If ambiguity, uncertainty and a love of the vague send you off the deep end, best avoid curator Marcus Herse's exhibition "Dark Matters: Takes... More >>

• Curatorial Cage Match In Irvine

  published September 20, 2012

  Having seen my share of meh in local galleries, many is the time I've pondered how grand it would be to watch a WWE-style cage fight... More >>

• Jack Goldstein: A Sketch Turned Into a Portrait

  published August 30, 2012

  An exhilarating survey of a single artist's work now on exhibit at Orange County Museum of Art, "Jack Goldstein x 10,000" is, insanely, the... More >>

• F+ Gallery and the Art of Noise

  published August 16, 2012

  A music-inspired show in Santa Ana's Artists Village, "Off the Record" is curator Amy Kaplan's second exhibition in the tiny, gray F+ Gallery,... More >>

• Excavating America's Future With 'Escape From the Landfill'

  published August 2, 2012

  With the sheer number of social issues I try to keep up with, I'm dismal about giving environmental issues their due. It seems so much bigger... More >>

• PAS Gallery's Piggish Kelly Thomas Exhibit

  published July 12, 2012

  It's 7:30 p.m., and I'm standing in line outside the packed PAS Gallery. There are 22 people ahead of me, waiting excitedly to see "Art With an... More >>

• OCCCA Tick-Tocks On the Art Block

  published June 14, 2012

  Anthrax (by way of Joe Jackson) got it right when they sang, "Got the time tick, tick, tickin' in my head"—and for the purposes of this... More >>

• Jose Quant Is the New Kid on the Old Masters' Block

  published May 31, 2012

  Jose Quant, owner and operator of Q Art Salon, doesn't want your money; he just wants you to love the artists he loves, as shown in his... More >>

• Victor Hugo Zayas' 'Obra' of Art

  published March 29, 2012

  It's the rare moment when I attend an exhibition and fall in love, but after the exhilarating kiss of not one, but two perfect exhibitions, I'm... More >>

• OCMA Has a Palimpsest of an Exhibit

  published March 8, 2012

  I appreciate abstract artwork intellectually, and puzzling over its hidden meanings while drinking coffee with friends is a favorite pastime,... More >>

• 'Photo + Plus' Offers Pictures More Than 1,000 Words

  published February 23, 2012

  A sealed box of mementoes that brings up a host of troubling thoughts when opened—that's the darkness lurking behind the white... More >>

• At OCMA, It's Tag Team Time!

  published January 19, 2012

  Artists are generally strange, solitary creatures whiling away their time in studios, building intimate relationships with paper, clay, canvas... More >>

• Laguna Art Museum's 'Best Kept Secret' Shows What Zot Wrought

  published January 12, 2012

  Documenting the furious creativity of the early years of UC Irvine's School of Fine Arts, curator Grace Kook-Anderson's revelatory exhibition... More >>