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The Nedderman Collection in Dialogues with CSUCI Students features paintings from the collection “paired” with art by students. The exhibition, coordinated by Art History professor Irina D. Costache, is organized in three sections each curated by an art history student. The students’ artworks were selected by Art Lecturer Christophe Bourely from his painting classes.

True Landscapes

Curated by September Cirri

The Nedderman Collection features a romanticized set of landscapes that depict the natural beauty that is California. The plein air aspect of these works captures dramatic views of California that make thes the viewers feel as if they are caught in one specific moment in time. For students who might not have spent much time in museums or have taken an art class, being able to view original works of California landscapes in person not only helps them engage more in the paintings but also can help build their analytical skills.

Furthermore, a sense of pride comes in the collection comes to us as students. Here at Channel Islands, our campus collection is a great teaching tool, not only for art history students like me, but for students of all majors.
Instead of looking at books with landscapes from far off-places, the artists in the collection and our student artists provide students with local works, something for them to identify with and be inspired by. CSUCI as well, reaffirms its identity with this collection, as a place for our students to not only learn firsthand about California landscapes but to create them as well.

Through the Eyes of Artists

Curated by Alexandra Infield

When artists paint a picture, the viewer has a chance to see how they envision the world around them. The viewer has the opportunity to see the artists’ perspective through style, color,

 


and composition. The paintings presented by the students of Channel Islands, offer a unique perspective of the University. The artists of the Nedderman Collection also show the viewers their own unique perspective of California. With each set of paintings, my goal was to focus on the similarities of color and/or style of the selected paintings of the Nedderman Collection when compared to the paintings created by the students of Channel Islands.



Unlocking the Golden State
Curated by Alexandra Infeld
American architect Frank Gehry once stated, “Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.” One can observe the mix of cultures in California through the many styles of architecture. The great state is best known for its various topographies, so it is appropriate for diverse artists to present their views of the land.

Unlocking the Golden State is a look into a few structures that are so classically representative of the state of California, with artists young and old sharing their practice. Throughout the 20th century,

 

Jake Lee spent his time in California as an artist documenting his experience as a Chinese-American immigrant. Ruth Bortell professionally changed her name to Roger Scott to gain more opportunity in the field, concealing her femininity to distance herself from the assumptions linked to women artists and their conventional gender roles since women were thought of, first and foremost, as domestic workers. The Nedderman Collection contains six of her landscapes that Bortell made throughout her 30s and 40s. Through the following six pairings of art from the collection with CSUCI student

landscapes, we offer a more profound understanding of what makes the Golden State so timeless.

 


Despite its clichéd image of the plein-air artist scouting the countryside, landscape painting remains a formidable antidote to our evermore instantaneous and virtual world. For this reason, once every semester, painting students at CSUCI have taken their easels outside of the studio and onto the lawns of our picturesque campus. There, they have taken the time to see and to feel the landscape in its ever-dynamic completeness. The transitory

 

 

 

 

light, the chromatic shadows, the interwoven textures, the linear perspectives and the aerial sfumato combine to create a sense of being and of belonging in the great plein-air. It is our hope that the viewers will engage in this painterly environment as much as these artists did.

 Christophe Bourély, November 2020