Long Beach Arts delivers its first exhibition in Bixby Knolls

EARL JUNGHANS’ ‘AUTO WRECK’

The real estate lockbox is still on the door, and the walls probably weren’t painted this millennium, but Long Beach Arts finally has its new home in Bixby Knolls. And really, what would you rather see—fresh white paint or fresh art? Exactly.

“People can find us now,” enthuses Walton McNulty, an LBA board member who was the organization’s president in 1967, the same year the Queen Mary came to town. Volunteers like him and shows like the juried “Works on Paper,” which opened Friday, are just a few of the reasons we still have LBA.

Here, artist Nancy Lawrence presents two intriguing collages of roadmaps. Circle Study #2 resembles the cross section of a redwood, and Ori, a portrait of what looks like a small dog rendered in areas of Arizona and New Mexico, borrows a section of streets from Santa Ana for the pink pad of its paw.

Robert Steinkamp delivers the show’s only found art: Tired News, a mash of paper pulp—shaped rather like Snoopy—on which he’s sketched an animal’s features. It’s excellent.

Painter Dena South offers a take on Christ of the Abyss—any of the Christ sculptures submerged in the water off of Florida or Italy. Arms wide, reaching up to descending divers, this Christ offers a blessing in cool greens and blues—anemones and sea urchins on his shoulders.

In the back of the space, watercolorist Earl Junghans varies his palette between cool and autumnal and shimmery and summery with a trio of paintings. Screened Porch is all blue floor and verdant landscape; Pont Neuf is photo-realistic in its detail; and Auto Wrecks delivers a junkyard, wavy in the heat.

And Robert Weinstein brings Exhaustion, the inked-in figure of a weary traveler beckoning us—through “kanji” on Japanese newspapers and classified ads—framed by a swatch of the Victoria’s Secret catalog cover. It’s great mixed media.

WORKS ON PAPER LONG BEACH ARTS | 4332 ATLANTIC AVE | LONG BEACH 90808 | 562.435.5995 | LONG-BEACH-ARTS.ORG | OPEN WED-SUN 12-5PM THROUGH SEPT 19 | FREE

Tags: bixby knolls, long beach arts, works on paper