April 16 – May 5, 2010

Selections from RAM’s Permanent Collection exhibits work spanning sixty years, reflecting the museum’s focus on exhibiting, educating, collecting, and providing scholarship on the visual arts with an emphasis on American, Californian, and prominent Inland Empire artists. Within this scope, the medium and styles vary in approach from traditional to contemporary. This particular catalogue of works includes several notable recent acquisitions including: Venus with Star (2007) by artist Aida Schneider; Glitterati (2009) by IE artist and curator Leora Lutz; and Tree Thought (2009) by recent UCR MFA graduate Courtney Oquist. The exhibit also includes work by significant artists from around the Southland, including painters O. Walter Donnenfeld, Rex Brandt, Margaret Lawson, and Sara Waterbury. The featured works are all distinctly different from one another and range from purely abstract to careful renderings of recognizable landmarks. Each piece represents a carefully constructed comment made by their respective artists yet they are universally connected through the use of a similarly cool, earth-toned color palette. Viewed together, these disparate works reveal the same elements that contribute to their success: compelling texture, subdued contrasted with saturated color, and an intimate approach to space and composition.