The June Wayne Art & Science Project Supporting “The Art of Everything” Opening September 7th at the Fullerton Museum Center, Orange County.
On September 7, 2024 a large exhibition of the Art & Science work of June Wayne (1918-2011) opens at the Fullerton Museum in Orange County, California, other of her works simultaneously featured at the Palm Springs Museum as a part of the Getty's Pacific Standard Time. Wayne provided a prophetic vision of science as a new poetry, seeing art and science as originating from the same river of human imagination. From 1965, as no other artist since Leonardo da Vinci, Wayne focused on science in her paintings, prints, and tapestries exploring genetics, optics and perception, earthquakes, wind and tidal waves, quantum physics, climate change, artificial intelligence, the expansion of the tools of mass surveillance, and the outer cosmos and the origins of the universe.
In advance of the fall museum exhibitions, we invited a number of innovative artists and thinkers in a variety of fields to reflect on Wayne's work and legacy. We have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the response.
We are delighted to share with you some of these online contributions.
Nataša Stearns, “Clockwork Horizon”, from the “Horizons, Haiku Videos” series.
Award winning Nataša Prosenc Stearns is a Slovenian-born visual artist and filmmaker whose works have been exhibited worldwide, including representing Slovenia at the Venice Biennale.
Stearns: “I created the Horizons during my residency at the City of Santa Monica Camera Obscura Lab. The studio I was working at has giant glass windows overlooking the ocean. The non-stop presence of the horizon with its infinite varieties inspired me to start recording it every day. Some days twice or three times.
Like in scientific research, the outcome of this process is not yet known. It is being articulated during the act of creating. As art and science originate from the same source of human curiosity and passion, this series probes in the tradition of June Wayne the ways we explain the secrets of nature and universe to ourselves. Questioning the fabric of our reality as humans it reminds us of times when science was more linked to imagination than to technical improvement.”
Nataša Stearns, “Over Double Horizon”, from the “Horizons, Haiku Videos” series.
Robert Landau, “Oil and Water Don’t Mix” color photograph, Farmer’s Market, Los Angeles.
Photographer Robert Landau is the author of several art books including “Rock’n’Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip”, which inspired the recent Rolling Stones video “Angry”. These photographs are currently on exhibit at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, which proved a blockbuster in its opening on May 18th and will be up through September 1st. Landau is currently working on a documentary on the rock and roll billboards, with the participation of musicians depicted, including ten time Grammy award winner Chaka Khan.
James T. Goodwin, “Flowering Universe”, mixed media assemblage. Photo Credit - Sinziana Velicescu.
Mixed media artist, director emeritus of the LA Craft and Folk Art Museum (now the Craft Contemporary), and creator of Westweek at the Pacific Design Center, James T. Goodwin and his wife Sushiela were longtime close friends of Wayne.
In “Flowering Universe” from “Improvisations: Icons & Artifacts”, Goodwin encloses a chromed steel square, a flowering specimen of native copper, and a polished sphere of rock crystal in a glass bell jar. With this assemblage, Goodwin references the scientific experiments of a laboratory, reminding us of June Wayne’s lifelong studies uniting art and science.
Patricia Lanza, “Van Gogh: The Inn”, Auberge Ravoux, Auvers, France.
“This is the door and staircase that lead to the attic room of Van Gogh, where he took his final walk. This haven of peace where ‘there is nothing to see… but everything to feel’ has remained untouched since 1890. The room is empty, the staircase and walls remain the same. You cannot find the slightest relic to touch. You just stand there and feel… the presence of history.”
Patricia Lanza worked as a contract photographer for the National Geographic Society for eight years, and later as the Director of Talent and Content for the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles from 2009 to 2017. Her work as a curator, consultant, and writer is well known. She recently created a two-person photography show with Lynn Johnson on Vincent van Gogh, which began at the Leica Gallery in Beverly Hills in 2019 and subsequently traveled to venues such as the Kennedy Museum in Ohio and Bremen, Germany.
Los Angeles based Michael Farhat a.k.a. ArtMobb is a pioneer in hyper-realistic spray painting on plexiglass, created through an exacting reverse painting and stripping technique. He was selected by Nike in 2023 as embodying the spray painting and artistic culture of basketball and Los Angeles and was the subject of a celebratory Nike electronic billboard at Crypto.com arena in Los Angeles.
As a young artist Farhat visited Wayne in her Hollywood Tamarind studio, painted her portrait, and attended her 2010 Art Institute of Chicago exhibit “Narrative Tapestries: Tidal Waves, DNA, and the Cosmos”.
Here ArtMobb celebrates both June Wayne and his beloved American basketball culture. Olympian Kobe Bryant holds aloft a banner resembling J
June Wayne’s 1972 tapestry “Verdict” with its chromosome chains, and is framed by Wayne’s 2006-11 monumental mixed media work “Propellar”, both works remembered years after his conversation with her.
Aral Sea, Kazakhstan, 1993 — “Metaphorically walking on water, camels cross the dry bed of the Aral Sea. A powerful combination of irrigation draining the sea’s feeder rivers and decreasing snowfall in the Pamir Mountains has shrunk the sea’s area to the point where it has disappeared almost entirely. Due to the drying over the past decades, the micro-climate changed significantly. As coastlines receded, the area was plagued by dust storms that contained toxic residue from industrial agriculture and weapons testing in the area. The shrinking sea created this graveyard of rusting shipwrecks, where once the beautiful bay glistened.”
Gerd Ludwig, born in Alsfeld, Germany, moved to the USA in the early 1990s Ludwig signing on as a contract photographer for National Geographic Magazine, focusing on environmental issues and the social changes in Germany and Eastern Europe. In 2014 his book “The Long Shadow of Chernobyl” focused on his many trips to the Exclusion Zone was published with a foreword by Mikhail Gorbachev.
On April 17, 2024, Gerd Ludwig’s new book, “Beuys Land”, based on his travels with Joseph Beuys visiting Kleve, Beuys’ hometown in the Lower Rhine Valley, was released at the Museum Kurhaus, Kleve.
Gerd Ludwig, Magnitogorsk, Russia 1993 — “On winter weekends, men drill fishing holes in the thick ice of the Ural River to try their luck. Knowing that the river is badly polluted by waste from the Lenin Steel Works looming behind them, they often sell their catch to markets rather than consume it themselves.”
Gerd Ludwig, Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, 2023 — “The Turbine Hall of Power Unit 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station stands as a haunting relic of the catastrophic nuclear disaster that occurred in April 1986. Today, radiation levels in this area are still so high that, despite of protective clothing, access is limited to just two minutes. Scientifically, the Turbine Hall's significance lies in its direct connection to the reactor's cooling and power generation systems. It played a crucial role in the events leading to the 1986 disaster, housing the steam turbines and electrical generators that converted thermal energy from the nuclear reactor into electrical energy. The loss of control by operators over the reactor led to an unprecedented power surge. This surge triggered a series of explosions, severely damaging the reactor and surrounding structures, including the Turbine Hall.”
Gerd Ludwig, Near Mecca, California, USA 2003 — “An ensemble of sunken palm trees suggests that the Salton Sea has seen better days. A fluctuation in sea level and increased salinity have since led to an environmental decay that is now nearing catastrophic dimensions”.
Ted Tokio Tanaka, “Ofunato”, 32 in. x 20 in., acrylic on paper, 2024.
Ted Tokio Tanaka and his wife Masako Unoura recently relocated to the seaside town Ofunato, Japan where Tanaka has established his studio. Ofunato was close to the epicenter of the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which washed away much of the town, and claimed 20,000 lives in Japan. Masako was visiting at the time and miraculously survived. She and Ted have remained active in post-tsunami relief efforts.
The architectural works of Ted Tokio Tanaka are well represented in Los Angeles and on several continents. His firm oversaw the redesign of the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) in 2000 with its iconic sign and electronic pylons, and is now designing the Metro stations which are transforming Los Angeles public transportation. Tanaka was one of the founders of the seminal Environmental Communications in 1969 in Venice, which revolutionized our perspective on media dissemination and urban life.
Raksha Parekh, “Self is Intrinsic”, 20” x16”. Stone, Indian red ochre, ashes from prayers ceremony, cactus, stone feet sculpture, flowers and fruit.
“When I think of June Wayne and her work I think of an astronaut floating around in the cosmos filled with wonder and curiosity about the universe. Wonder comes from a spiritual space when we marvel at the miracle of creation. Curiosity is scientific because of our thirst to find out how this miracle is made possible. The stone is a stone my grandmother used to make medicine for us when we were sick as kids and also to make Sandalwood paste for prayers. The red dot is called a bindu (the smallest point before creation that expands into the whole universe and vice versa). It is red indian ochre. It is there for the female principle. The Bindu also reminds us that we are Brahman itself. The gray dot is made from the ashes from a prayer made to Lord Shiva and is the masculine principle.”
Nicholas Frangakis, “Called Praise” by Margarite Staude.
Located at St. Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, California.
Encouraged by Elia Kazan, Nicholas Frangakis moved to Los Angeles to pursue a filmmaking career. Drawn by spiritual life, he spent four years as a monk at St. Andrews Priory, a Benedictine monastery in the Mojave Desert, before returning to movies. Close friend to Jean and Dido Renoir, he is the author of the foreword to Jean Renoir’s “An Interview”, the book documenting his friend’s last public appearance. At Renoir’s request, he organized his funeral service in 1979.
Joanne Julian, “Fire Nebula”, 2020. Acrylic, prismacolor pencil on paper 36 x 50 in.©️Joanne Julian 2020.
Joanne Julian, “Fire Nebula”(detail), 2020. Acrylic, prismacolor pencil on paper 36 x 50 in.©️Joanne Julian 2020.
Joanne Julian has worked as a painter, educator, and curator, her art exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Carnegie Art Museum, and many others. She has mounted 20 solo exhibitions and over 60 group exhibitions nationally. Julian has been described by curator and author Betty Ann Brown as “a modern American master of haboku.”
“I have always loved the night skies, and often dream of swimming or flying among the stars on a heavenly journey”, a statement reminding us of June Wayne’s exploration of the Celestial.
Phil Garrett, “Study for Twister”, charcoal on paper, 1984.
Phil Garrett, “Twister”, oil and paintstik and graphite on canvas, 1984. Collection of the Greenville County Museum of Art.
Phil Garrett is the Founder of King Snake Press and his prints and paintings are in public and private collections in the USA, Europe and Asia. He has taught painting and printmaking nationally and internationally. His Twister series brings to mind Wayne’s Tidal Waves and Earthquake series.
Merrilyn Duzy, Yellow Center, Cosmic/Language series.
Merrilyn Duzy’s art work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, including in the US, China, Denmark, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. She has also taught at many universities and curated numerous exhibitions.
Her series “Cosmic/Language” focuses on themes June Wayne pursued in her own art and science work. Like Wayne, Duzy has advocated for women’s rightful place in Art History, and created the illustrated lecture, “Walking Through History: Women Artists Past and Present,” which has been presented across the globe.
Bascove, Star Maps, photography, collage & drawing, 2013.
Bascove’s works have been extensively exhibited in the US and abroad, and are in the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Library and National Archives of Canada, and many others. From 2016 to 2019 her work was selected as part of the US State Department’s Art in Embassies Cultural Exchange, which toured extensively.
Linda Kunik, Eye of the Beholder, 2023, Archival Pigment Print.
Linda Kunik, Follow Me, 2023, Archival Pigment Print.
Linda Kunik’s multi-dimensional, interdisciplinary artwork has been shown in more than 100 exhibitions in California, New York and internationally, including Italy, Germany, Japan, Thailand and Peru. She recently received three Gold Awards and five Awards for Excellence at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, where her art was featured concurrent with the solo Jackson Pollock exhibition. She has shown at Art Basel Miami, and Photo L.A.. She is also the founder of O SALON, which has brought together artists including painters, poets, writers, and musicians since 2006.
Carol Farhat, “Photosynthesis”, 2024.
Carol Farhat @carolfarhatfox is Vice President of Television/Music at Disney. She has worked with artists including Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Henry Mancini, Lionel Newman, Ed Sheeran, Tōru Takemitsu, John Williams, and many others. She has received Emmy and Grammy award recognition for her music and score supervision contributions on numerous soundtracks. She was one of the early female sound engineers and a co-founder of the Village recording studio, where she worked with artists including Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Bruce Springsteen.
In her spare time Farhat is a devoted naturalist who studies light and the environment, and has closely followed the work of June Wayne for many years.
Sidd Bikkannavar with “Arrow-1” (Team Arrow Racing Association).
Sidd Bikkannavar is a driver of some of the most beautiful and innovative racing vehicles in the world. When not racing, he works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA on Wavefront Sensing and Control, the advanced optical methods enabling the James Webb Space Telescope and other instruments.
“Arrow-1” is a solar-powered race car from Team Arrow Racing Association in Brisbane, Australia. Incidentally pleasing to the eye, each curve was carefully calculated for maximum aerodynamic efficiency: aesthetics was not part of the intended equation but illustrates nonetheless an uncanny convergence of art and science.
Lauren Steinberg, Ice Cube (Frozen in a Furnace). Cast bismuth on powder-coated steel plinth, 2020.
Lauren Steinberg is an artist and graphic designer based in Los Angeles. She is the co-founder of Questionable Ethics, a journal dedicated to the convergence of psychotherapy/psychoanalysis and the arts. She also runs the art print studio Figures on a Landscape.
Crystal Michaelson, Wrapped In Wonder, mixed media on paper.
Crystal Michaelson, a mixed media artist, has exhibited extensively including at the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; the Brand Library and Art Center; and the LA Municipal Art Gallery Barnsdall Park.
Jim Sherraden, Wooden Quilt “Majorca.” Tools Used: Wood, Paper, Ink, Glue, Watercolor.
Jim Sherraden, Paper Quilt #43. Mixed Media. Tools Used: Wood, Paper, Ink, Glue, Watercolor.
Jim Sherraden, who lives outside Nashville, Tennessee, has been an active and popular printmaker since 1980. His work is collected by individuals and institutions worldwide. His art has toured with the Smithsonian and has been shown at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as multiple venues both in the United States and abroad. He is also an award winning author and lyricist.
Arielle Pytka, “Nocturne Archipelago”, acrylic on canvas 2021.
Arielle Pytka is an American and French multi media artist. She resides between Los Angeles and Paris. Her artwork has appeared in multiple solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles, Miami, Paris, London, and Indonesia. Her exhibitions have featured a wide range of mediums including painting, photography, sculpture, video, and an automobile amongst others. She has worked professionally as a lighting and drum technician for touring bands in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Pytka has also worked as a motion picture cinematographer leading her to direct her own projects. Arielle now directs music videos and commercials. An avid surfer and sailor, she traveled and surfed with the Roxy/Quiksilver team across the globe and has completed three transatlantic crossings crewing on vintage and modern sailboats. Her sailing team has won the 2015 Panerai Transatlantic Classique, Les Voiles De Saint Tropez, 2008 Falmouth Pendennis Cup, Fife Regatta in Scotland, and many others.
Seffa Klein, “Multiple Displacement Theory (Harp)”, 2019.
Seffa Klein is a French-American artist currently living and working between Los Angeles, Arizona, and Paris. Her multidisciplinary practice includes paintings composed with elemental metals, sculptures, drawing, installation, writing, and music. Her work haGalerie Poggiively exhibited in the United States and abroad. She was named by artnet as an emerging Los Angeles artist to watch. Her 2023 New York solo debut “WEBs: Where Everything Belongs” was widely celebrated, and her first international solo debut, opened May 15, 2024 at Galerie Poggi in Paris, France to great acclaim.
Harry B. Chandler, “Seven Masts”, 2021, from the Pacific Shimmers series, acrylic over dye transfer sublimation print on float-mounted aluminum.
Harry B. Chandler has a special affinity for water and the ocean, and is particularly inspired by June Wayne’s Tidal Waves series. His current work from his “Autopia” series is on exhibit at the “Eyes on the Road - Art of the Automotive Landscape” at the Petersen Automotive Museum, alongside works by Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Mr. Brainwash, and David Hockney.
William Witenberg, “Technowatercolor”, 2023.
New York painter William Witenberg’s work blends ancient watercolor technique with contemporary digital manipulation. Acknowledging the impact of AI, immersive devices, and augmented reality, Witenberg provides insight into the interplay of light and space, color and form, and the connection between art and the viewer. The Artist works both on traditional canvas and aluminum. His works is in major international collections including the Museo Jumex
Alex Harris, Margaret and the Sunflower, Durham North Carolina, August 2020.
Alex Harris’ work has been exhibited in numerous museums and gallery shows, and is in the permanent collections of theMuseum of Modern Art, and the Getty Museum, amongst others. He was a founder of The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
His books include: Old and On Their Own with Robert Coles; The First and Last Eskimos with Robert Coles; Red White and Blue and God Bless You; Gertrude Blom, Bearing Witness, with Margaret Sartor; Why We Are Here, with the evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson; The Idea of Cuba; River of Traps, A New Mexico Mountain Life with William deBuys, the book a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction; Dream of a House: The Passions and Preoccupations of Reynolds Price and “Where We Find Ourselves: The Photographs of Hugh Mangum 1897-1922” with Margaret Sartor.
“In choosing this photograph I was responding to the graphic qualities of Wayne’s Celestial and Terrestrial Works as well as her fascination with the connection between Science and Art.”
Chris Fraticelli, “Everything Vibrates”, broken ceramics and wood, 2024.
Chris Fraticelli, “Everything Vibrates” (detail), broken ceramics and wood, 2024.
“I want to find a place where I can create scenarios which allow people to question everything. This piece captures the essence of the universe’s rhythm, where everything vibrates and connects. It shows how particles break apart and come together, creating the fabric of existence. The piece symbolizes the constant dance of energy and matter, reminding us that every element in the universe is in a state of perpetual motion and transformation including spirituality.”
Los Angeles based Chris Fraticelli was raised in rural Quakertown, Pennsylvania, entered the US Naval Academy, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. He spent seven years in the Marine Corps, rising to responsibilities as a platoon commander in Somalia and Operation Desert Storm, where he was charged with the dangerous task of defusing mines and explosives. Upon leaving the military he moved to California and worked as a producer on Jimmy Kimmel Live and other shows. He eventually left Hollywood to focus full time on his art. In his military life, Fraticelli blew up objects. Now he pieces broken and discarded pieces together, in his words “polluting Earth with art”.
Molly Toberer, Primordial Black Hole, oil on board, 2021.
Molly Toberer is a visual artist who has worked for more than 25 years engaging in civic art projects and curatorial research, and leading sculpture-based artist workshops. She currently divides her time between her studio in Nebraska, and California.
Claudio Santini, “Devotion”, mixed media painting.
Born and raised in Rome, Claudio Santini’s photographic work was quickly recognized and published by architectural and interior design Italian magazines such as Abitare, Domus, Casa Vogue. Parallel to this work, he continued to create art focusing on the relationship between photography and painting. In 1989 Santini moved to Los Angeles. Since then his work has appeared in influential publications including: The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, California Home and Design, and many others. He continues to exhibit his art in solo and group gallery and museum shows, nationally and internationally. Santini is also the author of several books including “Green Is Beautiful: The Eco Friendly House”.
Lisa Jones Gentry, “Soul Solstice: Summer”, acrylic on canvas.
Lisa Jones Gentry is a contemporary Afro Futurist painter working in acrylic and large multi-media collaged pieces. In June 2024 her work was shown at the Kennedy Center in the exhibition “The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Shout” curated by Pier Penic of the Smithsonian. Other recent exhibitions include a group show at the Featherstone Center for the Arts in Martha’s Vineyard: “Imagine Celebrating Black Female Creativity”, curated by Adrienne Childs, as well as an upcoming show at Harvard University: “VOTE.” She has exhibited on the West Coast at the M. Hanks Gallery in Venice. Her studio is in Georgetown (Washington DC).
Hans Brueckner, “June’s Ghost”, acrylic on canvas.
Hans Brueckner, “June’s Ghost”, acrylic on canvas.
Hans Brueckner is an artist and translator of Icelandic literature. Hans Bruecknery, Brueckner lives iBrueckner’sown in Bavaria, after numerous stays in Iceland.
“June’s Ghost” is Brueckner’s contribution. It refers to an early painting by June Wayne. Traces of pigments and rubbings on canvas create the atmosphere of an afterimage, evoking her spirit that is still inhabiting the vast spaces she created in her art. The two images show the stages of Brueckner’s process in creating the work.
Southern California native, Rob Grad is known for his introspective, bold 3D collages, sculptures, writing and music. His heavily layered visuals contrast photographic vignettes of natural and urban environments, with drawing, painting and his words–an aesthetic largely shaped from his two decades living in Venice Beach, CA.
A musician as well as a visual artist, he has shown in museums, galleries and art fairs from Basel to Miami, and Los Angeles. Grad has also large-scale commissioned works installed on both coasts, and his work is held in private collections.
Rob Grad, “Bluer Skies”, a video featuring a dialogue with June Wayne.
Jeffrey Stein, “Art and Science”, mixed media with colored pencils.
Jeffrey Stein a serial entrepreneur changed the casual fashion world with his creation of Camp Beverly Hills, which became a touchstone of LA Culture throughout the 1980’s and into the mid ’90’s. He also founded Elixir Tonics & Teas, and multiple LA night spots. Since 1989 he’s chaired a trust to protect endangered African Wildlife, having established a successful national park in Mkomazi, Tanzania with it’s Black Rhino Sanctuary and the current project in Kora, Kenya.
Rand Ningali is a Colorado based photographer and adventurer who has traveled widely internationally. He is also known for his considerable knowledge of tribal art.
Responding to our invitation, Ningali prepared several folios of photos tracking June Wayne’s wide range of scientific and artistic explorations. Thes “Earthquakes” and “Optics and Perception” series are the first. We look forward to posting additional subjects Ningali brilliantly captured.
Violet Fresquez, “Wind”
Violet Fresquez is a poet and certified Herbalist and Flower Essence practitioner based in Los Angeles. She is highly familiar with the art of June Wayne having assisted in the production of two MB Abram exhibits: “June Wayne: Propellar, Paintings & Mixed Media”, the Pop Up DTLA April 19, 2018; and “Infinity In The Finite: Art Of The Grid” August 24, 2017.
“The photo is a cloudscape I experienced in Boulder, CO before a rain shower. The poem is an expression of the wind as a character that plays a significant role in our reality. Such a playful and at times devious player in nature. We cannot control the wind, merely bow to its forces and work with her. As is true of all nature.”
“Ferocious
Chaotic
Combative warrior
Spinning life into creation
Destroying all obstructions
Laughing loudly into the night
Stars still and quiet
Sun burning bright
You a
nd I mere flowers
Swaying to the wind’s delight”
Robert Bassler, “Vortex”, Vital Forces Series, 1995.
Robert Bassler (1935-2022) was a renowned sculptor, painter, photographer, and CSUN Professor of Art. A prolific artist who taught sculpture and three-dimensional design, his work has been shown in galleries and museums throughout the world.
“Vortex” from the Vital Forces Series addresses Bassler’s continuing fascination with the elemental characteristics of nature as we know it, from the cosmic to the microcosmic. Although some of these works may seem, at first inspection, to be faithful illustrations of physical phenomena, it is my intention that they address deeper issues relative to the nature of manifest energy, a certain existential continuity, from the molecular to the cosmic or universal. In addition, the work is strongly connected with my desire to express the fundamental mysteries of existence, including life force or energy, consciousness, and intelligence.
Brittany Corrales, “Isabel’s Lock”, 2024.
Brittany Corrales is a Curator at theASU Art Museum at Arizona State University. In 2019 she organized and curated the June Wayne print exhibit “Change Agent” at ASU. Corrales’ image is inspired by June Wayne’s print “Robin’s Lock” in the ASU collection, that print drawing its title from a lock of Wayne’s then young daughter’s hair. “Isabel’s Lock” reprises the theme using a lock from Corrales’ daughter.
John Baeder, “Whitey’s Diner”, 1977. Watercolor on paper, 12 x 17 in.
“Art and Science have a natural relation. Science is a process of investigation. Art is the process of making. The artist must investigate, and apply. My outlook has always been that of a preservationist. The act of preservation requires investigation. When I make art, I never know what I will come up with. The artist functions as a sort of archaeologist. Looking at Leonardo DaVinci’s work, one sees the extraordinary unity of the two fields, an organic inevitability in great art.”
John Baeder (b. 1938), represented by MB Abram and ACA Galleries, NY, is a master photorealist painter and photographer whose works are in museums and collections worldwide. He is featured in the upcoming fall 2024 MOCA exhibition, “Ordinary People, Photorealism and the Work of Art Since 1968”.
Much of science originates from the fire of the kitchen. We find it appropriate to share this early watercolor by Baeder which shows his mastery of color and composition, and in its alchemical process, an unusual example of the synthesis of art and science.
Ruth J. Abram, "Eruption".
“Contemplating Wayne’s ‘Tenth Wave’ I was struck by her depiction of its power. The form of Wayne’s wave reminded me of a volcano erupting from the depths of the earth, its power reflecting Wayne’s own power as a woman and as an artist.”
Ruth J. Abram is the founding President of the Tenement Museum and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.
Jack Warren, “Twilight Through The Iron Lace”, 2024.
Jack Warren is a marketing expert with considerable experience in the fine art world. He co-produced the LA pop-up exhibition of Jan Haag’s contemporary needlepoints aired by NPR . In his spare time, Warren enthusiastically collects tribal art, and runs marathons, most recently in Iceland, Italy, and the United States.
Maryam Najvan, "The Windy Days", metal wearable sculpture, 2024.
Maryam Najvan is an Iranian born visual artist and contemporary jewelry designer.
“In June Wayne exploration and her digging/diving and acting as a detective to nature and her femininity, Wayne finds another new language to talk about that wisdom. So now we are standing on this side of the mirror looking at her fabulous reflection.”
Lucinda Luvaas, “Lost,” oil pigment sticks on arches archival oil paper, 2021.
Lucinda Luvaas is a multimedia artist working in fine art, video and sound. Her short films have been screened all over the world, winning many awards. Her most recent film is “Road 721” which uses California forests as a fantastical backdrop for its depiction of our environmental crisis.
This painting is from her “Regarding Nature” series. “I share June Wayne’s preoccupation with the natural world and its intersection with science, although my work doesn’t deal with science directly, but rather in an oneiric, symbolic way.”
June Vayo is a medieval historian, archivist, and surfing enthusiast. Here Vayo provides her humorous take on June Wayne’s iconic mixed media work “Propellar”.
A. Rose., “Love Everyone”, acrylic on canvas
A. Rose., whose projects include “Light Out of Darkness” is a filmmaker currently working with pioneering art dealer and gallerist Alitash Kebede on a documentary about the life of artist Ed Clark.
“This work is inspired by June Wayne’s merging of science and art; the painting’s cloud reflections follow a Fibonacci spiral, representing a pathway to higher consciousness.”
Christopher Naylor, Untitled 1-3, acrylic on canvas panel, 2024.
Christopher Naylor is a painter, sculptor, and animator who worked for many years at Disney Studios and Warner Animation.
Dana Montlack, Sio Tondos series, Lambda Prints on Aluminum, created between 2013 and 2017.
Artist Dana Montlack has long explored the natural world. In her “Sio Tondos” series she focuses on microscopic and oceanic imagery, reflecting on the relationship between our perception and the mysterious underlying reality. She has consistently collaborated with the scientific community, and was an artist in residence at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her “Ocean Tunnel” reached a large audience as part of a Burning Man traveling exhibition. Her art has been widely displayed in solo and group shows, including at Joseph Bellows Galleries in her seminal “Sea of Cortez” series.
Andy Fleishman, “Stage”, polished acrylic on aluminum panel.
Andrew Fleishman has long worked at the intersection of art and science, dating back to the 1980’s, when he was asked, as an artist, to assist in airflow studies conducted by scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. “It was a long and interesting process, using both exotic and common materials, and experimenting with different techniques. Gratifyingly, the work eventually was used to modify human nasal surgical procedures.”
Fleishman’s works have been featured in the New York Times, Dwell Magazine, and other major periodicals.
William Shapiro, “Five Skies” 2022.
William Shapiro is a noted landscape artist and designer whose brilliant and sought after work can be experienced throughout Southern California.
This is one of his memory sketches, used to process his travels across the land, in this case to Joshua Tree. Typically he creates on the back of discarded commercial cartons and cardboards, as seen here.
“I think of June Wayne’s work with printing… elevating art and its availability. For me cardboard cartons are infinitely available like the possibility of multiple images and they are certainly reminders of our constant consumption. I think of her interest in science and while I depict modern landscapes I love so much in a pastoral way, it’s impossible to ignore the web of technology that underlies it.”
Andy Brumer is a widely published writer and poet. His books include “Turtle”, NFS Press; “The Poetics of Golf”, University of Nebraska Press; “Below Understanding”, Norfolk Press, S.F. 2018. He also works as an art critic and reviewer for the LA Times, artweek Los Angeles, and LACMA.
Rodney Millar, “The Gathering”, mixed-media.
Canadian born artist Rodney Millar is the curator and owner of Yambu Gallery in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, which will be showing the collective works of Cuban artist, Alberto Lescay Merencio and Mexican artist Alberto Lenz, amongst others. Millar cuts gemstones, and has exhibited his own mixed media and sculptural work since childhood. He also has taught stone carving since moving to Los Angeles in 1989.
Bharati Kapadia, “The Ground of Becoming”, cottonwool from trees, 2017.
India based, mixed media, performance, and video artist Bharati Kapadia is known for her innovative approach to materials, mediums and techniques. Her solo performance “Untold Stories”, has been performed in India, Istanbul, Liverpool, and Nova Scotia. Her two video works, ‘L For…’ and ‘Playing with Danger’ have been screened internationally. Kapadia debuted her latest film “How Do I Show The Ocean Space You Carried Inside You?” about the poet, playwright, director, actor, Bhadrakant Zaveri (1937-1993) in Frankfurt, Germany.
Rifka Milder, “Suit If Primaries l”, monotype, 2023.
Rifka Milder is a New York based painter and printmaker. She has shown both nationally and internationally with her most recent exhibition in Madrid, in the summer of 2024 and at Rosebud Contemporary and Helm Contemporary in New York in the fall of 2024.
Arnold Brooks, “Untitled”, steel facing on gold leaf, 30” x 40”.
Arnold Brooks is a multi-disciplinary artist from the Republica de Panamá. He works as a printmaker, painter, filmmaker, sound artist and musician. He has exhibited his print work in the United States and abroad and is included in permanent collections at Brooklyn Museum, Appalachian State Art Department, and MMAC Collection / Frost Art Museum / Florida International University, Miami.
His paintings have been exhibited in solo shows, two person shows, and three person shows in Chelsea and Soho in New York City. He recently had a two person show with Rifka Milder in Madrid, Spain where he showed his films. Several of his films have premiered at Anthology Film Archive in New York City.
Ba Djibril Ngawa, “June Wayne: The colors of a transcending Spirit”, mixed media, digital art on a photograph, 2024. Original photo: Helen Miljakovic.
New York based artist Ba Djibril Ngawa is from a very small pastoral village called “Douboulde”, south east of Mauritania in the Guidimaka region. “My art is a reflection of where I was born and raised. Any piece I create is a lyric, a melody, and movement in a visual form. I create freely while traveling on this endless journey of searching, learning, and discovering the unknown, and trying to understand the mystic. I view this as a bridge that links the cultural heritage of my nomadic-pastoral traditions with the contemporary artistic expressions of the Western world.”
Hami Jafarian, The Essence Series, black ink on paper, 15x20 cm, 2022.
Iranian born artist Hami Jafarian, now living in Germany, says of her trajectory: “I was born in the core of the Middle East, somewhere between love and blood. So I studied Art.”
Alitash Kebede, Shadows. Photo taken in 2024 outside of the historic location of Tamarind Lithography Workshop.
Referred to in Forbes magazine as one of the most influential persons in the world of contemporary art, Ethiopian born Alitash Kebede has for forty years been a pioneering champion and dealer of African and African American art.
Introduced as a teenager in Addis Ababa to the works of iconic photographers in her father’s American magazines, her later friendships included Romare Bearden, Skunder Boghossian, Ed Clark, Emilio Cruz, Herbert Gentry, Sam Gilliam, Richard Hunt, Jacob Lawrence, Samella Lewis, Richard Mayhew, Betye Saar, and many others.
Roberta Zeta, “Flora”, pencil on paper, 2024.
Los Angeles based, Italian born artist Roberta Zeta collaborates with international fashion brands and publishing houses. Her work has been exhibited at Milan’s Triennale Design Museum as part of “The New Vocabulary of Italian Fashion”.
“June Wayne’s explorations of art and science start from observing nature. From the cave drawings to Leonardo Da Vinci’s Renaissance studies, nature has always been the ultimate muse, its beauty and harmony an almost unreachable model”.
Alessandra Pasquino, “4billion.54”, 2024.
Italian born and Los Angeles resident Alessandra Pasquino is a prolific film maker and photographer. Her video installation work has been shown at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. She has worked with luminaries including Oliver Stone, Leonardo Di Caprio, Wayne Wang, Klaus Kinski, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Joan Jett, Matthew Rolston, Derek Jarman, and for Studios including Sony Pictures, Disney, and IMAX.
In her spare time Pasquino climbs mountains, including the Tibetan side of Mt Everest.
Allen Mure, “Flag”, acrylic on canvas.
Allen Mure is a Los Angeles based mixed-media artist who worked at the Hermitage Museum before migrating to the U.S.
Analyn Revilla, “Art and Science”.
Analyn Revilla is a playwright and active member of the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative. She also teaches yoga and pilates.
Dina Herrmann, “Coming — Premonition of a Tidal Wave”.
Colorado based Dina Herrmann is an abstract painter who uses “paint, brush, palette and spackle knife, rags, rollers, and hands”. She has exhibited widely in the US and her works are collected internationally.
“My greatest inspiration is derived from the natural world – the universe with its geometric harmony and unity. For me, everything about painting is intuitive. As I paint, I’m searching for, and investigating other realms. This process has taught me to keep my mind prepared for the unexpected.”
Bonnie Saland, first image: Ayahuasca Journal Page, Mixed media (pen, pencil gouache); all the other images: AI images created in MidJourney using journal page with prompts.
Bonnie Saland is a Los Angeles based multi media artist, textile designer, and psychotherapist. This series is an experiment in the collaboration of AI with ancient Mayan iconography and plant medicines.
“As the ancient and earthy plant medicines change us on a cellular level, so too AI is entering our psyches and habits, propelling us into uncharted futures.”
“My greatest inspiration is derived from the natural world – the universe with its geometric harmony and unity. For me, everything about painting is intuitive. As I paint, I’m searching for, and investigating other realms. This process has taught me to keep my mind prepared for the unexpected.”
Mary Beth Heffernan, “PPE Portrait Project: Art Transforming Medicine”, still from the video, on permanent exhibit in “Being Human” at the Wellcome Collection in London.
Mary Beth Heffernan is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work explores the interplay of corporeality and images. She is Professor of Sculpture, Photography and Interdisciplinary Art at Occidental College.
“First implemented for the Ebola epidemic in 2015, and implemented across the globe for the COVID pandemic, I sought a way of using portrait images as a catalyst for human connection between healthcare workers and patients, and thereby improving health for all.”
Jan Haag, “The Ten Thaats”, Embroidery cotton, lace and Appleton wool, string cotton, gold and silver thread on gray 22 mesh canvas, 1996-2006.
Between 1975 and 2008, Jan Haag (1933-2024), who was a longtime friend of June Wayne, created twenty-three contemporary needlepoint canvases, working on some of these simultaneously. One work took ten years to complete. The more complex of these canvases required hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours of application. An accomplished painter and poet familiar with different mediums, Haag writes of the textile art medium: “Compared with the roughhouse immediacy of painting and sculpture, one can cite many a rug, tapestry, piece of stitchery which took a year to make or, at times, a decade. Back and back and back, millennia by millennia, the history and lore of weaving/stitchery recedes as we, at the near end of the time scale, proceed — cloth, grid arts, fractals and computer — into the future.”
Nicholas Callaway, Monday, May 9, 2016 10:53 AM, copyright ©️ 2024. All rights reserved.
Nicholas Callaway, the founder and CEO of Callaway Arts & Entertainment, is an internationally renowned publisher, app developer, television producer, brand creator, art gallerist, writer, photographer and teacher with more than 40 years at the leading edge of contemporary media and design. Amongst Callaway’s numerous publications are the recent Bob Dylan Mixing Up The Medicine, and The Beatles: Get Back; and classics including Issey Miyake, Photographs by Irving Penn; and Georgia O’Keeffe One Hundred Flowers.
Lori Precious, All The Living And The Dead, mixed media.
Lori Precious is an artist, cinematographer, and director who has worked with Ryan Gosling, Jennifer Garner, Aiden Quinn, Ron Howard, Kenan Thompson, Liza Minelli, Gena Rowlands, Joanne Woodward, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, among many others. She spent part of her childhood in Somalia, and wrote, directed and was cinematographer on the documentary Bartsi: The Art of Giving Beauty about the vanishing art of the Ari tribeswomen in remote Omo Valley, Ethiopia.
Her most recent art exhibition is titled “Starlets,” portraits of often forgotten women of cinema, composed of butterfly wings, a medium which she had used since 1994. It is widely acknowledged that artist Damien Hirst appropriated her concept in his work.
“I often use iridescent wings because the reflective light of the wing brings my subject to life. From a distance, my art looks like a painting, but as you move closer you see that the “paint” is actually a wing. If you continue to zoom into the wing, as with a macro lens, you would see that the wings have scales. Butterfly wings have two kinds of color; pigment and structural color. Structural colors are often iridescent, their hue and brightness dependent on the angle of observation and illumination. Where the light and the eye agree on a color, is called optical interference.”