Santa Paula Art Museum Opens The Locals

‘The Locals,’ an all-CalArtian photography show opens in Santa Paula this weekend. | Image: ‘Ely Park Project Portrait #1’ by Eliane Lima, 2010.

The Santa Paula Art Museum in Santa Paula, Calif., (located just off the 126 between Valencia and Ventura), opens The Locals, an all-CalArtian photography show, this weekend.

Produced in partnership between the museum and CalArts, The Locals features contemporary black-and-white photographic works that explore the theme of “an American community.”

Eliane Lima (Film/Video MFA 17), co-curator of the exhibition, is one of the four emerging artists featured in The Locals. Her images on view document the lives of residents of the Ely Park housing complex in New York. The other artists are CalArts alumni Cody Edison (Art BFA 12), who captures a local charro and vaquero community; Heisue Chung-Matheu (Art MFA 13), who includes Korean and American military culture in her imagery; and Masha Tatarintseva (Theater MFA 12), who explores her Russian ancestry through projections of family portraits.

The diversity of American communities in The Locals is intentional. From the museum: “All of the people portrayed in these distinct communities are ‘The Locals’ and together they make up the American portrait.”

The Locals opens concurrently with The 23rd De Colores Art Show, the museum’s annual celebration of Latino culture through art. Receptions for both shows will be held on Saturday at the museum from 2 to 5 pm.