UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (Langson IMCA) Exhibition - Bohemian of the Arroyo Seco: Idah Meacham Strobridge

Location: UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Musem of California Art, 18881 Von Karman Ave., Suite 100, Irvine, CA 92612

Date: September 30, 2023 to January 13, 2024

Time: Sunday and Monday - CLOSED; Tuesday - Saturday - 10am - 4pm

UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (Langson IMCA) presents a new exhibition, Bohemian of the Arroyo Seco: Idah Meacham Strobridge, on view September 30, 2023 – January 13, 2024. Featuring the work of influential artists who were part of a creative community active in the early 1900s along the banks of the Arroyo Seco in Los Angeles County, Bohemian of the Arroyo Seco is the first exhibition exploring the impact this pioneering gallerist and writer had on the development of Los Angeles culture during this period.

Strobridge’s Little Corner of Local Art gallery provided critical exposure for rising talents, and her home became a welcoming hub for like-minded makers, neighbors, and visitors. The California plein air painting movement originated in the Arroyo Seco during this period, and Strobridge’s gallery was a launching point and support for numerous plein air painters.

Bohemian of the Arroyo Seco is organized by guest curator Susan M. Anderson and features 26 works by 17 artists, including Carl Oscar Borg, Maynard Dixon, Fernand Lungren, Granville Redmond, Hernando Villa, Elmer Wachtel, and Marion Kavanagh Wachtel. The works are drawn from Langson IMCA’s collection and loans from Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach, CA) and Hilbert Museum of California Art (Orange, CA). Photographs of the Arroyo Seco and original copies of Strobridge’s books about life in the West, which she wrote and hand bound at Artemisia Bindery, provide further background and context. Plein air landscape paintings by late 19th/early 20th century contemporaries William Lees Judson, Hanson Duvall Puthuff, and Norman St. Clair provide additional perspectives on the region’s environmental beauty.

Bohemian of the Arroyo Seco: Idah Meacham Strobridge is on view September 30, 2023 – January 13, 2024, at Langson IMCA’s interim museum location at 18881 Von Karman Avenue.

A curator talk is scheduled for Saturday, September 30 at 11 am, Susan M. Anderson | A Southland Bohemia: Idah Meacham Strobridge and the Arroyo Seco Art Colony, 1880 – 1920.

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