DIANE ROSENSTEIN invites you to an Afternoon Conversation with Roland Reiss, including writer Lita Barrie and curators Howard Fox and Mike McGee. The discussion will focus on our current exhibition as well as the new monographic catalogue, "Roland Reiss: Painting and Sculpture" (2014, Grand Central Press/CSU Fullerton). 

The conversation is open to the public, by reservation.

About the Exhibition: "Roland Reiss: Floral Paintings and Miniatures" is a solo exhibition of recent paintings (2008-2014) and important early sculpture (1977-1992). Inspired by Edouard Manet's late series of flower paintings, Roland Reiss began his new "floral paintings" in 2008 as a meditation on the impact of color on our consciousness. The artist recently described this major body of work as an effort to "put everything I have learned about painting into a painting." This exhibition will include a selection of fifteen paintings from the past six years. 

Recently, Mr. Reiss's fifty-year career was the subject of a survey curated by Mike McGee at the Begovich Gallery (CSU, Fullerton).

About the Artist:
Roland Reiss (USA, b. 1929) is widely recognized for his Miniatures, but he is first and foremost a painter. He was included in exhibitions in the early 1960s at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the San Francisco Museum of Art; the 1975 Whitney Biennial and dOCUMENTA 7 (1982). LACMA included Mr. Reiss in "Avant Garde in the '80s "(1987). He has received survey exhibitions from the Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art (2011-2012) and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (1991). Reiss has continuously received solo and group exhibitions throughout his career, at institutions including the Neuberger Museum of Art at SUNY (Purchase, NY), Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach, CA), Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena, CA), San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA), The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO). His paintings and sculpture are included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, CA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), among others. Roland Reiss was the Chairman of the Art Department at Claremont Graduate University from 1971- 2000; he has also received four National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowships for both painting and sculpture. Roland Reiss lives and works in Los Angeles.

About the Panelists:

Lita Barrie is an art writer and critic who has taught at Claremont Graduate University, Otis School of Art and Design, and Cal State Los Angeles, to name a few. She has written countless catalogue essays for museum and galleries. She is currently working on a book of essays on LA artist's and issues. She writes for the Huffington Post and Artweek LA. Her essay, “Exploring Spatial Depth: Roland Reiss’ Floral Paintings” is published in the catalogue for “Roland Reiss Painting and Sculpture” (2014, Grand Central Press/Cal State Fullerton).

Howard Fox is the former Curator of Contemporary Art at LACMA (1985-2008). During his tenure, he documented developments in the art world of both international and local interest, often with commendably thorough treatment of women artists and their unique contributions. Notable exhibitions included "Avant-Garde in the Eighties" (1987) , a broadly focused show that included the work of artists such as Roland Reiss, Laurie Anderson, and Cindy Sherman. He will curate “Playing With Fire,” the planned retrospective of Carlos Almarez at LACMA in 2017. His recent essay, Painter at Work: Roland Reiss' Studio Odyssey is included in “Roland Reiss Painting and Sculpture” (2014, Grand Central Press/Cal State Fullerton).

Dan Cameron is the Chief Curator of the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), in Newport Beach, CA, where he was appointed in 2012. Recently, he curated the 2013 California-Pacific Triennial and “California Landscape Into Abstraction. ” Currently, “The Avant-Garde Collection,” is on view at the OCMA through January 4, 2015. Mr. Cameron was formerly the director of the biennial "Prospect New Orleans", which he founded in 2008. Previously, he was Senior Curator of the New Museum in New York (1995-2006). At the New Museum, Cameron was responsible for a number of survey exhibitions with artists like Adrien Piper, William Kentridge, Carolee Schneeman, Paul McCarthy, Carol Dunham, and Doris Salcedo. Among his many achievements, Cameron was the first US Commissioner for the Aperto section of the 1988 Venice Biennale, and in 1982, he curated “Extended Sensibilities” at the New Museum, the first museum exhibition of contemporary gay and lesbian art in the US. 

Mike McGee is the Gallery Director of the Begovich Gallery at California State University Fullerton. He is also the Director of the Exhibition Design/Museum Studies Program and an Associate Professor in the Department of Art. He is an expert on the history of art in Southern California; he teaches the only university art history course on the region. McGee has worked as an art writer, curator, and gallery director since 1982. He has written art criticism for Artweek, the Orange County Register, and other publications. He was a contributing writer for "American Scene Painting in Southern California" (Westphalt Press, 1922). He has curated over two dozen exhibitions including the recent survey of Roland Reiss (Nov 8 – Dec 11, 2014).