Past Exhibitions

  1. Phil Dike: A Bird’s Eye View

    Phil Dike: A Bird’s Eye View will present the Museum’s first major exhibition of this influential and innovative artist. One of the first artists in the 1930s to develop what became known as the California Style of watercolor painting, he was also an influential and admired teacher to hundreds of students. Best known for his lively coastal scenes, some of his most captivating paintings assume the perspective of a bird’s eye view. These imagined views of real scenes involve an interpretation of landscape that goes beyond simple representation.

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  2. Free 4 All

    Artists from Claremont and beyond are invited to exhibit in a one-day pop-up show. There will be no fees to exhibit. With hundreds of artists expected to participate, Free 4 All is a commitment to unfiltered community building and celebration.

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  3. The Great Perfection: Charles Long & Khang Bảo Nguyễn

    The Great Perfection will explore two artists’ diverse approaches to the aesthetic expression of nondual consciousness. In a world that seems more fractured and disconnected than ever, cast sculptures by Charles Long juxtaposed with abstract paintings by Khang Bảo Nguyễn lead the viewer to consider the underlying oneness of all beings.

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  4. This is not a chair.

    The Claremont Lewis Museum of Art exhibition This is not a chair. will present a broad range of artists and approaches to the icon of human creative production that is the chair. Drawing inspiration from Rene Magritte’s painting The Treachery of Images which placed the statement “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” (This is not a pipe.) under a painted representation of a pipe, This is not a chair. will similarly explore the gray area between object and concept, language and meaning

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  5. Face to Face: Ken Gonzales-Day

    The Claremont Lewis Museum of Art will present the photographic work of Ken Gonzales-Day, a Los Angeles based artist and Scripps College art professor, whose interdisciplinary practice considers the historical construction of race and the limits of representational systems ranging from lynching photographs to museum displays. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 7 from 6 to 9 pm.

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  6. Ferne Jacobs: A Personal World

    Ferne Jacobs: A Personal World will present the work of Ferne Jacobs, a pioneer in fiber arts who creates unique three-dimensional sculptural forms using ancient basket-making techniques. The exhibition will feature a broad selection of her sculptures as well as books of her psychological drawings and collage diaries. Everyone is invited to the opening reception on Saturday, May 20 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

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  7. StART It Up!

    The exhibition curated and installed by the high school students of Project ARTstART, will include art projects from units presented to 4-6th grade classes at Mountain View, Oakmont, Sumner/Danbury, Sycamore and Vista del Valle elementary schools. Dozens of works on paper, collage, sculptures, and paintings will be on display.

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  8. Andrée M. Mahoney: Spirit Voyager

    Andrée M. Mahoney: Spirit Voyager celebrates the artist’s seventy-year exploration of the richness of life through mixed-media painting and ceramic sculpture. A visual storyteller on a lifelong, transcendental quest to transform spirit into matter, Mahoney seeks to strike a balance between color and form, intuition and meaning. The exhibition will open with a reception on Saturday, February 18 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and will remain on view through April 23, 2023.

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  9. Vince Skelly: A Conversation with Trees

    Vince Skelly: A Conversation with Trees presents recent work by Claremont artist Vince Skelly. Carving tree trunks, many harvested in the aftermath of the epic wind storm of January 2022, Skelly explores the space between sculptural form and functional object. The exhibition will open with a reception on Saturday, February 18 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and will remain on view through April 23, 2023.

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  10. Transformations in Glass: Vitreous Funk, Fantasy, and Light

    Transformations in Glass: Vitreous Funk, Fantasy, and Light, is on view through Feb. 5, 2023. The exhibition presents the work of Kéké Cribbs, Richard Marquis, and David Svenson, recognized glass artists who were influenced by the Claremont art community during a pivotal time in their artistic development. All three artists were influenced by ​​Richard Petterson who was a ceramic professor at Scripps College, and director of the Fine Arts Building at the Fairplex for over 30 years, and a pioneer in the ceramic and glass movement. 

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  11. Claremont Collects: Art, Creativity, Community

    Claremont Collects: Art, Creativity, Community is the inaugural exhibition in the newly expanded Claremont Lewis Museum of Art in the historic train depot. Featuring highlights from the Museum’s permanent collection, including recent gifts, the exhibition showcases work made by artists from the 1930s to today. Claremont Collects celebrates our rich artistic legacy, vibrant creative community, and robust support for the arts.

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  12. Project ARTstART’s 11th Annual StART It Up!

    Student artwork from grades 4, 5 and 6 at Mountain View, Oakmont, Sumner, Sycamore and Vista del Valle elementary schools will be on display at the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art from May 6 through May 15 with free admission.

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  13. John Frame: Mephistopheles and the Swan Girl

    The Claremont Museum of Art exhibition John Frame: Mephistopheles and the Swan Girl will present work by widely-known artist John Frame based on his production designs for the 2018 staging of Gounod’s Faust by The Lyric Opera of Chicago and The Portland Opera. The exhibition will also include Frame’s work on the Academy Award-winning short film The Swan Girl, 2016. Both projects relate to the Faust story and have continued to exert a strong influence on Frame’s work.

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  14. Furious Garden: Deena Capparelli, Cj Jilek, and Karen Kitchel

    The Claremont Museum of Art exhibition Furious Garden dynamically juxtaposes new paintings by Deena Capparelli, Karen Kitchel and ceramic sculptures by Cj Jilek, all of whom focus on the extraordinary power and beauty of natural flora.

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  15. “LOOK UP”

    The Claremont Museum of Art exhibition “LOOK UP” sends a message of hope, unity, resilience and optimism with Elizabeth Turk’s immersive artwork produced by ET Projects with the residents of Mt. San Antonio Gardens.

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  16. Inside Out: Emerging from Isolation

    As all our lives have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, local artists continue their creative work in their homes and studios. Working from inside—physically and psychologically—these 28 local artists bring out their experiences through their art.

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  17. Vanguard: Origins of Tierra del Sol Arts in Claremont featuring Helen Rae

    The exhibition Vanguard: Origins of Tierra del Sol Arts in Claremont featuring Helen Rae represented 15 artists whose remarkable creative expressions have enriched contemporary art in Southern California and beyond.

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  18. James Strombotne: Imagine

    James Strombotne: Imagine focused on the work of one of the few remaining active Claremont artists from the 1950 and 60s, an era sometimes referred to as Claremont’s “golden age.” Drawings and paintings from the artist’s personal collection reflected the arc of a distinguished career dedicated to making concrete the creative mind’s imaginings.

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  19. Andrew Wenrick: Displacement Zero

    Displacement Zero presents work by Claremont born, London based conceptual artist Andrew Wenrick. Maps of the Los Angeles area have been reconstructed into unexpected forms challenging our perception of place.

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  20. StART It Up!

    Project ARTstART presents works on paper, collage, sculptures, and paintings from each of the art units presented to 4-6 grade classes at Mountain View, Oakmont, Sumner, Sycamore and Vista del Valle elementary schools.

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  21. LIVING WITH CLAY: The Julie and David Armstrong Collection

    Living with Clay invites you to enter the home of Julie and David Armstrong. A love of clay led the Armstrongs, long-time Claremont residents and founders of the highly-regarded American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, to amass an extraordinary private collection.

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  22. Primal Nature: Animalia by Women in Post-War Claremont

    Animals, both real and fantastic, occupied an important place in artistic expression in mid- twentieth-century Claremont, appearing in the work of ceramists, painters, enamelists, and sculptors. The exhibition curated by Susan M. Anderson focuses on this phenomenon, particularly in the work of women artists who played a vital role in the development of the arts in Claremont.

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  23. Intersecting at the Edge: Karl Benjamin, Heather Gwen Martin and Eric Zammitt

    The Claremont Museum of Art presents Intersecting at the Edge, an exhibition that juxtaposes recent works by Los Angeles artists Heather Gwen Martin and Eric Zammitt with paintings and sculptures by seminal Claremont artist, Karl Benjamin. Using bold colors and clean edges each artist expresses a distinct sensibility that may allude to the refinement of architectural structure, the mesmerizing dazzle of echoing shapes, or the vastness of atmospheric luminosity.

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  24. Roland Reiss: Unapologetic Flowers and Small Stories

    The exhibition focuses on the work of acclaimed Los Angeles artist Roland Reiss who devoted much of his teaching career to the Claremont community. On view are selections from two of Reiss’s best-known bodies of work: the “miniatures,” sculptural tableaux suggesting human dramas in familiar settings (1970s-90s), and recent floral paintings that vastly expand the expressive potential of one of the most conventional subjects in the history of painting.

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  25. Kindred Natures: Aldo Casanova and James Fuller

    This exhibition reintroduces two highly respected and revered local artists, Aldo Casanova and James Fuller. For over 30 years, each artist influenced generations of students while teaching at Scripps College, as well as maintaining active careers as exhibiting artists throughout the country.

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  26. Milford Zornes, Mt San Antonio, 2003 Watercolor. Collection of Richard Martinez.Photo by Gene Sasse.

    Milford Zornes: The Claremont Years

    A historical exhibition about artist Milford Zornes focusing on his early years in Claremont as a local art teacher and Director of the Padua Hills Art Institute and his return in later years.

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  27. Artist Dee Marcellus Cole with sculpture

    Dee Marcellus Cole and Carnival Seekers

    The exhibition will present the work of eight local folk artists driven, not by the art world, but by the instinctive need to create. The museum will be transformed into a carnival of bright colors, iconic images, and spiritual messages.

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  28. Tree Speak: Interpretation of the Rustlings

    The exhibition features artists living in Claremont’s urban forest who have found their voice in nature along with a survey of Claremont’s long history as the City of Trees.

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  29. (re)Generation Exhibition

    (RE)GENERATION: Six Decades of Claremont Artists

    The opening exhibition features selections from the Claremont Museum of Art’s permanent collection that reflect our region’s rich artistic legacy.

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  30. Seltzer - Sprig with vase

    Claremont Second Annual Art Showcase

    An exhibition of local artists supported by the City of Claremont in conjunction with the Claremont Museum of Art and Claremont Graduate University Art Business/Art Management Public Art program.

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  31. MILLARD SHEETS: Hills and Horses

    Inspired by a lifelong love of horses and the landscape surrounding his Padua Hills home, artist Millard Sheets depicted a familiar way of life. The exhibition Millard Sheets: Hills and Horses, curated by his son Tony Sheets, will include paintings, drawings and lithographs from the years that he lived in Padua Hills in the 1940s-60s and beyond.

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  32. Claremont First Annual Art Showcase

    The Claremont Art Showcase was on view at the Alexander Hughes Community Center. The exhibit featured works by local artists Opoku Acheampong, Sandy Garcia, Kenneth Johnson, Jerry Owens, Mervyn Seldon, Tom Skelly, Wendy Smith, Jeanne Steffan and Guan Zhi.

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  33. John Svenson: For the Love of Wood

    Over a lifetime of creating sculpture in many media, John Svenson’s work in wood stands out and expresses his love for this living material. The exhibition John Svenson: For the Love of Wood began with a one-day display at the Padua Hills Art Fiesta on November 2, then moved to Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

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  34. Betty Davenport Ford working on Sloth, 1950

    Betty Davenport Ford: Capturing the Animal Spirit (updated)

    The sculpture exhibit, Betty Davenport Ford: Capturing the Animal Spirit, produced by the Claremont Museum of Art, opened at the Padua Hills Art Fiesta in November 2013 and was on view at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens through March 2014. It was on display at the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts as part of the Sculpture in the Garden event.

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  35. HM100: A Century through the Life of Harrison McIntosh

    This American Museum of Ceramic Art exhibition, produced in conjunction with the Claremont Museum of Art, celebrates the life and work of this legendary Claremont ceramic artist on his 100th birthday. HM100 also provide insight into McIntosh’s influences and his close relationships with his contemporaries Karl Benjamin, Rupert Deese, James Hueter, and Sam Maloof. AMOCA at 399 N. Garey Ave. in Pomona is open Wednesday-Sunday noon-5pm.

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  36. Steve Comba: ARBORETUM

    Follow the artist’s process in creating the eight-foot painting, Arboretum, an autobiographical journey through his own work in landscape as well as a treatise on the artificial nature of painting and the objective beauty of Nature. Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, at 1500 N. College Ave. in Claremont, is open daily from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Garden admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, $4 for children and free for CMA and RSABG members.

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  37. INSIGHTS & OUTSIGHTS: The Collages and Cartoons of Paul Darrow

    To complement the new ARToon education program, the Claremont Museum of Art saluted Claremont’s own cartoonist Paul Darrow with an exhibition of original sketches from his sixty years of Claremont Courier cartoons and recent work in mixed media.

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  38. CLAREMONT MODERN: Design Blends with Art in New Public Spaces 1955–1965

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  39. CLAREMONT MODERN: The Artists of the GI Bill

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  40. CLAREMONT MODERN: The Fiesta Artists of Padua Hills, 1953–1959

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  41. CLAREMONT MODERN: Post-War California Dreaming

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  42. Bas Jan Ader

    Bas Jan Ader: Suspended Between Laughter and Tears

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  43. An Enduring Legacy: New Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection

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  44. Ten Pound Ape

    Ten Pound Ape: Your Mother was Beautiful Once, part vier

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  45. aRtPM: a Student Graffiti Art Exhibition

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  46. James Hueter: A Retrospective

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  47. ArtX: Student Art Competition and Exhibition

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  48. Multiverse

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  49. The Passerby Museum

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  50. Vexing: Female Voices from East LA Punk

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  51. Maya Schindler: Blah, Blah, Blah Revolution

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  52. Zoe Crosher: The Reconsidered Archive of Michelle du Bois

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  53. First Generation: Art in Claremont 1907–1957

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  54. Ephemeral: Explorations in Light

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  55. Locus I: Art and Craft of Claremont and the Region

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  56. A Conversation with Color: Karl Benjamin, Paintings 1953–1995

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