TAM will reopen on january 18th, 2025

MAIN GALLERY: OUTSIDE IN - the Billy Shire Collection

Originating in the late 1960s, in the heady atmosphere of Los Angeles and West Coast counter-culture scenes, the visual art genre of Lowbrow Art, aka Pop-Surrealism, found its feet. Informed by underground comix, surf and tiki, hot-rods and rock music (later encompassing punk music, sk8 and graffiti too), this evolving new style also combined aspects from outsider and folk-art forms, cartoons, religious iconography, sexual subjects, and the downright weird.

Its possibilities attracted many young artists and a diverse audience. As its visibility grew, its illustrational ancestry saw it rejected by the mainstream contemporary art world. Billy Shire was one of the first champions of these artists; he helped establish a new wave of California art and has earned the nickname “the Peggy Guggenheim of Lowbrow” from Juxtapoz Magazine for his influence in shaping this genre. Following his passion for the odd and unusual, he established the La Luz de Jesus gallery in 1986 in Los Angeles, highlighting these under-represented margins.

The style has since exploded worldwide, with movies, magazines, websites, art fairs, and more springing up to reflect its popular recognition and acceptance. It has moved from sub-culture OUTSIDE to mainstream IN.

Its narrative style and figurative basis established a relationship to street art and mass culture that has since engaged a wider global audience, and its ability to track with cultural trends and events has helped establish it as a significant visual form mirrored in myriad ways across the visual landscape of the 21st century.

OUTSIDE IN presents a selection from this history.

Artists: Aaron Marshall, Alex De Leon, Ana Bagayan, Carrie Ann Baade, Chris Mars, Christopher Bales, Clayton Brothers, Clive Barker, COOP, Daniel Martin Diaz, Daniel Peacock, Dave Cooper, Deadra Sullivan Beeman, Dennis Larkman, Dianne Bennett, Don Fritz, Eric White, Frank Kozik, Gaile Potacki, GeorgeAnne Dean, Glenn Barr, Henry Shire, Hudson Marquez, Jim Heimann, Joe Coleman, Joe Sorren, Jon Langford, Judith Schaechter, Liz Mcgrath, Lou Beech, Manuel O’Campo, Maryrose Crook, Merrion Peck, Micheal Hussar, Miriam Wosk, Neon Park, Norbert H. Kox, Octavio Ocampo, Owen Smith, Pizz, Pol Turgeon, R. K. Sloane, Rob Clayton, Robert Williams, S. Clay Wilson, Scott Hove, Scott Muskgrove, Tony Fitzpatrick, and Win Wallace.

GALLERY TWO: BURNER

Burner: Exhibition of International Street Art, making its North American debut at the Torrance Art Museum, presents a collection of street and graffiti art. The exhibition highlights works that are not simply painted or sculpted, but painstakingly crafted to “burn off the wall.” The term ‘burner,’ rooted in the street art lexicon, refers to a piece that stands out for its complexity and aesthetic boldness. Often illegal and always impressive, these works demand time, skill, and a bold style statement, setting the gold standard in graffiti and urban artistry.

One of the featured works is Waiting in Vain, a piece by Banksy, created in New York City and presented in its original form.

This exhibition is in collaboration with Fitz Contemporary.

Artists: Banksy, Bambi, Blek le Rat, Mr. Brainwash, Buff Monster, Chroma, Cee Pil, The Connor Brothers, Craig Knight, Dalek, Mr. Doodle, Epsylon Point, Futura 2000, Henri Lamy, Invader, KEF!, KAWS, Lister, Magnus Gjoen, Mark Ryden, Pure Evil, Richard Orlinski, Shane Goudreau, Shepard Fairey, Speedy Graphito and Miss Tic.

DARK ROOM: The Anthropocene Foundry LA 2025 - Finiteness/Infinity

The Anthropocene Foundry Los Angeles 2025 – is consisting of 6 video programs, for each week another program composed of 2 parts. The sources for curating/selecting - of thematic and technical nature alike - are standing under the motto of “Finiteness /Infinity”:

The Anthropocene Project, including about 500 international artists, created and curated by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne for The New Museum of Networked Art - dealing with the human impact on nature and the natural living environment manifested in two comprehensive media collections – video art & sound art, and focused on animation, e.g. animate’C24 – the retrospective of Cologne Art & Animation Festival (2010-2025) pointing to the human impact in terms of the artistic creation itself. The video artists composing different types of self-created footage, partially using the latest technology (artificial intelligence), are based on a specific subjective view on the Big Creation (our world) forming new types of reality of the world they are living in. They do not only reflect the existing but go far beyond to visions of the future referring to the finiteness of life as well as the infinity of the Creation. By being confronted with, the audience @ Torrance Art Museum becomes the foundry of a new human existence, at least in the imagination.

Both aspects of topic (The Anthropocene) and technology (animation) are combined in another program source “The 4 Ecologists”, a project curated by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne for Hall of Fame @ The New Museum of Networked Art featuring the video work of the animation artists Silvia de Gennaro, Maria Korporal, Susanne Wiegner and Brit Bunkley presented during the 2nd until the 5th week of screenings. Another thematic aspect is dealing during week 2 with violence as a typical form of human impact, pointing to another program source – The Violence Project and the program of “Code of Violence“, curated by Gioula Papadopoulou including videos by students of the School of Art/New Media LAB @ Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece).

The Foundation Screening Series refers to the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the New Museum of Networked Art on 1 January 2000 and the current foundation process of The Agricola de Cologne Foundation for the Arts which will operate the museum from 2025 onwards.

As a conceptual representation format, The Anthropocene Foundry started in 2024 in Quito (Ecuador), Kolkata (India) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) pointing to the global aspect of the human impact during the current era of The Anthropocene.

PUBLIC ART PROjects Currently Open to The PuBlic