{"id":553059,"date":"2026-07-16T17:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/553059\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:35:08","slug":"art-in-hollywood-exhibit-draws-from-newly-merged-uc-irvine-langson-orange-county-museum-of-art-collection-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/553059\/","title":{"rendered":"Art in Hollywood exhibit draws from newly merged UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art collection \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the world woven together by\u00a0UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art\u2019s<\/a> latest exhibit, images of a quaint French village, the shores of Hong Kong, the Wild West and the fictional land of Oz, there is a common thread: they\u2019re actually in California.<\/p>\n

The collection, \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood,\u201d explores Southern California\u2019s role as both a real and an imagined setting in the early days of Hollywood cinema. It is the first major exhibition commemorating UC Irvine\u2019s recent acquisition<\/a> of the Orange County Museum of Art and its new $94 million home opened in 2022. The exhibition features more than 50 pieces of art \u2014 each encapsulating a piece of California history or inspiration \u2014 and runs through Oct. 4.<\/p>\n

\"Micha\u00c3\u00abla<\/p>\n

Micha\u00ebla Mohrmann, assistant curator of the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art, right, discusses the \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d exhibit in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. The collection explores the intersection of plein air painting, cinematic technologies, and the construction of place. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Museum<\/p>\n

Museum Director Kathryn Kanjo, left, and Micha\u00ebla Mohrmann, assistant curator of the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art, at the \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d exhibit in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. The collection explores the intersection of plein air painting, cinematic technologies, and the construction of place. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Museum<\/p>\n

Museum Director Kathryn Kanjo at the \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d exhibit inside the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. The collection explores the intersection of plein air painting, cinematic technologies, and the construction of place. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A visitor to the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art examines the \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d exhibit in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. The collection explores the intersection of plein air painting, cinematic technologies, and the construction of place. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A visitor to the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art examines the \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d exhibit in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. The collection explores the intersection of plein air painting, cinematic technologies, and the construction of place. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d exhibit in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. The collection explores the intersection of plein air painting, cinematic technologies, and the construction of place. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

\"Museum<\/p>\n

Museum Director Kathryn Kanjo, left, chats with a patron as a backdrop from the 1965 film \u201cThe Sound of Music\u201d hangs inside the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. The exhibit, \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d is a collection that explores the intersection of plein air painting, cinematic technologies, and the construction of place. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 7<\/p>\n

Micha\u00ebla Mohrmann, assistant curator of the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art, right, discusses the \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d exhibit in Costa Mesa on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. The collection explores the intersection of plein air painting, cinematic technologies, and the construction of place. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia is inherent to this institution \u2014 it is in our name, and it\u2019s the genesis of the collection,\u201d the museum\u2019s new director, Kathryn Kanjo, said<\/a>. \u201cCalifornia reflects the evolution and innovations of the world around us \u2014 our audience gets to come in and find themselves, find their place in the artworks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d also marks the first exhibition under Kanjo\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

The California native began her tenure in February, bringing her more than three decades of experience to the museum located on the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus in Costa Mesa, where she now oversees a combined collection of more than 9,000 works. Kanjo previously served as the David C. Copley Director and CEO of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.<\/p>\n

Kanjo said she is committed to UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art\u2019s mission of honoring OCMA\u2019s legacy, while affirming UCI\u2019s commitment to education and publicly accessible art. The exhibition reflects this vision, she said, drawing from works in OCMA\u2019s permanent collection, as well as those from UCI\u2019s Langson and Buck collections, now all one combined source of pieces tracing art over California\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The exhibition\u2019s opening pieces \u2014 two side-by-side oil paintings by artist Paul Grimm \u2014 invite viewers into a familiar depiction of California terrain. In the painting, \u201cApproaching Storm,\u201d Grimm recreates the state\u2019s rolling hills set against an expansive blue sky and gold-tinged clouds \u2014 it\u2019s the sort of scene that earned the artist a role in several major Hollywood film studios throughout the 1920s.<\/p>\n

Grimm\u2019s paintings are part of a section in the exhibit exploring \u201cThe Role of Place in Film,\u201d in which the curation team set out to represent the painters whose contributions to Hollywood have gone largely overlooked, said Assistant Curator Micha\u00ebla Mohrmann. Bringing together plein air painting and cinematic technologies, \u201cStaging California in Early Hollywood\u201d spotlights a collective of global artists who found their footing in the film industry during the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at the way that the California landscape acted as a stand-in for other locations,\u201d Mohrmann said. \u201cIt\u2019s this sort of collapsing of the real and the fake.\u201d<\/p>\n

With jobs quickly declining across creative industries, many plein air artists transitioned into Hollywood scenic design, bringing their technical skills and knowledge of the surrounding California landscape to film sets. These artists, many of whom came from international backgrounds, transformed local environments into the recognizable backdrops of global locals from Paris to the coast of China. Among some of the most notable were George Gibson, who designed the technicolor dreamscape of MGM Studios\u2019 \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d (1939), and Emil J. Kosa Jr., who worked with a team of artists to create backdrops for \u201cThe Sound of Music\u201d (1965).<\/p>\n

Despite their integral contributions, many of these artists went unmentioned in the films they helped produce.<\/p>\n

The exhibition touches on the Hollywood studio system, on the labor fights to be recognized and on the\u00a0advent of AI, CGI and other advanced special effects, and how through all of these, art and the film industry have evolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a love letter to this past \u2014 this industry \u2014 that was very much about this craftsmanship that nurtured a whole culture in Southern California,\u201d Mohrmann said. \u201cThis exhibition helps us realize how important these jobs are, this industry is, the work they do and the kind of economic opportunities they generate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Hollywood is a legacy of that culture, and for recent museum visitors Samantha Lopez Arevalo, 22, of Costa Mesa, and Michelle Ridenhour, 22, of Newport Beach, knowing that history makes the exhibition more immersive.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the images and the history behind the artists \u2014 it really makes the paintings come to life,\u201d Lopez Arevalo said.<\/p>\n

And it is important to document how local landscapes have evolved with the state\u2019s social and cultural histories over time, Ridenhour added.<\/p>\n

Kanjo said the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art will continue to preserve California history as the foundation of its collections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s room for all of these histories,\u201d Kanjo said. \u201cThe opportunity we have is to knit them together and see a continuum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the world woven together by\u00a0UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art\u2019s latest exhibit, images of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2273,307,304,305,306,811,2458,234004,308,93,61,60,1529,43716,40791,38],"class_list":["post-553059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-art","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-california","tag-community","tag-costa-mesa","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-local-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-museum-of-art","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}