Art is in the eye — or, rather, the words — of the beholder at a new exhibit at the Manhattan Beach Art Center.
“Are You Seeing What I’m Seeing,” which opened Friday, Jan. 16, and runs through March 29, brings together the work of 34 artists — most of them from the South Bay — who were all given the same task: to create a work of art in response to a written prompt.
“The premise of ‘Are You Seeing What I’m Seeing’ is really the relationship between written language and visual arts,” said MBAC curator Randy Niessen. “It’s how people’s interpretations might vary and how different perspectives can change things.”
“Bird in a Gilded Cage” by James Harter. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher)
“Empty Cage” by Tom Balderas. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher
“Still Life With Parrot” by Ross Moore. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher)
(Left) “Betrayal After Trust” by Susan Whiting; (Right) “The Lost Circus Woman Finding Her Way in Life With a Broken Mind and Heart” by Nicole Carmody. (Photo by Melissa Heckscher)
“Rage Against the Dying Light” by Eileen Oda Leaf. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher)
“Sacred Landscape VII No. 26” by Hung Viet Nguyen. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher)
“Clarity After the Storm” by Norma Cuevas White. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher)
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“Bird in a Gilded Cage” by James Harter. (Photo courtesy of Melissa Heckscher)
This exhibition was co-curated by longtime arts writer Bondo Wyszpolski with the help of Los Angeles artist Bernard Fallon (who also has a piece in the exhibit).
“Bondo has written these prompts that are kind of organized by themes or categories,” Niessen said. “And then the artists he invited picked prompts and made an artwork in response to it.”
Artists worked on their pieces for about six months, Niessen said, though conversations around the show had been ongoing for well more than a year.
Participating artists received a list of more than 70 prompts — short, imaginative snippets that ranged from whimsical to unsettling. Drawn from themes including mythology, nature, animals, seascapes and urban life, the prompts included lines such as:
“A circus woman with an apple on her head and arrow through her forehead.”
“They buried the long snake by first rolling it up like a carpet.”
“People glued to a television set.”
“Still life with parrot. The painting shows an empty cage, door open.”
“The birth of magenta. Someone has accidentally stepped on paint and it has squirted all over a pristine child or cat.”
As a side note, I couldn’t help but think that this whole exercise feels like feeding weird prompts into ChatGPT and asking the artificial intelligence to create “art.” What fun Wyszpolski must have had imagining the art that would be created by his imaginings!
It makes sense, perhaps, that Wyszpolski approached the project as a writer. A longtime Easy Reader contributor and editor, he has spent decades covering the South Bay arts scene,cultivating the relationships that helped him assemble a roster of artists eager to participate.
He is also working on a novel.
“For the last several years, going way back into the last century, I would always write down little descriptions of possible subjects for paintings, like two or three sentences,” Wyszpolski said. “They would pop into my head.”
Those word snippets have also become tools for his fiction writing.
“I’ve been writing this novel, and in the novel, the characters go to all these art shows, so I had to have them see real pictures,” he said. “And I mean real in the sense that I could describe what they saw, even though the pictures did not exist.”
The descriptions were sent to the participating artists, who were free to choose whichever prompt resonated with them and do with it as they wished.
While most pieces are oil or acrylic on canvas, the exhibition also includes a sculpture, a photographic work, a lenticular print, and a piece created with archival pigment on woodenframes with gilded mulberry paper.
Some artists even chose the same prompt — resulting in multiple interpretations of a single phrase.
“Some of them are taking it very literally, and others are very imaginative and kind of going in a more abstract, expressive way,” Niessen said. “So it’s kind of fun to see how everyone took on the challenge individually.”
For many artists, that challenge meant stepping outside their comfort zones.
Rancho Palos Verdes artist Nicole Carmody, who chose the “circus woman with an apple on her head and arrow through her forehead” prompt, said the words spoke to her experience with grief. Her painting was Picasso-esque — an abstract face amid bold colors and sharp angles.
“I’ve been through so much stuff in my life; I lost my husband 10 years ago,” Carmody said.
“So it’s a painting of grief,” she added, “the madness and the shock and just the hurt and the pain.”
Rolling Hills portrait artist Susan Whiting, meanwhile, chose the same prompt, but her painting was a more straightforward depiction: a young woman, poised with an apple on her head and a toy arrow embedded in her forehead — all painted in soft brush strokes and pastel colors.
“I chose to paint the subject matter the way I did,” Whiting said, “after imagining how betrayed I would feel if someone had promised to hit the apple on my head and instead hit my forehead.”
Karen Wharton, a wildlife artist who has participated in earlier iterations of the project since 2020, said the goal has always been to push artists in new directions.
“It’s always a challenge,” Wharton said. “The whole idea was to get the artists out of their comfort zone.”
James Carter, whose richly textured painting “Bird in a Gilded Cage” was inspired by the “still life with parrot” prompt, echoed that sentiment.
“This is different than what I usually do,” the San Diego artist said. “It was a little bit off the charts from what I normally do. That’s why it was kind of fun to paint.”
Wyszpolski himself has explored variations of this idea before, including a 2011 photography project in which dozens of photographers were asked to photograph the same woman, each in their own way. This is the first time the concept has been realized at the Manhattan Beach Art Center.
“I think it’s a great way to showcase local talent,” Niessen said. “We’re fortunate to have such a great community following us, and it’s great to be able to give back in that way.”
Want to try your creative hand at interpretation? The exhibition includes a free community education space where visitors can choose a written prompt, use provided supplies to createtheir own art, then post their finished works on the wall for others to see.
“It’s basically inviting the public to make their own work in response to prompts that we have written,” Niessen said. “It’s a great activity for kids to come and do as well.”
‘Are You Seeing What I’m Seeing’
When: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday through March 29.
Where: The Manhattan Beach Art Center, 1560 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Cost: Free.
Information: 310-802-5440 or infombac@manhattanbeach.gov.