The Carnegie Art Museum Shows Works By Sean and Benjamin Anderson

Written by Carlton Cadenhead Thursday, 08 September 2011 22:09

Oxnard, CA.- The Carnegie Art Museum is proud to present "The Brothers Anderson: Benjamin Anderson-Portraits/Sean Anderson-Influential Pigments", on view from September 11th through November 20th. The exhibition features recent paintings by co-curators/owners of Anderson Art Collective, Carpinteria. Recognized for portraiture by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Benjamin Anderson shares recent portrait commissions. Sean Anderson continues his series connection mass marketing tools with America and its 3rd world counterparts.

Born in 1977 in Clearwater, Florida, Benjamin Anderson currently resides in Santa Barbara, California. He received his BFA from the San Francisco Academy of Art University in 2001 in sculpture and has also studied in Florence, Italy and Haines, Alaska. He has exhibited work in Italy, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, is in collections across the country and has been featured by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery for his portrait work. As a native of California for the past 25 years his work is heavily influenced by California culture, specifically it's proximity to the ocean and it's concepts of materialism and visual identity. He is co-owner/curator of the Anderson ART Collective in Carpinteria, CA and runs MEYK Enterprises a nationally distributed D.I.Y Art Kit created by he and his brother.

Born in 1985, Sean Anderson currently lives and works out of Santa Barbara, California. After extensive artistic training in Santa Barbara, California through the Visual Arts & Design Academy he then went on to attend the Academy of Art University in San Francisco continuing his education in classical figuration. His time involved in the art scene in San Francisco found him creating a commissioned portrait for the newly minted Mayor and winning numerous awards at the Academy. Traveling worldwide to further his knowledge of the arts, Sean has found himself throughout Europe as well as North, Central and South America, creating and showing bodies of work accordingly. His most recent involving his stay in Bolivia, educating locals on art and developing his own work from his native experiences. Sean has shown his work throughout the Americas as well as internationally and his work can be seen in exhibitions at his gallery Anderson Art Collective as well as selected galleries throughout the United States and Europe.

The Carnegie Art Museum, owned and operated as a non-profit museum by the City of Oxnard  since 1985, traces its beginnings back to the best spirit of American business philanthropy. Originally, the City of Oxnard’s first Public Library site, it was built in 1906 as one of the free public libraries funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie. After the Library outgrew the building’s size in the 1960’s, and moved several blocks to a new facility, this gracious building was used for a variety of purposes including a Chamber of Commerce. In the early 1980s, after extensive earthquake retrofitting, the Carnegie Building reopened as a Cultural Arts Center. Due to the growing importance of its permanent art collection, the Carnegie was designated by the City as an Art Museum in 1985. On June 22nd 2009, the Carnegie Art Museum Cornerstones Board of Directors proposed to the City of Oxnard that the Board take on responsibility for managing the City owned facility, art collection, and operations of the Museum. A contract relationship with the City, which continues to retain museum ownership, was unanimously supported by the City Council. This significant change presents unlimited opportunities to expand the Museum’s educational mission and to greatly enhance cultural offerings and artistic resources for the Oxnard and greater Ventura County community.


The Museum’s permanent collection owned by the City of Oxnard, was established in the 1920s. It primarily focuses on the art of California. A strong point of the collection is in its California plein-air holdings, including paintings by Emil Kosa Jr., Colin Campbell Cooper, Paul Lauritz, and Cornelius and Jessie Arms Botke. Along with a diverse collection of multi-cultural and ethnographic artifacts, another strength is its Hollywood portraits by photographer George Hurrell, from the classic film noire period of the 1930-40s. Currently, acquisition places emphasis on collecting art  inclusive of all California art movements, and of educational value to a population that is highly diverse. For example, major paintings by Latino artists, Frank Romero, and  contemporary California artist Michael Dvortcsak have been acquired to implement this expanded emphasis.  Acquisitions have included "Europa" by John Valadez, "Enter Tormenta" by Gronk, "Quiet Steps of Approaching Thunder" by Alexey Steele, "Rural Pearl" a scanogram by Darryl Curran and "Lost Creek, Bantiquos Lagoon" by Peter Adams, President of the California Art Club. Major donations of art are a vital source of building the permanent collection. Past art donations have been received from the Lannan Foundation, Peter & Eileen Norton, who donated thirty contemporary works including "Watch Out for Snakes When You are Looking for Diamonds" by Therman Statom, along with promised bequests from the California Art Collection of Nancy Dustin Wall Moure and Ventura County Art Collector Jackson Wheeler, as well as gifts from artists themselves. Visit the museum's website at  ... http://www.carnegieam.org

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