Contemporary Art Exhibitions
Located in Ventura, CA and home to 4 galleries Vita Art Center’s exhibits bring museum quality contemporary art to Ventura.
Gallery Hours: Saturday & Sunday, 12–4pm. Free to the public.
Please check exhibit dates, the gallery is closed for install in between exhibits.
OPENING AUGUST 22, 2026
4 NEW EXHIBITS & OPEN STUDIOS
Member/Artist Preview Reception 4-5pm
Free Community Opening 5-7pm
Sponsored by Buena Tile + Stone
MARGARET NIELSEN
“COLLECTION”
Opening Reception: August 22
4-5pm, Member/Artist Private Preview Reception
5-7pm Community Opening
Exhibit Dates: August 22 - October 25, 2026
Sponsored by Buena Tile + Stone
For painter Margaret Nielsen, the journey has been a recurring theme in her artwork. The painter travels through her work and her own psyche, portraying aspects of life with a universal commonality and delving into the mystery of the human condition. Through the use of recurring imagery such as birds, the four elements, and other natural motifs, Nielsen connects the private, intangible world with the external, physical world. Her paintings, often small, jewel-like, and intimate, evoke Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious in that they touch upon experiences common to us all in the journey through life.
Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Margaret Nielsen attended Chouinard Art School, received her BFA from California Institute of the Arts, and her MA in clinical art therapy from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. She has exhibited her paintings extensively, both nationally and internationally, as well as produced numerous public art projects.
Image Shown: Ghost, 30" x 22", graphite on paper, 2008
ERICA DABORN
"Dialogues with Mother Earth: Drawing to Save the Planet"
Opening Reception: August 22
4-5pm, Member/Artist Private Preview Reception
5-7pm Community Opening
Exhibit Dates: August 22 - October 25, 2026
Sponsored by Buena Tile + Stone
Dialogues with Mother Earth: Drawing to Save the Planet is a powerful exhibition by Erica Daborne that uses monumental charcoal murals to confront one of the defining challenges of our time, our relationship with the natural world. Inspired by conversations with young people concerned about climate change and environmental loss, Daborne created a series of compelling visual narratives that invite viewers to reflect on humanity's impact on the planet and our shared responsibility for its future. Drawing on the rich tradition of historical murals these works imagine future generations looking back at the environmental crises we failed to prevent. Through striking imagery and accessible storytelling, Dialogues with Mother Earth encourages reflection, conversation, and hope, reminding us that the choices we make today will shape the world we leave behind.
Image Shown: S.O.S. ( Save Our Seeds), Charcoal on canvas, 70 x 164 inches
CONSTANCE MALLINSON
“CRITICAL MASS”
Opening Reception: August 22
4-5pm, Member/Artist Private Preview Reception
5-7pm Community Opening
Exhibit Dates: August 22 - October 25, 2026
Sponsored by Buena Tile + Stone
The paintings on exhibit are composed from natural and manufactured detritus Mallinson has collected from the urban streets of Los Angeles on her daily walks. With interests in formal painterly inventiveness--evidenced by the constant play between abstraction and figuration --a a fantastical and massive assortment of post-consumer items is deftly layered to comprise landscape/ still life hybrids. The rich details, dazzling color, variety of objects and interplay of forms recall both 17th century Dutch still life painting and the historical pastoral landscape tradition. Mallinson references these traditions and their exploitive associations while inviting comparisons to our current hyper consumerist world that is destroying valuable ecosystems and contributing to irreversible climate change. Past, present and future seem in play prompting questions concerning the complexities and moral dilemmas of living in a techno- consumerist, disposable world as we simultaneously contribute to its demise. Post-apocalyptic, darkly humorous, critical and celebratory all at once, Mallinson’s images of seductive commodities and fragments often intertwined with decaying plant forms symbolize our uncontrolled desires and lifestyles while situating viewers in a provocative endgame.
About Constance Mallinson
Throughout her long career Mallinson has been known for her epic scaled paintings in the form of complex landscape panoramas composed of thousands of lush and evocative scenes woven together, to fantastical figurative imagery created from natural materials. She has exhibited widely throughout California and nationally. Recent solo exhibitions include The Armory in Pasadena, Woodbury University, Pomona College, UC Riverside, The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and Angles Gallery in Los Angeles. In 2016 she curated and participated in the acclaimed “Urbanature” exhibition at ArtCenter in Pasadena and Pasadena Museum of California Art’s “The Feminine Sublime”. The MOCA Exhibition “Pattern and Decoration” (2019) included three of her historical works from the movement She was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship as well as a City of Los Angeles Artist’s grant (COLA). She has had numerous public commissions including the EXPO Line MTA Bergamot Station permanent artwork installation (2016) and the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Her work has been noted by art critics such as Christopher Knight and articles on her work have appeared in all the major art publications. Her paintings can be seen in many private and public art collections including LACMA,
Statement:
I approach my work in a way that features strong elements of pattern and form. I spend considerable time researching patterns in textiles, industry, nature and other artforms and then abstracting and transcribing them onto the surface of my pieces. The process of decorating surfaces is arduous but exciting, like watching the colors of a Polaroid slowly develop. Most objects start with a colorful riot of pattern painted on the surface with underglaze. These patterns could be an iteration of a Gee’s Bend Quilt, a Jaqueline Groag textile that I’ve studied, or inspired by 70’s fabric from my grandmother’s hand-me-down aprons. Pattern is painted on the vessel and is layered over in paper stencils and then a fine coat of white slip. I have an extensive library of hand-cut stencils that go back further than a decade that show modes and styles I’ve experimented with over the years. The stencils work as a theoretical window to the pattern beyond. A “ghost” of the pattern fires up through slip, subtle and uncanny. It is this “ghost” image that feels tender to me, like bare skin under a wet shirt, a surprise. I carve thorough these layers of slip, stencils, and color with thin, incised lines that follow contours and define the motif. I think about form a great deal, more so than I ever had in my career as an artist. Years of making have caused me to become exceedingly specific towards the vessels I make. If my forms are not strong and balanced they cannot contain the exuberance of color/pattern. Hand-feel has become all-important and my sensitivity to proportion is the task-master of practice.
Bio:
Nikki Lewis is a Los Angeles based ceramic artist and educator who has worked in the ceramics field for over 30 years. She explores pattern, design, color theory, and narrative in her hand-built and thrown works. Lewis has exhibited widely and lectures frequently on mid-century female ceramic artists, most notably at the Bauhaus Centennial in Weimar, Germany. In addition to teaching and making, Lewis co-founded KL Projects with artist Katie Queen and has curated several contemporary ceramic exhibitions at local institutions. Lewis holds her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, her MFA from UCLA and is Professor of Art at Mt. San Antonio College.
NIKKI LEWIS, “Ghost Images”
Opening Reception: August 22
4-5pm, Member/Artist Private Preview Reception
5-7pm Community Opening
Exhibit Dates: August 22 - October 25, 2026
Sponsored by Buena Tile + Stone
OPEN STUDIOS
AUGUST 22, 5-7:30pm
38 & 50 West Main Street.
Across two buildings, 45 artist studios will open their doors, offering visitors a chance to meet local artists, see works in progress, and explore a wide range of artistic practices and mediums. Wander through the studios, discover new work, and experience the energy of a thriving community of artists all in one place.
GWYNN MURRILL
Panthers
The Oasis at Vita Art Center
Experience the power and grace of Gwynn Murrill’s large-scale cast bronze panthers, on view at The Oasis at Vita Art Center streamlined forms that capture the essence of movement, Murrill’s felines invite close looking and quiet contemplation as they prowl across the outdoor setting.