• MSJC
• MSJC Art Gallery
• Current Exhibition

Current Exhibition

This exhibition offers the audience a chance to engage with five artists whose work is influenced by the experimental freedom that defines The High Desert and invites viewers to take a visual road trip through clay.

Joshua Tree area of the Mojave Desert provides seemingly endless space, vistas, solitude and inspiration from the forms of the boulders and otherworldly forms of the Joshua Trees that define the area. When we think of the High Desert, we often think of the raw untouched landscape and these metaphors can be added to working with clay. A lump of clay starts out as a form of endless possibility. Like the wind and water that have changed and sculpted the Joshua Tree landscape, these artists’ hands have shaped and sculpted clay into unique, exciting, and beautiful works of art.

Curator Nicola Vruwink received her MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle. Currently, she is a professor at Santa Monica College and splits her time between Los Angeles and Joshua Tree. In addition to her own studio practice and teaching she is the director of Goat, a contemporary art gallery in Landers, CA that features artists from the Mojave Desert area and beyond. As an artist, her works are in the permanent collection of the Palm Springs Art Museum, Seatle Art Museum and others.

Brian Bosworth received and MFA from Claremont Graduate University. He splits his time between Oklahoma City and Joshua Tree where he ran BKB a retail and design gallery in Joshua Tree, CA. His artwork explores the boundary between the built environment and nature, merging the ray and intensity of brutalist and minimalist design with the transient qualities of nature. Bosworth has exhibited his work nationally and internationally and his work is in numerous private collections.

John Flores received his BFA from California State University Fullerton. His hand-built cactus forms draw inspiration directly from the Mojave Desert landscape. He has had recent exhibitions at Exit Gallery at Cal State Fullerton, Brea Gallery, Brea, CA, the Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA, the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA, and the John Wayne Airport, Santa Ana, CA.

YehRim Lee received an MFA from Alfred University and her BFA from Korea National University of Cultural Heritage. She has shown in exhibitions nationally and internationally. Lee was the visiting resident artist at the University of Georgia in the ceramics department (2017-2018), the University of the Arts (2018-2019), and the Clay Studio in Philadelphia (2018-2020). Recent shows include the Korean International Ceramic Biennale 2019, and Dopamine Dressing, at the University of Michigan Art Museum (2023). Recently a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, she now lives in the Joshua Tree area of California.

Cybele Rowe was born in Sydney, Australia. Her multifaceted practice incorporates ceramics, painting, concrete, wood and painting. She has had solo exhibitions most recently at Eric Firestone Gallery in NYC and East Hampton, Mansell Wicks Gallery in Sydney, Australia, Melissa Morgan Fine Art in Palm Springs, CA, and many others.

Kelly Witmer earned a BFA from University of Arts in Philadelphia and Parsons in Paris. She has taught at Anderson Ranch and attended the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine, Atlantic Center in Florida and Can Serrat in Spain. She has completed several public projects in Los Angeles, Santa Rosa and the San Diego International Airport. She has had solo exhibitions at Southwest in Midland, Texas and the Oceanside Museum of Art.