Summertime exhibits open in Pomona's Arts Colony
A.S. Ashley, Correspondent

POMONA - With summer finally here, artists in the city's Arts Colony are finding ways to beat the heat, designing shows with summer in mind for July's Second Saturday Art Walk this weekend.

For those wishing to come early for the art walk, patrons can see painting and drawing demonstrations in front of the Sakura Ichi restaurant, 101 W. Mission Blvd., No. 101, from 3 to 6 p.m. by artists David Wade, Carly Clarke, Alex Brown and others, who will answer any questions about their art.

Sakura Ichi has recently joined a group of restaurants in the Arts Colony also participating as art venues. This month, Sakura Ichi will host the artwork of Brian Murphey.

The Blue Core Gallery, 558-A W. Second St., will feature a show called "Nopales" about cactuses and the many succulents that thrive in severe heat. Over a dozen area artists will interpret the prickly plants in every art medium imaginable.

Celebrating its two-year anniversary in the Arts Colony, the Bunny Gunner Gallery, 266 W. Second St., kicks off its festivities with a new show, aptly named "Summertime."

Bunny Gunner's proprietors are pulling out all the stops by offering summer favorites including barbecued hot dogs, drinks and snacks, summer-themed art by more than 60 artists, music and even a kiddie pool.

Nothing says cooling off from the heat like water, and this month's show at the dA Center for the Arts, 252-D S. Main St., is exactly about that: "Art H2O," aka "The Water Show," a group exhibit exploring all the ways water is about us, and of course, how we are about water.

Over at one of the Colony's newest venues, OBJCT Gallery, 250 W. Second St., is a show called "Liquid Environment," an installation by Kimber Berry that fills the space with flowing streams of multicolored paint on vinyl moving across the room in all directions and flowing over every shape.

From liquid to "Layerists," 57 Underground's (300-C S. Thomas St.) July show, "Convergence," will showcase the work of 20 Southern and Northern California artists of the Society of Layerists in Multi-Media.

"Layerists," according to Mary Carroll Nelson, SLMM founder, "are a specific group of artist-seekers who have a heightened awareness of holism - the belief that reality is made up of organic and unified wholes that are greater than the simple sum of their parts."

Staying on a conceptual note, SCA Project Gallery, 281 S. Thomas St., Suite 101, presents "Ephemera," from the word that means collectible items that were originally designed to be short-lived.

Artists Suvan Geer and Angie Bray wish to take the viewer further in this transitory world by creating works and environments that signify fleeting moments and thoughts, in some cases, places and areas that were once occupied.

While at SCA, make sure to stop by the neighboring Latino Art Museum's (281 S. Thomas St., Suite 105) presentation of world-renowned Los Angeles-based artist Hessam Abrishami, whose figurative work is a joyful use of color, line and relative space.

For more information and to download a map of all 36 art venues in Pomona's Arts Colony, go to pomonaartscolony.com.

A.S. Ashley is a Pomona Arts Colony artist and advocate.