January 19, 2024 - Friday - Today we were in Claremont, CA to see the latest exhibit at the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art. It's called "Face to Face: Ken Gonzales-Day" and it features the photographic work of Ken Gonzales-Day, a Los Angeles based artist and Scripps College art professor.
There are three galleries showing his work. The first gallery contains portraits taken during the pandemic.
The second gallery has photographs of an Osage Indian taken from a bust cast in 1904 and his great-great-grandson taken in 2020.
This interesting contraption was built in 1780 and billed as "the perfect silhouette machine." The subject sat sideways in the chair, the illuminated candle cast a shadow on the drawing easel, and the artist traced the outline of the shadow. It's pretty neat.
The third gallery is photographs that were taken of sculptures and busts in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of Natural History.
The artist, Ken Gonzales-Day, made good use of his talents during the pandemic.
Before the museum we had lunch at our Claremont favorite, Aruffo’s Italian Cuisine.
For an appetizer, we split a "Burrata Antipasto," that is drizzled with ex-virgin olive oil, Meyer lemon zest, cracked peppercorns, sea salt, and crostini.
We both had the same entrées, "Bucatini Carbonara" which has a classic custard cream sauce, pecorino, capocollo, cracked peppercorns, and fresh bucatini pasta.
Everything tasted even better than it looks.
