Claremont, CA—The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College is thrilled to celebrate the art of drawing this fall with three related exhibitions, all opening on Thursday, August 21: Line, Smudge, Shade: Contemporary Drawing in Our Los Angeles (on view until January 4, 2026), Art Hall Projects 1: Manuel López (on view until June 28, 2026), and Two-Way Stretch: Electronic Drawing in Early Animation and Computer Art (on view until January 4, 2026). The three exhibitions offer different perspectives on this most fundamental artistic practice, reveling in this basic form and mutually illuminating and enriching one another. The opening celebration for all three exhibitions is Saturday, September 6 from 5 to 7 pm.
Two of these exhibitions showcase the drawings of artists working now in and around Los Angeles: Line, Smudge, Shade features sixteen contemporary artists whose studio practices revolve around drawing and who are deeply influenced by their interactions with the greater LA region, and, in the first commission by the museum for its new Art Hall Projects series, Manuel López’s monumental wall drawing brings scenes from East LA to life.
“Drawing is the foundation of art,” said Solomon Salim Moore, the Benton’s academic curator and organizer of Line, Smudge, Shade and Art Hall Projects 1: Manuel López. “While many artists in Line, Smudge, Shade come from various artistic disciplines, their ties to LA unite their practices. I grew up in Altadena and know how our community was deeply affected by the Eaton Canyon fire; this exhibition is in part a reflection on how such events and our geography shape regional artistic expression. Both Line, Smudge, Shade and Manuel López’s monumental mural give us the opportunity to celebrate the Los Angeles area and the artists who call it home.”
Line, Smudge, Shade features 35 works by Jessica Taylor Bellamy, Ako Castuera, Pui Tiffany Chow, Lauren Faigeles, Carly França, Joel Freeman, Brittany Kiertzner, Carly Lake, Grace Eunchong Lee, Kayla Mattes, Stas Orlovski, Rob Sato, Mercedes Teixido, Elizabeth Tremante, Hana Ward, and Sterling Wells. The artists all engage with Los Angeles in different ways, from the materials they use (including rubbings from highly specific locations) to the scenes they render to the light they recreate, so specific to Southern California. To accompany these works, all of the participating artists offered thoughtful and wholly individual answers to questions about the practice of drawing and their respective relationships to Los Angeles. These interviews are featured on the exhibition’s website.
The Benton is also presenting a monumental wall mural by Manuel López as the inaugural work in its new Art Hall Projects series, an annual program devoted to showcasing contemporary LA–based artists working on a large scale. López, who was raised in Boyle Heights and East LA, created the mural from six drawings that reflect life in East LA, his muse. On view from August 21, 2025, to June 28, 2026, López’s mural renders everyday life with grandeur and gravity, monumentalizing the quotidian with a practiced eye and hand.
López and the artists in Line, Smudge, Shade engage with the tactile experience of deliberately marking a thought, vision, observation, or idea. The range of works include traditional drawings, artists’ sketchbooks, experimental media, and other works on paper. Created with a minimum of means, every work on view demonstrates how artists engage with their physical surroundings, transforming ideas into tangible realities or spinning ideas from the most local of details.
Jennifer Reeves, Color Neutral (still), 2014. 16 mm color film transferred to digital video, sound, 3 minutes. Courtesy of the artist.
The third exhibition that showcases the practice of drawing is Two-Way Stretch: Electronic Drawing in Early Animation and Computer Art, an exploration of how artists experimented with new electronic technologies in the post–World War II period and transformed ideas about drawing. Titled after a rare grid of 24 humorously titled computer plotter drawings from 1969 by former Pomona faculty member and artist Fred Hammersley that will be on view, the exhibition includes both moving image works (such as Norman McLaren’s drawings on the optical track in his early 16 mm films from the 1940s to the 1960s and contemporary artist Jennifer Reeves’s vibrant practice of accumulating marks directly onto film or etching away layers) and still works, such as Vera Molnar’s simulations of her mother’s handwriting using a combination of computer algorithms and hand-drawn pen. Eleven rare computer art works by Molnar, a “plotter” drawing by Jean-Pierre Hébert, and a print comprised of oscilloscope patterns by Herbert W. Franke are on generous loan from the Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection. What emerges in this exhibition is the artists’ respective commitments to experimentation, paving the way for today’s electronic art and music. Two-Way Stretch also offers the opportunity to consider the role of physicality in the art of drawing, questioning the traditional interplay of the eye and the hand.
Line, Smudge, Shade: Contemporary Drawing in Our Los Angeles is organized by Solomon Salim Moore, academic curator, and HeeSoo Alice Lee, curatorial assistant.
Art Hall Projects 1: Manuel López is organized by Solomon Salim Moore, academic curator. Lead support for this installation has been provided by the Pasadena Art Alliance.
Two-Way Stretch: Electronic Drawing in Early Animation and Computer Art is organized by Solveig Nelson, curator of photography and new media.
RELATED EVENTS
Opening Celebration
Saturday, September 6
5 to 7 pm
An opening reception will be held to celebrate all fall exhibitions including Line, Smudge, Shade, Art Hall Projects 1, and Two-Way Stretch.
Stretch Yourself: Drawing with Oscilloscopes and Historic Computers
Friday, September 19
4:30 to 7:30 pm
Inspired by Two-Way Stretch, Scripps College visiting professor of art history Zsofi Valyi-Nagy will demonstrate Vera Molnar’s use of both screen-based technologies and computer plotter drawing processes and discuss the exhibition with curator Solveig Nelson. Pomona College associate professor of art Mark Allen and associate professor of music Joti Rockwell will perform an oscilloscope installation.
Register to attend by September 18.
Draw Jam
Saturday, October 18
12 am to 6 pm
Our highly anticipated Draw Jam returns to the Benton this fall. This all-day event gives participants the opportunity to make sketches, collages, and wildstyle drawings alongside professional artists.
Artist Talk: Manuel López
Thursday, November 6
Check website for details
Hear from Manuel López, the artist of the new Art Hall Projects series, about his art practice and the influence of East Los Angeles on his works.