Museum exhibit showcases emerging artists

Amir Zaki is a photographer but he's not interested in representing things as they appear on the surface.

The Huntington Beach resident wants viewers to look behind the scenes with his art.

For instance, Zaki shot pictures of several cantilevered homes, but then altered the images to remove the supports holding up the hilltop homes.

"I'm transforming it," he said. "I don't just want to document it."

Zaki was among the artists represented at the Sunday opening of the Orange County Museum of Art's 2006 California Biennial show in Newport Beach. Nearly all of the 30 artists represented were on hand for the opening.

Zaki's work focuses on Southern California architecture.

The unifying force of his exhibited work at the museum involves images of decay and rebirth in Los Angeles. Pictures of tiled-over fireplaces and unused swimming pools are intended to unsettle the viewer.

The viewer gest a sense that something is just not quite right, Zaki said.

"The view is ideal," Zaki said. "But what does it look like underneath?"

Zaki will stop in at the museum again on Nov. 16 as the featured speaker.

Once every two years California artists converge on the Orange County Museum of Art to display their work in the biennial show.

Sunday's opening featured a discussion among the artists in the afternoon and a screening of "Maquilapolis," a film by Sergio De La Torre and Vicky Funari that documents women working in Tijuana's foreign-owned factories.

Inside each gallery room, viewers encounter all sorts of artistic and social commentary and experimentation. Mediums ranging from audio-visual to acrylic paintings on birch wood display a sense of the cultural and artistic diversity of California.

Artist Goody-B Wiseman unites imagination and the technological in her work. Wiseman's work includes a three-video piece called "Superlovestarpower (2,3 and 4)." Using Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" 1966 album cover for inspiration, the Los Angeles artist asks, "What happened before and after this iconic cover shot was taken?"

"Every time I looked at it I kept thinking, what's at the end of that path?" Wiseman said.

She used that question to inspire short films offering explanations for "Sounds of Silence," Carole King's "Tapestry" and Yoko Ono's "Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band" as well.

Considering herself "pretty loose" when it comes to choosing a form of expression, Wiseman began with sculpting, but quickly found the view of life behind a camera all too appealing.

"I love the moving image," she said. "But generally, my heart is to use whatever medium serves the purpose of the project."

The museum will feature much more over the next two-and-a-half months. For more information, visit the museum's website at www.ocma.net and get a look at all of the activities planned with the artists.