Plein-Air en Plein Air

On view April 12 – 14, 2024 (7 pm April 12 to midnight/12 am April 14)
Social Sciences Lab | 202 Social Court, Irvine, CA

Plein-Air en Plein Air returns California landscape painting to the outdoors and presents a dynamic art experience in an unexpected setting. Images of artworks from the permanent collection of UCI Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (Langson IMCA) will be projected onto the exterior surfaces of buildings in UCI’s School of Social Sciences complex, transforming part of campus into an open-air gallery over the course of two nights. This commissioned installation is designed by Jesse Colin Jackson, associate professor of Electronic Art & Design; associate dean, research and innovation; and executive director of the Beall Center for Art + Technology at UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Plein-Air en Plein Air (which means “outdoors in the outdoors” in French) situates two views in dialogue with one another: the present-day architecture and landscape of UCI’s campus with the now-historic California environs painted by artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Langson IMCA strives to make its collections available to broad and diverse publics through multifaceted programming that invites the participation of both campus and community audiences. Plein-Air en Plein Air builds on the curatorial activities of another project commissioned by Langson IMCA, Beyond the Frame: Impressions of California, created by the design studio Imaginary Places. This immersive virtual presentation features images of the same 28 California Impressionist paintings and sets them in a stylized digital landscape with associated artists’ biographies, literary and historical texts, archival images, and environmental sound elements. Together, these two very different projects work to catalyze curiosity and foster conversation and exploration of California Art in the public realm.

California’s characteristic light is a powerful presence in both of these commissioned installations that utilize digital technology. In Beyond the Frame, selected works are organized into virtual galleries that transition from dawn to night—an homage to the transient qualities of light that plein air painters sought to capture. In Plein-Air en Plein Air, the light depicted in the paintings is juxtaposed against the light of the early evening and night sky. Jackson has created an experience that unfolds over time—with the setting of the sun, projected images will gradually come vividly into view. Viewers will be drawn around the exterior spaces of the UCI Social Sciences Hall and Laboratory through a sequence of projections at multiple scales, creating an interplay between the projected paintings, the building’s surfaces, surrounding landscapes, and ambient light, culminating in a visual crescendo overlooking Aldrich Park.

Plein-Air en Plein Air is a creative collaboration at UCI among Langson IMCA, Claire Trevor School of the Arts, and School of Social Sciences.

This installation is made possible, in part, by support from the Traditional Fine Arts Organization.