ENCINITAS, CA — (July 6, 2009) — Today, Lux Art Institute announced the first of its “Studio Series,” taking place on Tuesday, July 21. A wine reception will take place at 6 before the presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited to join the museum for an evening of art and conversation with Dr. Robin Clark, curator at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), who will lead a discussion and Q&A about the work of Lux Resident Artist Derrick Guild.

“Studio Series” is a new event, hosted by Lux’s Education Committee, which is designed to bring new light to exhibitions in the Lux studio by inviting artists, scholars and professionals to share their perspective through commentary and discussion.

“We are delighted to begin this new chapter in our event programming with Dr. Robin Clark,” said Lux Director Reesey Shaw. “Our ‘Studio Series’ is a great way to further enhance the way our audience engages with us and provides a more in-depth understanding of the remarkable artists that Lux shares with the San Diego community.”

The evenings are planned for the months during which Lux artists are no longer in residence to stimulate continued interest in their work, as well as bolster Lux’s current event programming, which includes the monthly Lux@Night and quarterly Free Saturday.

Dr. Clark, whose discussion on Lux’s most recent artist-in-residence will inaugurate the series, joined MCASD’s curatorial department in January 2008. Prior to MCASD, Clark was the associate curator of Contemporary Art at the Saint Louis Art Museum starting in 2002. She has been an adjunct professor in the School of Art History and Archaeology at Washington University in Saint Louis. andalso held positions at the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. She holds a doctorate in art history from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Tickets to the “Studio Series” with Dr. Clark are $10 for non-members and $5 for members (includes studio admission). While tickets will be available for purchase at the door, seating is on a first-come-first-serve basis, and space is limited. To reserve a ticket, please email education@luxartinstitute.org, or call 760-436-6611.

About Derrick Guild

Derrick Guild’s “label paintings” play with the tradition of trompe l’oeil, a form in which the painter renders an object so precisely that it literally “tricks the eye” of the viewer. This style flourished in the Renaissance and enabled artists to render things with “eye-fooling exactitude.”

Guild’s “label paintings” go a step further by serving as a personal commentary on society’s need to categorize, order and pigeonhole. By painting the image of a person (in Guild’s case, the figures from Velázquez’s court paintings, the highest strata of Spanish society at the time) in the very structured manner of a grid – within the dimensions of painted tags, or labels, – a “cage” formation is created and the incorporated image is then held within this cage. The result is a portrait that denotes a sense of limitation and restriction imposed by society’s definitions of status and class.

Guild also works in the ongoing tradition of the “kitchen still life,” a genre practiced by European masters of the 15th to 19th centuries. Guild’s paintings and objects characterize his fascination with the appearance of things and his desire to represent them with detail and clarity. By juxtaposing objects or presenting them individually, Guild references ideas of love, loss, religion, beauty, geo-politics, humor, longing, death, absurdity and decay.

Guild received a B.A. degree and his post graduate diploma from Duncan of Jordanston College of Art and Design, Dundee, where he has taught since 1992. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the United States, including: “Sense is Hard” at the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney, 1999; “Picnic Hamper for Heaven” at Perth Museum, Scotland, 2007; and “Bread Paintings,” 2000 and “Pre-Ascension,” 2007 at the Allan Stone Gallery in New York City.

He has been the recipient of many awards, including the Maude Gemmell Hutchison Award RSA, the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award, and the Villiers David Foundation Award.

Guild was in-studio at Lux from May 28 through June 20. His exhibit, as well as the large-scale, equestrian “label painting” he completed during his residency, will be on view at Lux through August first.

About Lux Art Institute

Lux Art Institute, located in Encinitas, Calif., is redefining the museum experience with the region’s only artist-in-residence program that invites artists to live and work on site, while producing a commissioned work of art – start to finish. This one-of-a-kind institution invites visitors to not only “see art,” but also to “see art happen.”

Throughout each year, Lux invites several significant regional, national and international artists to participate in its residency. Visitors from across the country are able to participate in exclusive liaison-led tours, providing intimate access to the artist-in-residence, the artist’s exhibition and the museum’s permanent collection of indoor and outdoor art. Lux also offers a wide range of innovative programming for all ages.

The recipient of the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s top design award, the Grand Orchid, and slated to be the first “green” (LEED-certified) art museum in California, Lux is located alongside one of Southern California’s few remaining coastal wetlands. The five-acre site also overlooks the San Elijo Lagoon and is surrounded by a wildlife preserve that stretches to the Pacific Ocean.

Through its Phase II Capital Campaign, Lux plans to add 25,000 square feet of galleries and classrooms. Once completed, the new building will also feature a hilltop plaza and a series of gardens climbing between the galleries and the Artist Pavilion.

Lux Art Institute is located at 1550 South El Camino Real in Encinitas, Calif. Hours are Thursday and Friday, 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and cost is $10 for two visits. For more information about donations, memberships, volunteer opportunities and more, visit http://www.luxartinstitute.org or call 760-436-6611.