Speaker Series

Mark your calendars for upcoming lectures in our 2024 series:

• Wed, April 17 – Eclectic Artist Jack Ogden & Ceramist Peter VandenBerge
• Wed, May 15 – Public Art & the Cherry Blossom Hanami Line Park Project with;
  Donald Gensler, Sacramento Department of Arts & Culture, Award winning artists Jeffrey Reed & Jennifer Madden, and Jessica Sanders, Tree Foundation

Please note that all lectures start at 1:30 pm in the Crocker Art Museum Auditorium 216 O Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. When you arrive at the Crocker, please check in at the reception desk. No need to RSVP ahead of time.  The reception staff will check your name off of the Kingsley member roster. If your name is not listed on the roster, your membership may have lapsed and you’ll be directed to the welcome table by the auditorium to resolve the issue.

If you can’t make the in-person lecture, you’ll be able to view the recorded video of these lectures on our YouTube channel 1-2 weeks afterwards.

The KINGSLEY ART CLUB‘s 2024 roster of lectures keeps getting better. April brings not one, but TWO speakers that you won’t want to miss.
Both Jack Ogden and Peter VandenBerge will speak at our April lecture. You can find out more about each below.

TWO Legendary Speakers:
Jack Ogden
and
Peter VandenBerge
Plus the Release of a New Video

Jack Ogden

Jack Ogden, born in French Camp, California in 1933, studied at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) where he received his BA and MA. He went on to teach at CSUS for over 30 years and has become one of Sacramento’s most popular artists.

Ogden is best known for his eclectic style, ranging from his figurative work, self-portraits, still-lives, and landscapes. His diverse narrative paintings include the artist as the subject and his view of the studio and the model. Another world that exists in Ogden’s paintings is that of the exploring sailor, which he sometimes likens to the exploring artist. His still-lives and landscapes are very meditative, though Ogden is best known for his figurative work, which is provocative whilst elegant.

Ogden’s narrative works depict his personal interests in nostalgia and worldly cultures. His paintings make reference to a varied art history, ranging from Byzantine, Persian, and Japanese motifs to modern influences of Spanish Baroque, French Impressionism, German Expressionism, as well as more recent stylings of Philip Guston and the Bay Area figurative school. Whatever the label, Ogden is very much a Northern California artist.

Jack Ogden was one of the very first students of then unknown artist Wayne Thiebaud, along with fellow student Mel Ramos. Along with the now popular Ramos and Thiebaud, Ogden is part of an important league of artists defining the specific styles of the Bay Area and Northern California art. His paintings have been exhibited nationally and in Japan.

Ogden’s work is in the permanent collections of

• the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento,
• the Oakland Museum of California,
• the Butler Museum,
• the New Britain Museum, as well as
• the Pilot Hill Collection and
• the California State University Student Union in Sacramento.

He has been published twenty-one times in leading art community publications and major newspapers. He has had over seventy solo shows and thirty-eight group shows. Ogden has received numerous honors and awards over his career.

In 1966, Jack Ogden won the Crocker Kingsley Competition with his painting, “Hall of the Gnome King”. In 2000, ceramic artist Ruth Rippon purchased Ogden’s piece “Gnome King Unmasked” for the Crocker Art Museum. More recently, in 2022, the Crocker displayed “Gnome King Unmasked” in their exhibition, The Candy Store.

Peter VandenBerge

Ceramic sculptor Peter VandenBerge stands out as one of Northern California’s most important sculptors, both for his surreal elongated figures, as well as for his technical acumen and color expertise. While his pieces often express humor and absurdity, they also communicate the depth of his life experiences.

His well-known ceramic busts and figures evolved from his early work with vegetable forms – carrots, in particular – and ceramic food containers. Originally he used thrown cylinders as the foundation for his pieces, but his technique evolved to using coils of clay as a base. The coils are still subtly visible in some of his finished artwork. The busts also often feature a variety of surprising objects on their heads.

At UC Davis, VandenBerge worked with Robert Arneson. He helped Arneson develop a non-explosive, non-cracking whiteware clay that would become a staple of the Funk Art movement.

Peter VandenBerge takes his inspiration from his personal experiences and childhood.

VandenBerge was born in The Hague, Netherlands in 1935. During World War II, he and his family were moved into a prison camp and it was there that he first started making art to pass the time. In 1954, he attended CSUS, receiving his BA, and then, UC Davis where he received his MA. He taught at CSUS for over 30 years, as well as teaching classes at other colleges and universities.

In the Folsom/Sacramento region, VandenBerge was a favorite at the Candy Store Gallery where he showed eight times. VandenBerge, like Ogden, was also displayed at the Crocker Art Museum in their 2022 exhibition, The Candy Store.

His artwork has also been exhibited at:

• the Crocker Art Museum,
• the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
• the Smithsonian Institute,
• the Oakland Art Museum, and
• the Whitney Museum of American Art, to name but a few.

His work has been in a traveling exhibition, as well as in the Louvre, Paris and in Shigioki Museum in Japan.

Are you a Kingsley Art Club member? You enjoy free admission.
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