PENELOPE UMBRICO, 176 CAT PORTRAITS / EBAY (OF 20,335 AVAILABLE USED CERAMIC CATS), 2014–2026, WALL VINYL, 254CM X 368.5CM; FOR THE EXHIBITION ANIMAL MODEL CURATED BY NATHALIE HERSCHDORFER AT RENCONTRES D’ARLES, LUMA FOUNDATION, ARLES, FRANCE, 2026, AND AT PHOTO ELYSÉE, LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND, 2026–2027
Mark Moore Fine Art is proud to announce Penelope Umbrico is featured in Animal Model — 200 Years of Photography at Photo Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, on view December 4, 2026 through April 4, 2027. Curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer and co-produced with Rencontres d’Arles, the exhibition brings together works from over 200 international artists tracing two centuries of human-animal relationships, from early 19th-century scientific documentation to contemporary internet bestiaries and urgent environmental commentary.
Umbrico’s installation, 176 Cat Portraits / eBay (of 20,335 Available Used Ceramic Cats), 2014–2026, is drawn from images of ceramic cats found on eBay — part of her ongoing investigation of everyday consumer and vernacular images, searching, in her words, for decisive moments that in these worlds are cultural absurdities.
AMY ELKINS Four Years out of a Death Row Sentence (Ocean), 2009-2016 Archival Pigment Print Collection of the Laguna Art MuseumEdition of FIFTEEN in three sizes: 20 x 24 / 20 x 30 in. – Edition of 5 – $2,500 30 x 40 / 30 x 45 in. – Edition of 5 – $4,000 40 x 50 / 40×60 in. – Edition of 5 – $5,500
A pen pal 26 years into his sentence in a landlocked prison, described an early childhood memory that haunted him, of walking further and further into the ocean during low tide until the sudden depth and darkness before him overcame him with fear.
Mark Moore Fine Art is proud to announce that LAGUNA ART MUSEUM has acquired an important work by artist AMY ELKINS for its permanent collection.
Amy Elkins (American, b. 1979) is a visual artist and educator based in Berkeley and Sacramento, CA. She received her BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and her MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University. She works primarily in photography and installation and has spent the past fifteen years researching, creating and exhibiting work that explores the complexities of gender, race and identity, including how they are impacted by systems of power: prisons, the military, colonization, and hierarchies built upon social constructs. Most recently Elkins’ work pivots to include explorations of self as well as her family’s deeply rooted and complex history in Southern California as an 8th generation born on Tongva/Gabrielino land in the greater Los Angeles area with the ancestral blood of both colonized and colonizer. Her approach is series-based, steeped in research and oscillates between formal, conceptual and documentary.
Elkins has been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally, including at The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA; South Bend Museum of Art in South Bend IN; MSU Broad Museum in Lansing, MI; Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna; the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, AZ; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; North Carolina Museum of Art and more. Her photographs have been published in American Photo, Conveyor, Dear Dave, EyeMazing, Financial Times, Harpers, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, NY Arts, New York Times, New Yorker, PDN, Real Simple, Stella and Vice among many others. She was recently awarded a Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship and Kala Media Arts Fellowship. Past awards include the Aperture Portfolio Prize, Peter S. Reed Foundation grant, Cadogan Award and more.
Founded in 1918, the Laguna Art Museum is located at 307 Cliff Drive in Laguna Beach, CA. It is the oldest cultural institution in Orange County. Dedicated exclusively to California art, the museum preserves the state’s history through a permanent collection of over 3,500 works spanning from 1860 to the present. The museum began as the Laguna Beach Art Association, formed by a small group of local artists (including Edgar Payne, who served as its first president in 1920). In 1929, the association opened a custom-built gallery designed by noted Los Angeles architect Myron Hunt. This original space is now preserved as the museum’s Steele Gallery. It was renamed the Laguna Beach Museum of Art in 1972 and took on its current name in 1986 following an expansion.
DIRK STASCHKE, COVER OF NEUE KERAMIK (NEW CERAMICS), ISSUE 6/2026, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2026
Mark Moore Fine Art is delighted to announce that Dirk Staschke is featured on the cover of Neue Keramik (New Ceramics), the international ceramics magazine headquartered in Germany. The November/December 2026 issue includes a profile of Dirk, “The Fabric Truth,” on page 26.
The cover features one of Dirk’s trompe-lœil ceramic still lifes. It has been a wonderful year for Dirk, and we are thrilled to see his work recognized on the cover of one of the field’s leading international publications.
Mark Moore Fine Art proudly presents ULTRA 26, an exclusive ARTSY online group exhibition featuring new works from 23 talented gallery artists. Continuing a tradition that began with the “Ultrasonic International” Exhibition in 2006, this show highlights a diverse range of mediums and styles, showcasing the vibrant creativity of our artists.
Experience fresh, innovative pieces from: Josh Azzarella, Mark Bennett, Iván Carmona, Ken Craft, Dennis Ekstedt, Amy Elkins, Vernon Fisher, Jennifer Gunlock, Todd Hebert, David Klamen, Dimitri Kozyrev, Beth Lipman, Jeffry Mitchell, Okay Mountain, Max Presneill, Joseph Rossano, Kim Rugg, Christopher Russell, Jason Salavon, Allison Schulnik, Heidi Schwegler, Dirk Stashke, and Yoram Wolberger.
Dive into the cutting edge of contemporary art with ULTRA 26—an unmissable celebration of creativity and talent.
Okay Mountain Meditations #3, 2015 Digital C Print 32 x 32 inches each Collection of The Crocker Art Museum
Mark Moore Fine Art is proud to announce that the CROCKER ART MUSEUM has acquired a set of photo-based works by artist collective OKAY MOUNTAIN for its permanent collection.
Okay Mountain is a nine member artist collective based in Austin, Texas. Formed in 2006 as an artist-run alternative gallery space, the group has exhibited their drawing, video, sound, and performance projects throughout the United States and in Mexico City, and has been widely recognized for its “inventive construction, loving attention to detail and keen-eyed connoisseurship.” Okay Mountain repackages, reconstitutes, and rekindles our consumerist desires with a sardonic edge. Their installations and multi-media assemblage works mimic the stock vernacular of our communal materialism, yet tweak them just enough to reveal our superficial insecurities and convictions.
In the MEDITATIONS Series, the group plays on the iconography of the Zen Garden, as seen through the eyes of western popular culture. Creating a purposely-mediated experience of “Zen,” the installation poses as a pre-packaged version of what could have been a meaningful experience, if the consumer had bothered to leave the house. Like the screensaver images of peaceful monuments floating across a laptop, the imagery plays on a desire for escape, but also immediacy—one desire ruling out the other. The result is a razor sharp wit interpretation of a very American mixture of banality and good intentions — an eagerness for a respite from the mundane, without the will to see it through. While most artists are alumni of the University of Texas at Austin (TX), others are graduates of University of California Los Angeles (CA), Rhode Island School of Design (RI), and the University of Kansas (KS). Institutional exhibitions have included those at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston (TX), Austin Museum of Art (TX), McNay Art Museum (TX), Arthouse (TX), University of Tennessee, Chattanooga (TN), and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (MA). Their work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Art Houston (TX), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (CT), McNay Museum of Art (TX), Orange County Museum of Art (CA), Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (CA), Santa Barabara Museum of Art (CA), Vanderbilt University (TN); Museum of Fine Art Houston, Houston, TX.
The Crocker Art Museum features the world’s foremost display of California art and is renowned for its holdings of European master drawings and international ceramics. The Crocker also holds permanent collections of Asian, African, and Oceanic art, ceramics, and photography. The Museum offers a diverse spectrum of exhibitions, events, and programs to augment its collections, including films, concerts, studio classes, lectures, children’s activities, and more. The Museum has also dedicated the historic building’s entire first floor as an education center, which includes four classrooms, space for student and community exhibitions, the Gerald Hansen Library, and Tot Land. Discover it all at crockerart.org.
HEIDI SCHWEGLER — Sustainable Studio rendering by Terrain — proposed climate-responsive adobe arts facility for Yucca Valley Materials Lab, Yucca Valley, CA
Mark Moore Fine Art is thrilled to share that Yucca Valley Materials Lab (YVML) and Founding Director Heidi Schwegler have been awarded a $100,000 Implementation Grant through the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, a program of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation in partnership with Environment & Culture Partners.
The award marks an important milestone in the evolution of YVML’s Sustainable Studio project, moving the vision from planning into reality. Last year, the initiative supported the technical planning phase — funding energy modeling, material testing, engineering studies, and permitting research — demonstrating that a low-carbon adobe arts facility is both feasible and impactful in the Mojave Desert.
The Sustainable Studio will be a fully ADA-accessible, all-electric adobe arts facility and outdoor classroom on YVML’s new 2.5-acre campus. Designed in collaboration with Terrain (formerly Loescher Meachem Architects), the building will utilize locally sourced earthen materials, dramatically reduce energy consumption, and provide long-term resilience in a region facing increasing heat and wildfire risk. The project is expected to become the first permitted community-scale adobe building in the Morongo Basin, establishing a new precedent for climate-responsive construction in the high desert.
Energy modeling indicates the building will reduce annual energy use by approximately 67% — avoiding more than 30,000 kWh annually — and cut operational carbon emissions by roughly 75% compared to a conventional code-minimum structure.
Beyond the building, the project creates permanent, accessible creative infrastructure in a rural region where artists often lack affordable space, specialized equipment, and educational opportunities — proving that disability access, climate responsibility, and cultural investment can advance together.
Discover Energy and Motion II: Abstraction 2026, an exclusive online group exhibition presented by Mark Moore Fine Art on ARTSY. Featuring 19 visionary artists, this show explores abstraction as “energy and motion made visible,” capturing vibrant movement through diverse materials and techniques.
Artists include Rebekah Andrade, Michael Batty, Tim Bavington, Larry Bell, Kara Maria, Helen Pashgian, Penelope Umbrico, and many more.
For more information and to explore the exhibition, visit Mark Moore Fine Art’s ARTSY exhibition page at: https://bit.ly/46cRbKM
Experience the dynamic interplay of form, color, and energy—on view now through November 29, 2026.
CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL, EXPLOSION, 2016, PHOSPHORESCENT INK ON ETCHED PHOTOGRAPH, 36 X 24 INCHES, COLLECTION OF THE LAGUNA ART MUSEUM
Mark Moore Fine Art is proud to announce that the Laguna Art Museum has acquired a second major mixed-media work by artist Christopher Russell for its permanent collection.
Christopher Russell is best known for scratching drawings into his photographs. Underlying that process is an expansive practice that intersects drawing, narrative fiction, photography and the raw materiality of the photographic substrate.
MARK BENNETT, THE HOME OF THE ADDAMS FAMILY (THE ADDAMS FAMILY), 1995, LITHOGRAPH ON COVENTRY PAPER, 24 × 36 IN (61 × 91.4 CM), COLLECTION OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON
Mark Moore Fine Art is proud to announce that the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has acquired a major work by artist Mark Bennett for its permanent collection.
Mark Bennett’s whimsical works engage with pop culture and celebrity to an extreme degree. His blueprint lithographs of Baby Boom era sitcoms and popular television series depict the ultimate pairing of flight of fancy and stoical logic — purely imaginary floor plans grounded by the dry format of an architect’s design.
MARK BENNETT Home of Blanche Devereaux (The Golden Girls), 2021 Archival pigment print on Hot Press Cotton Rag 32 × 48 in (81.3 × 121.9 cm) Edition of 10 + 2AP Collection of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)
Mark Moore Fine Art is proud to announce that the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) has acquired a major work by artist MARK BENNETT for its permanent collection.
Mark Bennett‘s (b. 1956, Tennessee) whimsical works engage with pop culture and celebrity to an extreme degree. His blueprint lithographs of Baby Boom era sitcoms and popular television series depict the ultimate pairing of flight of fancy and stoical logic; the purely imaginary floor plans grounded by the dry format of an architect’s design. His works are both pleasingly nostalgic and vaguely disconcerting in their premonition of a society obsessed by television and celebrity culture. Earning reverence from both critics and collectors alike, Bennett has been coined a master of nostalgia and social evaluation, acting as “the most earnest of his generation of West Coast artists drawing on popular culture” (Grady T. Turner, Art in America).
Since his induction into the gallery in 1995, Bennett has been included in over three dozen significant museum and group exhibitions, including those at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (D.C.), Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (CT), Walker Art Center (MN) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA). Mark Bennett is in the Public Collections of several prestigious institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, CA. His works are also part of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Portland Art Museum in Portland, OR. Additionally, he is represented in The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN, and the New York Public Library in New York, NY. Other notable collections include the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, CA, the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis, IN, and the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. His works can also be found at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, and the List Visual Arts Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. He is included in the collections of Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA, and the West Collection in Oaks, PA, as well as the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA and the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, CA. Further representations can be found at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University. His artwork is also housed in the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, CA, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles, CA, Seattle Art Museum, Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, and the McNay Museum in San Antonio, TX.
The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at UTC is Tennessee’s first Institute of Contemporary Art. Housed in the Fine Arts Center at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, it serves as a creative epicenter and public gallery, bringing regional, national, and international contemporary art to the campus and the broader Chattanooga community. Founded in 2021, the ICA evolved from the university’s longstanding Cress Gallery of Art. While the former gallery primarily focused on local talent, student, and faculty shows, the ICA was launched to expand the space’s purpose, bringing in bold, adventurous contemporary exhibitions that foster creativity and artistic inquiry.
