ASIA MEETS AMERICA--A BLEND OF TRADITIONS

“East/West: Contemporary Asian-American Art in Los Angeles,” at Pomona College’s Montgomery Art Gallery, today through March 30, coincides with the college’s public series called “Asia and the American Century.”

Based on the premise that Asian-American artists’ works contain a blend of Oriental and Western traditions both historical and modern, the exhibition features 40 works by 11 Los Angeles artists: Kyoko Asano, George Di Marco, Mineko Grimmer, Han Xin, Sunglee Lee, Kazuko Matthews, Patrick Nagatani/Andree Tracey, Ann Takayoshi Page, Liga Pang, Kamol Tassananchalee and Masami Teraoka.

They explore disparate subjects--society, nature and the self--in art that reflects a combined heritage and represents one facet of the cultural diversity found in contemporary Los Angeles art.

The artists’ backgrounds also differ widely. Grimmer and Matthews were born and reared in Japan; Page was born in the United States; Xin lived in the People’s Republic of China until 1981; Lee grew up in rural Korea and Tassananchalee in Thailand. Pang, born of Chinese parents in Japan, came to Los Angeles in the ‘50s to study at Otis Art Institute.

Curator Mary MacNaughton will discuss the exhibition at 2 p.m. today in the Thatcher Music Building on campus in Claremont. A reception will follow, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the gallery.

Recent appointments: Writer and critic Beverly O’Neill is the new provost at CalArts. She succeeds Ed Emshwiller, who will continue to serve as dean of the School of Film and Video. Elizabeth Armstrong, who served as vice-provost, will become Dean of Academic Services.

O’Neill, who received degrees in art history from UCLA, later taught at UCLA, Occidental College and UC Irvine before joining the faculty at Otis/Parsons in 1975. For the past three years she served as chair of the General Studies Program at Otis/Parsons.

Mike McGhee has joined the senior professional staff of the Laguna Beach Museum of Art as programs coordinator, a newly established full-time position whose function is to coordinate and administer the museum’s education and exhibition programs. In addition, McGhee will act as curator for at least one major exhibition a year, implement a revised adult education program and supervise the ongoing outreach program for children.

McGhee has produced two art-related videotapes that aired on cable stations and were used for education purposes at Fullerton College and the Claremont Graduate School.

He subsequently co-founded and co-owned the Edge Gallery in Fullerton and became active in the Orange County Arts Alliance. In 1984 he became chairman of OCAA’s Visual Arts Committee and, a year later, chair of its interdisciplinary committee. In January, 1985, McGhee was appointed to the advisory board of the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art.

Exhibitions briefly noted: At Loyola Marymount’s Laband Art Gallery “Spirit of the City/American Urban Painting, Prints and Drawings: 1900-1952,” features works by 46 American artists including John Sloan, George Bellows, Jack Levine, William Glackens, Raphael Soyer and Reginald Marsh. Gallery director Ellen Ekedal will give a guided tour of the exhibition Tuesday at noon. LMU associate art professor and co-curator Susan Barnes Robinson will present a slide lecture on “The Art Spirit: The Artist in New York,” March 25 at 7:30 p.m.

“Hockney at Art Center,” an exhibition of recent photo/collages, lithographs and Cibachrome prints is on view at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena through March 22.

“Sculpture Part II,” at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Tuesday through APril 4, consists of works by Ali Acerol, Alvaro Asturias, Chu-Hsien Chang, Darcy Huebler, Peter Levinson and Dale Newkirk.

At the Craft and Folk Art Museum, through April 27, is “Perspectives on Glass: Present Tense,” examining current trends in painted glass by 13 artists.

A two-person show of paintings by Les Biller and Liga Pang, organized by guest curator Sylvia White, is at the USC Atelier in Santa Monica Place, through March 29.

“West Side Properties” by sculptor Gifford Myers, at Santa Monica College Art Gallery through March 15, are commentaries on the aesthetics of our environment “in layered references to modern art history, architecture and contemporary sociology,” according to critic Melinda Wortz.

“Impressionism, 1874-1886” will be at the M. H. De Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, April 19 to July 6. Ticket information: (415) 221-9500.

“Vessels of Celebration,” a new oral history interview with Paul Soldner of Claremont, is now available in UCLA’s Department of Special Collections, University Research Library.

Born in 1921 in Illinois, Soldner discovered ceramics at the University of Colorado when he took an elective course as part of his master’s program in art education. At 33, he resigned his position as supervisor of art education in the Wayne County, Ohio, public school system and moved to California to study ceramics with Peter Voulkos at the Otis Art Institute.

Since then, Soldner has taught at Scripps College and as a visiting professor at various universities.

UCLA’s oral history program is a research unit in the UCLA Library’s department of special collections. The program was established in 1959, to further the library’s efforts at documenting regional history and has since become a national leader in the field. More than 300 interviews have been collected and preserved. Information: 825-4879.