Laguna Art Museum entering final day of auctioning California Cool

A thousand dollars! Bid now. Does the Laguna Art Museum hear a $2,000 bid? What about $3,000?

Pieces by more than 100 artists from across California are up for bid as the 38th annual California Cool Art Auction reaches its last day Saturday. Online bidding has been going on at artsy.net since mid-January and continues through 7:50 p.m. Saturday. A live auction will open at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Some of the works have been shown previously, according to Cody Lee, a spokesman for the museum. Several contributing artists have been featured at the museum, such as photographer Laurie Brown and sculptor Gwynn Murrill, both of whom had solo exhibitions there in 2019.

Other works up for grabs have been made specifically for the auction, including Pasadena-based artist Kenton Nelson’s “A Standard of Elegance.”

“This is the 38th art auction the museum has held and, without doubt, the best,” said Malcolm Warner, executive director of the Laguna Art Museum. “There’s something for every artistic taste and every pocketbook.”

All proceeds from the event will support the museum, which says California Cool is the longest-running benefit art auction in Southern California.

The goal for the auction this year is to raise $450,000. It raised more than $435,000 in 2019 and $466,000 in 2018.

Advance tickets for the live event were sold out by Wednesday.

The Laguna Art Museum is at 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach.

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