The TAG Gallery presents the 13th iteration of the California Open Exhibition from Aug. 8-24.

Watercolor artist Marta Jaremko will be one of the artists showing in the California Open. (photo courtesy of the TAG Gallery)

The California Open is a juried exhibition celebrating contemporary art created by emerging artists. The competition is hosted by TAG Gallery, an artist-owned collective that features emerging and mid-career artists from Southern California.

The juror for the 2018 California Open is artist and curator Kim Abeles, an artist whose community-based projects explore biography, geography and environment. She has created projects with the California Science Center, air pollution control agencies, health clinics and mental health departments, and natural history museums in California, Colorado and Florida. Abeles received the 2013 Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and has received fellowships from the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts, California Community Foundation and Pollack-Krasner Foundation.

“This exhibition was selected from the 1,547 works submitted to the TAG juried show. It represents many talented and inventive artists nationwide. My curatorial choices reflect an eclectic interest in art, and the exhibit expresses a range of impressions including homages to nature and neighborhoods, gentle or forceful portraits, conceptually based and process-driven work, and urgent political discussions,” Abeles said. “The work is spirited, sometimes humorous or enigmatic, and in various ways, creates images representing human life in this existential moment. The exhibit includes photography, video, sculpture, painting, drawing and printmaking.”

The opening reception and awards ceremony for the exhibition will be on Aug. 11 from 5-8 p.m.

TAG Gallery is located at 5458 Wilshire Blvd. For information, visit taggallery.net.