Awards in the works

Art enthusiasts carefully studied award-winning pieces displayed Saturday at the Brand Library Art Galleries in a special exhibition featuring 50 artists.

The artwork is a retrospective exhibition presented by the Associates of Brand Library, showing 50 pieces by mostly California artists who have received the Purchase Award since 1971. The award is bestowed to one or more works at the library’s annual national, juried exhibitions.

The exhibition is culmination of 37 years of artwork, including ceramics, mixed media and paper, purchased by library associates and selected to remain as part of the library’s permanent collection, senior library supervisor Alyssa Resnick said.

Bonese Collins Turner’s piece “Lost Citadel” was among the award winners selected to be shown in the collection. It is one of 12 paintings from Turner’s “Legends” series.

“As an artist, you keep working in a similar style,” said Turner, who also is a Brand Library associate. “That’s why it becomes a series.”

“It is kind of like a stream of consciousness, like in writing,” she said.

Turner, an art teacher at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, considers herself an artist who paints mysterious and unrealistic imagery.

“I am trying to get the viewer involved in my paintings,” she said.

“Lost Citadel” depicts a dark landscape and Native American themes.

“It doesn’t reflect the natural world,” she said. “It reflects an imaginary reality.”

Resnick said she organized the art pieces, including Turner’s work, according to the story presented in the art. She selected the art and organized the pieces onto the walls of the galleries.

“I like [the collection] all together,” Resnick said.

The library has about 100 Purchase Award-winning works, but she chose only 50 for the show.

Resnick said she matched the pieces by color, styles and frames.

When displaying the works, she said she looked at “how they can live up to the others on the wall.”

Hollywood residents George Rodriguez and Ruston Harker strolled the galleries on Saturday morning, looking at the art.

“It is a range of different mediums between abstract and realism,” Harker said. “It’s timeless.”

Rodriguez believed the galleries’ collection was strong.

He and Harker happened to stumble into the gallery as they were walking around the Brand Library.

“It was actually a surprise to come into the library, then find a gallery in the back,” Rodriguez said.

The exhibition runs through July 25 at the library’s galleries, at 1601 W. Mountain St. in Glendale.

Hours for the gallery are from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Admission and parking are free.

For more information, call (818) 548-2051 or visit www.brandlibrary.org.