January 26, 2023 - September 6, 2023

Presented by the City of Bakersfield, with additional support from California Resources Corporation.  

Rotem Reshef’s practice as a painter and installation artist includes using paint to imprint overlooked objects and vegetation from her surroundings onto canvases, often incorporating themes of climate change and consumer culture. During a visit to Bakersfield in 2021 she was immediately drawn to the Panorama Vista, a park devoted to regenerate native plant life. Opposite side of that oasis was miles and miles of land dotted with oil pumps. The contrast of these two landscapes was striking to her. Vista summarizes an intensive time Reshef spent over the summer of 2022 working in a temporary studio in Bakersfield. Applying diluted acrylic paint onto collected samples of vegetation from the Preserve, her scrolls contemplate the duality and symbiotic relationship between Bakersfield’s economy and its natural environment.  

Imprinted onto the scrolls are samples of native plants, shrubs, and trees, like cottonwood, sycamore, arroyo willow, mesquite, elderberry, Oregon aspen, black willow, mugwort, salt bush, mule fat, and globetree. Non-native flora include arundo donax, mistletoe, mustard, and tree of heaven.  

Videos

EVENTS