Events

Conejo Valley Art Museum – New Exhibit Gabriel Islas and Renee Shapiro

From February 8, 2021 – May 30, 2021, the Conejo Valley Art Museum will highlight work from featured artists Gabriel Islas and Renee Shapiro.

More about the artists:

Gabriel Islas
Born in 1994 in Southern California, Gabriel Islas grew up in the coastal city of Oxnard. He obtained his BFA with an emphasis in painting from Academy of Art University, San Francisco in 2019. He has since moved back to his roots in Ventura County where he teaches oil painting courses at the Santa Paula Art Museum, VITA Art Center and Oxnard Performing Arts Center, both on-site and online. Gabriel is a member of the California Art Club and has exhibited at Academy of Art University’s Atelier Gallery for the ‘highlights’ from their annual spring show, at the Santa Paula Art Museum’s ‘12th Annual Art About Agriculture’ and the CAC virtual exhibit ‘Welcome to California’. His current work exhibits atmospheric paintings of local California landscapes and circular panels of birds. From Swans to Geese, birds nestled in the water’s reflections inspire Gabriel’s vision of peace from the natural world while his landscapes express the drama of southern California atmosphere.

Renee Shapiro
Passionate about oil painting, Renee Shapiro, is a (UCLA) trained art historian in ancient and non-western art, and an aesthetic anthropologist (M.A.UCLA).   She began (at the age of 20) creating Egyptian- themed paintings and followed her passion to study Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian art and architecture while an art history major at UCLA.    Her interest in symbolism; ethnography; and ethnographic photography fueled her later exploration into Mayan and Orientalist North African art. During the years of her creative journey, Renee has taught Architectural History, AP Art History and Advanced Painting at the Architecture, Digital Arts and Filmmaking Magnet School in Granada Hills. Renee’s recent work is focused on Mayan iconography, especially portraits of Mayan female rulers.     Her Orientalist paintings show a 19th century Orientalist influence and reflect an ethnographically sensitive approach to her subject matter (exotic North African women in tribal dress).   She has travelled throughout Mexico and West Africa and plans next to study Moroccan and Moorish architecture as a background for her upcoming work.

Conejo Valley Art Museum
275 N. Moorpark Rd. Ste. 193C
Thousand Oaks,  CA 91360