Buenaventura Art Association announces a “Call for Entries” for their 23rd Annual Open Competition at the Buenaventura Gallery. The exhibit will run from Jan 20 – Jan. 31 with the bring-in for the artists on Sunday, Jan. 18 and Monday, Jan. 19 from 11 am – 2 pm. The awards ceremony (with over $1,000 in prizes awarded) will be on Saturday, Jan. 24 from 4 – 7 pm. Dennis Reed, Dean of Fine, Performing and Media Arts and Los Angeles Valley College will the juror.

Dennis Reed taught drawing and painting for twenty years, mainly at Los Angeles Valley College. He is a writer and curator who has organized one-person exhibitions of artists Doug Harvey, Emerson Woelffer, Walter Askin and Richard Pettibone, to name a few. He is perhaps best known for his work in photography, having organized exhibitions for such institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery (Washington, DC), the Oakland Museum, and The Huntington.

He has written numerous essays and two books, Japanese Photography in America, 1920-1940, for the Japanese American Cultural Center, and (co-authored) Pictorialism in California: Photographs, 1900-1940, for the Getty Museum. His most recent essay is The Wind Came from the East, was published in 2008 by Stanford University in the book, Asian American Art, 1850-1970.

He is a collector of art and photography, and his collections has been shown at such museum as the National Gallery of Australia, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the DeYoung Memorial Museum, the Houston Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, to name a few. In 2006 the Santa Barbara Museum of Art presented two exhibitions highlighting his collection of photographs. The January 2008 issue of Art on Paper magazine included an article profiling Mr. Reed. In January he will assume the role of Chair of the Photographic Arts Council at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The Buenaventura Gallery is located at 700 E Santa Clara St. in downtown Ventura. Hours are Tues – Friday from noon – 5 pm and Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm. For more information and entry form, visit their website at www.BuenaventuraGallery.org. Buenaventura Art Association celebrates 55 years of bringing art to Ventura County!