Galleries

May 14, 2025 – August 20, 2025

City of Santa Clarita City Hall, 23920 Valencia Blvd #120, Valencia, CA 91355

The City of Santa Clarita is proud to present its newest exhibition, “Beyond the Desk,” on view from May 14 through August 20, 2025, at the First Floor Gallery located in City Hall. This special juried exhibition is the City’s first-ever show exclusively featuring artwork by City of Santa Clarita staff and their families. “Beyond the Desk” celebrates the creativity, passion, and artistic expression found within our workforce. The exhibit provides a platform for City employees and their families to share their unique artistic voices with the broader community. Artists have submitted work across a variety of styles and mediums, including painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media. The result is a vibrant and diverse showcase that reflects the talent and imagination that exists beyond the professional roles we see every day.

A special reception will be held in the First Floor Gallery at City Hall on Thursday, June 5, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., where you can meet the artists and enjoy refreshments.

The exhibiting artists include Billie Abreu, Jared Anderson, Michele Arima, Joel Bareng, Leah Becker, Ellen Bernal, Leyan Cooksey, Parrish Cooksey, Jennifer De Avila, Pablo Cevallos, Ryan Drake, Dan Duncan, Cailin Garcia, Elizabeth Gutierrez, Damon Letz, Sean Lopez, Rosemary McCollister, Michelle Miracle, Katherine Nestved, Andy Olson, Christine Phachanh, Kevin Reynolds, Joe Redmond, Georgia Rios, Diana Rodriguez, Andrew Saiz, Christine Saunders, Tess Sigmen, Lone Stamper, Alan Stump, Darlene Stump, Elle Thompson, Alina Vinales, and Karolina Wasowicz.

April 30, 2025 – July 21, 2025

The MAIN, 24266 Main St, Santa Clarita, CA 91321

The City of Santa Clarita announces a new exhibition, Angel Art by artist Krishna Thangavelu, on view from April 30, 2025 – July 21, 2025, at The MAIN. This powerful collection features paintings that survived the Palisades Fire—bright, expressive works that now stand as testaments to resilience, renewal, and the enduring power of art.

The exhibition showcases pieces from Thangavelu’s Floral and Oceanscapes series, including vivid portrayals of blooming landscapes, moonlit waters, and radiant sunsets. Created on canvas and wood panels, these paintings invite viewers to reflect on the beauty of the natural world and the strength found in transformation.

The reception will be held on May 15, 2025, offering a chance to meet the artist and explore the inspiring stories behind the work. The event is free and open to the public.

April 16, 2025 – May 21, 2025

Old Town Newhall Library, 24500 Main St, Santa Clarita, CA 91321

The City of Santa Clarita announces a new exhibition, “9th Annual Youth Arts Showcase Exhibition” which will be on view from April 16, 2025 – May 21, 2025, located at the Old Town Newhall Library. This exhibit features the inspiring work of young artists from the 9th Annual Youth Arts Showcase Painters, Pictures and Prose Contest. Public, private and homeschooled students, grades K-12, within the City of Santa Clarita were invited to submit artwork for this year’s theme “Friendship: The Heartbeat of Global Peace”. This contest highlights the creativity of students in both visual and literary arts.

April 16, 2025 – July 7, 2025

Newhall Community Center, 22421 Market St, Newhall CA 91321 

The City of Santa Clarita announces a new exhibition, “Childhood Memories” which will be on view from April 16, 2025 – July 7, 2025, located at the Newhall Community Center. This exhibition explores the themes of nostalgia, innocence and imagination, inviting artists to reflect on moments that shaped their youth. From cherished personal experiences and beloved toys to childhood games and familiar places, this exhibit celebrates the magic of growing up. Artists captured the wonder, joy and passage of time through a variety of styles including whimsical illustrations, realistic depictions and abstract interpretations of memory.

The exhibiting artists include Josh Anderson, Zharmaine Boatman, Garry Carlson, Sydney Coleman, Liane Enkelis, Meghann Flaherty, James Frost, Meryl Goudey, Carrie Gordon, Gabrielle Henderson, Yvette Nicole Kolodji, Bo Logan, Teddy Marsh, Dar Sang Agustin, Mario Solozano, Melissa Termini, Jayme Thomas, and Elizabeth Woiwode.

March 24, 2025 – June 30, 2025

Canyon Country Community Center, 18410 Sierra Hwy, Santa Clarita, CA 91351

The City of Santa Clarita announces a new exhibition “Fortitude” by Sena Clara Creston which will be on view from March 24, 2025 – to June 30, 2025 located at the Canyon Country Community Center. Fortitude is a series of impromptu driftwood huts taken on mostly the same California beach. The enterable huts project security and fantasy, offset by precarious construction of dilapidated materials in an eroding landscape to create a sense of unease for environmental uncertainty. Fortitude displays the (un)natural and (de)constructive lives of large trees in this liminal landscape between where we were, where we are, and where we wish to be; inviting viewers to experience, empathize, and engage with their role in the imminent. (In)Secure structures in a deteriorating environment communicate the need to protect what we need for protection.

March 20, 2025 – April 16, 2025

Newhall Community Center, 22421 Market St, Newhall, CA 91321

The City of Santa Clarita announces a new exhibition, “9^th Annual Youth Arts Showcase Winners”, on view from March 20, 2025 – April 16, 2025 located at the Newhall Community Center. This exhibit features the inspiring work of young artists from the Painters Pictures and Prose Contest. This contest, part of the Annual Youth Arts Showcase, highlights the creativity of students in both visual and literary arts. Public, private and homeschooled students, grades K-12, within the City of Santa Clarita submitted original artwork and written pieces. Through paintings, drawings and poetry, these young artists share their unique perspective on the contest theme “Friendship: The Heartbeat of Global Peace”.

View the full collection of contest entries, including the winning pieces at the Old Town Newhall Library on view from April 16, 2025 – May 21, 2025.

March 4, 2025 – May 27, 2025

Canyon Country Jo Anne Darcy Library, 18601 Soledad Canyon Rd, Santa Clarita, CA 91351

The City of Santa Clarita announces a new exhibition, “Before and Beyond Us,” on view from March 4, 2025 – May 27, 2025 at Canyon Country Library. This series of paintings explores fantastic landscapes as reflections of emotional experience, blending dreams, day visions, and real environments. Emerging from the intersection of sensuality, intellect, and psychology, the work examines how emotional memories shape the body and the way we interpret the world around us. Balancing between illustration and abstraction, these paintings embrace material freedom and pictorial structure, often painted from memory to preserve their raw, unfiltered essence. Through imagined landscapes depicting a time before or after human existence, the artist constructs a visual language of the psyche, inviting viewers to navigate their own inner landscapes.

February 18, 2025 – April 16, 2025

Old Town Newhall Library, 24500 Main St, Santa Clarita, CA 91321

The City of Santa Clarita announces a new exhibition “Castaic Union School District Student Exhibition” which will be on view February 18, 2025 through April 16, 2025 located at the Old Town Newhall Library. This exhibition features playful artworks related to the 7 Elements of Art — line, shape, space, value, form, texture and color. The 96 different artworks were created by students from all elementary schools in the Castaic Union School District: Castaic Elementary School, Live Oak Elementary School, and Northlake Hills Elementary School. After developing their art skills throughout the year, students have displayed their mastery of these skills utilizing a wide range of mediums. Artists range in age from 5-12 years old and represent grade levels Kindergarten through 6^th Grade.

February 24, 2025 – May 28, 2025

Valencia Public Library, 23743 Valencia Blvd, Valencia, CA 91355

The City of Santa Clarita announces a new exhibition, “Serenity” which will be on view February 24, 2025 – May 19, 2025, located at the Valencia Library. This exhibit explores meditative landscapes that evoke introspection, stillness, and transformation. Created in Ukraine, this series captures the delicate balance between loss and renewal, where fog-laden highways and frost-covered terrains mirror the depths of memory and emotion, inviting viewers to find clarity and strength within moments of change.

Artwork by Yuliia Savenko

Q&A with Yuliia Savenko 

What inspired this particular exhibit?
“This exhibition emerged from a place of silence and a personal movement toward inner stillness. There was a period in my life when external challenges demanded strength, while internally I felt delicate, almost weightless — as though suspended in still air. That’s when I felt compelled to create a visual space where vulnerability isn’t hidden but honored as a source of power. Serenity is a meditative series that explores feminine interiority, the quiet radiance we carry within, and moments where presence is more vital than action.”

How do you hope viewers connect with your artwork?
“I hope viewers slow down and allow the work to resonate within them. Each photograph is not only a visual object, but an energetic space. I pour a part of myself into every image, and the dialogue with the viewer is deeply important to me. Rather than giving answers, I want to offer a space where people can simply be — honest, tender, real, and present. Even without knowing the full context, they might feel the tone — like music that speaks directly to the soul, bypassing language.”

Do you have any tips for artists starting out? 
“The most important thing is to protect your inner voice. In the beginning, it’s easy to get swept up in expectations — from the market, the audience, or even your own beliefs about what art “should” be. But authentic art is not born from pleasing others. It emerges from truth. Allow yourself to be sensitive. Don’t fear silence or slowness. Create not to produce, but when you truly have something to express. Art is not a sprint — it’s a slow, profound return to yourself.”

Do you have a favorite piece in this exhibit? If so, why is it your favorite?
“Yes — a work called Crystal. It contains no excess — only purity of form, transparency, and light. For me, Crystal is a faceless self-portrait. It captures a moment of suspended stillness, like a breath held just after a gust of wind. At the time of creating it, I felt weightless — balanced between softened pain and a soft inner light. It continues to reflect that fragile yet luminous part of me.”

What is your favorite part of the creative process?
“What I cherish most in the creative process is the way energy moves— when I feel goosebumps and know with certainty: this is it. It feels like touching something greater than myself. But the most magical part is when the image begins to breathe on its own. After it’s captured, it slowly becomes independent — yet still speaks my language. That moment feels sacred — a quiet transformation when the photograph comes alive.”

You describe your landscapes as meditative – how do you personally find serenity through photography, and has that changed over time?
“Photography, for me, is a way of listening, of noticing, engaging, and shaping my own reality. Through the lens, I don’t document the world — I look into its states and create my own.
In the past, I sought harmony through light, composition, minimalism — external structure. Now I know that true balance comes from within. The camera simply helps transmit that inner frequency. Today, I photograph when I feel calm inside — even if everything around me is in motion. It has become a form of mindfulness, a quiet return to presence.”

What role does memory or place play in your photography process?
“Memory and place are central to my artistic language. Every space I photograph carries emotional resonance — even if it’s not visible on the surface.
I was born in Ukraine, and that landscape — its textures, colors, and silences — is woven into me. It is part of my cultural DNA. It shaped how I see, how I feel. Los Angeles, where I live now, became a new skin — layered over those memories. In my work, I try to weave these two worlds together. For me, place is never just physical — it’s emotional geography. Memory animates space; and space, in turn, reflects back fragments of the self.”

Your sensitivity to subtle details is powerful. Did your childhood influence that aesthetic?
“Yes, very much so. I grew up surrounded by nature — in a quiet town in Ukraine, embraced by forests and open skies. My earliest memories are filled with light filtering through trees, the rhythm of the seasons, and the delicate textures of leaves, bark, and moss. I spent hours in solitude, dreaming, drawing, and creating a little world of my own in the attic of our house, which I turned into my first studio. My grandmother was a painter, and my father a photographer, so art was always present — not as something formal, but as a way of seeing. I was taught to observe gently, to feel before naming, and to respect beauty in its quiet forms. That environment shaped my visual sensitivity — not through noise or instruction, but through atmosphere, story, and attention. It taught me to listen to what isn’t said and to find emotion in stillness.”

Do you still stay connected to the Ukrainian art world?
“Yes. Ukrainian contemporary art has incredible depth — it’s resilient, symbolic, and emotionally rich. Even under pressure, artists from Ukraine find ways to express beauty, grief, and hope through powerful metaphor. I stay connected through collaborations, conversations, and cultural exchange. That artistic environment gave me not only my visual language, but also a certain emotional honesty. That inner landscape still guides me.”

February 26, 2025 – April 30, 2025

The MAIN, 24266 Main St, Santa Clarita, CA 91321

The City of Santa Clarita announces a new exhibition, “The Usual Human Dimension” which will be on view February 26, 2025 – April 30, 2025, located at The MAIN. This exhibit explores the relationship between human beings and their built environments, examining how architecture, aesthetics, and spiritual elements shape behavior and perception. Inspired by Renaissance Ideal Cities and historical testimonies, the exhibit investigates how the human body interacts with urban spaces and how these dynamics evolve over time.

The reception is on March 20, 2025, and will provide an opportunity to meet artist Veronica Giorgetti, and gain insight into her creative process. The reception is free and open to the public.

Q&A with Veronica Giorgetti

What does this exhibit mean to you? 

“A great opportunity to finally show my works and see this vast production of pieces displayed together in a way that I myself can grasp the feeling of what I have done over the past 10 years.”

How do you hope viewers connect with your work?

“This body of works turned out to be very rich in details and I wouldn’t be surprised if the viewer would feel overwhelmed at first, but after passing this stage of confusion, I would hope that the viewer would start observing with curiosity what happens inside those works, that might look similar at first glance, but in fact are very different from one another.”

Is there a particular piece in this exhibit that challenged you most?

“All of them challenged me in their own way. Making art for me is a long and thoughtful process that involves not only the practical experimentation of materials but also the very intimate elaboration of ideas, emotions and the study of sources from which I get my inspiration. Sometimes I’m fortunate enough to experience a smooth and organic process that gives satisfying results, other times it is a struggle. Generally speaking, I could say that when the work speaks for itself, my job is done!”

Your work examines how urban spaces affect human perception and behavior – is there a specific experience or place that sparked this idea for you? 

“There are three themes that inspired this production:
• The first was the study of the city plans of the medieval towns in Italy, which I was exploring during my academic thesis in 2002.
• The second is inspired by the Renaissance and the concept of “Ideal Cities” where the city had to be redesigned according to an ideal humanistic model, made for man, on a human scale.
• The third is inspired by the study of the ancient civilizations and how they made use of graphic symbols like squares and circles, among others.”

If you can describe this collection in 3 words, what would they be?

“Evocative – Archeological – Experiential”

How do you know when your artwork is finished? 

“I never know really! Every work requires its own time. If the process evolves organically then the completion comes easily, other times it’s more challenging.”

Do you have a favorite piece in this exhibit? If so, why is it your favorite piece? 

“It is one piece of the Red Series. It has these portraits resting on a faded red ground and bleeding through you can read a series of words. I find it very atmospheric.”

Do you have any tips for artists starting out?

“This is a very delicate question that I’m not sure I will be able to answer completely. I feel though, that I have the responsibility to be honest with regards to this topic that relates to me so intimately. To put it simple, I can say that if any person wants to become an artist and make a living out of it, they need to find the right balance between the creative ASPECT of being an artist and the business ASPECT of becoming one. It is paramount to work on both fronts to be able to get any chance of success and fulfillment. How this balance will be found varies person by person. It is a process that needs to be perfected along the way.”

What is your favorite part of the creative process? 

“The moment in which I can let go after so much planning!”

How does this body of work compare to your past projects? 

“Very deeply. I have been exploring these themes for years now and every series of works has some elements that are connected to the previous and to the next.”

Do you see your future work continuing to explore these themes, or are you looking to experiment with new concepts? 

“These themes give me so much material to elaborate that every time I go deeper into the study of them, I always find new ways of interpretation. I feel I can still continue along this path. But I’m also a very curious person, so I like the idea to keep myself open to possibilities.”

If you could have viewers leave with one lasting impression from “The Usual human Dimension”, what would it be? 

“Wonder, surprise and curiosity to ponder about our purpose in life and how we can all contribute to make our societies a better and more just place where to live a thrive.”