O.C.'s Riot Grrrl Biennial

Eloise Wong, music video prop for the Linda Lindas' Why, 202s

The subtitle of the Orange County Museum of Art's 2025 California Biennial is "Desperate, Scared, But Social." If you don't recognize that as an album by the Orange County punk/riot grrrl band Emily's Sassy Lime, you'll have a bit of a learning curve. "Desperate, Scared, But Social" juxtaposes visual artists with creators who are equally immersed in Southern California's post-punk music scene. That includes the three founders of Emily's Sassy Lime; the four members of the Linda Lindas; and Seth Bogart (who created gallery seating). More broadly, this biennial focuses on the awkwardness of late adolescence as seen from an ironic distance, a seemingly inexhaustible theme of California art. 

Installation view with works by Emily's Sassy Lime

Installation view with works by Deanna Tempelton

Woody de Othello, Lost Dreams, 2023. Collection of Jessica Silverman and Sarah Thornton

The first work you'll encounter is by Woody de Othello, a a trippy ceramic clock in the Dalí mode, with no hands. Other de Othello works are scattered throughout the show, though some are hung so high or low as to be easy to miss. De Othello also gets his own dedicated space, with acrylic-on-paper paintings as well as sculptures. 

Ceramic sculptures by Woody de Othello

Woody de Othello, Still Life (Luggage and Things in Hand, Ready to Go), 2020. Collection of Kaitlyn and Mike Krieger

Griselda Rosas, Drawing valid conclusions and I prefer chocolate ice cream, both 2025

Griselda Rosas' son Fernando began drawing at age two. This initiated a unique intergenerational collaboration. Griselda uses Fernando's drawings as starting points for pictures incorporating embroidery and acrylic color, and Fernando sometimes adds further touches. 

Griselda Rosas, Once/Eleven, 2025

Installation view for Emily's Sassy Lime

The Emily's Sassy Lime principals (sisters Amy and Wendy Yao and Emily Ryan) saved everything from the 90s, presented here as found art. Amy also creates deft assemblages of vintage Disneyland ephemera. 

Amy Yao, Haunted Mansion, 2025

Laura Owens, untitled, 1987. The artist was 17

It's conventional for biennials to mix emerging artists with older, more established names. In keeping with the adolescence theme, "Desperate" presents the teen-age juvenilia of some established artists (Laura Owens, Joey Terrell, Miranda July). Though a small part of the show, it's surprisingly engaging and makes you wonder why someone hasn't done a bigger juvenilia show.

Installation view, "Piece of Me"

"Desperate" incorporates two shows-within-the-show, both involving adolescent perspectives on recent art history. "Piece of Me" is a selection of works from OCMA's collection chosen by the Orange County Young Curators, OCMA's newly organized internship program. 

Installation view of Gardena High School Collection

There is also an installation of the Gardena High School collection of California Impressionism and Whatnot. From 1919 through 1956 high school students raised funds to buy works of then-famous California artists. A few of the artists are still famous, barely, and the students managed to buy an Agnes Pelton, though it's a realistic desert landscape rather than an abstraction.

The worst painting in the show (but not the least interesting) is a Bill Murray-faced Beethoven by the Italian painter Carlo Wostry (1865–1943), a 1930 pick of the Gardena HS student body.

Carlo Wostry, Beethoven, about 1905. Gardena High School Art Collection, gift of the class of summer 1930

OCMA and UC Irvine's Langson Museum and Institute of California Art are contemplating a merger. OCMA would bring to the deal a recently completed Thom Mayne/Morophosis building that seems barely big enough for its own purposes. The current biennial takes over nearly the whole museum, and it's not a big biennial, having just 12 artists or groups. While a handful of works from OCMA's 4500-piece permanent collection are typically on view (as in "Piece of Me"), the new building is too small to show the collection in any systematic way. 

Thus far Irvine's Langson Museum is mostly a thought experiment spun around two large historical collections of 4700 works combined. One is California plein-air painting (meh) but the other covers the roots of the California avant garde, a topic that is commanding attention with the growing prominence of Los Angeles' contemporary artists. The Langson raised the possibility of a historical survey of 20th-century California art, something you won't find at LACMA, OCMA, the Hilbert, MCA San Diego, etc. I don't see how a merged institution could do justice to the Irvine and OCMA collections, barring a larger building. That seems like a long shot—it took nearly two decades to build the Morophosis facility, which opened in 2022.  

"Desperate, Scared, But Social" runs through Jan. 4, 2026.