2019 OC Fair & Event Center Visual Arts Judges Bios

OC Fair’s Visual Arts program researches to acquire qualified and diverse

industry individuals to participate as judges. Listed are biographies of the

judges for the following divisions:

Fine Art ................................................. 1

Young Adult Fine Art .......................... 2

Photography ......................................... 3

Young Adult Photography .................. 6

Woodworking....................................... 7

Plein Air ................................................ 8

Photo Shootout ......................................... 8

2019 Visual Arts Judges 1

Fine Art Judges:Brennan Roachbrennanroach.com

Brennan Roach is a musician/artist from Santa Ana. He graduated with a BFA in Drawing and Painting from California State University Fullerton in 2012. He is continuously working on new material and fine tuning his skills.

Dino Perez dinoperez.com

Dino Perez is a graphic artist from Santa Ana that founded Coloring with the Community in 2015. Coloring with the Community is a free coloring station that is a part of different community events throughout Orange County. Dino Perez was an Artist-in-Residence at CSUF Grand Central Art Center through a partnership with Community Engagement where he brought art to an underserved community in the Lacy neighborhood of Santa Ana. He worked directly with the residents of the Triada Court Apartments where he hosted monthly coloring events for families and mentored local youth through art workshops from 2016 to 2019. In 2017, Perez co-founded Crear Studio, a free interdisciplinary arts studio program that aims to support local youth and adults who aspire to obtain education in social justice and social engagement through the arts.

Robin Repp saatchionline.com/robinrepp

Robin Repp’s work explores the concept of anticipation of the future or the unknown. With influences as diverse as Thomas Struth, Dorthea Lange, Elmer Bischoff, and Minor White, she has been using infrared photography, the figure in the landscape and social commentary topics to tell her story.

Robin Repp’s work is included in the newly released book, “Signs of Resistance,” by Bonnie Siegler and in “4973:Berkeley Protest Posters,” by Barry Miles. Her work has been included in exhibitions in the Laguna Art Museum, the Oakland Art Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum, and others, as well as various galleries such as the LA Artcore Gallery, Huntington Beach Art Center, Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery, N.Y.C, The Studios Inc. Gallery, Kansas City, The Irvine Fine Arts Center, The Brea Gallery, CSUF Gallery, Long Beach Arts, Worth Ryder Gallery Berkeley, VAALA, and the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art.

2019 Visual Arts Judges 2

Young Adult Fine Art Judges:Christian Ramirezchristianramirezstudio.com

Born in Pomona, Christian Ramirez is a Southern California-based painter working in Santa Ana. Since graduating with a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Laguna College of Art + Design in 2008, he has been working full-time in admissions for the college, traveling regionally, nationally and internationally recruiting talented art students. In 2016 Christian founded Basement Projects, a non-profit art project space located in the basement of the historic Santora Arts building. For two years Basement Projects worked to expand Orange County’s engagement with contemporary art by providing a safe space for critical discourse and an ongoing exhibition schedule that was both challenging and inclusive. After 21 exhibitions and a diverse array of 127 artists (70 women/57 men) Basement Projects gave way to The Painters Room, now run by IPA DTSA, a collective of painters cofounded in late 2018 by Christian and his colleague and fellow painter-head Vonn Sumner.

Evalynn Aluevalynnjalu.com

Evalynn J. Alu was born and raised in Los Angeles. She received her degree in Art at California State University, Fullerton, in 1982. Evalynn’s artwork has been exhibited in numerous solo, curated and juried exhibitions. She has won competitions at both local and international levels. She was Artist of the Year twice for OAA and is now honored as a Hall of Fame lifetime member. She was awarded Best of Show in 2016 at the Museo Gallery in Anaheim. She is the Education Director for the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art where she has had solo exhibitions. Evalynn is also an art commissioner for John Wayne Airport where she is involved with selecting the art diplayed on their premises. She teaches art to students from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade at Oakridge Private School where she was honored with the OC Top 25 Teacher Award in 2015, and she also teaches all ages at OCCCA’s Art for All program. She has also taught privately at the Corbin Center in Santa Ana.

2019 Visual Arts Judges 3

Photography Judges:Art Ramirez thephototrainer.com

Art Ramirez has been a photographer and a trainer of photographic concepts for more than 40 years. His experience as a photojournalist, wedding photographer, and printer allows him to view photography from a unique angle. Art loves to show people how to get the most from their digital cameras, PhotoShop and how to get the photographs they want.

Breanna Lynch brelynch.com

Breanna Martinez Lynch is an Orange County-based documentary and portrait photographer. Her love of photography stems from her desire to document her adventures, travel, and days with her family. She is always up for a new challenge, and a fresh subject. Breanna learned the true value of photographs when she lost her father in 2014 - they are what we cling to when it’s all we have left. Breanna is drawn to photos that reveal the natural grace and humor of a person, and strives to capture genuine and tender moments as they unfold.

Courtney Gordon courtneygordonphotography.com

Courtney Gordon is a fine art photographer who is passionate about capturing man-altered and minimalistic landscapes. Courtney holds an MFA from the Academy of Art University, has volunteered at nonprofit art organizations and curated art shows.

2019 Visual Arts Judges 4

Jonis Yip jonasyip.com

Jonas Yip is a photographic artist based in Los Angeles. Born to a poet-writer-professor father and an art historian mother, he was raised in a creative environment steeped in art, music, design, architecture, and plenty of travel. Jonas has published two books, Somewhere Between (2017) and Paris: Dialogues and Meditations (2008), in collaboration with renowned poet and scholar Wai-lim Yip. A related exhibition, Paris: Dialogue, traveled through Asia and was also exhibited at the San Diego Museum of Art. The series has been accepted to the permanent collections of the San Diego Museum of Art and the National Museum of Chinese Literature in Beijing.

Jeff Alujeffalu.com

Jeff has been shooting digitally since 2000, using only cheaper point-and-shoot cameras. He has been included in over 100 exhibitions worldwide, and has given photography-related lectures for companies such as Apple and Disney Imagineering. As a former exhibitions director at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, he has had the privilege of working and collaborating with numerous artists which has been a huge source of inspiration.

Laura Lejuwaanlauralejuwaan.com

Laura Lejuwaan is a professional photographer based in Orange County. After inheriting her grandfather’s camera, she started doing portraits of her four children. That’s when the magic started. After years of honing her skills as a family and wedding photographer, she now specializes in macro fine art floral photography using natural light. Her work has been utilized for murals and wall art in corporate and residential spaces. Laura says, “When photographing flowers, I am captivated by their human-like qualities of strength, confidence, beauty and poise. There is healing that comes when looking at God’s landscape.”

Photography Judges:

2019 Visual Arts Judges 5

Photography Judges:Nancy Kaye nancykayephotography.com

Nancy Kaye is a photographer and photo educator in Los Angeles, previously based in New York and London. Her photos have been published in numerous books, magazines, and newspapers—including The Washington Post and The New York Times—and widely exhibited in juried shows. Her portrait of author Ralph Ellison is in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and other portraits she’s taken have been included in HBO documentaries. She has been teaching and leading photo workshops for more than 15 years, and been active in curating photo events. Nancy serves on the board of the L.A. chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers.

Raul Gonzales Instagram.com/FacesOfCityOfLosAngeles

Raul has been a professional photographer in Los Angeles for over a decade. He has worked at Cypress College as a photo lab clerk for nearly five years and truly enjoyed assisting professors, students, and met new mentors along while working there. He has been awarded in numerous photography competitions and has landed his bodies of work in galleries all over California. He has strong editing skills, an eye for details, and is seeking originality and creatively. He also truly enjoys the art of black & white in digital photography, since it is quite challenging to be able to create a look like film. He also has numerous photography certificates through Cypress College. His latest project lately has been photographing people for “Faces of City of Los Angeles”.

Rolf Goellnitz theomcgallery.com/news/

Rolf studied and earned an advanced degree in Design at the University for Applied Sciences, Faculty Design, in Aachen, Germany. Following his studies, Rolf worked internationally for almost 25 years as a Creative Director for Europe’s largest fashion retailer as well as other clients in Germany and the USA. His work has gained recognition through numerous national and international awards in both Europe and the USA. As an Associate Professor he taught for four years at the University for Applied Sciences, Faculty Design, in Aachen, Germany. In 1999 he founded the OMC Communication LLC, a company offering Creative Service and The OMC Gallery. In autumn 2004 he and his wife RoxAnn Madera moved with their business from Duesseldorf to Huntington Beach.

2019 Visual Arts Judges 6

Kirby Piazza

Working as an artist, art educator and advocate, professional photographer and ceramicist, Kirby Piazza has artistic interests that range from portraiture and documentation to abstract and primordial landscapes. Currently the Visual Art Chair at Costa Mesa High School, he lives, works and roams in the Newport-Mesa area of California.

Victoria Avina Avinasimages.com

Victoria is a Southern California-based photographer with a documentary aesthetic. She began her formal education at California State University, Fullerton where she studied Fine Art Photography. She transferred to the Art Institute of the Inland Empire where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Digital Photography. Victoria loves to study how people behave and engage with their own cultures and environments. She uses photography as a way to help support this study and to show others just how significant their day to day life is. Victoria is a Mexican-American woman, a daughter of an immigrant, and recently married. She never backs down from a challenge and is always seeking out new opportunities.

Young Adult Photography Judges:

2019 Visual Arts Judges 7

Woodworking Judges:Mónica Esparza monicasguitars.com

Mónica Esparza began building her first flamenco guitar in 2000 and went to the source for training, working in Spain with Maestro Jose Romanillos in his intensive master classes for several years. Mónica creates the warmth and beauty only seen in old world Spanish guitars by crafting an eloquently designed body of top quality woods with intricate decorative accents. A French polish imparts a final delicate finish and enhances tonal response. She also builds ukuleles, teaches ukulele-mak-ing workshops in her shop, and does a variety of instrument repair work.

Michael Rafferty

Michael Rafferty is from Buffalo, New York. He got his start working a construction apprenticeship with C.A. Bowers construction in high school. After working in construction for five years, he attended Orange Coast College where he got his woodworking education. He recently finished his design degree at California State University, Long Beach. Michael has been working as a furniture maker and instrument builder for clients throughout Southern California for several years. He is now teaching guitar-making at Orange Coast College and construction at Estancia High School through Coastline ROP.

Fred Rose fredrosestudio.com

Fred Rose received his BFA in ceramics from California State University, Long Beach, in 1992 and his MFA in sculpture from California State University, Fullerton, in 2001. He taught woodworking at California State University, Long Beach, for seven years. He is currently a self-employed artist living in Costa Mesa. Fred is interested in how the spectrum of traditions in wood from utilitarian woodworking, wood sculpture and folk art can act as a visual poetry about the nature of the physical world or the quirks of being human. Most of his wood is collected from locally found logs from the urban forests of Long Beach and Costa Mesa. He mills logs into a combination of lumber, carving and turning blanks, or specimens of wood oddities. He often combines found natural organic forms with his own man-made objects. He collects evidence of how we deal with living trees by pruning them or how trees as living things respond to adversity as a source of poetic and conceptual inquiry.

2019 Visual Arts Judges 8

Kathleen Williams kathleenfineart.com

Kathleen Williams is a professional artist who paints in oil, both in plein air and in the studio. While she does still lifes, figurative work, and portraiture, her primary focus and first love is landscape painting, particularly painting in plein air at any number of California’s beautiful and iconic locations. Kathleen’s work has been juried in to numerous gallery exhibitions and has received many awards, the most recent being an Honorable Mention award from Jean Stern, Director of the Irvine Museum of Art, the Robinson Award (for the second time) given by the Newport Bay Conservancy, and a Higbee Gallery Award, Some of Kathleen’s work is currently on exhibit at the Cottage Gallery on Los Rios Street in San Juan Capistrano.. Kathleen served as OC Fair’s Plein Air Contest Judge in 2018. Kathleen is a member of Oil Painters of America, the California Art Club, Southern California Plein Air Painters Association, and Laguna Plein Air Painters Association.

Arthur Ramirez thephototrainer.com

Art Ramirez has been a photographer and a trainer of photographic concepts for more than 40 years. His experience as a photojournalist, wedding photographer and printer allows him to view photography from a unique angle. Art loves to show people how to get the most from their digital cameras and Photoshop.

Plein Air Judge:

Photo Shootout Judge: