Curated by Betti-Sue Hertz

Over a roughly thirty-year period, beginning in the early 1970s, Eleanor Antin portrayed herself in various photo-based works as a king, a nurse, and a ballerina. Recently, she moved behind the camera, staging large-scale photographic tableaux based on Greek and Roman history and mythology. This exhibition comprises twenty-three works from Antin's series “The Last Days of Pompeii,” 2001, “Roman Allegories,” 2004, and “Helen's Odyssey,” 2007, along with videos documenting their creation and photographs and works on paper charting the artist's earlier projects and personae. Making no attempt to hide their Southern California settings, the images of toga-draped models wallowing in luxury are clearly allegories of modern-day excess. But Antin has not lost her sense of humor, and this presentation will allow us to see such conspicuous consumption in the very landscape that served as the works' impetus.

— Rachel Churner