Featured artists: Lita Albuquerque, Lisa Beck, Christopher Robin Duncan, Lia Halloran, David Huffman, Gary Lang, Charles Long, Jonathan Ryan, Penelope Umbrico.

Survey Exhibition … before the dawn brings together an intergenerational group of nine artists whom explore the enduring artistic, psychological and philosophical pull of the moon and the nocturnal sky. Sharing formal and existential curiosities, the participating artists engage the night as both a site of observation and imagination, where scientific inquiry, mythology, memory, and lived experience converge.

… before the dawn considers the conceptual landscape suspended between our earthly vantage point and the celestial body that has long shaped humanity’s understanding of time, nature, and the cosmos. Simultaneously familiar and unknowable, the moon occupies a singular place within our collective imagination. It governs tides, marks the passage of time through its phases, inspires myths across cultures, and has served as both a scientific frontier and a symbol of longing, transformation, and transcendence. The exhibition embraces these overlapping perspectives, inviting viewers to reflect on the profound relationship between the terrestrial and the celestial, the measurable and the mysterious.

At a moment when ecological instability, political uncertainty, and technological acceleration have intensified awareness of our own vulnerability, … before the dawn asks what it means to look beyond ourselves. The exhibition encourages a shift away from an anthropocentric worldview—one that positions humanity as the center of existence—towards an understanding of our place within interconnected cosmic systems. Against the turbulence of everyday life, the night sky offers a rare encounter with scale, permanence, and perspective. The moon’s continual orbit and cyclical rhythms serve as quiet reminders of temporalities that exceed our own, offering moments of contemplation, renewal, and imaginative escape.

The artists in … before the dawn extend a centuries-long artistic lineage that has found inspiration in the night sky, while offering a contemporary sensibility to this timeless subject. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, and interdisciplinary practices, each artist constructs a deeply personal relationship with the moon as image, object, metaphor, and presence. Together, their works collapse the vastness of the cosmos into intimate encounters, transforming an ancient celestial constant into a moment in time that embraces an individual’s ability to reflect on perception, belonging, wonder, and the fragile conditions of life on Earth.

… before the dawn is curated with the assistance of gallery artist Whitney Bedford and Aandrea Stang, Director of the University Art Gallery at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Image: Gary Lang, BBMG, 2025. Courtesy the artist and Library Street Collective.

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Tags: ... before the dawn, Charles Long, Christopher Robin Duncan, David Huffman, Gary Lang, ita Albuquerque, Jonathan Ryan, Lia Halloran, Lisa Beck, Penelope Umbrico, Secrist | Beach, survey exhibition, West Town