Nikko Mueller, Untitled (cul de sac) [detail], 2001
Acrylic on panel, 18 x 15 in.
Courtesy of the artist

Gregory Martin, Hybrid, 2001
Oil with alkyd on canvas over panel, 48 x 36 in.
Courtesy of the artist

The chances are high that when you come to visit the current exhibition at the Sweeney Art Gallery, you’ll find yourself literally smack dab in the middle of sprawl. Indeed from practically every direction you approach Riverside, situated in the “Inland Empire” of southern California, you’ll catch glimpses of the places and spaces re-presented in this exhibition. Whether traveling from six or 60 miles away, consider your trip here an exhibition warm-up: an opportunity for some interactive drive-by previewing.

Suburban sprawl is by no means a recent phenomenon – the spread of commercial, industrial and residential development into open spaces has been occurring for arguably the better part of the last century. The West Coast, with its multiple and mythic promises of wealth, health, and virtually limitless land, has long beckoned many. While so-called “edge cities” are not new to this region, the rapidity of growth, and namely, the rapidity of change, have drastically altered the landscape, and thus, by extension, impacted the culture of suburbia.

Sprawl: new suburban landscapes is a group exhibition consisting of five artists who live and work in southern California and who are engaged with their local, particular environments. Their distinct depictions of the visuality of sprawl – the generic, ordinary, inconsequential spaces that shape our lives – offer contemporary, shifting perspectives of the inhabited landscape. United by clever investigations of structure and order, meticulous attention to detail, appreciation of seductive line, color, and the lushness of paint, these artists revel in depicting what is usually unacknowledged, what is actually ignored by most.