Walk Into Yvette Gellis’ World of Light at Oceanside Museum of Art
Walk into a room where light feels alive and a painting seems to breathe. Oceanside Museum of Art presents Yvette Gellis: Toward Light and the Living Landscape, a mid-career survey of the Los Angeles artist’s work.
The exhibition follows her career from earlier canvases to a major new piece inspired by Patagonia. It’s a chance to see how one artist has spent years asking how people and nature are connected.
Where Abstraction and Landscape Blur
Gellis doesn’t paint specific places. Her large-scale canvases build environments out of memory, perception, and transformation, with shifting light, layered gestures, and rich textures that pull you in.
The result feels both ancient and still emerging, as if the landscape is changing while you look at it. Order and chaos dissolve into one another across each canvas, so the more time you spend with a painting, the more it has to show you.
The Voice of the Glacier Takes Center Stage
The centerpiece is the debut of The Voice of the Glacier, inspired by the rapidly receding ice fields of Patagonia. Gellis doesn’t hand you one message.
She invites you to notice how air, water, plants, and people stay connected, and how the living world speaks through subtle changes in light and atmosphere.
Futuristic Ruins and Glowing Canvases
Gellis’ paintings are often described as “futuristic ruins,” where organic landscapes meet human-made structures. Themes of resilience, fragility, and renewal run through the work.
Controlled compositions dissolve into spontaneous gestures, with light as the thread that ties it all together. It’s both a physical material and a symbol of growth and connection.
Decades of Work, All in One Place
Gellis trained at UCLA and ArtCenter College of Design and earned her MFA from Claremont Graduate University. She works from her studio at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica.
There, she creates monumental canvases that pulse with energy and mystery. This survey brings together significant works from across her career, so you can follow her ideas as they grow.
Start the Holiday Season Among the Paintings
OMA’s public Exhibition Celebration brings together the museum’s newest exhibitions and the start of the holiday season. Tickets are on sale now, which makes it a good excuse to see the paintings with a crowd that came for the art.
Stroll through the galleries to take in the newest exhibitions, and let the festive start of the season set the mood. It’s an easy way to ring in the holidays with art.
See you there!
Take your time with the big canvases and let the light do the talking. Bring a friend, because you’ll want someone to compare notes with afterward.
📆 On view November 21, 2026 – April 25, 2027 | Exhibition Celebration: December 5, 2026
📍 704 Pier View Wy, Oceanside
🎟️ Grab your tickets here
ℹ️ Get more details here
See you there, San Diego!
