We invite you to join us at the Manhattan Beach Art Center for the opening reception of "Are You Seeing What I'm Seeing?" on Friday, January 16th from 6:00PM to 9:00PM. Doors open at 6:00PM. The event is free and open to the public. 

This exhibition investigates the generative relationship between written language and visual expression. Co-curated with Bondo Wyszpolski and Bernard Fallen, the project brings together 35 artists, each creating new work in response to a brief textual prompt drawn from themes including nature, mythology, animals, seascapes, urban environments, and more.

 For more than three decades, Wyszpolski has chronicled the creative life of the South Bay—most notably through his extensive coverage for the Easy Reader and Peninsula Magazine—cultivating deep relationships with regional artists. Building on this legacy, he crafted and distributed the written prompts, inviting artists to translate his language into visual form. These concise descriptions act as catalysts—akin to stage directions or conceptual cues—sparking interpretation rather than prescribing outcome.

 At its core, the exhibition explores how artists navigate the movement from text to image: how words can evoke atmosphere, narrative, or emotional resonance, and how individual perception shapes distinct interpretive trajectories. Although all artists begin with similarly structured prompts, the resulting works diverge widely, revealing the multiplicity of visual reasoning that a single phrase can inspire.

 The process of transformation is intentionally open-ended. The prompts serve not as instructions but as points of departure, allowing room for intuition, experimentation, and conceptual play. Artists respond through a range of media, reflecting both the artist’s practice and the internal image or sensation elicited by the text. Taken together, these works form a study in creative heterogeneity, demonstrating how minimal language can generate expansive and unexpected visual possibilities.

 “Are You Seeing What I’m Seeing?” is on view at the Manhattan Beach Art Center (1560 Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Manhattan Beach, CA) from January 16 through March 29, 2026.