Gualala Salon and Salon des Refusés May 15-June 20, 2021

Members are free to preview the exhibit this Friday, May 14 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and then on Saturday, May 15, everyone is invited to see the new works of art on display throughout the center, including the Burnett Gallery (the Salon) and the Elaine Jacob Foyer (the Salon dés Refuses). Regular exhibit hours are 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Following an open call to artists, the show’s curator, Bruce Jones and other volunteers set about preparing the art for the judges to consider, and then proceeded to set each gallery with the paintings, drawings, ceramics, jewelry, sculpture, fabric and more. Always a difficult task given the quality of the work entered in this annual event, the judges will weigh-in with their selections. 

This year’s judges are April and Ron Dammann, and happily they are not new to the challenge of judging fine art in our community. They applied their lifelong involvement in the arts as judges at Art in the Redwoods in 2013 and in the 2017 Salon. Their lives have been informed by art as both collectors and scholars. 

Watch a video of April and Ron Dammann talk about art and the Salon and Salon des Refusés.

April Dammann, with degrees in French literature from UCLA, the University of Rochester and the Sorbonne, is an art historian and art gallery archivist who has written four biographical art histories. She developed a career in screenwriting and theatrical production during her years in Hollywood, where she and Ron lived in a home/art gallery that was designated an historic cultural monument.

Ron Dammann earned a B.A. in art history/anthropology at the University of Arizona and is a third generation art dealer. His family operated the Stendahl Galleries of Art for over a century. His experience restoring, selling and appraising painting and sculpture increased the prestige of the historic gallery and led to his role as president. He was also president of the Art Dealers Association of California for three terms and headed the Los Angeles Ethnic Arts Council, where he brought increased attention to his specialty: Pre-Columbian art of Mexico and Central America.