Lia Halloran is an interdisciplinary artist with a practice that spans painting, drawing, long-exposure photography, video installations, and experimental darkroom techniques that merge painting and photography. Across these diverse mediums, Halloran engages with scientific history while challenging its traditionally empirical position to illuminate overlooked narratives, particularly those of women in science, queer communities, and other marginalized voices. Halloran has exhibited widely in the U.S. and internationally, with recent highlights including major projects for the Getty’s PST: Art & Science Collide. She is co-author of The Warped Side of Our Universe with Nobel laureate Kip Thorne, and is the recipient of the C.O.L.A. Master Artist Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Artworks Grant. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Harvard University, and Caltech, among many others. She is a Professor in the Department of Art at Chapman University, where she teaches painting and courses at the intersection of art and science.

John Kosta, an Award-winning California Art Club fine artist, infuses his contemporary realism paintings of the Los Angeles River with a melancholic romanticism. Using oil paint and a simple tonalist palate, he reveals an unexpected beauty in its isolated, overlooked, and forgotten landscapes with the objective of bringing public awareness to the possibilities and plight of urban rivers and watersheds everywhere.

Julie Perlin Lee is the proud leader of Laguna Art Museum, where she guides the museum’s mission to enlighten and engage people of all ages through art that embodies and preserves the California experience. She has devoted her studies and career to curating, research and publication, community collaboration and programs that build institutional strength. She began her career as a volunteer in a museum collections room and advanced through leadership roles including Vice President for Collections and Exhibition Development at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and Executive Director of the Catalina Museum. Since joining Laguna Art Museum in 2021, she has led the museum to its most successful fiscal year on record, expanded membership and programming, and deepened its ties with artists and the community. Her leadership places service to others first and emphasizes generosity, creative exchange and opportunities that amplify the artist’s voice while ensuring the museum’s longevity and continued relevance. She holds a B.A. in Art History, an M.F.A. in Exhibition Design and a Certificate in Museum Studies from California State University, Fullerton.

Jennifer Monroe is a native Southern Californian Metal Artist. Born in Los Angeles County in 1966, Monroe received her Bachelors in Studio Art at Cal State Long Beach 1989 and her Masters in Fine Arts Metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University Carbondale 2004. For the past twenty plus years she has been Associate Professor instructing Metals & Jewelry in Southern California; Santa Ana College, FIDM Los Angeles, CSU Fullerton, Gemology Institute of America, and Saddleback College. Monroe has exhibited across the nation with many awards and several publishings. Gender issues have been a continuing theme in her metalwork, and she currently is working on a series of women’s suit of armor. Her latest solo exhibition was in 2023 at Spartanburg Community College, South Carolina.

Jonde Northcutt, a fourth-generation Californian, grew up in Coronado, California, shaped by the layered histories and coastal light of the region. Her practice centers around printmaking, painting, and mixed media.Together with her husband, artist Nick Capaci, Northcutt cofounded Bluestone Editions, an innovative art atelier in Orange County, California. Pioneers in the instruction of monotype printmaking and water-based intaglio, they offer workshops at universities, art schools, and museums. In addition, they led workshops through UCLA’s Arts in Corrections program, working within California correctional facilities, the California Youth Authority, and the Department of Mental Health. These experiences deepened her belief in art as a transformative, connective force — one that reveals, heals, and reimagines what is possible.