News Release

Black Rock Art Gallery Opening of Groundwork Arts - Art Trading Cards

Date: March 23, 2023
Contact: Alison Shoup

Joshua Tree National Park management is excited to announce a new exhibition of student creativity produced in partnership with Groundwork Arts, a Morongo Valley non-profit organization. This group brings professional practicing artists into local community schools to provide innovative educational opportunities to students, teachers, and families.

Yucca Valley artist, Juan Thorp, enjoys automatism- a relaxing and creative process that allows the unconscious mind to create by drawing with no plan or preconceived idea – just put pencil to paper and let the drawing create itself. Using this method, Thorp creates daily drawings on cards that are meant to be traded. Inspired by Thorp’s method, and the production of his trading cards, students created their own drawings experimenting with this Surrealist practice of drawing automatically. Abstract images emerged, recognizable objects suggested themselves, and many images were further developed. A large selection of student art trading cards will be displayed in this show.

The exhibition will run from March 31 through April 26 at the Black Rock Art Gallery in the Black Rock Nature Center, located at 9800 Black Rock Canyon Rd, Yucca Valley, CA 92284. There will be an opening reception on Friday, March 31, 2023 from 5pm to 7pm. The building is open 7 days a week, 8am – 11am, 12pm-4pm.