COSTA MESA, California — As a former suburban teenager, I approached the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art with eager anticipation. The event, titled Desperate, Scared, But Social, aimed to explore themes of adolescence, yet it fell short of offering a deep understanding of current teenage experiences, leaving an impression of stunted progression.
Returning after a long hiatus, the biennial featured 12 artists showcasing youth culture through photography, painting, and archived objects. Among the highlights were two sub-exhibitions: Piece of Me, curated by the Orange County Young Curators program offering local teens a glimpse into art curation, and a less engaging display from the Gardena High School Art Collection (1919–56), featuring early 20th-century paintings selected by students.
The exhibition began promisingly with Deanna Templeton’s What She Said series, juxtaposing her 1980s teenage diary entries with modern portraits of girls in global countercultures. These images contrast with contemporary beauty standards, capturing subcultural styles like punk and surfer fashion. Templeton’s work bridges the gap between youthful trivialities and a universal experience, blending her subjects’ edgy appearances with her own adolescent musings.
Heesoo Kwon’s photographic installations also stood out, manipulating childhood photos with AI-generated elements and matriarchal alien figures. Enlarging family images to gallery scale, Kwon’s work introduces viewers to Leymusoom, her invented religion, while questioning memory’s reliability through digital alterations. The lenticular prints further blur the line between reality and the spiritual realm.
Despite these standout pieces, the biennial often relied on archival works from established artists’ youth, such as Laura Owens and the band Emily’s Sassy Lime. This approach, while nostalgic, lacked insight into today’s adolescents. The Orange County Young Curators’ Piece of Me offered fresher perspectives on digital authenticity, but the overall exhibition felt more like an after-school special than a reflection of contemporary youth culture.
The 2025 California Biennial: Desperate, Scared, But Social is on display at the Orange County Museum of Art (3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa, California) until January 4, 2026, under the organization of Courtenay Finn and Christopher Y. Lew, with Associate Curator Lauren Leving.
