City Museum of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

“Gold Rush:  Artist as Prospector” seeks to address the pioneering spirit and moxie that is mythologized in the American West.  This show examines how contemporary artists find, organize, and select materials and experiences to mine moments and transform the everyday.  The Gold Rush and Dot-Com boom urged many opportunistic, desperate, and hopeful Americans to take a gamble and venture west to try their hands at prospecting and entrepreneurship.  While some '49ers and dot-comers did accumulate vast amounts of wealth, most did not.  The Gold Rush and Dot-Com Boom live on as Americans hoping to strike it big as a result of luck, perseverance, or gall.  The 9 artists in “Gold Rush” have used the city and situations that arise out of urban existence to think about architecture, neighborhoods, landscape, money, pedestrianism, and tourism.  Felipe Dulzaides, Alice Shaw, and Patricia Diart employ photography, performance, and minor acts of civil disobedience to disrupt, frame, and question the way that architecture is representative of our social, civic, and personal aspirations.  Ledia Caroll, Packard Jenning, and Lee Walton have created situations and events that blur the distinction between art contexts and the everyday to engage the local community and address the ever-changing landscape and geography of our neighborhoods.  Pang Hui Lim and Been Needham address the gamble that Californians play between environmental stewardship and ever growing urban development.  Kate Procass and Mojca Pungercar explore pedestrianism by creating situations that illuminate the way we understand and interface with our environments.  These artists have created filters through which they have manipulated, sorted, scavenged, and framed the seemingly mundane