Dan Cameron had been chief curator at the Orange County Museum of Art only a month when he was tasked with a mammoth undertaking: overhaul the “California Biennial,” begun in 1984. After “Pacific Standard Time,” the sweeping 2011-12 SoCal initiative of exhibitions and programs that traced the region’s art scene, some thought the notion of a statewide survey of artists wasn’t necessary. “The biennial had to retool or die,” Cameron says. Taking its place this month is the “California-Pacific Triennial,” a show of 32 artists from 15 Pacific Rim countries. The diverse grouping ranges from Shaun Gladwell, a Sydney digital artist influenced by street and extreme-sports cultures, to Pedro Friedeberg, a modernist painter and sculptor with a cult following in Mexico, his adopted country.
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