Various Small Fires (VSF) is thrilled to announce the opening of our newest gallery space, VSF OC, situated in the commercial center of Tustin, a fast-growing city within central Orange County, California.
VSF OC will debut with a public community opening on Saturday, April 26, 2025, from 6 to 8 PM, with an inaugural exhibition curated by VSF Founder and Owner Esther Kim Varet. Kim Varet is also a candidate in the 2026 election for California’s 40th U.S. Congressional district, in which VSF OC is located.
Titled The Orange Curtain, a phrase that has been used to reference the perceived cultural and political disconnect between Orange County and its northern sister megapolis Los Angeles, this exhibition brings together Southern California contemporary artists Edwin Arzeta, Jackie Castillo, and Marcel Alcalá, each of whom draw on their shared Orange County roots. The Orange Curtain highlights a small portion of the significant and under-appreciated contributions of past and present artists in the Orange County region to the history and landscape of contemporary art.
Born in Orange, CA, Jackie Castillo (b. 1990) produces lens-based sculptural works incorporating industrial materials emblematic of working-class labor, offering a meditation on the evolving urban and suburban landscapes of Southern California. In contrast to Castillo’s constructed forms, Edwin Arzeta, also a native of Orange, CA (b. 1986), renders drawings imbued with an ephemeral delicacy—his floral motifs and candle-lit confections appearing to hover just above the paper’s surface. Marcel Alcalá (b. 1990), from Santa Ana, channels their Mexican-American heritage and queer identity into resplendent canvases that celebrate the Southern Californian vernacular with riotous color and electric energy.
Various Small Fires started in 2012 as an informal artist project space within Kim Varet’s former Venice Beach home.
