The centerpiece of this year's show is a bronze gate with panels that open. Vic Riesau cast it as two working bronze panels under an arched frame about 8 feet tall. A cowboy rides a bucking bronco with one arm thrown up for balance, and sun and moon discs are worked into the curve overhead. Below the rider, the lower panels open onto yucca, wildflowers and distant mesas. Decades of weather have given the bronze a green-brown patina.
According to Tehachapi News, the Art 2026 Tehachapi Art Exhibition & Sale will be the first chance for audiences in the Tehachapi Valley to see "The Gate" in person. On Saturday, Nov. 14, anyone can see it for free from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Aspen Builders Activity Center, 410 West D St. Saturday is also a good day to see what the whole event is for, because ticket money from past shows has already become public art on the same street.
Friday buys the first look, and Saturday gets the same room
The Tehachapi Arts Commission runs the show over two days at one address. Here's how the two days differ:
- Friday, Nov. 13, 5 to 9 p.m. The VIP reception costs $100 a ticket. Tickets are sold in advance only, through the Commission's Constant Contact ticket page, and none are sold at the door. Heavy appetizers come from Bord a Petite, along with local wines and a hosted full bar. The Commission asks for dressy attire, either business or Western.
- Saturday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free, and it's the same exhibition in the same building.
On its event page, the Commission pitches Friday as a chance to "be among the first to view and purchase remarkable juried paintings before the public exhibition opens." Collectors after a particular painting get that head start, while anyone coming just to look gets the same walls, the same bronze centerpiece and five hours with no ticket on Saturday morning.
The Commission says all ticket sales go to public art "for all to enjoy." When artwork sells, artists keep 80% of the price. Tehachapi News reported that Commission CEO Dwight Dreyer told the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council on Oct. 7 that an 80/20 split in the artists' favor turns heads in the art world, where that kind of support is very unusual.
What's on the walls in year six
This is the sixth annual show. Tehachapi News reports that 52 artists were accepted for 2026, and that organizers are aiming for a stronger show and more national attention than in 2025. International Artist Publishing is a sponsor and gives the Artists' Choice Award. Seven artists are slated for profiles in national and international art magazines.
A few names worth looking for on the 2026 artist roster:
- Donald Towns is a former Disney art director who became a fine arts painter. He's both a featured artist and one of this year's two judges. Laura Dreyer is the other.
- Karl Dempwolf and Kristen Freeborn are both named among the featured artists.
- Damian Kinsella is a local artist. Dreyer said Kinsella worked for years before feeling ready for this show and has since gone on to exhibit at shows across the country.
- Eden Black and Madelyn Drury are listed on the roster as students.
Both students came through the Commission's mentorship program. Eden Black and Maddie Drury were its first mentees, and they spent a full day with established artists Jennifer and Chris Burgan, watching demonstrations and making studies with their guidance. Jennifer Burgan and Christopher Burgan are both on this year's roster. At the October EDC meeting, Dreyer said the mentees have improved enough to take part in the show.
Riesau's own career gives some context for the gate. He studied architecture at USC and didn't start his serious art career until age 49. After that he cast a monument to fallen officers at the California State Capitol and five bronze busts for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame, and he was a founding artist of the Autry Museum's "Masters of the American West" exhibition. He died in 2023. The roster lists the piece as an 8x7 bronze.
Where the ticket money already went
In 2021 the Commission announced "Art in the Park," a plan to eventually place life-size art in every Tehachapi park. The first piece was a girl on a skateboard, and Dwight Dreyer donated the design work.
That sculpture is "On Her Way to the Top," also called the Skate Girl. It was installed at the Tehachapi Valley Recreation & Park District office, 490 West D St., and the Commission says ArT Tehachapi ticket proceeds paid for it over several years. Its ribbon cutting was set for Nov. 14, 2025, during last year's exhibition weekend. The Commission's public art page calls it the group's first sculpture in Tehachapi, displayed that November.
That makes this Saturday the sculpture's first anniversary, and the two buildings are on the same street. The show is at 410 West D, and the sculpture that earlier years' tickets paid for is at 490 West D.
There's more planned. In 2025, Dreyer said ticket proceeds would support sculptures for both Tehachapi City Hall and TVRPD. That same year, the Commission was reported to be assembling two sculptures for those sites. The TVRPD piece is installed, and the City Hall sculpture is the one still to come.
The big historic murals downtown and the restored mural on the Hitching Post Theater come from other groups. The downtown murals were done by the Murals Committee back when Main Street Tehachapi was active. The Hitching Post work was a Make Art Tehachapi restoration by Lyn Bennett of Mark Pestana's original. The Commission lent a lift for the job. So far, the Skate Girl is the one piece of public art the show's tickets have built.
Saturday, Nov. 14, in order
The exhibition closes at 3 p.m., and another free event downtown runs later that afternoon. Here's one way to fit it all in:
- 10 a.m., Aspen Builders Activity Center, 410 West D St. Get there at opening and see "The Gate" first. It's meant to be walked through, not just looked at, and that's easier before the room fills. Then find Towns, Kinsella and the two student artists on the walls.
- Late morning, TVRPD office, 490 West D St. Walk down to the Skate Girl on her first anniversary. It shows what earlier shows' tickets paid for.
- Midday, 126 S. Snyder Ave. The Tehachapi Loop Railroad Club Model Train Show runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. that Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission and parking are free, and donations are welcome. The club has been around since April 1993.
- Before 3 p.m., back to West D St. If something on the walls stayed with you, go back before the exhibition closes and look again.
- Afternoon, Gallery 'N' Gifts, 100 W. Tehachapi Blvd. The gallery's listed hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, so it's still open after the exhibition closes and makes a good last stop for local art.
If you want the Friday night instead, buy tickets ahead of time, since there are no sales at the door. The Commission lists [email protected] and (626) 945-3753 for questions.
At Theresa Mann & Co, we like seeing Tehachapi put its own artists and its own street on display, and we'll be cheering for the show's sixth year. If you want to talk over anything about life in the valley, from the art on West D Street to the ranch roads outside town, Book a Consultation and we'll sit down together.
