The Mendocino Art Center presents Altar The Present, a jewelry and wearable art show that explores the possibility of embodied altars, where jewelry acts as a tool for storytelling, through personal imagination and collective mythology.

Each artist invites the viewer into their fabulous wear, the body becomes an altar, a place of ritual, a reimagining of the temple. Wearable art has the potential to deepen our presence with the things that we make, heightening our senses within the inanimate, blurring the lines between self and object. When we truly slow down and embrace the present, it's not simply about a pause, but a commune and alchemization with everything around us. 

Through the merging and wielding of earth, fire, water and air, Adorn The Present splays the ancient onto the table before us. 

Featuring the work of Brienna Hall, Hanna-Katarina, and our 2025 resident artists

Sofia Gonzalez, Eden Tighe.

also featuring work by

Nancy Gardner,

Catherine Sieck

Gabrielle Valenti 

Aesa

Grace Potter

Car Nazzal

April Sandoval

Anya Jindrich

Lynda Shiedfield

Patrice Byarlay

Katie Applebaum,

Sakshi Mathuria

Tony Finocchio