MONTEREY, CA.- The Friends of the Monterey Museum of Art presents “Critical Reconstructions” a talk with artist David Ligare. The event begins at 10:30 am on Monday, May 4, 2009 at MMA at La Mirada, 720 Via Mirada, Monterey. Admission is free to MMA Members, Friends of the Museum and their guests and $5 for the general public.

The Friends of Monterey Museum of Art is an affiliate group for the Monterey Museum of Art. The Friends group offers bimonthly social/educational events with a focus on bringing people of common interests together around the arts. Through development of social events, fundraisers and educational programs, membership in the Friends offers access to a community, a cause and a context for volunteerism.

David Ligare has had over thirty-five solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Rome and elsewhere. The artist has also been included in many group exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world and his work is featured in dozens of books and Magazines. Despite shifting trends, Ligare has been making paintings based on historical precedents, most particularly, Greco-Roman Classicism, for over 25 years.

Ligare's paintings are included in many museums in the US and Europe, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford CT, the Monterey Museum of Art, the San Jose Museum of Art and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. In April Ligare will be showing in an exhibition entitled "Exactitude" at Plus One Gallery in London. The exhibition celebrates the publication of a book on Hyper-realist art being published in London by Thames & Hudson.

“My talk will be a critical look at the issues that I've been working with for the past 35 years. It will be an objective exploration of my images and ideas as they relate (or don't relate) to the historical and contemporary art world. I will talk about my influences from the Greek sculptor Polykleitos to the French Painter Nicolas Poussin to the latter half of the 20th Century's most influential artist, Marcel Duchamp,” says Ligare, who has a painting included in each of the 50th Anniversary exhibitions now on view at both locations at the Monterey Museum of Art.

Now on view through June 21, 2009 at MMA La Mirada is 50/fifty: 50 Gifts for the Next Fifty Years, which consists of outright or promised gifts to the Museum in honor of the Museum’s 50th Anniversary. Now on view through October 25, 2009 at MMA Pacific Street is Made in Monterey, a sweeping exhibition of the most beloved and important works from the permanent collection created by artists in Monterey or by those inspired by the region.