Various Small Fires OC pulls back the Orange Curtain in Tustin

According to Esther Kim Varet, founder of Various Small Fires, it is hard to tell how many people will show up to an art exhibition opening.

“When you have your first show and a gallery opens for the first time, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Five people could show up or 500 people can show up,” said Varet. “Fortunately, we had the latter.”

Varet has extensive experience when it comes to opening art spaces. She began Various Small Fires as an informal artist project space in 2012, before opening the first permanent VSF in Hollywood in 2015. Locations in Seoul, South Korea and Dallas, Texas have since followed.

‘We are an international gallery. We have always built communities where ever we build,” said Varet. “They are always community safe spaces for every kind of person, including undocumented individuals and people of the LGBTQ+ community.”

VSF founder/owner Esther Kim Varet poses with Heidi Zuckerman, chief executive at the OCMA, at VSF OC’s opening.

(Courtesy of Various Small Fires)

In April, Varet brought Various Small Fires to Orange County, opening VSF OC in a converted space at 119 N. Prospect Ave in Tustin. The grand opening featured an art activation for children with many local art leaders, like chief executive at the Orange County Museum of Art Heidi Zuckerman, in attendance. Collectors, artists and families from nearby residential neighborhoods rounded out the opening audience.

The inaugural exhibition, “The Orange Curtain” features the work of Southern California contemporary artists Edwin Arzeta, Jackie Castillo and Marcel Alcalá.

“They are all artists who were born and raised in Orange County but have an increasing national and international presence,” said Varet.

Curated by Varet and on view now through May 31, the exhibition examines the political and cultural connotations of “the orange curtain,” and the perception of the divide between Orange County and the greater Southern California area, particularly Los Angeles. The show is also a commitment to the diverse communities Varet supports as a candidate in the 2026 election for California’s 40th U.S. Congressional district.

“I was important for me start with an exhibition and commit to a show schedule that would highlight the cultural legacy of Orange County over the last 30 years and the cultural influence of Orange County over the last 40 years, that we might not always as a community remember about ourselves,” said Varet.

The work of Edwin Arzeta, Jackie Castillo and Marcel Alcalá on display at the newest gallery space from Various Small Fires, VSF OC.

(Courtesy of the artists/Various Small Fires)

Castillo, for example, is an up-and-coming artist with her first institutional solo exhibition, “Through the Descent, Like the Return” currently on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Born in city of Orange, Castillo’s work shines a light on the unseen labor of immigrants using industrial materials associated with the working class. In pieces like “Of the garden just risen from darkness” and “And once more I remember,” photographs of beautifully landscaped doorways and staircases are depicted on cement blocks. The lonely entry ways are a juxtaposition of the beautification of everyday life and the unnoticed work that goes into making it so.

“She forces us to think about the unseen labor of all these sites we experience everyday,” said Varet. “It is critical to push the narrative that unseen labor is foundational.”

The work of Santa Ana-born Marcel Alcalá incorporates his Mexican American heritage and queer identity into paintings rich with symbolism. In “First Strike” two roosters fight violently against a clouded violet sky, while a small yellow chick in the foreground looks on.

“There are a lot of images of multiplicity. In the cockfight, there are a lot of layers in that, two entries fighting against each other, there is always this push and pull between forces,” Varet notes.

“Their Coronation” features a man in full make up and an elaborate quinceañera-style dress riding in the back of convertible, eyes piercing the viewer.

“Marcel talks a lot about different transitional states, a butterfly as a symbol of metamorphosis... the female form, the male form, cut flowers, these things come up in his work often,” said Varet.

Marcel Alcalá, Their Coronation, (2023.) Courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles

(Olympia Shannon)

Edwin Arzeta, also from the city of Orange, draws layered cakes, confections that are in many ways studies of pattern. Rows of ribbon, primly tied bows and white daisies line a checkered cake in “Luceros de la Primavera,” a title that translates to “Stars of Spring.” All the cakes emulate a warm glow, not just from the rows of burning birthday candles but from the layers of the cake themselves. Each piece references the evolution of celebrations within Arzeta’s own community.

“I love his work because it feels really celebratory in a time when we are not celebrating all the time,” said Varet.

Based on the encouraging turn out of VSF OC’s opening exhibition, Varet is confident the new space can enhance the local community the way VSF has in all of its locations. She also believes the show can push back on the notion of Orange County as a limited place, lacking in diversity and confined to suburb issues compared to L.A.

“That orange curtain is more of an illusion than we realize. The orange curtain isn’t a divide anymore, it’s artifice,” said Varet. “The artists here are testament to that.”

VSF OC is open to the public Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 119 N. Prospect Ave. in Tustin.