Cerritos College Art Gallery is pleased to present BackUp Utopia, a solo exhibition of new print, video, and installation works by multimedia artist McLean Fahnestock, produced during her month-long July 2024 residency at the gallery.

The sardonic dichotomy of the exhibition's title, with 'utopia' implying an extreme ideal and 'backup' suggesting a safe and/or lesser alternative, unites and frames the disparate works on display. Together, they seek to tackle the historic (and still ongoing) discursive inscription and mediated representation of the American West as a paradise on earth, despite perpetually falling short of that aspirational goal.