Beyond the Frame: The Art and Life of Slater Barron

Beyond the Frame: The Art and Life of Slater Barron

Join us at LBMA Downtown for an engaging conversation on the art and life of Slater Barron, a pioneering Long Beach artist known for her inventive use of unconventional materials. LBMA Curator Paul Loya, LBMA Curator Emerita Sue Ann Robinson, artist Nate Jones, and close friend of Barron, Carol Norcross, will discuss Barron’s influential Mother Series, her creative process, and the legacy she leaves within the contemporary art community in Long Beach and beyond.

Date: Saturday, December 20, 2025
Time: 2:00 - 3:00 PM
Price: FREE
Location: 356 E 3rd Street, Long Beach, CA 90802

About Artist

Slater Barron (1930–2020) was a feminist artist and educator from Southern California, recognized for her use of unconventional materials, provocative themes, and her generous mentorship of young artists. During the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s—when the art world often marginalized women—she organized exhibitions featuring Orange County’s women artists, wrote essays, and appeared in national magazines.

Barron’s work boldly explored tough topics like child abuse, the horrors of war, the joys and sorrows of marriage, and the emotional toll of her parents’ Alzheimer’s disease—often balancing these themes with wit and humor. A later battle with lung cancer inspired a series of lyrical paintings. Her family life also shaped her embrace of a new “feminist” medium. Even her name carried significance: born Marylou Slater, she combined her own surname with her husband’s, becoming Slater Barron to ensure her work was taken seriously in a male-dominated field. Every part of her experience ultimately found expression in her art.

Barron began taking art seriously in her mid-40s after a diverse earlier life that included service in the U.S. Navy, a career in family counseling, marriage to a Marine officer, and years spent raising four children while living on military bases across the United States and France. When the family settled in Orange County, California, in 1968—shortly before her husband retired from the military—Barron took the opportunity to return to school, earning her undergraduate degree from UC Irvine and a graduate degree from Cal State Long Beach.

While creating art in her garage in the 1970s, Barron noticed the buildup of dryer lint from her family’s laundry. This material was plentiful, cheap, and closely connected to domestic life. What started as a practical find became a signature artistic choice. Barron turned dryer lint into portraits, books, “paintings,” and playful replicas of sushi and candy. She even made room-sized installations where almost every surface was covered in lint. This creative use of a common household material earned her the fond nickname “The Lint Lady.”

About the Exhibition

The Long Beach Museum of Art is pleased to present The Mother Series by one of Long Beach’s most beloved artists, Slater Barron, along with a selection of her iconic lint works from the artist’s estate. This exhibition marks Barron’s first presentation since her passing in 2020.

Organized in collaboration with Barron’s daughter Jennifer Lin, estate curator Kimberly Hocking, and the artist’s close friend Carol Norcross, the exhibition also features a variety of works from the artist’s estate, including watercolors, her famous lint Sushi Rolls, and plaster cast tools. Collectively, these works highlight the depth and accuracy of Barron’s artistic practice and her innovative use of lint and other unconventional materials.

A film by Joseph Bolinger will also be on view, capturing the vibrant and thoughtful energy that Slater Barron brought to her art, her life, and her community.