Claremont painter Karl Benjamin is suddenly ubiquitous (look it up), and that’s a good thing. The New York Times had a piece on him Sunday (read it here), with an online slideshow to boot (view it here).

And the L.A. Times today notes he has work in a midcentury show at the Orange County Museum of Art (read that here). The LAT says the work of Benjamin and other “hard edge” painters “is about egalitarian perceptual liberation.” I have no idea what this means. But I do know that I really dug Benjamin’s show at the Claremont Museum of Art this summer.

As it happens, I got a very nice letter — not an e-mail, a letter — from Karl the other day. Among other topics, he touted the brand-new dba 256 wine bar/art gallery in Pomona, at 256 S. Main at Third Street (read about them here). I visited there on Wednesday and will have an item in Friday’s column.