Husband and wife for 28 years, Bob and Margi Moskowitz may have differing art as seen in their two exhibitions, now open in Gallery 2 and the New Media Gallery, but that doesn’t mean there is strife or competition between them.

Both artists were on hand at the reception on Thursday night, greeting the steady flow of people and answering questions about their pieces. Both said that it was a good crowd, with a lot of people from Ventura College and the outside community. The gathering included VC President Robin Calote and her husband, Gary, Ramiro Sanchez, executive vice president, and people from Malibu to Ojai.

Bob Moskowitz, an art teacher here at Ventura College and the Art Department chair for 10 years, calls his exhibition “Survival and Denial.”

“From the moment of birth all beings are engaged in the struggle to survive,” he said. “Survival is at the crux of the human condition and denial is a counterpoint to survival.”

All the works in his exhibition are oil paintings that deal with people who have struggled to survive as well as the denial of such struggles, he said, such as Holocaust survivors and those who deny the Holocaust. Much of his art takes a strong political as well as philosophical stance.

Margi Moskowitz, an artist with a bachelor’s degree and master’s in fine arts in painting and drawing, said she steps away from the political and human field to examine nature, particularly the northern latitudes, after which her exhibition is named.

But despite these tremendous differences in subject and style, they are each other’s “best critics,” Margi Moskowitz said. “We both respect each other’s work.”

She now paints full time, doing what she loves and constantly developing her skills as an artist. “Oil painting and art is a lifetime’s exploration,” Margi Moskowitz said-an exploration she and Bob Moskowitz are currently on together.

Margi Moskowitz enjoyed the reception experience.

“I got a lot of questions on many of my pieces,” she said, adding that the variety of those questions was very interesting to her.

Professors of photography and art, respectively, Bill Hendricks and Ann Bittl put together a catalog of the artists’ work to sell during the reception, Bob Moskowitz said. The money from the sale benefits the gallery.

The exhibits will be open Mondays through Fridays from noon to 4 p.m. until Sept. 28.