Art as Authority

God & Country








jcstudioandgallery.com

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by David White

AND THE EMERGING ARTISTS ARE...

SD-Art Prize: Not since the Bush administration have we seen more white males over 40 giving unregulated opportunities to their cronies. …and for some reason people think San Diego is conservative?

Christopher Miles on John Baldessari
Original context here
http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue13/ninetofive.htm

Image: Joan Miro and Henry Moore

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by Richard Gleaves

Tom Driscoll, oil on aluminum tubing

Richard Allen Morris, acrylic on canvas

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Event: The Infinity Lab presents "Nine Transient Things"
Opening Date & Time: Saturday, May 2, 2009 7:00pm - 11:00pm
Place: Voz Alta Project, 1754 National Avenue, Barrio Logan, CA 92113

THE INFINITY LAB GOES CRAYO-LOCO©

The Infinity Lab gets extravagant in their new exhibit, "Nine Transient Things." After reflecting upon the recent avant-garde art terms "un-monumental" and "Altermodernism," the infinitists take low-tech to the next level by creating nine 3' square drawings of their performance gear using only Crayola® crayons as materials. In the tradition of the late 10th-century Byzantine religious works, the subject matter could be considered The Infinity Icons or The Infinity Relics, but instead the doctors irreverently add whimsical intonations to the latest contemporary art aesthetics by calling them: "Nine Transient Things".

During the opening and closing receptions, DJ Dan Camacho will mix soundscapes on three turntables. Also on display is a top-secret installation of a new "Blue Chip [artist] Special."

Closing Reception: Saturday, May 16, 2009 from 7pm -11pm
Exhibit dates: May 2-May 16th.
For more information: vozaltaproject.org or myspace.com/theinfinitylab

The Kids are Alright

May 1st - May 31st, 2009
Opening reception: Friday, May 1st, 2009 / 6 to 10pm

Subtext is proud to present a group exhibition of emerging artists, guest curated by Beau Basse. The Kids Are Alright is a five city showcase tour of 25 young artists that have either recently graduated or are still attending art school. The series was designed to give these artists an opportunity to develop their talents while receiving direction and feedback from several different galleries throughout the country. The Tour is curated by Beau Basse, owner of LeBasse Projects in Los Angeles. His goal in producing the Tour is to create a platform for young artists to gain experience working with galleries in order to properly prepare them for future success as professional artists. Mark your calendars for this epic showing of fresh talent. For a full list of the participating artists visit our website here.








Live music in the courtyard at 9pm.

Thanks to our friends at Sezio, Subtext is proud to feature Better Class of Flying Man. It’s gonna be a nice Spring night, so don’t miss out.




The Andrews Gallery
Press Release – MAY 2009
FOR IMMIDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Drew Snyder, Owner
Tel. 760.230.2680 (w) | 817.235.2404 (c) || Email: drew@theandrewsgallery.com
www.theandrewsgallery.com | www.theandrewsgallery.blogspot.com





The Saturdays of May with Matt Curreri

In a bacchic celebration of the days getting longer and the weather getting warmer, The Andrews Gallery is
pleased to officially announce The Saturdays of May with Matt Curreri, a series of five free events open to
the public highlighting a diverse selection of visual artists, musicians and poets from all over San Diego
County. These nights will be centered around Matt Curreri and The Exfriends, who have been dubbed “one
of San Diegoʼs best indie bands” by the San Diego Union Tribune (2008).

In addition, on each new Saturday The Andrews Gallery will host a variety of different creative exhibitions.
Gifted artists, singers and writers will come together to participate in this completely unique and
unprecedented series of imaginative performances. The Gallery is excited for the opportunity to showcase
Mr. Curreriʼs projects along with a highly diverse selection of some of the finest talent in San Diego County.

The schedule of is as follows:
The sounds of Matt Curreri along with…

5/2 (SERIES OPENER) – Steel drum virtuoso Keli Ross-Maʼu and local music group The Perry Edwards. On display in the Studio Room: San Diego mixed-media visual artist Andre Couturier and his new series of prints entitled Guys and Dolls.

5/9 – The Exfriends and the prodigious abstractions of San Diego painter Floyd Elmore. Elmoreʼs new show Obstacle Delusion is a May Gallery Room feature.

5/16 – The Exfriends and the formidable John Meeks.

5/23 – The Exfriends and the debut of the 6x6 Poetry Series, where a diverse selection of 12 talented San Diego County poets will each read for 6 minutes. Special musical guest: Joanie Mendenhall.

5/30 (SERIES CLOSER) – Local music ensemble Orange Electric. On Display and being demonstrated: Ukes Etc, the artistic handcrafted string instruments of San Diego native Owen Burke.

Each event will begin at 7:00PM at The Andrews Gallery. While we do not specify an end time, all live
music will end by 10:30PM at the latest. Every night is free, all ages, and open to the public. Like every event at The Andrews Gallery, the purpose of this series is to bolster the arts throughout the greater San Diego area by providing a stimulating venue for people to engage with a diverse selection of artists as well as with each other. This series is particularly geared towards spotlighting the local and emerging talent that pervades in our area, as all participants are current residents of San Diego County. Profiles of all participants as well as more detailed descriptions of the events of each night can be found on our website and blog. While the official schedule is above, there will be special additions to each night that are not listed above.

Located at 1002 N Coast Hwy 101 in Leucadia. The Andrews Gallery is a new fine art gallery and live studio dedicated to providing fresh work of the highest quality at the best value to the San Diego community and beyond. The Andrews Gallery also offers private painting instruction for all ages and all levels. Open 7 days a week. Call ahead for hours 760.230.2680 / 817.235.2404. Visit the gallery website for artists, mailing list, directions, contact info, latest news and more.

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by Anna Stump


Dear Fellow Artists,

I'm organizing an exhibition of 100 artists from Southern California (and further) and 100 artists from Turkey. I'd like to invite you to participate.





Trade Show, California - Turkey asks each artist to consider the following questions:
What do I value? What would I trade?
Artworks will be traded between the Turks and Americans.

All artworks must be two-dimensional media, 6" x 6". Please see attached info sheet for more details.

Exhibitions venues for Summer and Fall 2009 include gallery spaces in San Diego, Los Angeles, Ankara, Eskisehir, and Istanbul as a parallel show to the 11th International Istanbul Biennial.

Deadline to submit is June 25, 2009.

Attached is more information. The website is on Facebook here.

I hope you'll consider participating. Please feel free to forward this email to any artists you think may be interested.

Warm regards, and tesekur ederim (thank you!)

11th International Istanbul Biennial
September-November 2009, Istanbul, Turkey
Theme: What Keeps Mankind Alive

Parallel Exhibition:
Trade Show, California - Turkey

Biennial Essay
(Edited by Anna Stump)

The 11th International İstanbul Biennial takes its title from the song 'Denn wovon lebt der Mensch?', translated into English as 'What Keeps Mankind Alive?'. The song closes the second act of the play The Threepenny Opera, written exactly 80 years ago by Bertolt Brecht in collaboration with Elisabeth Hauptmann and Kurt Weill.

Isn't the question posed by Brecht equally urgent today? And is it not true that we live haunted by the fears of approaching global changes, consequences of which could have lasting disastrous effects, not unlike those that transformed the world after the economic collapse of 1929? And aren't today's questions about the role of art in instigating social changes equally pressing as they were in the 1930s, when the Left confronted fascism and Stalinism?

The Threepenny Opera thematicizes the process of redistribution of ownership within bourgeois society and, through a literary narrative, offers a still valid 'representation of capitalism itself — how to express the economic - or, even better, the peculiar realities and dynamics of money as such'.

'What Keeps Mankind Alive?' will serve as a trigger, as well as a certain script for the exhibition, allowing us and the artists to pose questions of economic and social urgency today. Even a quick look at the lyrics will discover many possible themes, such as the distribution of wealth and poverty, food and hunger, political manipulations, gender oppression, social norms, double morality, religious hypocrisy, personal responsibility and consent to oppression, issues certainly 'relevant' and almost predictable, which many exhibitions — especially contemporary biennial exhibitions — set out to engage with.

Today, biennial exhibitions are elements of cultural tourism through which cities attempt to use their benign and internationally communicative regional specificities to position themselves on the map of the globalized world; they are manifestations tending to 'cultural shopping' in which art is often presented as cool, fun, entertaining... Brecht was certainly critical of what he called a 'culinary' treatment of art solely as a means of entertainment, but he did not shy away from the entertaining role of art. In the popular and mass culture, as Brecht warned us, the problem is not pleasure, but its function.

Brecht invites us to rethink our position again and again, to see the world as amateur actors, without dulling our critical faculties or our potential for intervention and change by learning the rules all too well. As a writer and a director, Brecht continuously sought to slice open and display, then deconstruct and transform the theatre's 'production apparatus' — it is this approach that should lead us out of the current deadlock of 'contemporary art apparatus.' At this time, the question of 'usability' of Brecht means first and foremost a repeated need to observe the interaction of art and social relations. And in İstanbul and Turkey, where 'the conflict between an orthodox left position and contemporary art plays a critical role today in the understanding of contemporary art,' to exit the impasse of double-bind discourses of global neoliberalism and local ethno-nationalism seems to be the only endeavour worth all the trouble.

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by Kevin Freitas


from the SDVAN website

DISCOMBOBULATED: KIM MacCONNEL and emerging artist BRIAN DICK

Opening Reception
Saturday, April 25th, 7:00 - 9:00pm
Exhibition runs April 25th - July 20th, 2009

L Street Gallery
628 L Street (Across from the Omni Hotel)
San Diego, CA 92101





DISCOMBOBULATED featuring works by Kim MacConnel and Brian Dick is the first exhibition of the 2009 San Diego Art Prize. The SD Art Prize, now in its third year, is given annually to established artists and emerging artist who have exhibited outstanding achievement in the field of Visual Arts.

The SD Art Prize is dedicated to the idea that the visual arts are a necessary and rewarding ingredient of any world-class city and a building block of the lifestyle of its residents. Conceived to promote and encourage dialogue, reflection and social interaction about San Diego’s artistic and cultural life.





Presented by:
San Diego Visual Arts Network (www.sdvan.net)
SanDiegoArtist.com (www.sandiegoartist.com)
L Street Fine Art / at the Omni Hotel (www.lstreetfineart.com )
For more info: 619.645.6593 Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat. 10-5pm

What's in a name was my other choice of a title for this seemingly much-anticipated two person show at L Street Fine Art. However, with the title of the show already chosen, DISCOMBOBULATED, it might make you wonder if its selection wasn't a bit prophetic considering the ballyhoo overheard (principally by its defenders) in favor of its curatorial debut so to speak. I clearly have a different opinion and have expressed this openly and freely. But legitimacy is a very difficult thing to claim at this moment: the burden of proof lies with both MacConnel and Dick and myself amongst others, to put on a "good" show and to have a fair assessment of its outcome regardless of its headliners. Though there might be some speculation and confusion already as to what is going to be allegedly exhibited — earlier works by MacConnel from the 90's and recently-seen photos by Dick vs. entirely new productions — we'll just have to sit tight and see for ourselves. I'm hoping for the sake of everyone involved that it rises to the occasion.

For another point of view, read Keli Dailey's take on it in the Union-Tribune.


UPDATE: 4/23/09

Established artist Richard Allen Morris (76) has chosen emerging artist Tom Driscoll (64) as the 2009 San Diego Art Prize recipient. This concludes this year's Art Prize winners with none of the emerging artists nominated to this effect - and recently seen in New Contemporaries II - having been selected.

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by Richard Gleaves

I picked this because it's the most beautiful clip in the world. And I think you'll enjoy it. How it relates to my work is something about being a low-budget director, and you just have an idea that you have to do that means nothing to the entire movie — that's totally ridiculous — but you have to do it.

  — Jason Sherry

He's sort of this archaeologist in terms of pop culture and movies.

  — Neil Kendricks

Sherry's work is described in the gallery press release as "audio-mechanical sculptures and photo/print collages," but a more elegant way to conceptualize the work is as "image and non-image collage."

Image collage is in essence technically trivial: scissors, glue, and a magazine suffice. But non-image collage — a turntable with a bicycle; a pump organ with a pile of magazines; a hair dryer with ... an image collage! — takes mechanical genius, and Sherry's got it.

A worthwhile reference point here is Tim Hawkinson, who deploys similar levels of genius toward the very different goal of realizing Rube Goldberg. Hawkinson celebrates mechanism, while Sherry works to achieve a seamless whole: the collage ideal.

Update: 4/24

Michele Guieu has posted video of the full conversation.

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by Judith Pedroza


When one has the desire to embark upon a life project embodied in art, the initial questions are:
Why do I want to work?
With whom do I want to share a direct dialog?
And which pieces would I like to put together in the same space to make a coherent art statement?



Orlando Díaz


(4) Artists

We have shared a myriad of daily-lived experiences: personal, generational, and contextual questions and insights. In a place like Mexico City we experimented with artistic resistance, growing up in the moment where an artistic scene was forming. Over time, we saw museums, schools, galleries, and collections emerge from the labored efforts of contemporary artists born and raised in the “city”.


thru April 25th, 2009
619.384.7989
Pincus review: here

Argentinean born Rodrigo Sastre decided to leave the University of Buenos Aires in his last year of study. He had come to the realization that his education was “incomplete”. He enrolled in “La Esmeralda” School of Art in Mexico City, seeking a different analytical paradigm. Since then, he has worked under the tutelage of established artists. Over the last seven years, he has worked in his principle medium, drawing, with an intense focus on North American popular culture from the 80’s.

Hector Ivan Delgado (MX) belongs to the Educational Public Institution in Mexico City. From this work (the total bureaucracy) he has developed workshops on social justice and equity.

Orlando Díaz (MX) is a studio artist, with a primary interest in painting. He has forged a pictorial engagement with invented characters, and a collection of anecdotes that reflect the human capacity for destruction.

And I, Judith Pedroza, with an unusual education between Design and the Arts, have spent the last few years working in collectives with the idea of bringing groups with different art interests together in dialogue. Most recently, my life has been occupied with various endeavors: Changing my area of academic study, exchanging books with professors and students, and battling with political groups, “Grupos de choques,” to save my family home in Mexico City.

Agitprop + David White

I heard about the Agitprop project through other artists. I found a small door (a small hole) in North Park, San Diego, which provided a space for complete sculptural reflection. For David White, the owner, Agitprop is not the culmination of a space, it is the idea of constructing a network and relationship between these ideas of art in a specific community, an amalgam of interests, while including locality and looking for interstices in which to implement artistic reflections, while, at the same time, pushing for debate. Later, I saw his piece entitled “monument” where he set up a work desk and created mini-replicas of the Washington Monument. White’s actions are problematic, the entire artistic mass, his materials are the spaces of the locality, like a social sculpture more current than that of Beuys with instructions as in the works of Erwin Wurm or maybe in the sense of the “Yelding Stone”: Kneading (mixing) the “locality”.

The Pieces (Security for All)

“Waiting for the Title” (Héctor Iván Delgado) is a labyrinth of soldiers, knights, cowboys, Indian toys, like a memory of the first game (and game rules) learned in childhood: playing war, playing to violence, choosing a role, the importance of accepting the fact of “winner and looser,” the strategies of arranging and negotiation. A labyrinth, like an existing myth in every culture, is a connotation of “transformation”, where the art’s cultural myth is insecure, not transparent, playing with alternate forms like information transfer, permissible to change, reevaluation or deletion. What we know of “Establishment” is fractured but can be transformed by reflective movements in the culture, in other words, by the inspection and revision of facts and the energy of circulation.



Héctor Iván Delgado



Héctor Iván Delgado

Orlando Díaz in his “Structures of Protection” draws on his reflections about the base where the artistic community is situated. The structures that support the floor represent the construction which is not a controlled historic event, but rather a myth, a ritual, a disjointed connection, a fake and stuffy market economy. On the top layer the artist anchors his own support, thinking about his humanity as that of a “pig,” which embodies the negative connotations of being dirty and stupid, or like a tree protected by its own wood or like the girl in the middle of fractured disorder.



Orlando Díaz

“South” (Rodrigo Sastre) is an experimental animation piece grounded on a book written by the Spanish painter Velazquez entitled “The interpretation of Meninas.” The artist is disguised as a robot, multiplying himself into two characters that fight and reconcile, making war, only to then formulate convenient treaties in order to have it both ways. The artist doesn’t want to disassociate from the robot representing modernity. And yet, the robot without a soul and mired in a repetitive action, the one that fights with the individual also wants to be transformed. This indicates a self-transformation: “I change so as to not disappear.”



Rodrigo Sastre



Rodrigo Sastre

“There’s a house by the sea” (Judith Pedroza) a little paper house suspended by two forces of resistance: helium and coal. Everyone has an idea of “home,” the house of childhood, the house of dreams and the future. In U.S. culture the myth of the house is a culmination; the dimensions of the house translate into obtained achievements. The principle of the myth of the “established security” carries insecurity in itself. The house falls on the unstable coal pile . This artistic endeavor defines the conservation of an artistic creative state of mind, reflective and suspended, waiting for the epiphany. In order to keep a float my creative energy, my task is to keep the little house suspended in the air.



Judith Pedroza

LINKS

Rodrigo Sastre

http://www.boladenieve.org.ar/node/7571
http://www.facebook.com/people/Rodrigo-Sastre/729037780
http://www.arteven.org/profile/rodrigosastre
http://www.arteven.com/anv/n/html/07_cafe_la_gloria_4.htm
http://www.bbartfield.com/?p=172
http://www.galerialarefaccionaria.com/La%20Refaccionaria/Rodrigo%20Sastre.html
http://www.neuronal.com.mx/Site/Home_files/Balastras%202006.html
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=339652806
http://www.arteba.com/arteBA08/prensa/cajanegra-cuboblanco/larefaccionaria.htm

Héctor Iván Delgado

http://hectorivandelgado.blogspot.com/

Orlando Díaz

http://www.arteven.org/profile/OrlandoDiaz
http://www.myspace.com/orlandomarranodiaz

Judith Pedroza

http://adr-ma.blogspot.com/2008/12/la-esttica-kantiana-resumida.html
http://www.artasauthority.com/2009/02/garage_sale_a_work_of_agitprop.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2007/01/empezamos-el-2007-con-islas-de-polvo.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2006/11/crossroads-9-nov-06.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2006/11/el-proceso-de-crossroads.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2007/05/ejercicio-de-escritura_6552.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2007/06/30-de-mayo-una-pasarela.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2008/08/blog-post.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2008/05/esperando-el-ttulo.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2007/12/zombra-monster-exposicion-jueves-6-de.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2007/09/blog-post.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2007/06/blog-post.html
http://lachicaquenorecibeanillosdediamante.blogspot.com/2007/06/anillo-de-montecristo.html

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by Richard Gleaves

... to sound art, which though technically not music can't help being so, given how music reigns as the supreme art form of electronic-age humanity.

Drawing from a national call for submissions, Garage Gallery (aka Larry Caveney) recently curated a high-quality one-hour set which played straight through in the darkened BYO chair garage space.

The eight works presented hit various points on the sound-to-music spectrum, depending on one's ears: the musicians in attendance said they heard everything as music.

That the musicians were there is due to the cryptic sagacity of CityBeat, which chose to list Garage's art show announcement as a music event. Wise move: the musicians were stoked, and said they'd be back.

Garage needs to consider doing this annually; otherwise, aside from the occasional Céleste Boursier-Mougenot or wind chime, the closest we get to sound art is SoundWalk, and that's up in Long Beach.

More, please!

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An Installation by Marisol Rendón
Opening reception: April 18 / 6 to 9pm
(a North Park Nights / San Diego Art Prize satellite exhibit)

Exhibit on view April 18 - May 3, 2009





Marisol Rendón pursues an interest in the metaphorical and quasi-spiritual existence of the objects around us. She was born in 1975 in Manizales, Colombia. She began her BA in the School of Arts at the Caldas University, where, after her graduation, she worked as a professor for four years. In 1999 she acquired the title of Specialist in Semiotics and Hermeneutics of Art, offered by the National University of Colombia. In 2001 she traveled to United States to earn her MFA in the Masters of Fine Arts program at Claremont Graduate University, California, where she focused her studio practice in installations as one of the new genres of art.

ART Produce Gallery
3139 University Ave.
San Diego, CA
619.584.4448
lynn@artproducegallery.com

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by Marilyn Mitchell


Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body is now showing a SDMA until April 26th. If you haven't seen it, you are missing a bold and diverse group of works well worth several hours of contemplation.

The exhibit, curated by Barbara Thompson, includes contemporary black female art, postcards from the end of the 19th Century, and traditional African sculptures. The focus is on the female body and the stark differences of perception and interpretation by Africans, Western Colonial photographers and contemporary female artists.

The exhibits opens with a gigantic self portrait photograph of Renee Cox titled "Baby Back", 2001. Clearly a re-imagined take on Ingres' Odalisque of 1814, Cox's portrait holds a whip and has none of the 'come hither' attitude of Ingres' painting. She looks more like someone who is in total control and will dominate even an anonymous viewer. Hung on a deep red wall, it's a striking image.

The postcards were meant to titillate western viewers with the semi-nude examples of women from Africa and the Middle East. Seeing them today makes me cringe at the thought of how the buyers of the cards were meant to feel vastly superior to those portrayed.

If you are not familiar with African sculpture, it's worth noting that most African sculpture was made with a spiritual purpose and may have been used in a religious ceremony. The sculptures are from Sierra Leone, Gabon, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, The Republic of Congo, Tanzania and others. The exhibit shows some delightful pieces but does not give us the context of the objects displayed. They serve as an interesting counterpoint to the contemporary works but honestly are not likely to be antecedents to the contemporary pieces.

Alison Saar has two pieces on display, a wonderful woodcut "Topsy" (2002) which shows a woman's head with bottles on her hair. The image is explained as containing her dreams. Very cool.

Her other piece is a large reclining nude sculpture "Cache" (2006) made of ceiling tin, wood and wire. The piece is meant to "evoke the burden of Saar's own racially mixed ancestry" but for me it evoked tension wound so tightly it becomes a crushing weight. The stiffness of the figure and the blank expression of the face creates a feeling of burden but one would never know it comes from her ancestry. Knowing her mastery of sculpture, this piece feels surprisingly lifeless, yet it is also very beautiful.

Included in the programming for the exhibit were several story telling sessions by the Black Storytellers Association. Their lively performance Saturday, April 11th left me chanting their phrase, "I am not my hair. I am not my skin. I am not your expectations. I am my self. I am the soul that lives within." How true, how true.

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by Kevin Freitas

“In a piece of wood I look for a pelican, and may find an eagle. I keep a wood stash. Some days you feel like a duck and sometimes you don’t. You have to be in the mood. If you don’t have the juices flowing, it won’t work. When it does work, it’s priceless. You can’t buy that feeling, having designs bear fruit, and it can disappear in a heartbeat.”

Glenn lived in Gold Beach, Oregon. He led a reclusive life with no phone or internet access, obliged to descend from his mountain top to make a call or send an email from the public library. Glenn would scour the beaches and forest for driftwood and fallen trunks and branches. The blustery winters would reward him plentifully with madronna, port orford cedar, myrtle, maple, oak and alder woods. All it took from Glenn at that point was "to be in the mood" - which was never very difficult for him.

Glenn was an excellent sculptor, at the top of his craft, producing some of his best work in years. He was dedicated, passionate, genuine and one helluva nice guy. He put to shame all those chainsaw happy, grizzly bear carving faux sculptors pandering their wares from Tucson to Utah. I will miss his candor, his gruff voice on the telephone, and unpacking his treasures freshly delivered to the gallery's doorstep. I will miss the man, I will miss his art. Farewell my friend, I hope the Good Lord has a place for a pelican or two. The full story can be read here.

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by KAI ONE


"I was talking to my boy the other day about the fine art game and he was saying that the most important element to success was who owned your work. I said fuck that I want the masses to see this shit. Maybe he was right though. Either way I just stay in the streets chug-a-lugging along trying to go for mine. That boredom and malaise hits you quick and before you know it you are dipping through backstreets trying to shake off Johnny Law all the time worrying about what bridges you are going to burn tonight. The streets are just pages for this corny clichéd life and I’m just wandering through them."

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from the press release





Art @ the Core is a community movement in North Park and City Heights that utilizes art as a catalyzing force for positive change. Our goal is to increase access, engagement and participation in the civic process through cultural development. www.artcoresd.org

Art @ the Core through Poetry!

April is National Poetry Month, so our monthly community gathering will be focused on making poetry together in creative ways! Join us this Saturday, April 11th, to participate in this fun, community building activity and to hear from our Leadership Teams about their experiences and progress in gathering voices from the neighborhoods of City Heights and North Park.

2:00-5:00pm
At the City Heights studio of transcenDANCE Youth Arts Project.
4634 University Ave.
San Diego, CA 92105

The "data" we collect through our listening activities will be artfully reflected back in Voices: Mapping the Hood, a dance theatre production and visual arts installation.

May 8 - June 28, 2009
At the Tenth Avenue Theatre (Downtown) and Art Produce Gallery (North Park)

**FREE** Community Classes presented by Art @ the Core!

Intergenerational Dance Class in City Heights!
Presented by: transcenDANCE Youth Arts Project

Every Monday ~ 6:45-7:45pm
4634 University Ave. San Diego, CA 92105
Call 619.255.3812 or e-mail info@tdarts.org for info.

Hip Hop Dance Class in North Park!
Presented by: Eveoke Dance Theatre

Every Wednesday ~ 4:30-5:30pm
2811-A University Ave. San Diego, CA 92104
Call 619.238.1153 or e-mail melanie@eveoke.org for info.

Upcoming Art @ the Core Gatherings

May 9th - May 10th - May 17th - June 13th - June 20th

Art @ the Core Partners

Thank you to:

The San Diego Foundation's Arts & Culture Working Group for developing the Art Works for San Diego initiative!

Art @ the Core is generously funded by:
The James Irvine Foundation Cultural Arts and Humanities Fund
Ariel W. Coggeshall Fund

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‘Creative Fix’ Invites Artists to Play an Active Role in Politics

April 16 and 17
Marcuse Gallery
noon to 4:30 p.m.
Visual Arts Facility, University of California
San Diego, CA

May 2
Agitprop
3 to 6 p.m.
2837 University Avenue (entrance on Utah)
North Park, San Diego, CA

May 30
compactspace
3 to 7 p.m.
105 E 6th Street
Los Angeles, CA

La Jolla, California — In her upcoming project, “Creative Fix,” Sheryl Oring asks artists what they would do to fix the country if they could do anything at all. Oring, 43, is a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts candidate at the University of California, San Diego. She is calling artists to the university’s Marcuse Gallery on April 16 & 17, Agitprop in San Diego on May 2, and compactspace in Los Angeles on May 30, to discuss their creative solutions for our country. Oring will make one-minute videos of their answers and post them on YouTube. By doing so, Oring hopes to bring artists into the contemporary political debate. Artists of all types – writers, musicians, visual artists, architects etc. – are invited to participate.

“Creative Fix” is currently California-based and has the potential to expand to an international scale as viewers respond to the videos posted on Oring’sYouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/iwishtosay. The final shape of the participatory project depends on the creativity of respondents.

The idea for “Creative Fix” grew out of Oring’s most recent past work, a public art project called “I Wish to Say.” For this, Oring set out to gather public opinion during the 2008 presidential election by setting up an “office” – complete with a manual typewriter – in public places and inviting passersby to dictate postcards to the next president. Many people spoke out for change, and Oring feels the challenges facing this nation demand attention from more than just the usual suspects. Artists, she said, can offer a fresh perspective on many of the most pressing issues of the day.

“In other parts of the world, artists play a legitimate role in politics and political debate,” said Oring, citing examples such as Václav Havel, the playwright who became president of Czechoslovakia, and the German political system, in which the arts play a significant role in local and national political institutions. “In the U.S., however, artists are seen as suspect. I’d like to do one small thing to change this and bring more creativity to American politics.”

Oring is a first-year MFA student focused on public culture. Led by architect Teddy Cruz, Public Culture is a new emphasis at UC San Diego’s Department of Visual Arts. Cruz is Oring’s mentor.

More About the Artist:

Sheryl Oring is the author of “I Wish to Say: The Birthday Project,” a book published in 2008 that features a collection of birthday cards for former President George Bush, which were dictated at public events Oring held in eight cities across the country. Named ABC News’ Person of the Week by Peter Jennings for her performance piece “I Wish to Say” during the 2004 Republican Convention in New York City, Oring is a former journalist (The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Die Welt) whose provocative work explores the intersection of language, politics and memory. Her past work includes “Writing Home,” a performance in which she invited people to dictate letters to their ancestors; and “Writer’s Block,” a sculptural installation made out of hundreds of antique typewriters. She has received fellowships from the Creative Capital Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts and the Robert Bosch Foundation; held a residency as part of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space program; and exhibited in museums, cultural centers, galleries and public spaces in the United States, Europe and India. Oring has a degree in journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and has studied art history and theory at the Humboldt University in Berlin. She is working on an MFA in Visual Arts with an emphasis in public culture at UC San Diego.

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Sound of It

Garage Gallery
Date: Friday, April 10, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm

4141 Alabama Street, #4
San Diego, CA
619.297.6032
deepseal2@aol.com

This exhibit will happen in pitch darkness. Artists who are exploring the dimensions of sound/art; in the manner of John Cage. Please bring own chair. Performance will start and door will be closed during the sound pieces. An intermission will take place between for 1/2 hour.

Artists:
Timothy Gaewsky
Seth Cluett - www.onelonelypixel.org/bio.html
Mark Eden
Robert Fraher
Amy E. Day
Tania Kupczak
Neil Matthiessen
Travis Janssen

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Robert Nelson - "The Great Manipulator"


On view April 7th – May 23rd, 2009

DRAWN IN – Historic and Contemporary Drawings and Works on Paper

NOEL-BAZA FINE ART celebrates the Beginning of Spring with a diverse show of drawings and works on paper by local and international artists both historic and contemporary.

The show will include work by:
Marianela de la Hoz, Hugo Crosthwaite, Linda Saphan, Ramon Miranda Medrano, Beto Martinez, Lynn Susholtz, Robert Nelson, Louanne Davis, Helene Wilder, Gunther Gerzso, Francisco Zuniga, Ethel Greene, K. V. Tomney, Jean Tinguely, Mark Kostabi, Picasso, Marisol Rendon and Antoni Tapies.

2165 India Street at Ivy in Little Italy
San Diego, CA 92109
619.876.4160
Noel-baza@cox.net
Noel-Bazafineart.com

"Drawing is thinking." - Joseph Beuys

DRAWN IN celebrates the immediacy and intimacy of drawing - a medium that gives an artist the freedom to express raw ideas and spontaneous thoughts. Whether working in graphite, watercolor, gouache, or pen and ink, contemporary artists have gravitated to this classic medium because of its adaptability and the diversity it provides.

The works presented in this exhibition demonstrate a wide variety of methods and approaches, from the intricate and highly personal compositions of Marianela de la Hoz to the heavily worked and patterned mixed media drawings of Helene Wilder and Roman Medrano's thoughtful reflections on death and relationships. What connects these artists and artworks to one another is the common interest in the brain-to-hand connection that provides for the most direct expression of ideas.

DRAWN IN works to elevate drawing from the old-fashioned concept of "sketching" and recognize it as an independent, highly diverse art form that provides an arena for narrative and character development as well as political commentary and critique. It is our goal to present drawing as a distinct medium within contemporary art, a medium that, while tried and true, fosters innovation, experimentation, and is ever-evolving.

We are pleased to present a selection of figurative drawings by artists from throughout the Americas and Asia. Figure studies by Hugo Crosthwaite, offer a glimpse at the cast of characters that appear in his latest series of monumental graphite and charcoal canvases which will debut in New York this Fall. Selections from Cambodian artist Saphan's Incognito series, deal with ideas of freedom borne through self-imposed privacy and concealment. Robert Nelson juxtaposes the playful with serious, using toys and cupie dolls to reflect the horrors of war.

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Due to the overwhelmingly positive reactions we have received from the community, The Andrews Gallery has extended the dates of its current exhibit The Rising Son: A Mixed-Media Installation by Jesse Hensel into April. We are happy to announce a second event with this show in conjunction with a live performance by The Frontier Brothers on Friday, April 10, 2009 @ 7:00pm. Please visit our website and blog for more information, pictures, news, directions and more. Please don't hesitate to call me with any questions or comments. Our events are free and open to the public, and we are trying to promote the arts in San Diego by engaging the community in a stimulating environment. Thank you very much.

The Andrews Gallery
1002 North Coast Highway 101
Encinitas, CA 92024
www.theandrewsgallery.com
www.theandrewsgallery.blogspot.com
760.230.2680
817.235.2404

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by Richard Gleaves

Nico Herbst

Saturday, April 4, 2009
2-8 PM
UCSD Campus

Fifty MFA candidates open their studios and invite the public to view their work. The artists will be present to discuss their practice. The event includes performances, film screenings, and symposia.

UCSD Open Studios is free and open to the public. For more information visit ucsdopenstudios.com.

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"Institutional Wellbeing: Testing Center Table (front view)" - Brian Goeltzenleuchter


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Danielle Susalla, Assistant Director, 760.435.3722, danielle@oma-online.org
Contact: Dr. Teri Sowell, Director of Exhibitions and Collections, 760.435.3730, teri.sowell@oma-online.org

Institutional Wellbeing: An Olfactory Plan for Oceanside Museum of Art

Institutional Wellbeing: An Olfactory Plan for Oceanside Museum of Art is a site-specific installation created by conceptual artist Brian Goeltzenleuchter that explores the perception of fragrance as an art media for interior environments. It playfully exploits the language of corporate aesthetics as well as new age healing to create and brand a scent for the museum using the latest in scent engineering technology. The exhibition will be on view through August 9, 2009.

Curatorial Statement
Institutional Wellbeing questions intersections between art, science, commodity and entertainment. Through various personas: artist, new age healer, corporate president and motivational speaker, Brian Goeltzenleuchter scrutinizes the role museums play in a world driven by image-based advertising and consumer capitalism.

"Institutional Wellbeing: Wellness Test (#2)" detail - Brian Goeltzenleuchter


Life has become about having, not living. We create self identity and negotiate social relations through consumer action, evaluating products based on the image and lifestyles they project through advertising. With sensory engineering and corporate savvy, Goeltzenleuchter has designed an environmental fragrance for Oceanside Museum of Art aimed at enhancing aesthetic experience and increasing individual wellbeing. By means of feel good science and consumer marketing, Goeltzenleuchter informs us what we need and offers us what we must have. Ultimately, Institutional Wellbeing reveals the organizational forces behind the production of culture and the power of image marketing in grand corporate style.

To survive, museums have become centers of entertainment, as aesthetic contemplation has given way to event driven spectacle and museum store shopping. But as purveyors of good taste, museums offer an excellent value in the crafting of self image. With every purchase of OMA fragrance, we provide the user with the cache of a well respected art museum. Did I mention the OMA fragrance is available for purchase in the Museum Store?

- Dr. Teri Sowell, Director of Exhibitions, Oceanside Museum of Art







Oceanside Museum of Art
704 Pier View Way
Oceanside, CA 92054
760.435.3720
www.oma-online.org


www.cphomedecor.com/brian/index.php
www.cphomedecor.com/

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