by Kevin Freitas

T'is neither here nor there.
— Othello

Since the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art mounted "A San Diego Exhibition: 42 Emerging Artists" in 1985, tongues have wagged over the question of who was in and who was not.
— Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1988.

Will tongues still be wagging in 2010 ? According to a recent article by Robert Pincus in the Union-Tribune, the La Jolla branch of the MCA has announced plans for a major exhibition of local artists entitled "Here Not There". A guarded optimism is in order.

Scheduled to open in the summer of 2010, the show's aim Pincus reports, (is) "the desire to present a wide-ranging show, in terms of media and approaches to the making of art." According to the museum, "San Diego has developed a critical mass of local talent.” Hallelujah I say, you might even be thinking the same thing right about now, but wait, there's further cause for celebration. The show's curator Lucia Sanroman, who is also the museum's associate curator, has issued a call for submissions from artists who want to be considered for this exhibit. There is no guarantee of course, as all final selections will be approved and made by a curatorial committee that includes the museum's director Hugh Davies. If interested, the museum's submission guidelines can be found here. You need to be a resident of San Diego County to submit. The deadline is January 1, 2010. And finally, art students at any grade level, are asked not to apply.

Some of that critical mass will be chased down in the nooks & crannies of North County, North Park and further south to what I'm guessing will be Barrio Logan or what according to Pincus, the museum has dubbed as the "alternative art scene." This should raise a few eyebrows, if only to ask "alternative to what ?" Alternative used in any relationship to the art world today, has likely petered out its once distinguishing character of well, uh... existing outside of the cultural norm. Still this is very gratifying; if Sanroman is willing to look in these places by letting the artists out of their pens, she will be richly compensated for her efforts with good works by good artists.

Pincus finally points out that there have been several exhibits here about here within the past twenty-five years. Hunter S. Thompson use to bemoan the fact that the art of writing headlines — maybe titles as well — had been lost. I wonder if "Here Not There" doesn't rank right up there with my favorite, "Innocence is Questionable". But I digress. Here are some of those exhibitions: San Diego '72, A San Diego Exhibition: 42 Emerging Artists, Civilians curated by David Hickey, Common Ground: A Regional Exhibition, Off Broadway: New Art From Downtown San Diego and more recently, the unmentioned Homing In exhibit organized by Quint Gallery and to a certain extent, Quint gallery's thirty year retrospective at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

So, for all my naysaying that I have been accused of as of late, I truly hope Sanroman & Co. will take the high road and bring back some dignity to the meaning of the words: alternative, diversity, community and emerging and not Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something Blue but Something New. San Diego despite what some people think is ready — stop coddling — this exhibit might very well be our ticket to adulthood.


The full article by Robert Pincus can be read here.