Gallery Hours: Mon-Fri / 9-5pm
Woodbury School of Architecture continues the 2010 series of exhibitions featuring work by local artist and designers.
An installation by Dave Ghilarducci at ART Produce Gallery
March 13 - April 18
Opening Reception: Saturday March 13, 6-9pm
Rattle and Hum is an interactive, room sized installation. The viewer enters a narrow gallery to find what, at first glance, appears to be a postminimalist sculpture: Two identical steel cages, each containing an imposing rusted steel panel, are placed opposite each other. However, motion sensors, electronics and motors are embedded into the artwork, endowing it with the potential for kinetic and acoustic theatricality. When the viewer enters the installation, motion sensors gage the viewer’s position relative to both of the cages and commands motors to vibrate the rusted steel panels. These vibrations change in intensity and duration based on the movement of the viewer. Yet, as the viewer lingers in the installation, the vibrations begin to change with apparent randomness. As the viewer moves toward a cage, the intensity may wax or wane, and the opposite cage may or may not also do the same. Each time the viewer changes direction, the piece randomizes again. Ultimately, an indeterminate relationship between the viewer and the objects becomes the basis for a time- and motion-based spectacle for other viewers.
ART Produce Gallery
3139 University Ave.
San Diego, CA 92104
619.584.4448
www.artproducegallery.com
http://daveghilarducci.com
http://davewerld.com
Half-consciously, though, there is the more indigenous dream that the adventure is everything…
— Kaprow, Happenings in the New York Scene
Last month Agitprop presented Coatlicue mi Amor, a performance by The Border Corps, a group of San Diego artists, musicians, and performers. In its density of information and feeling, Coatlicue was by far the most ambitious and successful event I've witnessed to date at Agitprop, and not by coincidence it's taken me a month to figure out how to write about it.
Billed as a happening, Coatlicue felt more closely positioned between traditional performance art and current trends in interactive theatre. Its hybrid nature made for a wild ride: rather than simply disappearing, the fourth wall seemed to be in constant motion throughout the Agitprop space, flying up, down, or inverting polarity as various scenes unfolded.
Throughout the fourth-wall gymnastics backstage remained overhead and crucial, as Border Corpsmen Armando de la Torre and Anthony Vasquez worked full-time through the performance spinning a dense web of real-time audio and video around performers Endy, Perry Vasquez, and Shondra Dawson.
The work was structured in three parts: the dreams of two vividly REM-state dreamers; a satirical review of recent and ongoing commercial crypto-genocides (the gods are more subtle these days); and a traditional Catholic liturgy recounting in lurid detail the historical genocide of the Island Carib people at the hands of conquistadores.
At this point I'd normally attempt a detailed description of these parts, but doing so would require more pages than could fit on this blog, and would only lead the reader further and further away from the intense theatricality engendered by the performance. Words fail me — you had to be there.
Never overplaying its hand (except perhaps in the topical Haiti references), the entire production displayed subtle signs of being well-thought-out to the n'th degree:
I know of several people who missed this event and regret it. Word is that a repeat performance may occur at Agitprop in the indefinite future — watch for it.
Jury-Rigged: improvised: done or made using whatever is available. Over 20 different local artists in 2 venues: Lestats Coffee and Art of Framing
Opening reception March 6th from 7 - 11pm
Artists:
Dan Allen, Bret Barrett, Sean Brannan, Paul Brogden, Scott L. Brown, Stephan Caddell, Vanessa Christie, bd Dombrowsky, Corey Du Laney, Peter Geise, Gary Holliday, James Ivey, Chesalie Loach, Andrew Lucas, Mullet Pony, Paul Nazri, S.Tink, David Russell Talbott, Seth Tegardine, Maura Vazakas and more...
Lestats Coffee House and Art of Framing are teaming up to bring a bigger art scene to San Diego. This March will be our first opening at 2 different venues. The first show is called "Jury-Rigged" and features over 20 different local artists.
The Opening is Saturday, March 6th, from 7pm to 11pm it will be held at Art of Framing 3333 Adams ave and at Lestats 3343 Adams ave. Art will be on display for the whole month. Art of framing open 10am-6pm mon-fri Saturday 10am-4pm . Lestats open 24 hours a day.
www.lestats.com
3343 Adams Avenue (North Park)
619.282.0437
www.theartofframing.net
3333 Adams Avenue (North Park)
619.563.9770
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Brian Goeltzenleuchter
858.602.8448
brian@cphomedecor.com
SUSHI Performance and Visual Arts Presents Family Matters
A visual arts exhibition in conjunction with a dynamic series of multidisciplinary events
San Diego, Calif. –Family Matters introduces Sushi’s audience to a group of artists who reflect on the esoteric legacies of the avant-garde through work that is formally – if paradoxically – influenced by popular entertainment.
On view from Thursday, March 4 through Saturday, April 24, the exhibition brings a range of expression similar to that of a young person coming to terms with his own family history - harsh criticism, misty-eyed sentimentality, perverse parody, and nuanced understanding all abound. SUSHI’s viewer is presented with a range of experiences stemming from the personal stakes these artists have in the often revolutionary, always transient moments that make up the history of the avant-garde.
• The Cedar Tavern Singers will compose pop songs about such avant-trivia as the Futurist Manifesto and Robert Smithson’s iconic earthwork, Spiral Jetty.
• San Diego-based new media artist Lisa Hutton makes dada nonsense poems the subject of her multimedia animations.
• Andrew Kaufman plays the role of artist-as-amateur-magician in his Kiss series, which pays homage to the lineage of sculptors, from Constantin Brancusi to Felix Gonzalez-Torres, who have made work based on the subject of the kiss.
• Lauren Tyler Norby’s project Altruism confounds the notion of benevolence in art and cultural activities that involve gifting.
• Dutch artist Oscar Prinsen takes on the persona of a self-help guru who erects playground sculpture (for adults) that comically institutionalizes many of the themes of early performance art.
• Iowa-based artist, Donna Stack embraces the feminist legacy of using soft, gendered materials in a series of profanity-laden, hand-stitched welcome mats that would make Martha Stewart blush.
Event Programming
Family Matters is conceived as a visual arts exhibition and a dynamic series of special events programming, including music concert, film screening, panel discussion, and urban interventions.
EXHIBITION RECEPTION: March 5, 6 - 9PM
MUSIC CONCERT - March 6, 8PM
The Cedar Tavern Singers will play a live concert at Sushi featuring tracks from such albums as Songs for a Dead Hare and We Are Making Art. The band will be available after the concert for Q&A.
FILM SCREENING AND PANEL DISCUSSION - March 12, 8PM
Nepotism and Other Character Flaws is the title and sole requirement for this evening of artist-made films. Four artists from the Family Matters exhibition are charged by curator Brian Goeltzenleuchter to develop a film series comprised of “artists, friends, and/or colleagues to whom you owe something or from whom you want something.” Extending the theme of “family matters” and opening the typically derogatory concept of nepotism up for debate, this evening promises lively discussion between audience and panelists.
Panelists include: Lisa Hutton, Andrew Kaufman, Lauren Tyler Norby and Donna Stack
URBAN INTERVENTIONS - TBD
Dutch artist Oscar Prinsen will revise his role as evangelist and spokesman for his Institute for the Wandering Man in a series of interventions on the streets of Downtown San Diego. Encouraging all whom he meets to pause from secular concerns to engage in a therapeutic conversation with him in his trademark sculpture, Prinsen will draw further interest to Sushi’s role in the Downtown community.
An integral part of the West Coast cultural landscape, SUSHI earns national acclaim for the San Diego arts community and for almost 30 years has provided a forum for artists to reflect the rich diversity of its multifaceted ethnic, cultural, sexual, and personal backgrounds. Sushi’s office and performance space is located at 390 Eleventh Ave. at J St. in downtown San Diego. Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Friday 1 – 6PM. For more information on the shows and tickets, visit www.sushiart.org or call 619.235.8466
DAY OF ACTION
9.00 AM – 12.00 PM Breakfast at Sustainability Resource Center (next to PC Theater)
9.30 AM BSU Rally at Chancellor’s Complex
11.00 AM Faculty Press Conference at Cross Cultural Center,Comunidad Rm
11.30 AM Walkout/gather at Gilman Parking Structure
11.45 AM March to Geisel Library
12.00 – 3.00 PM Rally at Silent Tree (Library Walk)
including the Arts Collective, Sam Jung, Jake Blanc, Fnann Keflezighi, Mar Velez, Edwina Welch, Kuttin Kandy, Micah Cardenas, Yen Espiritu, Ivan Evans, K. Wayne Yang, Maria Tillmanns, Carolan Buckmaster, Matias Marin, L. Chase Smith, Krishna Sriram. And MCs: Chevelle Newell and Bryant Pena.
2.30 PM Buses leave for All San Diego Rally from Chancellor’s Complex
March begins at Centro Cultural de la Raza (Park & President’s Way) @ 3.30 PM
March Downtown to Governor’s Office (1350 Front Street)
· first-come-first-serve on buses
· travel to downtown also by Rt. 150 atGilman
In light of the recent events taking place on the UCSD campus, spurred by both the continued privatization of the University as well as the organization of racially derogatory events by some students and non-students, there will be a series of protests happening today on the UCSD campus and throughout San Diego. This is an invitation to join in.
In this school year students’ tuition has been raised by 33% while faculty and lecturer jobs have been cut. What was once a University system founded on the idea of an accessible, zero tuition, high quality public education, has slowly, since the 1980’s, become an elaborate ponzie scheme in which corporate interests trump what is the one of foundations of a democratic society: a critically engaged, educated public. Instead, what this University, and many of the colleges and universities around the country, have become is a research and training camp for private interests where the very people that the institution of the university is supposed to serve end up financing their own training as productive corporate workers while simultaneously working to produce subsidized research for those same private interests.
At this point what an undergraduate can look forward to is leaving school with a massive amount of debt for a degree that is roughly equivalent to what a high school diploma was 30 years ago. This debt then solidifies the need to work at a “secure” place of employment so as to be able to chip away at this monkey on your back. No time left for starting of a small business, or further explorations of the world, or involvement in activities that engage a sense of community, or political action, or civic engagement. What happens instead is an endless cycle in which those fresh out of college, working to pay off debt and be well trained consumers, end up working 60-70 hours a week at a low paying job (probably without health insurance or significant benefits) so as not to end up with a bad credit score. This is indentured servitude without a singular master.
What does this have to do with the racially discriminatory events brought to light as of late? Everything. It is by no means a new observation that when people get pinched financially, and pushed around, that racism, sexism, and discrimination of all sorts rears its ugly head. This is not an excuse for the individual decisions made by those people whose smallness of intellect have led them to believe that in 2010 these types of racial tropes are acceptable. What it does mean is that privatization and homogenization go hand in hand. What it does mean is the decision to further push away those without means from being fully included in monopolies of knowledge is systemic and structural.
It was mentioned at one of the rallies on campus that the “founding fathers” of the university had, at one point, thought of locating the campus in Balboa Park. Whether this is true or not, it becomes an interesting starting point for re-imagining what the university could be. Imagine the impact and inclusion the university could have had to those underserved neighborhoods that are often overshadowed by the areas of San Diego that portray that the city as being only about beaches, Sea World, nightlife and “boutique communities”. While obviously it is too late to physically move the campus, it is still possible to transpose onto the campus the aspects of those overlooked communities that make them thrive and teem with real life: diversity, individuality, bottom up innovation, idiosyncrasy and tolerance.
You may be asking, “What does this have to do with me, I don’t attend UCSD?” and this is a valid point. The answer is that this is the beginning of a larger movement of the re-engagement of pubic discourse and action. It is a chance to ask more from one of the major local universities. It is a chance to open up access for more people to one of the regions most significant resources of knowledge production. It is an opportunity to send a message that we, the administration, the regents and the state government need to stop thinking of our institutions of higher education as homogenized Gated Communities, aloof and distant, and to think of them more as busy, densely populated neighborhoods where diversity, convivial disagreement, accessibility and self organization are viewed not as obstacles, but as the foundational concepts of OUR PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.
The San Diego artist and designer will share prototype studies for large sculpture at this one-night event.
Brian Fick
Skateboard Photography
Brian Fick has photographed some of the top skaters in the world and his photographs have been published internationally in almost every skateboarding magazine, including Thrasher and Transworld Skateboarding. He continually seeks challenges to develop his skill and with that pushes the field of skate photography to a new edge.
Show includes photos of: Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, Lance Mountain, Wes Kremer, Peter Hewitt, Rodney Johnson, Marius Syvanen, Alex Perelson, Tyler Surrey, Div Adams, Rudolfo Ramos & others.
Opening Reception for the Artist March 7th, 4 - 10pm
Food & Drink Specials - Surprise Celebrity Guests - DJ Ken "Donger" Lieu
Sea Rocket Bistro
3382 30th Street
San Diego, CA 92104
619.255.7049
www.searocketbistro.com
www.brianfick.com
I’ve shot photos of some famous pros who get paid to ride a skateboard, and I’ve shot with people who just have the love and the gift of skateboarding, who should be getting paid to ride.
— Brian Fick
I moved out to San Diego around 10 years ago to learn how to ride a vert ramp with the best in the world, and to go to college since I’d just gotten out of the military. I served a total of 8 years in the U.S. Army and the majority of it was spent as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division.
Originally I’m from the Mississippi gulf coast, just on the other side of New Orleans. Grew up eatin cornbread, turnip greens, chicken gumbo, roast beef po-boys, fried okra, and whatever else you could possibly deep fry…
I’m really not sure exactly what made me pick up a camera, but I remember thinking about all the different colors and how certain images were more vivid than others. I was mainly interested in travel photography. I guess I wanted to know how some of the pictures had such great colors…
Back in the 80’s, my cousin Glenn left his skateboard at my house, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve been skateboarding since 1984, do the math.
Many of my images get published in The Skateboard Mag, but I’ve also had photos in almost every skateboarding magazine…like Thrasher, and Transworld. I also send images oversees to Europe, Australia, South America, Canada, Japan and China!
Brian Fick
A little history...
At Sea Rocket, we're about getting to know our local land and culture. Skateboarding may not have much to do with food, but if you're looking for deep roots in San Diego, it's got 'em. Brian Fick will be showing his skateboard photography at Sea Rocket with an opening celebration on March 7th.
Brian and I started skateboarding around the same time in the mid-80s, but in different parts of the country. We both moved to San Diego in the early 00s and got to skate together a lot on the various vert ramps around the county. More can be read here.
"Cascade" - Wendy Maruyama
The California Center for the Arts in Escondido has a high quality exhibition that most everyone will find visually interesting and well installed (with only a few exceptions). To begin, "Material Matters: Selected Works by Allied Craftsmen" has a range of works, all worth pondering. The title of the show, 'Material Matters' could be interpreted as a pronouncement that material items have importance, versus decades of conceptual dominance in art or it could be viewed simply that all items presented highlight the use and transformation of materials. Here are a few that must be seen...
Linda Litteral's piece, "Speak the Story", is a metaphor for her development and experience after sexual abuse as a child. She is able to allude to the pain without any explicit references to that horrible past.
Wendy Maruyama has several pieces that were inspired by the World War II internment of Japanese Americans. "Cascade" was created to look like the I.D. tags of 1,011 Japanese Americans that were moved from San Diego and Chula Vista to the Poston Camp on the Colorado River Indian Reservation. It's a powerful reminder that the phrase 'freedom and justice for all' does not apply if our country decides we want to treat certain groups of people as enemies - every member of that group is then treated as guilty with no chance to prove their innocence. It's a shameful part of our history and our present - which this next artist handles with incredible grace and power.
Paul Henry's "Conversation Chairs" of ebonized birch, gold stencil, rebar, and cotton rope with oil paintings by Candy Kuhl are magnificent meditations on our imprisonment and abuse of an undisclosed number of people at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Their elegance and refined surfaces make the acts of torture seem ruthless and calculating. Their old world sensibility highlights our long history of domination and cruelty to various so-called 'enemies' over time.
Also of note, Ellen Phillips takes on the topic of the internment of Japanese Americans and creates a beautiful abstraction of barbed wire, transparencies and stainless steel tubing called "The Wall". This show has quite a number of pieces that do more than look pretty, often the minimal goal of 'craft'. The show as a whole has taken on a number of challenging topics for the viewer to think about while enjoying the visual nature of the works presented.
Do not miss (in the back room) Anne Mudge's "Chance & Circumstance" - a collection of 14 pieces mostly made of stainless steel wire, pigment plastic fiber, etc. My personal favorite is called "Study 127" which feels like a giant grin of a sensual nature.
Glashaus celebrates its one-year anniversary with art and music.
It houses Device Gallery and the studios of Greg Brotherton, Matt Devine, Michael James Armstrong, Michael Maas, and others.
11 AM - 7 PM Thursday, February 25
11 AM - 10 PM Saturday, February 27
11 AM - 10 PM Sunday, February 28
Folks who attended the opening said the show looked especially good at night, so here's the opportunity.
Meantime, Donovan herself will be giving a talk in the gallery Saturday afternoon at 2 PM. Note that the museum warns: "Space is extremely limited due to restricted gallery capacity. There are no advance tickets for this event. Entry will be on a first-come, first-served basis."
On that basis I'm skipping the talk, partly out of unwillingness to camp on the doorstep overnight, and mostly due to putting in a full day this Saturday at the sdspace4art community build.
If you don't like my lyrics you can press fast-forward
— Jay-Z
"Divided" - Amy Paul
Amy Paul (North Park artist, business owner - Pigment and Co-chair of NPA) and myself (the long-winded voice of God at Art as Authority) had the chance to talk about the positive changes occurring in North Park (as opposed to all the negativity put forth by SignOnSanDiego's own Keli Dailey) on Art Rocks! Radio the other night. North Park for the Arts (NPA) has made substantial progress as an organization of artists, galleries, businesses and activists who recognize that the arts (their place) within a community's development and growth is not only necessary but absolutely crucial. You can become part of this movement - even if you don't live in North Park - by getting involved in the many events planned for this year, such as the Festival of the Arts and North Park's first gallery guide.
Give a listen to the Art Rocks! Radio interview first, then check out the details on the gallery guide below. The arts in San Diego are what you make it.
Check out what the guide will look like here:
1) NPA Member Packet: http://webserver.joelallen.net/NORTHPARK/2010/GUIDEBOOK/pdfs/NPA_Member_Packet.pdf
This is the general member packet and serves as a general background about NPA. It includes our mission statement and goals, benefits of membership and a brief description about the forthcoming guide.
2) NPA Advertising Media: http://webserver.joelallen.net/NORTHPARK/2010/GUIDEBOOK/pdfs/NPA_Advertising_Media.pdf
The advertiser kit, on the other hand, is meant for larger corporate sponsors that are interested in buying advertising space in the guide. There are 10 of these spaces slated for the book, 9 are currently available. They do not need to be in North Park to participate in this option.
3) NPA Artist Media:
http://webserver.joelallen.net/NORTHPARK/2010/GUIDEBOOK/pdfs/NPA_Artist_Media.pdf
The individual artist media kit is meant for talented artists within our SD community. Its only $50 for annual membership which includes a feature in the guide.
Tijuana —> San Diego —> Los Angeles —> Madrid
