from the press release

"Chicharito Hernandez" - Isalas Crow
SUSHI Announces Fall Performance Schedule
Contemporary lineup featuring dance, music and artists from around the world
SUSHI Contemporary Performance and Visual Arts, continues a powerful schedule showcasing the latest in contemporary dance, art and music. Upcoming exhibits and performances presented by SUSHI include:
Kaleidoscope - Isaias Crow
August 27-September 24, Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Fridays, 1-6 p.m.
Isaias Crow explores the juxtaposition of street art and abstract expressionism in sculptural paintings that blend graphic design, graffiti art and community activism. Just as a kaleidoscope uses shifting prisms of light to form fresh images, in Crow’s work geometric shapes collide into loosely figurative forms.
from the press release

“Four Seasons of Sadness”
August 27th at 7pm
1515 Ninth Ave, Downtown, San Diego 92101
When I was six, someone built a place for me to play, a house with cardboard walls. It was built to my size with a small door that only I could enter, with only one window that I liked to keep closed so that no one could know what was going on inside. The house was situated on the balcony of my house in the open air. If it rained, I covered it with plastic, the house had to survive. I would pass hours inside. I would draw all the women in which I was going to convert.
Continue reading ""Four Seasons of Sadness" - Judith Pedroza & Michael Rothmann" »
by Lea Dennis
Sea Rocket Bistro is proud to present the artwork of artist Katherine Brannock. Katherine is showing some incredible ink drawings, "Creatures", as well as a unique painting throughout the restaurant interior that will change over the coming weeks.
We're throwing a party to welcome Katherine on Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 5pm. Please join us to celebrate this collaboration and check out some really amazing work.
Sea Rocket Bistro is a farm-to-table restaurant focusing on sustainable, local food and craft beers with vegan, veggie & meat (ethically raised) options. At Sea Rocket we recognize we are located in the center of a vibrant creative community. We invite local artists to show their work in our space so their neighbors have a chance get to know them, and we enjoy how each artist changes our space. 100% of art sales go to the artist.

by Kevin Freitas

KV Tomney - "Low Hedge"
"It finally dawned on me that in this place that we set aside to nurture culture and study its workings, culture didn't work."
— Dave Hickey
If you have read Dave Hickey's collection of essays in his book Air Guitar you'll recognize the above quote about his forceful entry into academia and discovering that "talk" about the things one could love - like Jazz, bookstores, record shops, and art galleries (Hickey having been baptized at a tender young age by such enticing waters) - was nonexistent at the University level, instead "[professors] exempted by their status from the whims of affection and the commerce of opinion, could only mark their territory from the podium, with footnotes, and speak in the language of authority about things they did not love." In short, Hickey is talking about a disconnect between art with a capital "A" University style and the everyday discussions about art and popular culture that occur in public spaces, bars, and at the supermarket. Now it might be a stretch to make a comparison between Hickey's assessment of the University system some 10 years ago and an annual juried exhibition in La Jolla but I'll try anyway, given there still exists today I believe, a separation between art and its public and those who claim to know something about it. This might also be seen in the work chosen for the Athenaeum's 19th annual juried exhibition. Could I or anyone else truly love or be inspired by what they saw at the Athenaeum? Tough to say. I do question rather aimlessly though and perhaps rhetorically, what Hickey might think about the University system now and if art in general has become anymore democratic or accessible. Can we love art today as much as we love Lady Gaga?
Continue reading "19th Annual Juried Exhibition at the Athenaeum La Jolla" »
from the press release

Disclaimer: Art as Authority does not claim to represent the Walt Disney Company in any way, and Art as Authority is not an employee or employed by The Walt Disney Company. Disclaimer: Above image is not representative of the exhibition's content.
August 21 – November 21, 2010
Experience the feeling of being underwater in a new installation by Richard Gleaves titled Liquid. Gleaves will fill the Parker Gallery with a floating 8-foot cube constructed from 19,000 feet of monofilament fishing line. The cube creates what the artist calls "a tactile field of simulated liquid" which abstractly represents both the visual and tactile properties of water. Viewers are encouraged to not just look at the artwork, but also to walk through it and under it to experience the sensation of liquid. Liquid will be on view in the OMA Parker Gallery August 21 through November 21, 2010. Meet the artist Richard Gleaves on Saturday, September 25 at 2:00 p.m. and hear him discuss the concept behind his new installation. The talk is free with admission and free for OMA members. Refreshments will be provided.
The concept for Liquid relates to the artist’s childhood growing up on the seashore. His family had a beach house on the sand in Sunset Beach, California (in Orange County), so every summer was spent being a beach kid. His older brothers were active fishermen, so fishing poles and lots of fishing line were always around the house. As a result, fishing line is something he feels very comfortable with, having grown up playing with it.
Gleaves is no stranger to the San Diego art scene. His work has been featured at the San Diego Museum of Art, The New Children’s Museum, California Center for the Arts, Escondido, Sushi Performing Art and many local galleries. Born in Los Angeles, Gleaves moved to San Diego to study at University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University. He received a M.A. in Educational Technology from SDSU after a year of studying visual arts at UCSD. Gleaves currently lives and works in La Jolla, California.
from the press release

Victory! After compelling testimony from California couples who are denied the freedom to marry, Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled today that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. The case will now move to the Court of Appeals.
We owe Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown a great deal of gratitude for their unprecedented decision not to defend this discriminatory measure, leaving only Andrew Pugno’s anti-LGBT extremist group to defend the case.
Celebrate this incredible victory by defending it.
from the press release

July 24th 6PM-Midnght @ Visual Art Supply 3524 Adams Avenue
The venue will provide a location to see and enjoy the artworks of 50+ artists in the traditional sense, but attendees will also be able to interact with the art in video game format projected at the event. The game is first-person shooter style and the setting will be frighteningly close to the actual event. The player will fight off zombies, find hidden weapons, unlock secret doors and see art.

from the press release

Hello Friends,
Space 4 Art, San Diego’s new community-built, work/live arts facility, is currently accepting proposals for arts related educational events.
We have multiple venues for educational opportunities and community outreach including a classroom, patio area, lounge, and gallery.
The cost for the classroom is $15 per hour. The cost for other spaces is dependent on attendance and type of event.
If you are interested in teaching a class, hosting a discussion, booking a lecture, or even screening a film please go to our website sdspace4art.org, download, fill out, and return the educational space proposal form to sdspace4art@gmail.com.
If you are interested in attending a class, please check our website where you will find a catalog and calendar of classes which are also attached.
Thanks for your participation!
Space 4 Art
325 15th Street
San Diego, CA 92101
619.269.7230
www.sdspace4art.org
sdspace4art@gmail.com
Find us on Facebook
Sponsored by Synergy Art Foundation
from the press release

Dear Friends,
Times are tough, but there's always room to be a bit naughty...
You're invited to come to the opening celebration of our new business:
Naughty Blonde Redux,
Cocktail Jewelry & Other Bits
Saturday, July 10, 6-9pm
Ray St. Custom Framing
3807 Ray St. (North Park)
Wine and cheese puffs, beautiful one-of-a-kind jewelry and belts,
blonde conversation... Plus we'll have introductory specials on our unique designs, and take commissions.
Would you rather spend your Saturday night doing something else???

from the press release

FREE SPACE: A Street Level Look at Interfaces Between Public and Private
An Installation by Megan Willis
Film Screenings: friday, june 25th
7:00pm - Lost Book Found by Jem Cohen
8:00pm - The social life of small urban spaces by William H. Whyte
ART Produce Gallery
3139 University Ave
San Diego, CA
619.584.4448
by Marilyn Mitchell

Whether it conjures up the taste of super sweet icing or the chill of a summer ice cream cone on a blistering day, Richard Allen Morris’ work stimulates the taste buds. His work is probably the only art that makes me want to stick out my tongue and feel.
There are three reasons I think Morris is a stand out artist. Number one, he keeps inventing different works using his theme of thick, abstract paint. For a lesser artist, a few paintings in this direction and they would have run out of ideas.
When I first started writing for Art as Authority four years ago, it looked like a serious attempt to bring intelligent and committed criticism to the San Diego art community.
But as is evident to anyone who's read this publication in the past 18 months or so, the editorial ambience has grown progressively more toxic, so I'm out of here.
I plan to continue writing art reviews, but will be sending them to Andrews Arts, if they'll have me.
Life's too short for negative rhetoric.
from voiceofsandiego.org

Robert Pincus
Layoffs Hit Union-Tribune Newsroom
About 35 newsroom employees were laid off at The San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday, the seventh round of job cuts in the last four years and the first under the newspaper's new editor.
The layoffs, part of a planned reorganization, included familiar bylines: nationally syndicated columnist Ruben Navarrette and veteran reporters such as Anne Krueger (East County), Jeff Ristine (Just Fix It), Leslie Berestein (the U.S.-Mexico border), Michael Burge (North County) and John Marelius (politics).
It continues the slimming of the newspaper, which since late 2006 has cut more than half its staff to combat sagging advertising revenues.
Other confirmed laid-off employees included:
Leonel Sanchez, reporter
Tovin Lapan, reporter
Ozzie Roberts, reporter
Bruce Lieberman, reporter
Jeff Dillon, SignOnSanDiego.comRobert Pincus, [art] critic
David Gaddis Smith, foreign editor
Steve Adamek, copy editor
Martin Zimmerman, copy editor
Derrik Chinn, content producer
Marcia Manna, community news writer
Leana DeKock, sports desk
from the press release

Defying Expectations: Contemporary Native American Art from the San Diego Region
Oceanside Museum of Art
July 11 – December 12
Reception July 10, 5 pm
Breaking stereotypes of Native American Art, Defying Expectations: Contemporary Native American Art from the San Diego Region examines the work of four contemporary Native American artists. Featured artists include James Luna, Gerald Clarke, Catherine Nelson-Rodriguez, and Raymond Lafferty.
The exhibition opens with a preview reception on Saturday, July 10 from 5:00-7:00 pm. Admission to the reception is $10, and free for OMA members. Following the reception at 7:00 pm will be a performance by James Luna, Native Stories: Basically Factual with Maurice Caldwell and Raymond Lafferty.
Reservations are $25, $20 for OMA members, and $10 for students with ID. Seating is limited, reservations are required and can be made by calling 760.435.3720. Performance is for mature audiences.
Aside from being an unqualified success on its own terms, the most important takeaway from There Goes the Neighborhood is its revelation by example of how thoroughly exhausted the conventional forms are for community art events: the geographical containment on one street, the temporal isolation to a few hours, the bands on stage, the booths of art, ad nauseum. All this now looks done for — the sky's the limit.
David Krimmel talks about his urban wheat field during the Free Space walking tour of North Park.
Bombshell performs on the Bus. Sean Conway conducting.
by Marilyn Mitchell

Dr. V.S. Ramachandran & Roman de Salvo
The Bronowski Art & Science Forum has been a monthly event for more than 10 years, and used to take place at the Salk Institute. The events are coordinated by Ron Newby, and have often been attended by 20 - 30 people. The venue backed out and Ron was tasked with finding a willing and affordable venue. The Neurosciences Institute's auditorium is free but required a minimum audience of 100. Ron was concerned that the event would not meet the minimum number. With listings on Facebook and with the growing email community; Ron must have been greatly surprised when this Thursday over 320 people came to hear Roman de Salvo in conversation with Dr. V.S. Ramachandran. It literally was a standing room-only event.
from the flyer

There Goes the Neighborhood! is a four-day event that not only hopes to shed light on issues of art and its relationship to a specific community, but to also re-examine, through artistic interventions, some aspects of the neighborhood that are sometimes overlooked. There Goes the Neighborhood! has been organized by a group of artists, architects, and interested parties as a way to initiate a conversation about the dynamics of the neighborhood. Our intention, and why you are now reading this, is to include as many people in the discussion as possible. We hope to see to you there!
Please contact us with any questions or to RSVP for one of the workshops!

dwell
Paintings and photographs by Maura Vazakas.
Opening Reception
Thursday, June 3
5-10 pm
Sea Rocket Bistro
3382 30th Street
San Diego, CA
in partnership with Agitprop
Thursdays, May 27 - September 2
5-9 pm
Free after Museum admission.
Starting tonight, and every Thursday evening this summer, celebrate the legacy of Toulouse-Lautrec and his work in the salons of Paris at The Summer Salon Series. Explore the works of living contemporary artists as they perform and present their works inside and outside the Museum, participate in art-making activities, view the Museum's current exhibitions, and indulge in a cocktail at the cash bar.
Tonight's Summer Salon Series features Alida Cervantes, Josh Bellfy, Zac Monday, Eddie Miramontes, and Steve Willard.
For a complete list of featured artists at The Summer Salon Series, please visit our website.

The Orange County Museum of Art has announced the artists for the 2010 California Biennial:
David Adey, Agitprop, b.a.n.g. lab, Gil Blank, Nate Boyce, Luke Butler, Juan Capistran, Zoe Crosher, Brian Dick, Dru Donovan, Mari Eastman, Carlee Fernandez, Finishing School, Eve Fowler, Rebecca Goldfarb, Katy Grannan, Alexandra Grant, Sherin Guirguis, Drew Heitzler, Violet Hopkins, Alex Israel, Glenna Jennings, Barry MacGregor Johnston, Vishal Jugdeo, Stanya Kahn, Andy Kolar, Jennifer Locke, Los Angeles Urban Rangers, Tom Mueske, Tucker Nichols, Camilo Ontiveros, Nikki Pressley, Andy Ralph, Will Rogan, Paul Schiek, Taravat Talepasand, Wu Tsang, Zlatan Vukosavljevic, Nina Waisman, Flora Wiegmann, Allison Wiese, Lisa Williamson, David Wilson, Patrick Wilson, and John Zurier.
Key:
San Diego artist
San Diego artist also in Here Not There.

Agitprop is located behind an innocent-looking though slightly seedy convenience store on 2837 University Avenue in San Diego.
Or is it?
by Richard Gleaves
Richard Gleaves
The signs have returned to San Diego, signaling that ritual pre-election period where free speech is allowed to tacitly override city regulations prohibiting the unauthorized appropriation of public space with brightly-colored messages... in a word, graffiti.
Not everyone, however, is taking it sitting down, as can be seen in the following excerpt from a Carmel Valley Community Planning Board document. What's most remarkable about this text is how similar the language is ("try to convince them they are better off staying out of this area") to descriptions of civic graffiti abatement efforts.
In 2004 I decided to investigate the sign system for esthetic potential. A day after the election, several signs in my neighborhood were appropriated, altered, and surreptitiously returned to the wild. Surprisingly, they stayed up for several weeks.
from the press release and artist web sites

Christopher Kardambikis, Heracles and the Mask of Victory

Louis M Schmidt, Untitled (Crowd #1)
RECENT WORKS
by Christopher Kardambikis and Louis M Schmidt
Agitprop
Saturday, May 15, 7-10 pm (or so)
Christopher Kardambikis is currently pursuing his MFA at the University of California, San Diego and exploring an absurd mythology of the future through drawings, paintings, and books.
Louis M Schmidt is currently working on his MFA exhibition, which is a large show entitled There’s No Place Like No Place. It will run from June 8-11 at UCSD’s Visual Arts Facility (Main Gallery), with a closing reception on the evening of June 11.
from CityBeat and David Rolland
The ballad of Seth, Kinsee and Peter
Staff changes at CityBeat bring bad news and good news
Back in February 2009, I used this space [CityBeat] to announce the departure of Kinsee Morlan as our arts editor and the news that Seth Combs would take her place. In that announcement, I put a lot of pressure on Seth by passionately singing Kinsee’s praises, saying hers would be a hard act to follow.
Well, during the course of the ensuing 15 months, Seth responded by saying, in effect, “In your face, Rolland!” You see, not only did Seth take over Kinsee’s art-and-culture responsibilities; he was already tasked with running our music section. His list of duties has grown ever since, and by now, Seth dons more hats than anyone at CityBeat and is also our most prolific writer.
read the rest of David Rolland's eulogy here.
from the press release

Free Space is an installation that looks at disparate tactics for appropriating and reclaiming residual spaces in the urban landscape for both public and private use. Residual Spaces are interstices in the city that are abandoned, underutilized, leftover, liminal, and indeterminate. These spaces oscillate between public and private. Residual spaces take the form of alleys, parking lots, building recesses, window ledges, sidewalks, roof tops, fire escapes, blank facades etc.
As a starting point, Free Space focuses locally on the residual spaces of C Street in downtown San Diego. This installation uses video documentation, maps, duct tape and furniture to examine these tactics of appropriation.
by Richard Gleaves
The brand spanking new SDSU Downtown Gallery and relatively new Sushi Gallery share a number of spatial properties which belie their origins as architectural leftovers:
I'm extremely grateful for the developers and arts professionals who put time and resources into realizing these spaces — given the economy and SD's perpetual Jersey-on-the-Pacific status in the visual arts, it's a marvel they're here at all, and I plan to visit early and often.
But now that they're here, the esthetic issue arises of how best to make use of such compromised spaces. And ways do indeed exist, as evidenced by the current shows in both spaces.
The SDSU show is an object lesson in what not to do: namely, attempt a conventional installation of large-scale work as if the space were a typical neutral gallery. The result in this case yields two Baldessari wedged between windows with insufficient whitespace to breathe, and a couple of Zittels contending with columns.
The current Sushi show, on the other hand, shows how to make it work: Leslie Nemour's relatively small-scale paintings have been installed in nonlinear clouds, directly engaging both the pronounced verticality of the Sushi space and its infamous corner column (hereby christened "Grimace Rock", in honor of a similar outcropping at Tourmaline Cove). The result in this case does exactly what is needed in such spaces: namely, reframe the architectural compromises as inflections which can be incorporated into the installation to achieve esthetic effects unavailable in a conventional gallery space.
from the press release
AGITPROP reading and performance series
Saturday, May 8, 7pm
AGITPROP
We hope you can join us this Saturday, May 8 at 7pm for a reading and performance by Rozalie Hirs, an interdisciplinary writer and musician from the Netherlands, and San Diego sound artist Cooper Baker.
Rozalie Hirs is a prolific interdisciplinary artist whose work incorporates music, text and video. Her work has performed throughout Europe and the United States. Her three books of poetry are Locus (1998), Logos (2002) and Speling (2005, all Querido Publications). She also wrote the libretto for the opera The Cricket Recovers by Richard Ayres. Rozalie Hirs’ recent composition “Roseherte,” (2008) for full orchestra and electro-acoustic sounds was premiered by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and selected for the Toonzetters prize in 2009. Her electro-acoustic composition “Pulsars” (2006, 2007 rev.), commissioned by Café Sonore, VPRO Radio, Netherlands, received the distinction “Recommended work” at the 11th International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music (IREM) in 2007. A CD, Pulsars, with electroacoustic music and text pieces by Rozalie Hirs will appear in 2010 as a co-production of Attacca records and Muziekcentrum Nederland. You can learn more about Rozalie Hirs’ work online at http://www.rozalie.com/.
Cooper Baker is a sound artist living in San Diego, California. He regularly plays experimental music at venues along the west coast and his artwork has been exhibited in galleries and publications throughout the United States and abroad. In addition to his own creative output, he provides other artists and companies with custom software and electronics as a creative technical consultant.
Originally from Los Angeles, he recently moved to San Diego to attend the University of California San Diego in pursuit of a computer music Ph.D. where he is studying with Miller Puckette, Tom Erbe, and F. Richard Moore. Prior to enrollment at UCSD he was a music faculty member at California Institute of the Arts where he also received his MFA in experimental composition and finished his BFA in music technology. While at CalArts he refined his artistic practice and began incorporating new and experimental electronic media in his artwork and music production, under the guidance of Morton Subotnick, Mark Trayle, and Barry Schrader.
L7: An installation of paintings by Leslie Nemour
May 4 – May 30, 2010
Reception: May 8, 6-9 pm
Sushi Performance & Visual Art
Gallery hours: Wednesday-Friday, 1-6 pm
Sushi presents L7, an installation of oil paintings by San Diego artist Leslie Nemour. Viewers enter Sushi’s intimate gallery to discover an immersive environment of dozens of luminous oil paintings hung from floor to ceiling in idiosyncratic arrangements.
Each painting is a representation of a television still, photographically captured by the artist who then translates the image once more into a painting. The paintings are mined from a wide cross section of popular, once popular, and unpopular television shows. Depicting disjointed movements, blurred boundaries, images between images, and other distortions, the works lend themselves to the paintings’ indecisive brush strokes and restless color.
from the press release

Opening reception: Saturday, April 24 | 7 - 10 pm
SD Art Prize: Recognition of Excellence in the Visual Arts
Every year the SD Art Prize committee nominates emerging artists as possible suggestions for the SD Art Prize established artists to mentor.
Artists selected:
Greg Boudreau, Robert Nelson, Kelsey Brookes, Julio Orozco, Stephen Curry, Allison Renshaw, Steve Gibson, Lesha Maria Rodriguez, Brian Goeltzenleuchter, James Soe Nyun, Wendell M. Kling, Stephen Tompkins, Heather Gwen Martin
![]()
Join us for a PANEL DISCUSSION featuring artists and their nominators: Saturday, May 15, 6 - 8 pm
Additional information: www.SDVisualArts.net
Show runs: April 24 - May 22, 2010
M - F: 9 - 5; Sat 11 - 4; Sunday by appointment
320 South Cedros Ave | Suite 500 | Solana Beach, CA 92075
(858) 792-9685
The Project X: Art gallery space is located in Solana Beach, on South Cedros Avenue, across the street from the Solo building, up the big driveway directly behind Coles Carpet
by Marilyn Mitchell

Deborah Butterfield
Friday, April 9th, marked the new beginning for a wonderful art space downtown managed by SDSU. The new gallery’s name is “SDSU Downtown Gallery” but don’t let the generic quality of its name make a bland first impression. This is a top notch exhibition space because it is well lit, there are few distractions and the inaugural exhibit highlights nationally known names. This show is well installed and it calls attention to SDSU as an art school through association with those exhibited.
“Divergence: The Work of John Baldessari, Deborah Butterfield, and Andrea Zittel” was organized by Catherine Gleason, the Associate Director of the gallery. There are only six pieces in the show because each one is rather large. Deborah Butterfield’s sculpture is a signature work from her horse series called “Conure” and it is full of life. This horse makes you think it’s absolutely natural for horses to be painted in primary colors.
by Richard Gleaves

RG discussing the show with Uncle Brian in Oscar Prinsen's art. Photo Lori Lipsman.
Part I
Family Matters is a series of multimedia events centered around a key curauteurial idea: the ineluctably social nature of what passes in our culture for art.
The event series — curated by visual artist and teacher Brian Goeltzenleuchter, and presented at Sushi — has included a music concert, film screening, panel discussion, and visual arts exhibition. The time-based events are now past, but the art remains on view at Sushi until April 24.
Why curauteurial? Because the themes and ideas embodied in Family Matters are part autobiography, and part prone to the same sorts of eccentric category slippages as the ones in Institutional Wellbeing, Goeltzenleuchter's 2009 show at the Oceanside Museum of Art.
In essence, for Family Matters Goeltzenleuchter the artist commandeered the role of Goeltzenleuchter the curator and assembled a meta-event with aspects unmistakably similar to Goeltzenleuchter the artist's own work: specifically, the deadpan proffering of a set of propositions purporting to explain the work, which in turn are subverted by a second set of propositions immanent in the work itself. The result is a semantic instability characteristic of the finest satire.
This quality is amplified by Goeltzenleuchter's presentation of self in everyday life: against type he radiates the same sort of earnest Boy Scout vibe as his crypto-archetype Jeff Koons, but minus Koons' signature smarm and plus an order-of-magnitude increase in the conceptual complexity of his work.
Which, in the case of Family Matters, consists wholly of the show's superstructure and support information, given that the primary information — songs sung and artwork shown — is the work of seven seriously good artists, at least four of whom are Goeltzenleuchter's colleagues or former students.
from the press release
The Garage Presents: Stories
Saturday, April 10, 2010
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Garage Gallery
4141 Alabama Street
In The Garage Presents: Stories, sometimes the words are drawn for us, sometimes we are asked to provide penned words to the image, and inevitably we bring the words we think we already know by heart to the picture that is written.
San Diego artist Richard Reyes exhibits Goldilocks and the Three Bears written in graphite illustrations to depict a story so iconic that the observer brings the requisite words to the images. We believe we know this story, but under Reyes’ guidance the story transforms.
In her Community Comix series, Tallahassee artist DeDe Harter creates public art, displayed in public bathrooms, allowing the observer to interpret her cartoons and asking them to write the dialogue with the pen she provides as a means of outreach and intervention through art. Harter provides a yet-unscripted Community Comix for this exhibit, and invites you to participate.
by Richard Gleaves
If your name is on this list, and you meet the residency requirements, you will be in Here Not There.
If your name is not on this list, and you have not already shown at MCA, then all bets are off.
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
In addition to the historical information contained herein, this post contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ substantially from those referred to herein due to a number of factors, including but not limited to risks associated with: acts of grace and/or caprice on the part of MCA curatorial staff; lax enforcement of industry standards on the part of the director; costs incurred by Art as Authority in connection therewith, including potentially damaged relationships with customers and operators who may be impacted by association with the exhibitors or their intermediaries; our dependence on major customers and licensees; our dependence on third-party manufacturers and suppliers; our ability to maintain and improve operational efficiencies and nonprofitability; the development and deployment of the Art as Authority web site; the development and market acceptance of the IntelligentArt® remote sensing technology; foreign currency fluctuations; the Heisenberg uncertainty principle; strategic investments and transactions in social capital that we have or may pursue; as well as the other risks detailed from time to time in our posts, including the report on CCA dated September 24, 2009. Art as Authority undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement or risk factor, whether as a result of new information, future events, force majeure, or otherwise.

In conjunction with the exhibit "Speed, Trash and Psych" by Zlatan Vukosavljevic Southwestern College Art Gallery presents:
Transformations: A Symposium on Installation Art
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Southwestern College Art Gallery
Join the Southwestern College Art Gallery for a symposium on installation art. Moderated by MCASD curator Lucia Sanroman, the symposium addresses the following questions:
The panel includes the following artists, critics, and arts administrators:
Lucia Sanroman, Associate Curator, MCA, San Diego
Lynn Susholtz, Director, ART Produce Gallery
David White, Director, Agitprop
Kevin Freitas, Art as Authority
Zlatan Vukosavljevic, Artist
Chris Ferreria, Artist
Brian Dick, Artist, Artist
Marisol Rendon, Artist
Tony Allard, Artist
Anna O’Cain, Artist
Allison Weise, Artist
Wendell Kling, Artist
by Kevin Freitas

Derrick Little's artwork on the cover of Pacific San Diego Magazine
Derrick Little. Little ends up taking first place in Pacific San Diego Magazine's first "Whet Paint" art contest in which both Amy Galpin (project curator for American Art at the San Diego Museum of Art) and myself had a hand in its outcoming. Twas a unanimous decision and quite an easy one as there was hardly (if at all) dissent amongst Galpin and I as we picked and choosed our way through many fine works of art. The magazine's editor David Perloff and editorial intern Christina Dylag made the whole process quite painless and more than enjoyable. I want to thank David, Christina and my co-juror Amy for bringing some much needed attention and validity to San Diego's artists. Bravo! and keep it coming.
Check out the other winners here.
Saturday April 10th / 3–8 PM
Visual Arts Facility (VAF)
University of California, San Diego
Free weekend parking on campus.
As part of Open Studios 2010, the UCSD Visual Arts Department will present its third annual graduate conference, Permanent Transition, featuring Okwui Enwezor as keynote speaker.
Saturday April 10th, 2010
Visual Arts Facility Seminar Room #366
UCSD Campus
Conference schedule
9:30 am Registration and Breakfast
10:00 am Panel 1: Flux
Matthew Rana, California College of the Arts
Eric Morrill, University of California, Irvine
11:15 am Coffee Break
11:30 am Panel 2: Reception
Elyse Mallouk, California College of the Arts
Rochelle LeGrandsawyer, University of California, Los Angeles
1:00 pm Lunch (provided by the conference)
2:00 pm Panel 3: Postcolonial Modernities
Holiday Powers, Cornell University
Courtney Thompson, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Andrew Weiner, University of California, Berkeley
3:45 pm Keynote Address: Okwui Enwezor
5:00 pm Closing and Reception
from the Landmark Theatres web site

Art of the Steal
Now playing
La Jolla Village Cinemas
In 1922 Dr. Albert C. Barnes created The Barnes Foundation in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, five miles outside of Philadelphia. His astounding collection of Post-Impressionist and early Modern art, intended to serve as an educational institution, includes 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos, 16 Modiglianis, and 7 Van Goghs.
Dr. Barnes deliberately built his Foundation away from the city and cultural elite who scorned his collection as "horrible, debased art." But tastes changed, and soon the very people who belittled Barnes wanted access to his collection. When Barnes died in 1951, he left control of his collection to Lincoln University, a small African-American college, with strict instructions that the paintings may never be removed.
More than fifty years later, a powerful group of moneyed interests have gone to court in a rancorous, Machiavellian attempt to take the art—recently valued at more than $25 billion—and move it to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
by Richard Gleaves
The five most intense hours I've ever spent in a museum were courtesy of Dan Flavin and the city of Chicago.
The sheer amount of work afforded sufficient time for the eye and mind to habituate to immersion in the ambient luminous flux. And it was only at that point that various small-scale epiphenomena began to assert themselves: color-mixing on the inter-bulb fixture surfaces, and best of all, long pinstripes of color on the bulbs themselves, products of reflection from the adjacent paired bulbs.
This was such an exciting discovery I promptly backtracked to the beginning of the show, starting over to re-see everything I'd seen but this time hunting for epiphenomena. My favorite was how the pinstripes engaged in subtle games of rock/paper/scissors, based (it seemed) not so much on the color wheel as on the relative outputs of the various bulb colors.
On seeing Robert Irwin's current show at Quint, I had to conclude he's been noticing the same things… no surprise, given that he taught me to look this way in the first place.
Irwin has made a career from site-responsive work, a practice that has over the years yielded periodic friction when the site in question was the product of another creative (Richard Meier and James Ingo Freed come to mind).
In his Quint show Irwin expands his notion of site to encompass art itself: the work on display can be described as Irwin-adjusted Flavins, with the evident — and entirely achieved — goal of expanding the range of epiphenomena generated by the original work. Here's a partial list of Irwin's adjustments:
I could similarly enumerate the resulting epiphenomena, but won't: why deprive people of the right to epiphanies of their own? Go, look. Then look harder.
You just may spot that rara avis of the visual realm: the elusive pinstripe shadow.
from the press release

This Friday and Saturday Agitprop is looking for you to do your part in getting the “Lakoff Initiative” on the ballot. There is not much time so please stop by the space on Friday (3/19/2010) from noon to 5 or Saturday (3/20/2010) from 10 am to 7 pm to sign a form to get this initiative on the ballot. WE print it out, WE stuff envelopes, YOU simply sign it. We will also have a few snacks and some films on hand for you to enjoy. Or you can sign and leave, or sign and just hang out for some good conversation…
Schedule of Films
Friday:
12:30 Killing Creativity: Are Schools or Parents to Blame
Looks at a group of 25 seven-year-olds and their families in order to study childhood creativity, why it frequently fades, and why it matters.
1:30 The Water is Ours, Damn It!
Tells the story of how the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia fought to take back control of their water after it was privatized.
2:00 The Corporation
Explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time.
3:30 Capitalism Hits the Fan
University of Massachusetts Economics Professor Richard Wolff breaks down the root causes of today’s economic crisis, showing how it was decades in the making and in fact reflects seismic failures within the structures of American-style capitalism itself.
from the press release

Robert Irwin: Works in Progress
Quint Contemporary Art
Reception Friday, March 19, 6 - 8 pm
Show March 19 - May 1

Paper Airplane Festival
San Diego Air & Space Museum
Saturday, March 20, 11 am - 3 pm
by Kevin Freitas
Interview with former SDSU painting instructor Janet Cooling. Ruminations on her career, the Venice Biennale, Folk Art and being an artist today. Janet is an important figure in the San Diego art scene, an ally, and a (newfound) friend. Special thanks to Janet for the hospitality and wise words and to Lea Dennis for setting it up. Janet is also teaching privately these days. If you want more information, please contact her at jlcooling@daltonprives.com or www.daltonprives.com
Parts II, III, IV, and V of the interview can be found here.
by Kevin Freitas
If you're not sure you know my position on the type of arts coverage we have in San Diego, please allow me to clarify: it sucks. One "official" newspaper (Union Tribune), and two alternative weeklies (CityBeat and the Reader) does not make for comprehensive journalism in the nation's ninth largest city. Anyone who has lived elsewhere knows this to be true. Alas, what to do? Reach out. It seems artists and their ilk come into fashion when everything else is going to hell - socially, economically or otherwise. The great thing about reaching out to artists is that it's so damn cheap. It even appears to have caught on locally. For example, the MCA is organizing an exhibition of local artists this summer while more and more glossy magazines feature SD talent between their pages.
And if this sounds like I'm dissing the media (just a little) it's actually a backhanded compliment to one local magazine - PacificSD - who has taken matters into their own hands and joined the ranks of those who support artists. I applaud their initiative. In doing so, they organized the first annual "Whet Paint" art contest which I guess means artists not only starve but can't spell either. Anyway, I will be one of three jurors who decides who eats or at the very least, is featured in the magazine's upcoming April issue. All chiding aside, how cool is that?
I love being a juror.
by Richard Gleaves
The work in Dave Ghilarducci's current show is extremely generative in its ability to assert questions about the artist's intention: whether it is to explore sound, motion, interactivity, or stochastics, any one of which is a topic sufficient in itself to sustain a career-length investigation.
A conversation with Ghilarducci at the opening revealed that for him all these are but means toward an end, which is to make work that is as accessible as possible to as wide an audience as possible. If a modality exists that he can exploit to engage a viewer, he will use it. And as a professionally-trained engineer Ghilarducci has the software and hardware chops to do so, far beyond the typical skill set of a professionally-trained artist (which he is not).
The central organizing metaphor behind Ghilarducci's work is the notion of conversation: in effect he is making machines that engage in abstract conversations. This positions his work somewhere between the wetware of Tino Sehgal and Maja Matarić’s work on social robots.
In response to Ghilarducci's stated goal of total accessibility, I asked if in essence that made his work a kind of Pop art. His response was swift and dismissive: he associates Pop with the work of Warhol and Lichtenstein, and doesn't want to see his own work so pigeon-holed.
This response itself is interesting, as it's consistent with a key property of Ghilarducci's work that makes it his own: namely, an unrelenting masculinity at a level hardly seen in contemporary art since early Matthew Barney. Historically, Pop has (among other things) been characterized as an effete and ironic rejoinder to the marked masculinity of Abstract Expressionism. Whereas Ghilarducci the person is quintessentially masculine: a quality that manifests in his work, which hews tightly to the gym-equipment esthetic of cold steel, industrial finish, and mil-spec joinery.
It's easy to imagine such works as ad hoc rickety (Tim Hawkinson) or bi-gendered (Sandra Doore), but they're not — they're tough as nails. It's this, combined with their propensity to communicate in odd and somewhat random ways, that makes them such a compelling spectacle, and — lest the artist recoil at the title above — not only worthy of their own branch in the tree of Pop, but fully potential of being something very else.
from the press release

Nepotism and Other Character Flaws
FILM SCREENING & PANEL DISCUSSION
Friday, March 12th, 8 PM
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
Film and video by Justin Beckman, Mike Celona, Andrew Filippone Jr, Kip Fulbeck, Preston Poe, and Chris Todd
This Film Screening is part of the FAMILY MATTERS exhibition series
Sushi GALLERY HOURS: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, 1 pm to 6 pm
Special Price for our Electronic Friends: Tickets to the March 12th Nepotism and Other Character
Flaws screenings are two-for-one, or $7.50/general public and $5.00/members and students. Email us
with your reservation at info@sushiart.org

March 11 – May 14
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 11, 6pm - 9pm
Free and open to the public
Woodbury School of Architecture
2212 Main Street
San Diego, Ca 92113
619-235-2900
www.woodbury.edu
www.telegraphart.com
Gallery Hours: Mon-Fri / 9-5pm
Woodbury School of Architecture continues the 2010 series of exhibitions featuring work by local artist and designers.
RATTLE AND HUM

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
by Richard Gleaves

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.
from the press release

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
from the announcement
Thursday, March 4th
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.
from the press release

The San Diego artist and designer will share prototype studies for large sculpture at this one-night event.
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.

OPEN LATE FOR THE FINAL WEEKEND!
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.
by Kevin Freitas
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.
Continue reading "North Park for the Arts on Art Rocks! Radio" »
from the press release

The Andrews Gallery
Press Release – February 2010 FOR IMMIDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Drew Snyder, Owner Tel. 817.235.2404 || Email: drew@theandrewsgallery.com
www.theandrewsgallery.com | www.theandrewsgallery.blogspot.com
The Andrews Gallery has moved from its North County location to inside the 2400 Kettner ArtsComplex (#212) at 2400 Kettner Blvd, just north of down town San Diego.
See their latest newsletter to learn more about the move: http://www.theandrewsgallery.com/newsletter/2010-02/
Seattle-based Derek M. Johnson will be performing along with Andrew Senna in the new space on Tuesday February 23, 2010, 8:00 PM. The night will also feature paintings by Zack Hawkins andother gallery artists, all of whom you can see on the gallery's website. This event is free, all ages, and open to the public.
Continue reading "Derek M. Johnson at the (new) Andrews Gallery" »

Drawing in progress by North Park artist Lea Dennis
by Richard Gleaves

Anna Zappoli's show at the San DIego Art Institute ends this weekend. The show is remarkable in several dimensions:
At this point I need to mention that the greatness of this show is due in no small part to an unadvertised collaboration: for this show Anna turned her work over to SDAI President & CEO Tim Field, who was solely responsible for the exhibition design (including those diptych pairings). The design is frighteningly perfect — it more than qualifies as an installation in and of itself.
One of the things I love about the art world is how crystalline talents can reside in eccentric and even ignoble containers. (Guy, take a bow.) In such cases I dig the art while giving its maker a moderate berth. And goodness knows I've had my run-in's with Tim: the very idea of an SDAI CEO makes me LOL.
But here's the thing: once upon a time I myself was a member of SDAI (Hi, my name is Richard and I'm…). That's where I got to know her work and Anna. And Tim was new on the scene back then, and the guy was there as an artist. And evidently still is: no doubt assisted by a Jack O'Brien-esque run of putting together a gazillion shows at SDAI, the guy has developed a major eye for designing clean-looking shows. Or in Anna's case, great ones.


At the conclusion of the Athenaeum exhibition, John Henry will be reinstalled at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, a new gallery space at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. The opening will be on Friday 4/9/2010.
from the press release

ART SAN DIEGO (formerly Beyond the Border ICAF) returns with a new name, larger venue, extended dates and a strong curatorial vision (Sept 2 - 5 / 2010)
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW BEING ACCEPTED (DEADLINE FEB. 28.2010)
FILL OUT APPLICATION HERE | DOWNLOAD FLOORPLAN
San Diego, February 7, 2010. ART SAN DIEGO 2010 (formerly Beyond the Border International Contemporary Art Fair), will be held September 2-5, 2010, at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel. More than 50 galleries will showcase paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, videos, and cutting-edge multimedia artworks. The Fair includes a VIP Opening Night, distinguished guest speakers, luxury brand displays, city-wide cultural programs, and exclusive wine and food events.
ART SAN DIEGO’s venue, the Hilton San Diego Bayfront, rises 30-stories at the edge of San Diego Bay. Designed with world-class sophistication and the largest pillar less ballroom in San Diego, it is the ideal place to browse and acquire art, to learn about collecting, and, simply, to have a very good time.
by Baudelaire Shepherd
Artist: Lee Puffer - Portrait: Karen McGuire, Curator of Exhibitions, City of Carlsbad’s William D. Cannon Art Gallery
On Movers and Shakers 2, at the Art Expressions Gallery
A visitor to “Movers and Shakers 2: Who’s Who in San Diego Visual Arts” might reasonably expect to be treated to a representative sampling of the best in San Diego art; what they will find instead are a few good works bobbing upon a turgid sea of proud mediocrity. The show’s title already had an air of fawning desperation before an indifferent public, but through the combination of a needlessly narrow selection of artists, a flaunting of mere technique over wit and vision, and an uninspiring theme, the organizers have perversely given the public good reason to stay indifferent. San Diego’s artists deserve better.
Out of a total of forty-four works, by forty-six separate artists, I found only seven pieces that were truly successful, including quirky sculptures by Jeffrey Laudenslager and Lee Puffer, a wittily “minimalist” painting by Vero Glezqui, and a joyful, cartoon-like representation by Michael Gross. I found Lee Puffer’s ceramic bust of Karen McGuire particularly striking, combining energetic form with lively color, as well as touches of subtle comedy. Another eight were of moderate interest. Herb Olds, for instance, presented a moody, large-scale drawing, but without the revealing detail that adds depth to his other work. Cheryl Sorg created another entry in her clever “thumbprint” series; but in the process perhaps revealed the limitations of this cleverness—the overall form risks becoming muddy and over-familiar; the textual content proves no more revelatory than a list of favorite books on Facebook.
Continue reading "Movers & Shakers 2: Who’s Who in the San Diego Visual Arts World" »
from the press release

The Border Patrol, a group of five Southern California artists, musicians and performers, will stage an art happening entitled Coatlicue mi Amor at Agitprop on Saturday, February 13th at 8pm. The event will be a fundraiser for the space. Admission is $5.00 and people bringing sketchbooks and pencils to the event will get in for $2.00. Agitprop Gallery is located at 2837 University Ave.
(behind Glenn's Market on Utah), San Diego, CA 92104.
Incorporating weird combinations of materials, sound, the human body, pop culture artifacts and historical sources, the happening will use the myth of Coatlicue to examine the conflicted relationship between indigenous culture and the legacy of colonialism in the Americas.
Continue reading "ART HAPPENING AND FUNDRAISER FOR AGITPROP SPACE IN NORTH PARK" »
from the press release
We hope you can join us this Saturday, February 6 at 7:00 pm for the next event in the Agitprop Reading & Performance Series featuring Jane Sprague and Diane Ward.
Jane Sprague is the author of THE PORT OF LOS ANGELES (Chax, 2009), *BELLADONNA ELDERS SERIES NO. 8 (with Tina Darragh and Diane Ward; Belladonna, 2009) and numerous chapbooks including APACHE ROADKILL (Dusie, 2009) and SACKING THE HENWIFE (Dusie, 2008). She teaches at CSULB and for Bard College’s Institute for Language and Thinking. She lives in Long Beach, CA where she edits and publishes Palm Press. Her current projects include editing the collection IMAGINARY SYLLABI, a utopian and practical investigation into various writing pedagogies in higher education as well as researching a project on generational poverty and histories of race and genocide in upstate New York, where she’s from.
Diane Ward was born in 1956 in Washington, DC and currently lives in Santa Monica, California. She has published ten books of poetry including, most recently, *BELLADONNA ELDERS SERIES NO. 8 (with Tina Darragh and Diane Ward; Belladonna, 2009) NO LIST (NO LIST), Seeing Eye Books, 2008, Flim-Yoked Scrim, Factory School, 2006, among others. Her work has been included in numerous anthologies, among them: MOVING BORDERS: THREE DECADES OF INNOVATIVE WRITING BY WOMEN, edited by Mary Margaret Sloan (New Jersey: Talisman House, Publishers, 1998) and OUT OF EVERYWHERE: LINGUISTICALLY INNOVATIVE POETRY BY WOMEN IN NORTH AMERICA & THE UK, edited by Maggie O’Sullivan (London: Reality Street Editions, 1996). .
Please share this information with friends and any interested parties. Agitprop readings are free, but donations to the gallery are always welcome. We hope to see you there and for festivities afterward!
AGITPROP READING & PERFORMANCE SERIES Saturday, February 6, 7:00pm AGITPROP 2837 University Ave in North Park (Entrance on Utah, behind Glenn’s Market) * San Diego, CA * 92104 * 619.384.7989
drawing by Kevin Freitas

click for larger image
Greg Boudreau nominated by Chris Martin, Project X: Art
Kelsey Brookes nominated by Mark Quint, Quint Contemporary Art
Stephen Curry nominated by Robin Bright, artist
Steve Gibson nominated by Laurie Mitchell
Brian Goeltzenleuchter nominated by Teri Sowell, Director of Exhibitions and Collections, Oceanside Museum of Art
Wendell M. Kling nominated by Brian Dick, artist
Heather Gwen Martin nominated by Kim MacConnel, artist and Ann Berchtold, director, Beyond the Borders International Art Fair
Robert Nelson nominated by Tom Noel and Larry Baza, Noel-Baza Fine Art
Julio Orozco nominated by Debra Poteet, collector
Allison Renshaw nominated by Patricia Frischer, coordinator, SDVAN
Lesha Maria Rodriguez nominated by Katherine Sweetman
James Soe Nyun nominated by Tom Driscoll, artist
Stephen Tompkins nominated by Robin Clark, PhD, Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
San Diego Art Prize New Contemporaries III
Paradoxes in Video
Saturday, February 6 @ 6 pm
Garage Gallery
4141 Alabama Street
San Diego, CA
Last September Garage posted an open call on the net requesting submissions for a video exhibition investigating "paradoxes within performance/performative actions that find their way into video/editing."
This Saturday Garage presents the work selected.
The screening is at 6 pm. Seating is limited — if you have a chair to bring, Larry would appreciate it.
from the press release

Dave Ghilarducci - "Circle of Complication"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Brian Goeltzenleuchter | Curator | 858.602.8448 | brian@cphomedecor.com
Contact: Patrick Stewart | Executive Director | 619.235.8466 | patrick@sushiart.org
"Circle of Complication", kinetic sculpture and drawings by Dave Ghilarducci
February 4 - 27, 2010 | Exhibition Reception: February 5, 6 - 9PM
Sushi Performance and Visual Art presents "Circle of Complication", a kinetic sculpture and series of drawings by Dave Ghilarducci.
Dave Ghilarducci’s artwork investigates perception on an everyday level, often using popular technology as the subject and object of artistic inquiry. Circle of Complication is an electronically mechanized sculpture designed to make drawings reminiscent of those made by a child using a Spirograph toy. In Ghilarducci's work, however, the drawings are made at large scale using a program designed to produce a series of random operations. Circle of Complication simultaneously evokes the spontaneous discovery of child's play and the complex laws of math and science that govern its creation.
Dave Ghilarducci was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. He currently lives and works in Escondido, California. He studied engineering and physics at University of Illinois at Chicago. After graduating, Ghilarducci worked as an engineer, developing a range of culturally substantive objects - from rockets to Palm Pilots. He left the engineering word in 2006 to work full time as an artist. Ghilarducci’s work is often interactive and engages viewers while reminding them of the various and often transparent ways technology is used to manage interactions. Although still quite early in his career, Dave Ghilarducci’s work has garnered critical validation. His work has been exhibited at Track 16 Gallery and Oceanside Museum of Art, and later this year at Art Produce Gallery.


Brian Goeltzenleuchter - photo: SD CityBeat
Parts of a whole
Artist Brian Goeltzenleuchter has control of Sushi's gallery space for the next few months—here's how he'll use it
by Kelly Davis
You can’t fully appreciate Brian Goeltzenleuchter as a curator unless you know a little something about him. He’s the guy whose 2009 Institutional Wellbeing exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art—a show for which he blended an unlikely combination of performance art, custom fragrance and applied kinesiology to produce a critique of consumer culture and art-as-entertainment. It wasn’t much different than conceptual-art installations Goeltzenleuchter has exhibited nationally and internationally, but this is traditionally minded San Diego and the exhibit didn’t go over too well with some museum-goers. more...
All I got to say is congrats and this: "Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre" kf
by Kathryn Law

"Is it Damien Hirst?" - Robert Matheny from the series Fishing for Fame & Fortune:
Portraits of Celebrity Artists, Sea Creatures, Vegetarian Fish & Lures
The Spectacle (and Speculation) of Celebrity
by Kathryn Law
The role of the art collector, and consequently, that of the artist, has changed greatly since Marcel Duchamp's famous manifesto of 1957, The Creative Act. In this legendary essay, Duchamp described "the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on the one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity." Those two poles of creation still exist, but they are now defined in a much different way than Duchamp might have
envisioned.
Continue reading "The Spectacle (and Speculation) of Celebrity" »

Woodbury School of Architecture launches a new series of exhibitions featuring the work of local artist and designers. Please join us in welcoming Los Angeles based artist Ryan Logan for an installation of new works and drawings.
from the press release

Brian Goeltzenleuchter - Teri Sowell
Movers & Shakers 2: Who’s Who in the San Diego Visual Arts World
Local Artists Portray Local VIPs
Reception: Thursday, Jan 21 from 6:30 to 8:30pm
Show continues until Saturday, Feb 6, 2010
Art Expressions Gallery: 2645 Financial Court, Suite C, SD, 92117
Exhibition hours: Monday - Friday 9am-5pm, Saturday 10am-5pm
Info: Patricia Frischer 760.943.0148 or Patricia Smith 858.270.7577
Visit the Movers and Shakers website for Artists and Movers and Shakers biographies as well as VIP views of their visions for the future of the visual arts in San Diego in Part One and Part Two of this project. The website is sponsored by SDVAG. Part Two will be completed by January of 2010 and on display at Art Expressions Gallery. We are delighted to present a Catalog of Portraits of Part Two.
Continue reading "Movers & Shakers 2: Who’s Who in the San Diego Visual Arts World" »
from the press release

click for larger image
PUBLIC CULTURE in the Visual Sphere
Curated by John C. Welchman
In collaboration with VALS committee 2009-10 (Visual Arts Department lecture Series: Anya Gallacio, Teddy Cruz, Kyong Park, Suzanne Wright); the Public Culture gradate committee (Edward Sterrett, Orianna Cacchione, Cara Baldwin, Katrin Pesch, Sara Mameni, Tara Zepel), and Jordan Crandall.
Supported by the Visual Arts Department, UCSD; Dean of Arts and Humanities, UCSD; SoCCAS [Southern California Consortium of Art Schools] Collaborations with Art in the Public Sphere, USC Roski School of Fine Arts; English and Comparative Literature, UCLA; the graduate MFA program at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena; and the Athenaeum, La Jolla.
All events are at 6.30 on Thursdays in the Performance Space of the Visual Art Facility building (VAF), unless otherwise noted.
Jan 14 Pros and Cons: Graduate Research in Public Culture [panel]
pros* Issue Zero Launch
Nicole Holland [PhD candidate, Visual Arts] “Private as Public in the USSR”
David Mather [PhD candidate, Visual Arts] “Mass Forms, Mass Agency in the Early 20th Century”
Sheryl Oring [MFA candidate, Visual Arts] “I Wish to Say: Free Speech and Democracy”
David White [MFA candidate, Visual Arts] “'Network' as a Tool for Neighborhood Engagement"
Rayanne Tabet [MFA candidate, Visual Arts] "After the Flood: Reversing the Trans-Arabian Pipeline"
Cara Baldwin [PhD/Practice candidate, Visual Arts] “We are the ones we've been waiting for”
Moderated by Edward Sterrett [PhD candidate, Visual Arts]

from the press release

PLASTIC FANTASTIC: Allison Renshaw
Oceanside Museum of Art
January 31 – June 20, 2010
Reception January 30, 5-7pm
OMA presents the first West Coast solo museum exhibition for San Diego artist Allison Renshaw.
from the press release

EVENT:
January exhibition titled, “Women by Women; Figurative and Conceptual Images of Women”
Featuring artwork by The San Diego Women’s Figurative Group
DATE & TIME:
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 16th, 6:00pm-9:00pm.
Exhibition runs from Jan 16 – Feb 14, 2010
LOCATION:
The San Diego Art Department (SDAD) is on Ray Street in North Park one block east of 30th, just south of University.
3830 Ray Street
San Diego, CA 92104
CONTACT: Andrea Chamberlain
619.299.4ART
www.sdad-sdai.org
SPECIAL FEATURE:
“This mixed media exhibition explores the contemporary vision of the Southern California woman. We ask ourselves the following questions: How do we see women differently than men see us? How does our specific Southern Californian culture and identity affect how we portray women? Can the erotic, the feminist, the feminine, and the working artist/woman be reconciled?”
ARTISTS:
Irene Abraham, Jocelyn Duke, Jeanne Dunn, Michele Guieu, Misty Hawkins, Daphne Hill, Maura McHugh, Amy Paul, Ginger Rosser, Therese Rossi, Anna Stump, and Marcella Villasenor
from the press release

Hello Everyone,
Things are progressing quickly with space4art and our first community build is coming up! We will be having another open house this Saturday from 12 to 4pm. The applications are coming in and people are beginning to reserve spaces. If you have not yet seen the space, want to see it again, or want to show a friend please come check it out. We want to give everyone a chance at an affordable studio.
325 15th Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Open House: Saturday, January 9 from 12 - 4pm
Thanks,
Chris Warr
Thanks for your participation!
sdspace4art
Sponsored by Synergy Art Foundation
www.synergyart.org
sdspace4art@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/sdspace4art

"Lucy, Darwin and Me” An installation by Michele Guieu at Art Produce Gallery
Artist Talk: Saturday, January 9th from 6:30 - 8:00pm
ART Produce Gallery
www.artproducegallery.com
3139 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92104
619.584.4448
Read the review of the exhibition by Keli Dailey (SignOnSanDiego) here.
by Richard Gleaves

Fringe Theories (at Agitprop through January 9) is billed as "the work of five artists and scholars that thrive outside of traditional and accepted rules and boundaries."
What's most striking about the show as a whole is not its fringiness but rather an odd formal emphasis on oldness: old newsprint, old photos, old paintings, old sculpture. The work itself is recent, but — with the exception of Keith Engeron's modest deployment of corporate logos and Tony Allard's use of layered space — otherwise avoids the look and feel of contemporary art.
It's interesting to contemplate just why this is.
My first thought was that the curator (Katherine Sweetman) was asserting the notion of fringe theories as a historical phenomenon: a plausible hypothesis given how the 1960's engendered greater cultural weirdness (spoon bending, pyramid power, Kirlian auras) than we experience today, while in times pre-60's the absence of science-based consumer protection laws enabled entire socioeconomic classes of theory-pitching charlatans and mountebanks (Pirelli in Sweeney Todd).
A brief conversation with the curator dispelled this hypothesis: it turns out she wasn't aware of the thread of antiquity running through the show. But the thread was still there, and in need of explanation.
My second thought fit better: namely, that the curator was subconsciously mapping the notion of "fringe" to outsider art — though the artists themselves were not necessarily "outsider" — and that in doing so the formal baggage of outsider art was serving as a de facto constraint on the work selected for the show. Hence the virtual lack of contemporaneity, and the focus on traditional forms.
And what, pray tell, is the formal baggage of outsider art? Simple: the esthetic engine driving outsider art is the pairing of traditional form with eccentric content. The work must be recognizable as drawing or painting or sculpture. Only savvy professionals with insider credentials can adopt forms such as digging holes in the floor or cooking in the gallery — if an institutionalized schizophrenic were to try this, they'd get solitary, not a retrospective.
A few additional thoughts:
from the press release

"B.J. O'Hara" - Stephen Chalmers
Snowbirds, An exhibition of photographs by Stephen Chalmers
January 4 – 30, 2010 | Exhibition Reception: January 15, 6-9 PM
Contact: Brian Goeltzenleuchter | Curator | 858.602.8448 | brian@cphomedecor.com
Contact: Patrick Stewart | Executive Director | 619.235.8466 | patrick@sushiart.org
SUSHI A Center for the Urban Arts
390 Eleventh Avenue
San Diego, CA 92101
619/235-8466
www.sushiart.org
Sushi Performance and Visual Art presents Snowbirds, an exhibition of photographs by documentary photographer Stephen Chalmers. Riffing on the popular term that describes retirees who spend the snowy winter months in warmer regions, Snowbirds reveals a much more diverse cross section of the RV lifestyle that abounds in the desert Southwest.
Continue reading "Snowbirds, An exhibition of photographs by Stephen Chalmers" »
from the press release
Skip Pahl
Executive Director Skip Pahl of Oceanside Museum of Art Retires After 12 Years
After more than 12 years of dedicated service James (Skip) Pahl, Executive Director of Oceanside Museum of Art since 1997, has announced his retirement effective April 2010. Pahl will remain with the museum until the Board of Directors finds his replacement through a national search. Age 66, Pahl is looking forward to retirement and working on projects that have been on hold due to his passionate commitment to the museum.

by Kevin Freitas
I was recently asked by Patricia Frischer and SDVAN (San Diego Visual Arts Network) to give my thoughts on what the future of art publications might be for all of us that still read them. Several other arts writers were also asked to contribute to the discussion, they were: Robert Pincus, art critic for the Union Tribune; Keli Dailey, SignOnSanDiego; and Seth Combs, CityBeat. You can read all of our predictions on Frischer's A+ Art Blog which can be found here. Is there a future? Let us know.
SantaDiegoCon
Saturday December 19, 2009
12:00 pm - 12:00 am
Balboa Park fountain (starting location)
San Diego's SantaCon will be on Saturday, Dec 19th, beginning at high noon at the fountain in Balboa Park. We will start out with some reindeer games in the park, then proceed to raise merry hell throughout Hillcrest, North Park, City Heights... wherever Christmas cheer and excessive drinking drive us. Bring cash for cabs, buses, and booze. Bring bullhorns, presents, and coal. Bring your sweet, unsuspecting Santa friends. Bring Santa a shot. Be there.
www.fortheempire.info/santa.html
SPREAD THE WORD!
Editor's note: Art as Authority neither condones nor is liable for the effects of chemically-induced consciousness. The event should, however, make for excellent viewing.
by Kevin Freitas
According to the Los Angeles Times, the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) announced its 2009 grant recipients nationwide. 1,207 projects will receive $26,968,500.00 in funding to help support their endeavors. Here in California, 189 grants were awarded to arts organizations up and down the Golden State for a total of $4,295,000.00. San Diego made up 3.7% of that grant money which will be going to 7 groups primarily involved in theater, music, and film. There were no grants awarded to any visual arts organization, individual artist, museum, non-profit gallery, etc. Not surprising. But unfortunately, I can think of a dozen needy enterprises here alone that could use an infusion of cash in these tough economic times. What happened? Here is a list of the winners (from the NEA website):
While a round of applause should be given to these lucky and I'm sure grateful contestants, it still sends a chill up my spine that no grants were given to the visual arts. This raises a lot of questions and makes me wonder if the artists here (or their network) are unaware of the possibilities that exist, don't care, or are completely dependent on the artworld's hierarchial support for making a buck or even a career. Let's hope this is not the case and there is some reasonable explanation. One thing I do know is, the more artists are dependent on others to provide their sustenance, the more spare change they'll end up with in their pockets. It takes a long time to fill up a penny jar.
by Richard Gleaves

The Fab Lab
4305 University Ave (approx. 4 lights east of I-15)
Suite 130 (on side of building on 43rd)
619.209.7440
www.thefablab.org
The Fab Lab is a non-profit community laboratory where members can use advanced digital design and fabrication tools to make almost anything. The Fab Lab in San Diego is one of thirty in the Global Fab Lab Network, and the only one on the West Coast.
Fab Lab is intended to serve people who have ideas but lack the tools necessary to realize them. It is a place where advanced technology is accessible, and where anyone can invent and execute an original design.
The Fab Lab offers access to and classes for the following tools:
For information on December classes contact Katherine.roe@gmail.com
Last Friday I went to the Body Narratives opening at NTC Promenade in Point Loma, not so much for the art but to see how the show was put together by the five students in Mesa College's Museum Studies program who made it happen:
I spoke with Johnson and Nessel to get a sense of the thought processes that went into the exhibition design, and came away impressed. The thinking was solid, and the design reflected it: fresh use of diagonals in siting the room dividers, a central sweet spot for viewing two of the largest works, and partial visibility of additional works from the sweet spot to lead viewers into the rest of the show.
Johnson explained that exhibition design is one of the topics covered in Museum Studies, and noted that the program brings in experts (such as Michael Fields, lead exhibit designer for the San Diego Natural History Museum) to speak on various topics.
For me the interesting thing about the Museum Studies program is what its name doesn't convey: that the students are being trained not just as potential museum staff, but also as cultural entrepreneurs with all the skills necessary to make successful art shows from scratch.
They're scouting locations, finding artists, doing press releases, designing show cards, contacting newspapers, and signing contracts to secure the exhibition spaces. And they're getting this experience not from an MFA program but from a three-class certificate program at a regional community college. We can only benefit from having such people and programs around.
Program director Alessandra Moctezuma explained that in the past few years the program has moved the student-produced shows out of the Mesa College art gallery and into the community (such as the NTC Promenade space). This makes for a better learning experience for the students, not to mention more art shows around San Diego.
The program's final class places students as interns in local museums or galleries. Johnson is interested in the Mingei, while Nessel is hoping to work with Quint. I wish them the best, and look forward to seeing more shows from them in the future.
from the press release

Have you ever seen a face in the clouds? Ever play a record backwards, and hear a hidden message? This psychological phenomenon is called "Pareidolia" which is also the name of our next show. San Diego artist Dan Allen explores the relationship between perception and belief with his new series of paintings. Using a variety of media including watercolor,oil, acrylic, and even gilding and wax he creates modern "totems" describing emerging values in an ever changing society.
Opening reception: Saturday, December 12 from 6 - 10 pm
Art of Framing
3333 Adams ave
San Diego Ca 92116
www.theartofframing.net
619.563.9770
by Kevin Freitas
At 31 years of age, Kelsey Brookes is no painter. Unless of course, your definition of painting is limited to pigment on canvas, frames, and exposed in galleries. What Kelsey Brookes is is a doodler, a young man who has not lost the urge (I’m guessing) to fill pages and pages of his sketchbooks and canvases with mindless (obsessive) yet mildly interesting drawings and mixed-media works that center around (quoting from various press releases) “sex, comedy, and animals.”

Kelsey Brookes - "The Storm" 2009 Mixed media / 72" x 60" / Courtesy of Quint Contemporary Art / Photo credit: Roy Porello
The 24 character tweet does nothing more than attract the viewer. Once our curiosity is sufficiently aroused, the work never quite seems to deliver. I stand before Brookes work unmoved. I find the pieces in his current show at Quint Gallery only as titillating as the three words used to describe them. I guess this makes me then, some old-fart who has grown tired of “sex, comedy, and animals” period.
Continue reading ""BIGGER, BRIGHTER, BOLDER" - Kelsey Brookes at Quint Gallery" »
from the press release

FRINGE THEORIES: Ideas that Depart Significantly from the Prevailing or Orthodox Views
(An Art Exhibition)
Featuring the work of Tony Allard, DJ Brejle, Keith Engeron, Noah Doely, and Mark Van Stone.
A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Opening reception: December 12th, 2009 from 7 - 9pm
Talk with Mark Van Stone, PhD - “Introduction to the 2012 Issue” at 6pm
Agitprop
2837 University Ave.
(behind Glenn's Market on Utah)
San Diego, CA 92104
http://agitpropspace.org
from the press release

One night of art, performances, sounds, visuals and ephemera by Micki Davis, Liz Chaney, Farrah Emami, Matthew Brooks, Ash Smith, Stephanie Lie and John Benson (that will also be broadcast live in the vicinity of Agitprop on the frequency 104.1FM). Please stop in! (or at minimum listen-in while driving by!)
Saturday, Dec 5th from 5 - 7 PM
Agitprop
2837 University Avenue (North Park)
San Diego, CA
contact@agitpropspace.org
from the press release

Anna Stump
San Diego Mesa College Museum Studies Program
619.388.2829
www.sdmesa.edu/art-gallery
Alessandra Moctezuma, Professor
amoctezu@sdccd.edu
bodynarratives09@gmail.com
Body Narratives: Expression through the human form
Reception: Friday December 4, 2009 from 5 - 8pm
Exhibition Dates & Times: December 4 - 6 and 10 - 13, 2009 from 10 - 4pm
Location:
The New Americans Museum
NTC Promenade at Liberty Station
2825 Dewey Road, Building 202, Suite 102
San Diego, CA 92106
The San Diego Mesa College Museum Studies class invites you to an exhibition of artwork featuring the human form. From the Discobolus of Classical Greece, to Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomical studies and Matisse's dancing figures, the human body has been a rich source of artistic inspiration. San Diego artists come together with striking artwork in various media that deals with the beauty, strength and passions of the body.
Artworks range from mysterious wrapped figures by Anna Stump, lyrical floating bodies by Misty Hawkins, figurative abstractions by Jeff Clark, and a Houdini-like escape performance by Autumn Hays. Other artists included are Francois Michel Beausoleil, Adrian Collins, Sheena Dowling, Jeanne Dunn, Daphne Hill, Julie Kitterman, David Krimmel, John Rankin and Michaela Simmons. The exhibit was curated and organized by Maria Bolivar, Megan Daly, James Johnson, Kevin Kao and Samantha Nessel.
On Friday, December 4 2009 the public is invited to enjoy Friday Night Liberty at NTC Promenade, the Arts and Cultural District at Roosevelt and Dewey Roads, in the heart of Liberty Station. Friday Night Liberty is a free monthly first-Friday event, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., featuring open artist studios, galleries, shopping and entertainment throughout NTC Promenade. For additional information about NTC Promenade, visit: www.ntcpromenade.org
from the press release
"Lucy, Darwin and Me”
an installation by Michele Guieu at Art Produce Gallery
December 12 through January 24, 2010
Opening reception: Saturday, December 12, 2009, from 6 to 9pm.
Art Produce Gallery
3139 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92104
619.584.4448
Gallery Events
December 12, 2009:
12:00 - 4:00pm
Art Produce is hosting a fair trade market of African art and imports to benefit Women’s Empowerment STAR Center.
2:00 - 3:00pm
Marian Williams tells African tales for children.
7:00 - 8:00pm
Alfusainey Suso plays the traditional West African kora.
January 9, 2010:
6:30 - 8:00pm
A casual conversation with the artist, Michele Guieu.
January 16, 2010:
6:30-8:00pm
Panel Discussion, "Darwin's Weeds ” with Leslie Ryan, landscape architect, AEREA, a San Diego landscape architecture firm, and Deborah Forster, Dept. of Cognitive Science, UC San Diego.
Continue reading ""Lucy, Darwin and Me”, an installation by Michele Guieu - Art Produce Gallery" »
from the press release
L Street Fine Art
628 L Street
San Diego, CA 92101 at the Omni Hotel
858.254.3031
director@lstreetfineart.com
www.lstreetfineart.com
“Driven to Abstraction”
Exhibition featuring works by Tania Alcala (San Diego Art Prize New Contemporaries 2009) and Silvia Valentino Karbashlieva
Show Dates: November 25, 2009 to Feb 15, 2010
Reception: December 10, 2009 at 8pm - Artist talk begins at 8pm (L Street Fine Art)
After opening celebration for the artists at "The Corner Bar & Restaurant" starting at 9pm
369 10th Avenue (10th and "J")
San Diego, CA 92101
L Street Fine Art Gallery presents a joint exhibition of the works of Tania Alcala and Silvia Valentino Karabashlieva. Alcala’s abstracts are based on her experience as a commercial pilot, while Karabashlieva drives her car to create work with intense attention to details. This spotlight show for Alcala marks the end of her year as a participating artist in SD Art Prize New Contemporaries II. The SD Art Prize New Contemporaries II exhibition was held in the Spring of 09 at Noel Baza Fine Art.
TANIA ALCALA
Tania Alcala’s paintings are about finding the joy of being and freedom within herself. Her work is about experiencing consciousness and awareness with the seduction of color with her brush strokes.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Tania obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Ottawa University in Phoenix, AZ and a Master’s degree in Transformative Arts from John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, CA.
The sense of the ethereal that Tania Alcala discovered in the paintings of many artists like Mark Rothko, Yves Tanguy, and Eduardo Matta inspired her to take up flying. She took to the skies as a commercial pilot to seek the freedom she craved. While aviation offers mobility and a “heavenly” view of the world, the exacting, highly regimented aspects of that profession do not compare to the creative outlet she achieves as an artist.
Continue reading ""Driven to Abstraction" - Tania Alcala and Silvia Valentino Karabashlieva" »
from the press release

Hello Everyone,
As most of you know we are in the process of developing an arts community center in the East Village area. This will have around 30 units of various sizes, 4-5 of them work/live, and significant common space, all at affordable rates (see below for more details). This projects intent is to provide for artists in San Diego and build community. It will be a testing ground and home base for SD Space 4 Art. We have a tremendous oppurtunity to begin to realize the ideas and enthusiasm that have been generating amongst the art community and fueling the goals of SD Space 4 Art. Right now there is a group of dedicated volunteers working hard to pull this off but without the participation of the larger arts community this won't be possible. In order for this to become a reality in San Diego we need: a show of interest, help spreading the word, and volunteers. First off, we need a show of interest and prospective tenants in the next 2 weeks so that we can move forward on the lease. Things are developing fast so please don't hesitate to come see the space and find out more.
Thanks,
Chris Warr
The next viewing will be on Sunday, November 29 at 3:00 pm
325 15th Ave.
San Diego, CA. 92101
Artist Studio Space Available
To all artists, art organizations, musicians, designers and creative professionals:
Affordable artist studio space in San Diego East Village. Spaces range from 250-1740 sq.ft. and Prices range from $220-$1650 per studio, utilities included (some studios heated and air conditioned). Approximately 4-6 work/live units also available. Studios share common space, which includes:
Large Gallery - Event/Performance Space - Outdoor Gathering and Meeting Space - Conference Room - Kitchen - Bathrooms - Woodshop (potential) - Kiln (potential) - Welding Space (potential) - Gated parking offered at a small additional fee.
Thanks for your participation!
sdspace4art
Sponsored by Synergy Art Foundation www.synergyart.org
Contact us at: sdspace4art@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/sdspace4art
from the press release

Brad Schneider by Scrojo
“ARTISTS BY ARTISTS” Group Show Organized by Mary Fleener
December 1, 2009 to January 4, 2010 at the Community Room in the Encinitas Library.
The reception: December 13, 2009
1pm-4pm
The event is free and the public is invited.
* THE AxA 27 *
Danny Salzhandler by D. Goth - Robert Nanninga by Vanessa Lemen - Alec McTurk by Ana Clark - Rodney McCoubrey by Anne Julian - Mary Fleener by Fred Caldwell - David J by Scott Saw - Jerry Waddle by Max Dolberg - Scrojo by Mary Fleener - Diane Stacey by Cheryl Tall - Jim and Linda Hornung by Faith Lindley - Brad Schneider by Scrojo - Rob Machado by Rodney McCoubrey - Paul Williams by Drew Snyder - Mike Totah by Diane Stacey - Jeremy Wright by Jean Krumbein - Vanessa Lemen by Brian Weisz - Ron Lemen by Dody Tucker - Kevin Anderson by Jim Hornung - Cindy Lee Berryhill by Ron Lemen - Manuelita Brown by Kevin Anderson - Julia Gray by Jack Quick - Sheri Fox by Roz Light - Jack Quick by Bryson Stein - Roz Light by Nancy Nelson - RAW by Scott Lynd - Dody Tucker by Taina Ringeride - Scott Saw by Mary Fleener
More information: Mary Fleener
from the press release

Off The Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art lecture
21 November 2009
UCSD Campus
Pepper Canyon Hall, room 106
1:00 pm
Please join the University Art Gallery, UCSD in our final discussions associated with the current exhibition entitled Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art that to explore the global ramifications of gender-based violence. "Throughout the world, women and girls are victims of countless and senseless acts of violence. The range of gender-based violence is devastating, occurring, quite literally, from womb to tomb," explains Randy Jayne Rosenberg curator and executive director of Art Works For Change. "The stories that underlie these artworks return us imaginatively to the event of violation and allow it to affect us." The final program examines the laws that keep women in compromised positions around the world as well as within the US.
Patrick Anderson, Asst. Professor of Communication will moderate the discussion with Carmen Chavez from Casa Cornelia Law Center; Steve Bush, Jenny's Law; Summer Stephan, District Attorney of North County
ABOUT ART WORKS FOR CHANGE
Art Works for Change produces contemporary art exhibitions to address social and environmental.
It uses the power of art as a vehicle to promote dialogue and awareness, and to inspire action and thought. Art Works for Change operates under the fiscal umbrella of the Tides Center, a tax-exempt organization.
ABOUT 5 WOMEN WHO CARE
5 Women Who Care is a group of women who came together to help make a difference and bring awareness to women's and children's issues globally. Operating out of the San Diego area, these 5 Women collaborate with like-minded organizations for the empowerment and justice of women and children worldwide.
The University Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm.
858.534.2107
uag@ucsd.edu
from the press release

You are invited to join in a round-table discussion of The Candy Store:
Saturday November 21 @ 7:00 PM
Agitprop (North Park)
2837 University Ave. (behind Glenn’s Market on Utah)
San Diego, CA 92104
contact@agitpropspace.org
The discussion will focus on the project (currently on view at La Casa del Tunel: Art Center in Tijuana) and issues surrounding the general state of healthcare today. The panel will consist of the artists, a pharmacy owner from Tijuana, and others knowledgeable in the field. Attendees are encouraged to share their experiences navigating the system and thoughts on issues ranging from health insurance to the marketing of pharmaceuticals and current trends of medicating children with powerful mood altering drugs. Select objects from The Candy Store will also be on view in the gallery.
Continue reading "The Candy Store: Round-table discussion" »
from the press release

Reception: Saturday, November 21, 2009
5 to 7 pm
Funded by Carlsbad Friends of the Arts
This exhibition takes a closer look at what is normally considered a simple utilitarian vessel used to hold tea. Teapots: Object to Subject is a collection of the best entries from the 2004 Survey of American Teapots sponsored by the Craft Alliance in St. Louis, Missouri. The best of both established artists and the most promising, innovative new artists from around the country are represented in this exhibition.
Teapots: Object to Subject is organized by the Craft Alliance and is being toured nationally by ExhibitsUSA.
This exhibition also features teapots from specially invited regional artists: Connie Beardsley, Christie Beniston, Kelly Berning, Nate Betschart, Richard Burkett, Levi Casias, Maria De Castro, Irene de Watteville, Ted Gallup, Flavia Gilmore, Joanne Hyakawa, Yoshimi Hayashi, Jeff Irwin, Christopher Lee, Ron Lenc, DeLoss McGraw, Lee Puffer, Eric Rempe, Gail Schneider, Scott Schoenherr, Fred Stodder, Cheryl Tall, Lana Wilson and Scott Young.
WILLIAM D. CANNON ART GALLERY
1775 Dove Lane
Carlsbad, CA 92011
760.602.2021
Arts@carlsbadca.gov
Rothko's a must-see, but like Martin or Turrell you've got to show up in person — photos steal their soul.
Which brings us to American Artists from the Russian Empire — currently showing at the San Diego Museum of Art — and its promise of a Rothko experience to anyone who shows up.
The promise is false: the Rothkos at SDMA are entombed in glass which throws up a shiny reflective surface in front of the picture plane, obscuring the essential Rothko magic (which normally happens 1 to 100 feet behind the picture plane, virtually speaking).
So what to do? Go to SDMA for the Tchelitchews, two alarming exceptions in an otherwise staid show of period art.
Then art run to LA to see Collection: MOCA'S First Thirty Years — not only does it have more and better Rothkos, but they're crucially in the buff.
Tara Donovan at MCASD is a perfect cognitive storm of work, site, and placement.
Of the many fascinating aspects of Donovan's work, perhaps most intriguing is the oblique relation between how it's promoted as visit-worthy, and how it works as art.
The hook is the novelty of a mass accumulation of everyday objects, while the actual esthetic engine is the work's deft exploitation of a bi-level figure/ground inversion:
These levels are linked by the work's crucial dependency on formal properties of surface:
Wallpaper, carpet ... but unlike any ever seen.
from the press release

ZOOM
November 21 - December 19, 2009
Torrance Art Museum
3320 Civic Center Drive
Torrance, CA 90503
310.618.6340
mpresneill@torrrnet.com
www.torranceartmuseum.com
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11am-5pm
ZOOM artists: David Adey, Kelly Barrie, York Chang, Allison Cortson, Roni Feldman, Tony Maher, Daniel Nevers, Nobuhito Nishigawara, Andrew Schoultz, Christina Shurts, Ali Smith, Cheryl Sorg Augusta Wood, Eric Yahnker.
The Torrance Art Museum is proud to present ZOOM, a juried survey of current developments in contemporary artistic practices from California, Arizona, Nevada, and Baja artists. In its inaugural year ZOOM breaks new ground and investigates a myriad of directions and movements in contemporary art beyond the traditional institutionalized juried show. ZOOM sets a new benchmark with an un-paralleled open application for a museum survey exhibition. This exhibition seeks to reflect current trends, track developments in contemporary practices, and explore associations between the regional geographical areas. But more importantly to give voice to new artists via the open call process, for those artists without the school connections or the favored gallery, ZOOM evens the playing field.
Los Angeles is considered one of the most dynamic cities globally for the creation of contemporary art and Torrance sits in the midst of this activity. ZOOM at TAM seeks to redefine this creative hub for contemporary art to include a larger geographical context and expand our local remit to include a larger swath of artists that have a direct influence on the cultural dialogues of our time. As we compare and contrast various art practices found in this larger region of influence we will present a more comprehensive view of current artistic developments regionally and further afield.
from the press release
Saturday, November 14
1:00–3:30 p.m.
Museum Boardroom and Art School
The Museum is proud to host a panel discussion about identity, place, and culture in art inspired by the special exhibition American Artists from the Russian Empire. Join Michele Guieu, Shadab Zeest Hashmi, and Marisol Rendón — artists originally from France, Pakistan, and Colombia, respectively — as they discuss the impact their cultural identity has had on their work. After the discussion, join Museum Educators for a workshop inspired by the art of Russian-born American abstract sculptor Louise Nevelson. Lecture: Free after Museum admission.
http://www.sdmart.org/calendar.asp
San Diego Museum of Art
1450 El Prado
Balboa Park
San Diego, CA
619.232.7931
from the press release

Eve Out of Paradise (From Woodcuts of Women)
Reception 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Friday, November 13th, 2009
Noel-Baza Fine Art
2165 India Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Noel-Baza@cox.net
www.noel-bazafineart.com
619.876.4160
These amazingly beautiful woodcuts and linocut prints are timely and significant works of art. Featured in museums and major collections of Latin American art, Artemio's work offers an amazing value for the collector at this time.
Artemio Rodriguez was born in Tacambaro, Michoacan Mexico in 1972. He began by studying agronomy at the Universidad Autonomo Chapingo and was later introduced to art when he apprenticed and learned letterpress printing from Juan Pasco, a master print maker working out of the Taller San Martin Pescadoer near Rodriguez’s hometown.
As a print maker who works primarily in black and white, Rodriguez’s signature style emphasizes simplicity and clarity. European medieval woodcuts and the great Mexican print artists such as Jose Guadalupe Posada have been influential in Rodriguez’s print making career. Though comfortable working in a wide variety of artistic media, Rodriguez regards his ten years as a print maker as the beginning of a long quest. His larger goal is to keep exploring and promoting printmaking until he feels he has contributed something important to the medium. He fully expects this to take a lifetime.
Rodriguez’s work has been featured in galleries and Museums in the United States and Mexico. He has also illustrated and published several books. In 2009, The San Diego Museum of Art acquired several prints by Artemio Rodriguez including his monumental ( 8 x 12 foot) “Triumph of Death". They are currently on display in the new
Mexican Gallery of the SDMA in Balboa Park.
More information here
from the press release

United & Severed
That window of Time..
Special Video Screening
Saturday, Nov. 14th 6 - 9pm
ART Produce Gallery
3139 University Avenue
San Diego, CA
619.584.4448
www.artproducegallery.com

Join the artists for a special screening of United & Severed, the 22 minute video that accompanies the installation. United & Severed is an experimental video based on interviews with three women living with traumatic injuries.
United and Severed is an interdisciplinary work based on the experiences of 3 women living with traumatic injuries. Research for this artwork began with Diekman & Schaffman's interviews with Kim Anderson, Michele Caputo, & Ivy Kensinger. They tell their personal stories of shock injury where in a single moment their lives were changed forever. Show runs to December 6th, 2009.
Kristine Diekman & Karen Schaffman
(writing-audio-videography-choreography-installation)
Richard Keely & Anna O'Cain
(sculpture-installation)
For more info. about United & Severed: http://www2.csusm.edu/diekman/un_sev/
David White from Agitprop in North Park and Drew Snyder from The Andrews Gallery in Leucadia, have been chosen for the following Best of categories in CityBeat's annual reader's poll. And the winners are Best alternative art gallery and Best art gallery worth the drive respectively. Congrats to them both! Oceanside Museum of Art was voted Best art-scene underdog for what its worth or for whatever that means - I have no idea. Other awards, Lynn Susholtz from ART Produce Gallery in North Park has been nominated for an "Orchid" in the category of Public Art by the San Diego Architectural Foundation. www.orchidsandonions.org We couldn't be happier!
Here are a few excerpts from the CityBeat nominations:
Best art gallery worth the drive
Local art lovers rarely venture north of Quint in La Jolla for openings, but ask someone in the know and they’ll tell you that The Andrews Gallery in Leucadia (1002 N. Coast Hwy. 101, www.theandrewsgallery.com) has been showcasing some amazing local and international talent while also throwing some killer parties. more
Best alternative art gallery
Ah-ha, “alternative gallery.” If you look that up in a dictionary, it’ll say, “The owners don’t make any money selling the work.” Well, at least that’s how we’re going to be defining it today. more
by Kevin Freitas and David Fobes
Sitôt is an adverb in French that is generally used to designate a moment in time that has just passed — sitôt après - immediately after — or something that is about to happen as in the expression no sooner said than done. It implies a certain (physical) movement or action (trajectory) to be taken, a firm commitment that lies somewhere between the knowledge of the past and the unknown of the future. In other words, there’s no better time than the present. The whole notion of immediacy, of taking action or the taking up of arms (with the written word of course) appeals to me greatly. I wanted to seek out this immediacy through documenting the multitude of events, actions, and history being made daily in San Diego by its artists, their artworks, and those who support them. I would like to trace and record these actions — right now — through a series of interviews, eventual podcasts, video, or even art(ist) publications. My desire is to capture what is being thought about and talked about in the moment. This is why I am launching Sitôt.
Currently, I’m working with David Fobes on a project entitled “Re-collections: Art in San Diego since 1980”. Its goal is to document and publish online, a modest history of the arts in San Diego from the 1980’s until now. The project would also include documenting the music, theater, and dance movements and the people or institutions that helped shape them. We of course understand the magnitude of such an endeavor, but feel it is time to re-position the current art scene in relationship to where it has come from and to recognize the contributions it has already made.
Continue reading "Sitôt — A new project launches. Become a part of it now." »
by Kevin Freitas
If drawing’s origins can be traced back to the Italian Renaissance and the Academies - its usage primarily as a means to an end - that is, as a form of visual note taking or sketch in preparation for the final work of art, it isn’t until the 18th century that it begins to acquire a certain autonomy and appreciation. Drawing materials and the techniques used in employing them haven’t changed much over the centuries either, case in point, ink drawings or sumi-e has been around since the 10th century in Japan and even earlier in China. Today, it is still one of the many methods artists use to make their art. If there is any thanks to be given for drawings continued success and general public appeal, we should remove our porkpie hats (Llewellyn sports them) and thank such great masters as Rembrandt, Poussin, Rubens, Boucher, Fragonard, Delacroix, Cezanne, Degas, ad nauseam… Drawing has a very fine pedigree that carries a lot of art historical weight: tons and tons of it.

Renaissance artists viewed drawing as a cosa mentale, something that originated in the spirit and mind and then manifested itself through its gesture. Drawing then, was both mental and physical. It may have taken a major exhibit in 1976 organized by Bernice Rose entitled “Drawing Now” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to realize drawing could be something else than just lines on a piece of paper. It could also encompass such radical artists (at the time) as Land Art aficionados Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer, and still others from Dine to Agnes Martin to Stella, Twombly, and Rauschenberg. And how about now, where does drawing stand in 2009? The answer might be found in several new works by long time San Diego artist and resident Clayton Llewellyn, currently on view at Device Gallery (Barrio Logan).
from the press release
ART AFTER DARK: THE ZODIAC LOUNGE
Friday, November 20, 2009
What is your astrological sign? Find out at The Zodiac Lounge, Oceanside Museum of Art’s Art After Dark on Friday, November 20th from 7:00-10:00 p.m. Have your astrology, numerology and tarot cards read by Five Muses Entertainment or have Natasha Papousek of Crescent Moon Designs adorn you with a henna body art tattoo. Chris Brotzman will be spinning funky disco tribal Latin afro beats while video performance artist Megan Pogoda creates live video to his music on the façade of the museum. Inspired by all the creative energy you can make three dimensional figures in the sculpture center or hang out in the Kool lounge and experience Dave Ghilarducci’s Interactive Proverb Generator and site specific light and sound sculpture entitled "Pinholes in the Curtain of Night" that uses Morse code to communicate the twelve signs of the zodiac. Four art exhibitions will be on view, An American Dream: Gregg Jabs, Industrial Alchemy: John Zabrucky, San Diego NOW: Eight UCSD Visual Artists, and the Art of Les Perhacs. Guests will also have the chance to win Tim McCormick’s original oil painting The Stars with the opportunity drawing.
San Diego NOW: Eight UCSD Visual Artists
San Diego NOW: Eight UCSD Visual Artists presents artists from the MFA program at University of California, San Diego. The show was curated by Danielle Susalla, and features work by James Enos, Jesse Mockrin, Zac Monday, Omar Pimienta, Lesha Maria Rodriguez, Tim Schwartz, Julia Westerbeke, and Suzanne Wright.
A preview reception will be held on Friday, November 20th from 7 to 10 PM. Admission is $15 ($10 for OMA members) and includes, art, music, multimedia entertainment, art activities, food from Harney Sushi and Santino’s pizza, beer from Lost Abbey Brewery, and wine tasting from PRP Wine International.
Ticketless reservations are available by calling OMA at 760.435.3720. Or pay at the door the night of the event. Guests must be 21 or older.
An artists' forum moderated by UCSD professor Ernest Silva will be held on Thursday, December 3, from 7 to 9 PM. Meet the artists and learn about their methodologies, techniques, and the UCSD MFA program. The forum admission is $5 (free for OMA members).
OMA is located at 704 Pier View Way in downtown Oceanside, within walking distance of the Oceanside Transit Center and its Amtrak, Sprinter, and NCTD Coaster stops. Oceanside, California is half an hour north of San Diego.
Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM and Sunday 1 to 4 PM. General admission is $8, seniors 65 and over $5, students and active military free. For information on current exhibitions or other museum programs call 760-435-3720 or visit www.oma-online.org.
Continue reading "San Diego NOW & Art After Dark: The Zodiac Lounge" »
from the press release

Off The Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art lecture
14 November 2009
UCSD Campus
Pepper Canyon Hall, room 122
6:00 pm
Please join the University Art Gallery, UCSD in the second of three discussions associated with the current exhibition entitled Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art that to explore the global ramifications of gender-based violence. "Throughout the world, women and girls are victims of countless and senseless acts of violence. The range of gender-based violence is devastating, occurring, quite literally, from womb to tomb," explains Randy Jayne Rosenberg curator and executive director of Art Works For Change. "The stories that underlie these artworks return us imaginatively to the event of violation and allow it to affect us."
This program examines violence committed towards women based on culturally held beliefs and what women in different parts of the world are doing to challenge the status quo in their countries.
Kelli Moore, PhD Candidate, Communications will moderate the discussion with Farrah Douglas from 5 Women Who Care, Cima Rahmankhan, artist, Dep N. Tuany from Water for Sudan, Cindy Mathew from Amnesty International, Dilkhwaz Ahmed from License to Freedom.
ABOUT ART WORKS FOR CHANGE
Art Works for Change produces contemporary art exhibitions to address social and environmental.
It uses the power of art as a vehicle to promote dialogue and awareness, and to inspire action and thought. Art Works for Change operates under the fiscal umbrella of the Tides Center, a tax-exempt organization.
ABOUT 5 WOMEN WHO CARE
5 Women Who Care is a group of women who came together to help make a difference and bring awareness to women's and children's issues globally. Operating out of the San Diego area, these 5 Women collaborate with like-minded organizations for the empowerment and justice of women and children worldwide.
The University Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm.
858.534.2107
uag@ucsd.edu
from the press release

Suzanne Wright
“Memories of the Future”
Closing reception: Friday, October 30
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Visual Arts Facility Gallery
UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr. MC 0084
Exhibition runs October 25 - 30, 2009, Noon - 5:00pm
Suzanne Wright is an Master of Fine Arts Candidate in UC San Diego’s Visual Arts Department. Her large scale colored pencil drawings create fantastical environments, landscapes, and a physiological space while evoking a sense of humor and beauty.
from the press release

Edgeware Gallery
4186 Adams Ave.
San Diego, CA 92116
On October 30, Edgeware Gallery will celebrate its one year anniversary with its first group show. The wine and cheese reception will be from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m, and the artists in attendance will be Dan Adams, Kim Maria Cruz, Brittany Heskett, Anna Zappoli Jenkins, Maura McHugh, Joseph Mark Mueller, Mark Rimland, Anna Stump, Daniel Thedell, Chris Vannoy, and Eric Wixon.
“We wanted to create a bond with the artistic community”, says Edgeware Gallery Chief Dr. Stephen Edelson, who’s also the Director of the adjoining Autism Research Institute. “And what better way for us to get to know the artists, and for the artists to get to know Edgeware than by having them create their pieces live at Edgeware, which they’ve been doing for the past two weeks”, continues Edelson. “We hope to forge a permanent connection with these artists.”
So please come attend the Opening Night reception, rub elbows with the artists, and enjoy the art and wine and cheese, and remember that any artwork you purchase is a win/win/win: You, the patron, will now own an original artwork to grace the walls of your residence; you will be directly supporting a local artist; and at the same time, 100% of the net profits from all Art Wow sales go to support autism research.
The Autism Research Institute has been a fixture in San Diego since 1967. ARI was founded by the late Dr. Bernard Rimland to conduct research, and to spread the message that “autism is treatable”. Mark Rimland, the adult son of Dr. Rimland, is the resident artist at Edgeware.
from the press release

United & Severed
That window of Time..
Panel Discussion with Artists & Participants
Thursday, Oct. 29, 6 - 7:30pm
ART Produce Gallery
3139 University Avenue
San Diego, CA
619.584.4448
www.artproducegallery.com

The panel discussion features a dialogue among the collaborators and Kim Anderson about the artwork, trauma and disability. Anderson participated in the project through sharing her personal stories and writings. Anderson was looking forward to majoring in music until a car accident permanently injured her two weeks before her 19th birthday. Now paralyzed from the shoulders down, she is finishing her teaching credential and her Masters of Education at National University, having graduated cum laude from Cal State San Marcos with a bachelor's degree in Literature and Writing in 2007.
Kristine Diekman & Karen Schaffman
(writing-audio-videography-choreography-installation)
Richard Keely & Anna O'Cain
(sculpture-installation)
For more info. about United & Severed:
http://www2.csusm.edu/diekman/un_sev

TONIGHT ONLY !

from the press release

Off The Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art lecture
26 October 2009
UCSD Campus
Center Hall, room 109
6:30pm
Please join the University Art Gallery, UCSD in the first of three discussions associated with the current exhibition entitled Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art that to explore the global ramifications of gender-based violence. "Throughout the world, women and girls are victims of countless and senseless acts of violence. The range of gender-based violence is devastating, occurring, quite literally, from womb to tomb," explains Randy Jayne Rosenberg curator and executive director of Art Works For Change. "The stories that underlie these artworks return us imaginatively to the event of violation and allow it to affect us."
This program will be in a roundtable discussion that examines the range of issues from domestic violence to human trafficking that affect women globally and what is being done to address these concerns as well as what action can be taken.
Speakers include: Farrah Douglas from 5 Women Who Care, Taja McKinney-Zisler from Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, Kathi Anderson from Survivors of Torture, Katie Feifer from The Voices and Faces Project and Verna Tabor from Center for Community Solutions.
This programming has been endorsed by Amnesty International, Casa Cornelia Law Center, Center for Community Solutions, San Diego, Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, End Violence Against Women International, License to Freedom, Survivors of Torture, The Voices and Faces Project, United 4 Iran, and Women's Resource Center as well as departments and programs on campus.
ABOUT ART WORKS FOR CHANGE
Art Works for Change produces contemporary art exhibitions to address social and environmental.
It uses the power of art as a vehicle to promote dialogue and awareness, and to inspire action and thought. Art Works for Change operates under the fiscal umbrella of the Tides Center, a tax-exempt organization.
ABOUT 5 WOMEN WHO CARE
5 Women Who Care is a group of women who came together to help make a difference and bring awareness to women's and children's issues globally. Operating out of the San Diego area, these 5 Women collaborate with like-minded organizations for the empowerment and justice of women and children worldwide.
The University Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm.
858.534.2107
uag@ucsd.edu
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.
from the press release
JOHN BALDESSARI: PURE BEAUTY
Tate Modern London, United Kingdom
Running from October 13, 2009 – January 10, 2010
The JOHN BALDESSARI: PURE BEAUTY Catalogue is Co-Authored by, UC San Diego Visual Arts Professor, John Welchman.
Welchman was also co-author of the catalogs for John Baldessari: BRICK BLDG, LG WINDOWS W/XLENT VIEWS, PARTIALLY FURNISHED, RENOWNED ARCHITECT, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany, March 1 to July 19, 2009; and John Baldessari: Music, ed. Stefan Gronert and Christina Végh, Kunstmuseum Bonn and Bonner Kunstverein (Walter König, 2007).
JOHN BALDESSARI: PURE BEAUTY is traveling to the following locations:
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, February 11 – April 25, 2010
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, June 27 – September 12, 2010
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, October 17, 2010 – January 9, 2011
from the press release

23 October > 12 December 2009
Opening Reception 22 October 6:00 > 8.30pm
University Art Gallery, UCSD
9500 Gilman Drive
Mandeville Center
La Jolla, CA 92093
858.534.2107
uag.ucsd.edu
With: Amnesty International, Laylah Ali, Maimuna Feroze-Nana, Mona Hatoum, Icelandic Love Corporation, Yoko Inoue, International Rescue Committee, Jung Jungyeob, Amal Kenawy, Lisa Bjørne Linert, Hung Liu, Gabriela Morawetz, Miri Nishri, Yoko Ono, Cecilia Paredes, Susan Plum, Cima Rahmankhah, Joyce J. Scott, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Masami Teroka, Hank Willis Thomas
For the new exhibition season the University Art Gallery, UC San Diego presents an international exhibition entitled Off The Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art.
The exhibition brings together artists from around the world to explore the global ramifications of gender-based violence. The exhibition, curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg executive director of Art Works For Change, features twenty-one artists from nineteen countries. "Throughout the world, women and girls are victims of countless and senseless acts of violence. The range of gender-based violence is devastating, occurring, quite literally, from womb to tomb," explains Randy Jayne Rosenberg. "The stories that underlie these artworks return us imaginatively to the event of violation and allow it to affect us." Premised on the visionary potential in art, the exhibition avoids tabloid and sensational imagery. The invited artists were asked, "To help us create new representations through their artworks and, in doing so, help us feel and understand the essence of the problem of violence against women," says Rosenberg.
The exhibition hopes to help create a new conversation on this important topic. The exhibition explores multiple aspects of violence against women and girls organized within several thematic categories: Violence and the Individual; Violence and the Family; Violence and the Community; Violence and Culture; Violence and Politics. The organizers hope the audience leaves the exhibition with a better understanding of the roots of abuse, a feeling of empathy, and an awareness of choice in their actions and beliefs. These problems, though widespread, are often invisible, says Rosenberg. "When we encounter violence against women, we often overlook the facts and experience a sort of blindness. We choose not to see the devastation of domestic violence, calling it 'a family affair'. Honor-killings of women in faraway regions of the world become nothing more than a 'cultural difference'. We find it hard to believe that sex trafficking and exploitation occur in our cities, close to home. The rape and torture of women during armed conflict is the inevitable 'messiness of war'. As such, the political and systemic sources of violence are often underestimated or overlooked."
The University Art Gallery is partnering with 5 Women Who Care, Amnesty International, Casa Cornelia Law Center, CastLA, Center for Community Solutions - San Diego, End Violence Against Women International, Survivors of Torture, The Voices and Faces Project, United 4 Iran and Women's Resource Center as well as departments and programs on campus in order to create an extensive calendar of programming. Please visit our website at uag.ucsd.edu regularly to find out about the different events taking place.
ABOUT ART WORKS FOR CHANGE
Art Works for Change produces contemporary art exhibitions to address social and environmental.
It uses the power of art as a vehicle to promote dialogue and awareness, and to inspire action and thought. Art Works for Change operates under the fiscal umbrella of the Tides Center, a tax-exempt organization.
ABOUT 5 WOMEN WHO CARE
5 Women Who Care is a group of women who came together to help make a difference and bring awareness to women's and children's issues globally. Operating out of the San Diego area, these 5 Women collaborate with like-minded organizations for the empowerment and justice of women and children worldwide.
The University Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm.
For further information please phone 858.534.2107 or email uag@ucsd.edu
by Kevin Freitas

The complete video taped session of the "Meet the Press" panel discussion, held at Art Produce Gallery several weeks ago, can now be viewed online. It is a discussion that is absolutely needed and far from being over. You can link to the videos here.
A quick poll:
Monday, October 19, 7 p.m.
James S. Copley Auditorium
San Diego Museum of Art
$12 members/$15 nonmembers/$10 students
Artist and filmmaker Neil Kendricks leads a lecture/screening of three films by the hugely influential experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage.
So why pay and go when you can sit and click?
Because abstract Brakhage is less image than sound and light: and the sound's the clatter of celluloid, threading the sprockets on a hot machine.
The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. stone crumbles. wood rots. people, well, they die. but things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.
— Chuck Palahniuk

from the press release

United & Severed
That window of Time..
Opening Reception: Oct. 17, 6 - 9pm
ART Produce Gallery
3139 University Avenue
San Diego, CA
619.584.4448
An interdisciplinary work based on the experiences of 3 women living with traumatic injuries. Research for this artwork began with Diekman & Schaffman's interviews with Kim Anderson, Michele Caputo, & Ivy Kensinger. They tell their personal stories of shock injury where in a single moment their lives were changed forever.
Kristine Diekman & Karen Schaffman
(writing-audio-videography-choreography-installation)
Richard Keely & Anna O'Cain
(sculpture-installation)

Show dates: Oct.17 - Dec. 6, 2009
Panel Discussion with Artists & Participants: Oct. 29, 6 - 7:30pm
Video screening with Artists & Participants: Nov. 14, 6 - 9pm
For more info:
United & Severed: http://www2.csusm.edu/diekman/un_sev/
ART Produce Gallery: http://www.artproducegallery.com
by Kevin Freitas

Philly Joe Swendoza gives us his own version of a double header. In the first round, Philly Joe and I talk about the recent panel discussion held at Art Produce Gallery. Some of you were there to "Meet the Press", if you missed it, you can now listen to the broadcast for a brief summarization of the evening's events.
In the second round, Philly Joe goes solo with a third installment of Raging Art Bull, and wonders if there isn't too much good will prospering in San Diego's art community. Give a listen.
Segment 2
* Jonathan Richman
by Marilyn Mitchell
MCASD is exhibiting a number of works from their Annenberg Foundation Acquisitions at their downtown space at 1001 Kettner across from the Santa Fe Depot. Even if you're not especially a fan of minimalism, this is a vital group of works to see. Called "Primary Forms", the works do generally take standard geometric shapes but they are also often subtle plays on perception. Their copy states that it focuses on works from the 1960's and 1970's but the most interesting works are from after 1990. Judging from this show, minimalism has not run its course yet. Again, the museum claims these pieces address the notion of "...materiality as its dematerialization through the reflection and diffusion of light." All of the pieces require a few minutes of viewing in order for your perceptions to register the variations and changes. Attaching photos would not even begin to give you the pleasure of sensing them on-site — so I have purposely not added photos to this commentary, except for the image link to the museum's website above.
In our culture, museum going may be one of the only places where we allow our vision to rest on an object for minutes at a time. The act of viewing can be calming and refreshing for me. In the past, though, some minimalist works annoyed me. I found them not especially interesting or clever. Okay, a cube, big deal, was my feeling. "Primary Forms" has one stellar piece, though, worth the trip. It's a piece so subtle that the museum guard that day said he had never seen any single museum goer actually notice the piece without being told about it until my husband pointed it out to me.
The piece I am urging you to experience is on the second floor of the museum across from the elevator — the experience is in how you will see it. It's called "Wall MCASD Downtown" and it's by Wendy Jacob from 1993. You may notice the museum wall card describing the piece before you even see the piece, as I did. I read the placard and then felt confused because I didn't 'see' the piece. I asked my husband where the piece was and he responded, "It's right in front of you". I stood looking in front of me for a few seconds and noticed the wall appeared to be expanding in front of me! What a surprise — a wall that breathes with a slow steady pace accompanied by the sound of it's expansion and contraction. If you stood in front of this 'wall', it would appear like a blank, white wall. It's only when you are standing to the side of it as you read the placard that you can notice that it moves.
Wendy Jacob's piece is successful because there are standard museum going conventions, like written placards and white walls. She transforms the very surface that is meant to support the art into a memorable and unique experience. It made me consider how the institutions we visit that contain art are themselves learned experiences that can be viewed in new ways. It also reminded me how we are generally complacent as what is alive or animate versus what is dead or inanimate. "Wall MCASD Downtown" moves but it is inanimate so that also one can begin to question how we define life. It has nothing to do with reflection and light but it is certainly about what we call art and its material nature. The definition of art has undergone so much expansion in the last 40 years that it is difficult to ever claim one knows what art really is. If we pin it down in any way, it seems to slither away with defiance and glee. Wendy Jacob's piece brought art to the very structure of where art is housed and I know it made my afternoon step a bit bouncier because of my sense of joy from seeing it. Enjoy!
by Kevin Freitas

"Gold Mama" - Vanessa Madrid
It occurred to me on visiting the new exhibit at Palomar College Boehm Gallery that I’ve been to several campus galleries like this one, and curiously enough, they all pretty much look the same. I’ve bemoaned the gallery at Southwestern College already for their poor space management; the Boehm Gallery on the other hand is much smaller and divided into equal halves. It’s better but still not optimal. The room on the left has a linoleum floor; the room to the right is carpeted in a light gray which neutralizes any sculpture laid upon it. It’s a gallery with two distinct personalities. I imagine most of these community colleges were constructed during the late 70’s and early 80’s during the push to educate everyone in America, however, with no real thought behind what would be put inside. Campus galleries suffered the same indignation.
Artist Talk - Part 1 with Sandra Doore, Marisol Rendón, Brian Dick, Zac Monday and Rebecca Tice
from the press release

"The art scene in San Diego is a joke...," this is what some people say here. That's why we at The Art of Framing are showing Artist / Comedian / Poet Stephen Caddell.
Opening: 6 - 9 pm Saturday, October 10th
The Art of Framing
3333 Adams Avenue (Normal Heights)
San Diego, CA 92116
www.theartofframing.net
619.563.9770
We will be displaying Stephen's artwork and the artist will perform a 5 to 10 minute stand up comedy routine. At the same time we will also be viewing two of Stephen's favorite movies: a blacksploitation film "The Human Tornado" starring the late Rudy Ray Moore as Dolemite and the 80's Comedy "D.C. Cab".
Comedy act and movies may contain profanity language and nudity so be warned.
Stephen Caddell
Art: www.midnitedesign.sonicdb.net
Comedy: www.blackplanet.com/NiteTrain107
De Salvo's tree-branch networks at Quint serve as pods to his Caltrans mothership: a translation (and refinement) of public-art-scale technology down to the level of portable object.
The pods work beautifully, not just formally but as markers of de Salvo's progress in contemplating the role of mechanism in the world, a train of thought which seems to have evolved of late away from an affinity for per se mechanical ingenuity and towards an appreciation of general systems thinking... something we all need to do these days.
And how do they work formally? Let me count the ways:
This is a great show. Let's hope some curator pairs it with Ann Mudge's wireworks. One can dream.
from the press release

screenshot in video game (art gallery of SAN DIEGO, CA artist Paul Brogden)
Could this be the future of how art shows are going to be viewed?
Promo video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNlQy8gTS7s
You Call that Art? ( part 1 and 2) - The interactive video game Art Show is now available to download and play for free at www.InteractiveArtShow.com
Minimum System Requirements to play the game:
OS Windows 2000/XP Processor Pentium III - 1 GHz Memory (RAM), 512 MB Hard disk space, 1.4 GB Resolution 640 x 480 High Color (16 bits) or better Graphics Card, Direct3D compatible w/ 16 MB VRAM sound card, DirectSound compatible, and DirectX 9.0 or higher (free download of latest version available at Microsoft.com).
Participating artists include:
Bret Barrett, Brian Dombrowsky, Dark Vomit, David Russell Talbot, Paul Brogden, Lindy Ivey, James Ivey, Kim Riot, Sean Brannan, Dan Allen, Bobby Lane, Celene, David Gough, Shayne Yates, and the late Larry "Kosmo" Barnes ( co-creator of the Necronomicon).
About the interactive art show game:
This past November, a group of 50 experienced game designers came together and huddled to try and solve design's toughest problems: "How can video games be promoted as art?"
(article can be read at www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3974/making_games_art_the_designers_.php )
It brought out a lot of debate on the internet and blogs, and questioned whether video game design should even be considered "art". Regardless of how people may feel... one thing is for sure. Video games are the future and more popular today than they ever have been. "You Call that Art? (part 1 and 2)" sets the stage to ask: not whether video game design can be promoted as art... but rather... "How can video games work better together with the traditional arts?" Lately, it is has been a great concern to hear that "painting is dead" or that "painting is so 18th century". This particular frame of thought creates the very objective of the interactive art show video game. We hope you take the time to check it out the "new art show experience" at www.interactiveartshow.com We would love to hear how you feel about it!
Kelly and Crystal Hutchison
www.DarkVomit.com
www.InteractiveArtShow.com