Alfredo Castañeda: Beyond Surrealism at SDMA

by Patricia Frischer 

After seeing the expansive show of  Eduardo Chillida Convergence at SDMA on the first floor and the intense detailed miniature work of Marianela de la Hoz and Marc Urselli: Palpitations with its soundscape on the second floor, then Alfredo Casteñeda: Beyond Surrealism in the next room is not really beyond surrealism, it lands you smack in the middle of this artist imagination inspired by Rene Magritte. The large photo portrait of this Mexican artist starts this show can be referenced as he used his own image in every conceivable scenarios of his convoluted dreams. 

These 35 paintings shown for the first time in the USA, cover 50 years of the artists life (1938 – 2010). There is wit in the art and a very unusual patterning in many of the works which is quite contemporary. His smooth painting technique is reminiscent alter painting and it becomes difficult to place these works in time. But they are easily identifiable as a body of work because of his image in all of them.  

What sets Casteñada apart is his overlying attention to a religious fervency; Nuns, alters, sacrificial lambs. The connection to Rasputin the Russian mystic and faith healer comes to mind, but maybe because of the beard. Many of the canvases and images are fragmented or repeated. Multiple personalities in one body or multiple bodies in one personality….

 

Portrait of the Artist

Alfredo Casteñeda: Beyond Surrealism
On view until March, 1, 2026
San Diego Museum Of Art
1450 El Prado Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat 10AM - 5PM
Sunday Noon to 5, Wednesday Closed

Marianela de la Hoz and Marc Urselli: Palpitations at SDMA and photos at MOPA@SDMA

 by Patricia Frischer

Marianela de la Hoz, Resetting

SD Art Prize recipient in 2014 Marianela de la Hoz with soundscapes by Grammy Award-winning producer Marc Urselli are collaborating on Marianela de la Hoz and Marc Urselli: Palpitations The Cadence of Heartbeatsat the San Diego Museum of Art on view until Feb 22, 2026. This is unusual work  de la Hoz as she worked in acrylics and mixed media techniques in order to paint speaker cones instead of her egg tempera on board. What is lost in the translucent media of the ancient media is made up for with the sound affects generated by Urselli.  

The sound most associated with palpitation is the beat of the human heart. These works are all about beginnings and endings and the beats that occur during a life time. Tree of Life and Death, from Cradle to Tomb is even the title the three-part free standing painted sculpture.  In between, we have an image depicting Resetting with a young and middle age women transfusing energy. The small Cenzontle Angel, processor of four hundred voice watches over and connects the visual and audio components of the exhibition. Cenzontle is the Aztec word for mockingbird and there is a little bird is in the middle of Seikillos Epitaph a term for preserving the oldest surviving complete musical composition in Ancient Greek. 

Marianela de la Hoz, Seikillos Epitaph

Marianela de la Hoz, Cenzontle Angel, processor of four hundred voice

Marianela de la Hoz,  Tree of Life and Death, from Cradle to Tomb (middle component)

Marianela de la Hoz, Tree of Life and Death, from Cradle to Tomb 

Marianela de la Hoz and Marc Urselli: Palpitations The Cadence of Heartbeats
On view until  February 22, 2026
San Diego Museum Of Art
1450 El Prado Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat 10AM - 5PM
Sunday Noon to 5, Wednesday Closed

Shifting Visions: Photographs from the Collection of Ken and Jacki Widder On view to January 26, 2026 at the Museum of Photographic Arts at The San Diego Museum of Art.

This is a wide ranging group of small photo that range from city scape and architecture to illustration used in the media to photographic portraits of an interesting variety of folks in their environment.

As an example, Mary Ellen Marks (1940 to 2015) lived in New York but traveled the world. Her photos, much like those of Diane Arbus, give great dignity to the sitters young and old. They are not sentimental or condescending.  These photos are only a small selection of Marks work and a small sample of the large number of works in Ken and Jacki Widder’s collection. 

Mary Ellen Marks 

Mary Ellen Marks

Mary Ellen Marks

Shifting Visions: Photographs from the Collection of Ken and Jacki Widder
On view to January 26, 2026
Museum of Photographic Arts at The San Diego Museum of Art
1649 El Prado Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
Thursday-Sunday 11AM - 5PM Monday-Wednesday Closed

If you turn to the left when you enter MOPA, and walk into the exhibition, after viewing, you will be able to stroll right into this exhibition  which we have already covered.  Mirae kh RHEE: Constellations at MOPA@SDMA by Patricia Frischer on view until Jan 4, 2026.

Eduardo Chillida Convergence at SDMA

 by Patricia Frischer

Drawing a line in the air is a flowing gesture; imagine an orchestra conductor and the motion of his baton. It swoops, it soars, it is pointed or flat. Capturing that ultra-light movement and making it out of iron, steel, oak, alabaster and/or clay is a challenge that the Spanish artist Eduardo Chillida masters. Yes, these very heavy materials seem counter intuitive, but they do add weight and substance to Chillida’s subjects – earth, sea, wind and light. You can see his thought process in the many drawing and collages included in this show
    Eduardo Chillida Convergence on view until Feb 8 at the San Diego Museum of Art. 

A favorite quote from the exhibition by Chillida:

Johann Sebastian Back, A tribute. 

modern as the waves
ancient as the sea
always never different
never always the same

I was not familiar with this artist who passed away in 2002 until this first in 50 years retrospective of his work. Roxana Velásquez, Maruja Baldwin Executive Director & CEO of the museum, has made it her mission to expand our knowledge of all things Latino and it is a job very well done. Beautifully laid out and with informative signage and fantastic shadows from excellent lighting, it is an elegant showing and supplies that stress free experience so often needed in these angst-ridden times.

The exception to this is the very exciting immersive five-minute virtual reality video which takes you to the edge of your seat by viewing the Comb of the Wind XV, three enormous sculptures set on the steep bluff overlooking La Concha Bay in San Sebastián, Spain. Literally, I had to hold onto my seat! You get closer to this massive work than you could in real life and it reveals all the power of the steel and the relentless sea below it. (There is a $5 extra charge for non-members for this roller coaster ride.)

Forged iron

"...a branch shaken by the wind."

Rough Chant; Oak structures made from salvaged beams of Basque building

Rough Chant: close up view

v

This alabaster sculpture is like a doll house but with light and permanence. 

Earth series using Chamotte clay, some natural and some with copper oxide to make it black. 

Gravitation series is juxtaposed with the Earth series to revealing a lightness with the use of paper

Comb of the Wind, photo from Spain

Maquettes for Comb of the Wind

The small study room where you can draw your own hand and add it to the collection. Gesture drawings of hands was a continued series for Chillida.  There is also a small free video showing of the artist making some of his works. 

Eduardo Chillida Convergence
On view until February 8, 2026
San Diego Museum Of Art
1450 El Prado Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat 10AM - 5PM
Sunday Noon to 5, Wednesday Closed

Marisol Rendón - Tapando el Sol con un Dedo (Covering the Sun with One Finger) at the Timken Museum

by Patricia Frischer

 

The popora (a container for powdered lime used when coca leaves are eaten produced a mild cocaine affect) re-imagined by Marisol Rendón  is a elaborate open weave transparent container with embroidery of coca leaves.  Rendón is a Colombian-born, San Diego–based artist and 2024 San Diego Art Prize recipient. We celebrated her work with the exhibition at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park and so it was terrific to see her showing again at the Timken Museum of Art as their sixth installment of its Summer Artist-in-Residence Program. 

detail of porpora

You enter a very darkened space where the work before you is mysterious and seems to glow with hope. Rendón grew up surrounded by poverty, where hope itself was often an illusion and people clung to myths and superstitions to help them through their everyday life. Her research into the Timken collection seems to have gravitated to those images: halos on saints, gilded backgrounds, the delicacy of white lace collars.

The large leaf (below) is layers open weave as well has that same reference to lace as the popora. 
 

detail of leaf

Rendón often includes a scientific element in her art. Solar halos have been observed with a notable sighting in Japan on May 20, 2025. These colorful rings around the sun, are caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals in high-altitude reminiscent of her video showing a world full of glowing lights which morphed into fireflies in a natural setting.

 In the central work, There Goes the Glory, a set of frames like layers looks like an entry way. It starts as a pentagon and ends in a square, with little bits of gilded wood that reminded us of the bugs eating away at the fragments of the SDMA museum’s façade in her last show.

 

Marisol Rendón - Tapando el Sol con un Dedo (Covering the Sun with One Finger)
Exhibition from Summer Artist-in-Residence 2025: Marisol Rendón
On View until October 12, 2025
Timken Museum of Art
1500 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101
Open Wednesday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. (closed Monday & Tuesday)

Clothes Story Opens the 2025–26 Season at San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery

By Patricia Frischer

Alma Thomas (1891-1978) was the first graduate of the art department of Howard University. She was the first African American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She was part of the Washington Color School which gain notice in the 60's. Her highly colored pattern lend themselves easily to fashion 

San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery  launches its fall season with Clothes Story: Draped in History, an  exhibition  curated by Atlanta-based designer Kenneth Green. This powerful show celebrates the lives and contributions of African American women through fashion history. With almost 30 meticulously recreated garments spanning 1890 to 1963 it is especially astonishing  how lavish some of these dresses are considering the low budget and the use of dollar store fabrics and notions to recreate many of them.

Diahann Carroll was the first African American women to star in a non-stereotypical leading television role as Julia. She was on the cover of Ebony Magazine in this dress.

Opera Gown and Coat that could have been worn by Dorothy Dandridge (first black woman nominated for an Academy Award) or Lena Horne. Black fashion designer started as seamstresses and dressmakers of the early 1900's. Church elegance and the Harlem Renaissance were showcases. 

Opera Gown and Coat 

Opera Dress

This dress is a reproduction of the one that Coretta Scott King who married Martin Luther was know to have worn to perform a song. She was an educator and a major leader herself in the civil rights movement

Homage to Zelda Wynn Valdes (1905-2001), the African American fashion designer who broke fashion barriers. She dressed Ella Fitzgerald and Earth Kitt and so many more including the design for the playboy bunny!

 
Each fashion item in Clothes Story carries its own narrative—revealing details about the maker, the historical moment, and the woman who once wore it. Through Green’s work, the viewer sees fashion as a storytelling medium. The women were resilient, strong, and represent the  spirit of African American women who shaped their communities and fought for change.

This Gatsby Coat and the flapper dress below signaled the freedom from layers and layers of underclothing. The dresses had very simple two seam designs but were highly embellished. 

This detail of a intricate bedazzlement is an homage to Fredye Marshall, a celebrated singer of Opera and Broadway who performed for royalty.

 

The exhibition was built from archival photographs and research rather than museum collections. Green, whose passion for costume began with his seamstress mother, his biggest inspiration,  draws on decades of experience in dance, theater, and casting—including 34 years at Spelman College in Atlanta and his work with Disney. From the trimmings of Victorian dresses that signaled wealth, to flapper-era layers that symbolized newfound freedoms during the Black Renaissance, to the story of Dorothy the house maid, who spent 4 days in jail for speaking back to a white employer when she did not want to work an extra 4 hour per day after her usual 12 hours… these clothes trace histories of social progress.

Homage to Raven Wilkinson, the first African American woman to dance for a major classical ballet company. This dress is only one of two originals in this show and will be returned to the Atlanta Ballet Company. 

Green spent a month in San Diego, preparing the fashions for display. He revealed that each dress or coat has its own personality. Some are easy to care for, others, like Big Red seem to attract wrinkles. The tutu has to be hung upside down after shipping and each layer separated to attain its full glory. It represents one of the first black ballerinas Raven Wilkinson, passing as white to perform but hounded by racist.

Big Red

back detail, Victorian luxury

Clothes Story also uses photographs and  graphics, to tell the story, including "foot notes". For example, the Battle of Versailles is about the first time black fashion models were used for a major competition between the French and American. These models stole the show in 1973! Green envisions an interactive technology added in the future, however, the next stop for a group of dresses titled  First in Their Field is Harvard Medical School. White doctors were using black women slaves to research gynecology issue to their shame. Clothing worn by the first black female doctors and nurses are on display.  

This exhibition has toured 6 college galleries and museums on the east coast and now this west coast gets its premier at Mesa College Gallery.  This exhibition is presented in collaboration with the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art and supported by the Hervey Family Fund of the San Diego Foundation.

Kenneth Green had a 12^th grade teacher who really believed in him. Through Clothes Story, he is able not only to display history but make it come alive. Go and spend time with these clothes and maybe you will make some new friends who will inspire you to believe.  

Kenneth Green, curator and passionate organizer of this collection

Alessandra Moctezuma, Director, Mesa College Gallery who introduced Kenneth Green at his talk about the show. 

Wonderful mix of all ages and colors attending the talk

Entrance Display: all the clothes in Clothes Story are Draped in History

Clothes Story
San Diego Mesa College Gallery
August 25 - October 16, 2025
Curated by Kenneth Green
Fine Arts Building, Art Gallery, FA103
7250 Mesa College Dr. SD 92111
Closest entrance is through Marlesta/Genesee.
Gallery Director, Alessandra Moctezuma  619.388.2829
Mon – Thurs 12 to 5 pm