Sunday, October 13, 2024

Face Off: Portraits and Masks at PHES Gallery

 by Patricia Frischer

 

Gail Schneider

We were first attracted to this show because it includes some of our SD Art Prize and New Contemporary Artists like  Deanne Sabeck, Marianella de la Hoz, Gail Schnider, Irene de Watteville, Cheryl Tall, and Deanne Sabeck. (Our prize opens this month for the 17th year at the SD History Center Thurs. Oct 24 from 6 to 8 pm. Free but RSVP is required)

This is the first open call for the PHES gallery and so instead of me making a selection of the work, we asked many of those at the opening what were their favorite works.  (Name of choosers are being withheld to avoid any hard feelings.) We hope this tempts you to attend to see the whole show, 

Gail Schneider

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz is in a larger show at Art Produce right now. Check out our report at 
Marianela de la Hoz Opens Our Eyes and Minds with Stardust (Polvo de Luz) at Art Produce Picked RAW Peeled by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, photos by Maurice Hewitt


Monica Loss

Monica Loss

Monica Loss
Monica Loss was featured with several pieces in her own small room. This type wearable art is trending and will be featured next year  in the fall at the Vision Museum of Textile Art. 

Cheryl Tall

Irene de Watteville

Deanne Sabeck

 
Tiffany Bociek

Ellen Dieter


Warren Bakley

Kathleen Kane-Murrell

Helen Redman

Rin Colabucci

You have until Dec 1 to go and pick your favorite work. Prices range from $300 - $9000.

Face Off: Portraits and Masks at PHES Gallery
October 13 – December 1, 2024
2633 State St, Carlsbad, CA 92008
Gallery Hours Thurs– Sat 2 – 7pm and by appointment
info@PhesGallery.com 760-696-3022

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Transformative Currents: Art And Action In The Pacific Ocean at Oceanside Museum of Art

 by Patricia Frischer


Isabelle Beavers’ Tomb Keepers (Rise)

This two-part exhibition Transformative Currents: Art And Action In The Pacific Ocean is actually two of 4 parts of a PST project funded by the Getty Foundation. The other two parts are at the Orange County Museum of Art  and the Crystal Cove Conservancy on the Newport coast. There are about 20 artists or  artist teams participating in just the OMA part of the exhibition. The curators Cassandra Coblentz with assistant curators Aaron Katzeman and Ziying Duan sites the artists in the museum and the displays are outstanding. They convert the space in a most dramatic way, especially upstairs which is intended to represent the underwater parts of the explorations. Downstairs is above the water, which is a bit counter intuitive, but  both parts are full of screens…hopefully that OMA can keep for future exhibitions.

Officially Transformative Currents: Art and Action in the Pacific Ocean looks at the harm both culturally and environmentally that has affected the Pacific Ocean, while trying to enact some positive change.   

I am not great at reading titles that are long, small and displayed in a darkened environment. So I took pictures and read about what I was seeing once I got home. And my suggestion is to come prepared to spend time exploring, or do the same.

Upstairs, for example, Isabelle Beavers’ Tomb Keepers (Rise) in the first display that caught my eyes, the subject was polymetallic nodules. I had to look that up to find out that in 2019, the average value of a polymetallic nodule was estimated to be $484 per ton. So the reason for the arrangement was to stop mining of these amazing very old collections of mineral deposits. Imagined reproductions of those nodules were cast in glass, the video showed the mining and symbolic arrangement of Ctenophora which have 8 levels of combs and are vaguely related to jelly fish.

Beatriz Jaramillo’s Connect 27,000 dots represents 27,000 to ½ million barrels of DDT that rest on the ocean floor. The word Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane is spelled out in holes bunched in the images on display.

Alex Monteith and Maree Sheehan in Whiri iwi Tuna: Underwater Worlds of the Tuna (eels) in Te Whanganui share images of the eels in a multiscreen flowing recording of this space that is a confluence of river and ocean. The eels have developed ways to survive the pollution.

SeanConnelly’s Gut Technics demonstrates how the ocean has become a dumping ground for old equipment used to explore those same waters. This constructed display with its reflective surfaces and video was strangely alluring.

Paul Rosero Contreras  shows a sound film Dark Paradise Lost 2 but alongside are intriguing sculptures that represent a combination of natural and plastic element in a new coral configuration. The 3-d printed  forms are actually made from that same combination of plastic and ground coral.

Going downstairs, the large format composition by Genevieve Robertson is Bull Kelp which actually using kelp as one of the mediums.

L. Frank and Jane Chang Mi created a nenvironment interpretation of the Cave of the Whales on San Nicolas Island (off the coast of Southern California) to enter and ponder in She Will Dreams Many Things. This Island was used by the US Navy and to this day is off limited.

Ohan Breiding and Shoghig Halajian (a grad student at UCSD) in Rafters document some of the many object found in the waters after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. They carried wild life along with them, much of which survived because of their attachment. This is rather like trash immagrants!

You can check out all of the artists on the OMA website which has links to the artists sites.  

The Refusion Pop -Up Shop will be part of the OMA Museum Store during Transformative Currents: Art and Action in the Pacific Ocean.  Refusion, created by Julie Ellis, is a non-profit that teams up with artists who turn single-use plastics into creative, sustainable art

Remember: ART AFTER DARK. The big OMA celebration is October 26,  6:00–10:00pm

Transformative Currents: Art And Action In The Pacific Ocean
Curated by Cassandra Coblentz with assistant curators Aaron Katzeman and Ziying Duan
August 17, 2024–January 19, 2025
704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
(760) 435-3720
HOURS: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday11:00am–5:00pm
Friday 11:00am–8:00pm

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

My Intimate Partner at Oceanside Museum of Art

by Patricia Frischer



Carlos Castro Arias detail

Although this exhibition My Intimate Partner at Oceanside Museum of Art curated by Smardar Samson is undeniable about domestic violence aka IPV (Intimate Partner Violence), it presents survival and hope instead of only taking us down the usual path of terror and harm. The show is divided into four sections Intimacy, Power and Control, Fallout, Transformation.

The detail above from Carlos Castro Arias shows the bullet holes in what appear to be a  decorative rosette maybe from a church and is part of the Power and Control room. Each one of the works in this show deserve a close look and a private interpretation.  

Carlos Castro Arias


The quotes that begins the show, “…Nothing can be changed unless it is faced.”  sets the tone for an exploration with the implication that actions can be taken that are helpful. The end quote, “…even a fist was once an open palm…” is full of hope.  The  blissful colors of Irma Sofia Poeter’s womb-like installation are a sharp contrast to the manipulation voice in Dark Sound, and the words, “I’m Sorry” could  refer to the victim, but I choose to think they are the perpetrator’s.




Designed by Smadar Samson - walking on egg shells, with dialogue performed by 
Jessica Yaffa and Dave Franco



Intimacy

Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio - the intimacy of hands stroking hair takes on a scary premonition of hair being pulled because of the context of this show. 


Power and Control


Mely Barragán


Lisa Bryson - silent screams

Fallout

Irma Sofia Poeter

VALYA - each circle in felt represents a victim's soul with a testimony below each taken from a survivor at a shelterSelf worth is one of the most important processes in recovery.


Trinh Mai - demonstrates time as a healing agent

Trinh Mai detail

Trinh Mai detail

Transformation



Irma Sofia Poeter


Other artists in this exhibition include: Patrick N. BrownFatima JamilMarco MirandaThe Rosin Box Project Dance Studio (Synergy Art Foundation funded the dance performance at the opening)

October is officially Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It is especially important to list the resources for anyone needing help to prevent/resolve IVP:

Local Services:
WRC  Woman's Resource Center
CRC  Community Resource Center
One Safe Place
Jessica Jaffa Coaching Institute
Center for Community Solutions

State:
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence
 

National:
CDC Center for Disease Control IVP
National Domestic Violence Hotline
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
List of national organizations compiled by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services 

Over 61 million women and 53 million men (about 41% of women and 26% of men) have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Promoting healthy, respectful, and nonviolent relationships and communities can help reduce the occurrence of IPV.

My Intimate Partner at Oceanside Museum of Art
Curated by Smadar Samson
October 5, 2024–March 16, 2025
A World Design Capitol SD/TJ 2024 exhibition.
704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
(760) 435-3720
HOURS: Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday11:00am–5:00pm
Friday 11:00am–8:00pm

Watch for our report Carlos Castro Arias: The Splinter in the Eye at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. Hugo Crosthwaite’s Adventures in Color at Bread & Salt  is a Picked RIPE  choice by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt. Both of these reports are Oct 2024 features.

Carlos, Hugo, Mely Branegán and Irma Sophia Poeter are all SD Art Prize recipients. Remember San Diego Arts Prize 2024 at San Diego History Center Oct 24, 2024 to March 30, 2025 featuring Gabriel BoilsFrancisco Emeand Marisol Rendón.  You are invited to the opening reception on Thurs. Oct 24 from 6 to 8 pm. Free but RSVP is required. 


Hugo Crosthwaite’s Adventures in Color at Bread & Salt

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

 

Tijuacolor, a featured painting in the exhibition.


 If you’re a fan of multi-award-winning artist Hugo Crosthwaite--and who isn’t?--you may not have had a chance to see Tijuacolor, his soon-ending exhibit at Bread & Salt in Barrio Logan.

 So here’s a little look at a few of his latest ventures out of his usual black-and-white into vibrant color--all large-scale paintings portraying the place of his birth.

The Line.

The Annunciation.

Haircut. The central figure in the painting.

There is one black-and-white piece on display in Tijuacolor: a collaborative 3 ½ minute music video, with headphones provided. You won’t need headphones to see the video here, thanks to the band whose music you’ll be hearing, The Color Forty Nine. And you can dance to it!

What Would I Know? Yo Que Sé?

 

What does Hugo know? Here’s a quote from the artist’s statement:

“I create works of art that are beautiful. Not a beauty that duplicates the commonplace aesthetic molded by advertising and mass media imagery but a personal intimate beauty.

The depiction of human suffering and violence permeates my works. The works themselves are not violent, rather thoughtful and rife with seductive imagery. I explore the complexities of human expression, everything from alienation to acceptance and even celebration.”

Want to see other colorful Crosthwaite paintings? Hugo Crosthwaite: The Rupture of the White Cube at Mesa College Art Gallery Picked RAW Peeled By Patricia Frischer

Tijuacolor at Bread & Salt (closing before end of October, exact date uncertain)
1955 Julian Avenue, San Diego 92113.
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

 

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net

 



Sunday, October 6, 2024

Prix Pictet HUMAN: A Photography Exhibition You Won’t Soon Forget at MOPA

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

 

Luciérnaga (Firefly) by Yael Martínez (Taxco, Mexico). The image above is part of the large glittery series that may first command your attention as you enter the gallery. The photographer calls it an essay on the resilience of those who have gone through violence and trauma in Mexico and Latin America. He made pinpricks in each photograph and shone light through the holes to show how we as human beings can transform terrible situations, changing darkness into light. “I believe that when photography engages with education, culture, and politics, we can create a better world,” he writes.

Prix Pictet. I’d never heard the name before but now I know it’s “the world’s leading award for photography and sustainability” and this is its 10th cycle of offering awards, each time with a different theme.

Photographers must be nominated by one of the 300-plus curators, critics, and visual arts specialists in the Prize’s network, and each submission must be a series of photographs that in some way addresses the fragile state of our planet and the current theme. An independent jury then selects a shortlist of those they consider most compelling, and after the shortlisted pieces have been seen in an exhibition, a winner is chosen and given a large cash prize in Swiss Francs. 

All the shortlisted works then go on a worldwide tour, and there’s only one North American site included: MOPA, the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park, which is now part of SDMA (San Diego Museum of Modern Art) and the last stop on the tour.

So lucky San Diegans will be able to admire the work of 12 brilliant visual storytellers at MOPA through December 15th. What follows is only a small taste of what you’ll see there… and you’ll get a free catalog too.

Jannat by Gauri Gill

Urma & Nimli by Gauri Gill

Two photographs from Notes from the Desert by Gauri Gill (New Delhi, India). She was announced as the winner of the 10th Prix Pictet in September 2023, when the exhibition opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. "To live poor and landless in the desert amounts to an inescapable reliance on oneself, on each other and on nature," she wrote in her artist's statement. We were mesmerized by the unusual mirror image and the upside-down portrait of two very young girls.

 

Richard Renaldi

Richard Renaldi, the only American in the exhibition, happened to be at MOPA when we were there. Born in Chicago and based in New York City, his Disturbed Harmonies series refers to “troubled men in a troubled world” and his desire to “pull men back into parallel with the natural world.” In the images here, he placed an old man he met in Turkey and a tattooed West Village New Yorker in touch with nature.


Hoda Afshar

 
Hoda Afshar

Two images from Speak the Wind by Hoda Afshar (born in Tehran, Iran; based in Melbourne, Australia). In the local culture of islands off the southern coast of Iran, the winds are considered harmful, the cause of disease and other afflictions, so traditional leaders speak to the wind in tongues to negotiate its departure. These images don’t reference those interactions, but they certainly grabbed our attention.

 

Vanessa Winship
A riveting portrait of young girls in lace-collared uniforms by Vanessa Winship (based in Folkestone, U.K. and Mandritsa, Bulgaria) from her series Sweet Nothings: Schoolgirls from the Borderlands of Eastern Anatolia. Life is difficult in those parts, and these two girls, part of a government campaign to get more girls into schools, don’t seem to be enjoying their moment.

 

Siân Davey

Lila, a child in The Garden, a series by Siân Davey (based in Devon, U.K), who photographed people in their surrounding community that she and her son met over the wall of their backyard garden. “As the flowers opened, they called in…mothers and daughters, grandparents, the lonely, the marginalized, teenagers, new lovers, the heartbroken,” she writes. “The Garden became…a metaphor for the human heart.”


Ragnar Axelrod


Ragnar Axelrod

 
Two untitled images by Ragnar Axelrod, born and based in Iceland, from his series Where the World is Melting. “In the regions around the Arctic, change is happening more quickly than anywhere on earth,” he writes. “Sea ice and glaciers are melting fast, and…thousand-year-old traditions of hunter societies are on the decline…Now the glaciers are retracting, the Siberian tundra is thawing, and wildfires are raging…Where there is life, there is hope, and people living in the Arctic must have that hope…There are opportunities and solutions. We must never forget that.”

Prix Pictet HUMAN at MOPA@SDMA
On view through December 15, 2024.
1659 El Prado in Balboa Park
HOURS: Thursday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
(Hours may change during holidays and special events)
Admission: Pay what you wish.
INFO@SDMART.com


Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net