Latin American Art Festival at Bread and Salt

by Patricia Frischer

Art Directors and Co-Founders: Aida Valencia (pictured above) Gabriela Avila

The Latin American Art Festival (Oct12/13,2019)  is billed as a multicultural showcase for art and culture in Northern Baja and Southern California but this year there were artists from much further afield. There is also cuisine beer and wine and a variety of music and performance entertainment as well as the large exhibition of art juried into the venue at Bread and Salt.

Featured contemporary artists and galleries include: Rafael San Juan and Yunayka Martin from Cuba, Mendel Samayoa from Latinaria Collective of Guatemala, La Marrulera Collective from Mexico City, Jose Santos from Oaxaca, San Diego Mesa College Selection (curated by Alessandra Moctezuma), and La Caja Gallery of Baja California which will feature artists Yunen Esparza and Jaime Ruiz Otis among others. Also showcasing their works will be LAAF 2018's "Best In Show" winners César Vásquez, and Maik Jiménez.

Cesar Vazquez

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Jose Santos

Enrique Avilez

Special Peruvian Display

Yunayka Martin

Art San Diego top selections including the SD Art Prize and From Folk to AI

By Patricia Frischer

four finalist for the SD Art Prize 2020:
Alanna Airitam, Kaori Fukuyama, Griselda Rosas, and Melissa Walter

From Folk to Artificial Intelligence curated by Vallo Riberto: Ernesto Bogarin, John Dillemuth, Shuichi Hashimoto, Kazmier Maslanka, Gustavo Mayoral, Neil Shigley, Ron Tatro and Cindy Zimmerman

SD Art Prize  at Art San Diego at Booth #122
Presented by San Diego Visual Arts Network
Curated by Vallo Riberto
Including four finalist for the SD Art Prize 2020:
Alanna Airitam, Kaori Fukuyama, Griselda Rosas, and Melissa Walter

From Folk to Artificial Intelligence curated by Vallo Riberto: Ernesto Bogarin, John Dillemuth, Shuichi Hashimoto, Kazmier Maslanka, Gustavo Mayoral, Neil Shigley, Ron Tatro and Cindy Zimmerman

Thursday, Oct 10 to Sun Oct 13, 2019
Art San Diego 2019 press release
San Diego Convention Center
Hall E 111 W Harbor Dr.
San Diego, CA 92101

This is your chance to get a preview of the four finalist for the SD Art Prize. The winner for 2020 will be announced in the spring at the annual SD Art Prize show at the Athenaeum  Music and Arts Library. 

 Melissa Walter

Alanna Airitam

Griselda Rosas

Kaori Fukuyama

Also in booth #122 is a curated exhibition by Vallo Riberto. Great thanks go to Vallo Riberto and his volunteers for manning the SD Art Prize booth this year!

 


 

I was asked to be a selector at this year's Art San Diego by the organizers. We have attended this art fair with a booth for the SD Art Prize sponsored by the San Diego Visual Arts Network every year since it began. This is the first year that the event has been held at the San Diego Convention Center.  There is no razzmatazz, outside projections or impressive entrances, but I found it refreshing that the booths were well spaces, the floor plain and clean and that the main focus, as it should be, was on the art in the booths. For the Impact night there was some lovely food passed and an open bar and very nice jazz combo. We had a chance to see many, many friends and colleagues.

Even through there was a large crowd on opening night, I was able to view all the work and I  have a few insights on what I saw:

• There was very little kinetic (moving) art in the entire show. But two works curated by Vallo Riberto in the Folk to Artificial Intelligence exhibition, one by Gustavo Mayoral (see above) and the other by Ernesto Bogarin were stand outs. 
• In a few instances, I would see one work that I liked very much. But included in the booth would be several others works by the same artist that I did not like. It was hard then to choose that one work, although in the case of Wally Gilbert (see below), I did choose an early work but found the later works much too commercial for my taste. 
• I saw a couple of booths from Japan that were a compelling selection of small works. But on closer inspection it was the look of a the large variety of tiny images that attracted me and not the individual works....none of which I could select.  

So to make my selection, I had a definite criteria. The work had to have a conceptual idea which was compelling and authentic. It had to have an aesthetic presence that was visually stimulating. Only 2 of the five I was asked to select were from San Diego as I decided I could not choose just one of the four women nominated for the SD Art Prize in 2020 as they are equally talented. These next five are my selection for Art San Diego this year.

Kaz Maslanka, 10,000 Dharmas return to the .....
This is a timely mathematical poem about how we are all one. One (person) divided into one (cockroach) equals one.
From Folk to Artificial Intelligence curated by Vallo Riberto 

David Alfaro Siquieros, untitled sketch for a mural in Mexico City shown by Art Link International. This study of workers protesting is a strong and meaningful work for our time but is also lyrical. The glowing canvas which is historically important is by a modern master. Many of the works in this booth gave me great pleasure. 

Shannon E. D'Antonio, Sister Queens, 2018 shown by KM Contemporary. How can you not love the pure joy of 2 dancing females under the moon especially in the year of women power with these two beautifully rendered rabbits. 

William Cordiner, untitled and undated but lived between 1930 - 2012
An artist who might never be recognized  touched my sensibilities with his subtle torn paper work. Shown in the Awesome Art Gallery booth with his student who never learned that less is more. 

Wally Gilbert, Columns, Berline 2004. showing at the CJ Gallery, Gilbert caught this accidental site specific arrangement of forms in his photograph which is enhanced by its large size and vibrant pure orange color. The theme of this work is Art and Science as Gibert came late to the art world as a former scientist. 

An extra shout out to the Oslo Sardine Bar as it ends is year long tour of the Redwood Art Fairs across America. Max Robert Daily was on fine form as he hosted another set of eager eaters. 

Although not a numbered booth, I loved this airstream set up in the back corner which was distributing real roles of film to the first 100 takers. You need to have your own "old  fashion" analog camera (still available at thrift and antiques stores or maybe your own attic) and after you have taken your shots, you return  the film which is developed, digitally stored and then juried into a show of printed images that will be available in book form. This project is called Free Film USA and the cross country trip has one theme: red, white and blue. From August to November, 18 cities will be visited before this conceptual trip will be complete.  

We decided to spend the night in downtown San Diego and one of the best works of the night was the one in our hotel room, The Nest on Fifth. We really enjoyed our staycation and the chance to avoid the Friday night traffic as we are attending the Latin Art Festival at Bread and Salt the next night.  

When I say "we" I mean my dedicated husband Darwin. Here he is behind the fun pillow from our Nest on Fifth.

Fabiola Jean-Louis at the Lux Art Institute

by Patricia Frischer

Pretty paper dresses in lovely colors, fancy shoes with glitter and bows are all very seductive eye candy. But go to this exhibition to see much, much more.  Fabiola Jean-Louis is working with concepts on levels that are so much deeper. She is not only placing black women in history in all sorts of scenarios, some real, some where they are empowered with a fantasy of what could or should have been. With her black and white photos, you feel pride even through the degradation of a situation. You are reminded of the dignity of a tribal race.  In her own words, Jean-Louis says she, "vandalizes history" to create her images and sculptures. 

And then their are the corsets that open up to depict more theatrical stories. Just like her doll-like house that allows you to peer into a space like Alice in Wonderland after drinking the bottle to make her large, you can peer beneath the surface of these breast plates. I first saw a white rodent silhouette hanging from a branch like a slave caught after trying to escape. Then the real slave is there wrapped in chains so there is no mistake.  

In studio and on exhibit until Sat. Nov 2, 2019 at Lux Art Institute

Chromatic: Grounding with Color with April Rose and Katie Ruiz at SD Mesa College Art Gallery

Katie Ruiz, Home

By Patricia Frischer

AUG 19 - SEPT 11, 2019

San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery

April Rose and Katie Ruiz obviously share a love for color and the title of the show reflects this, but they have quite different stories that they are communicating. 

Rose's rainbows and eyeballs are fun and upbeat and have a sort of hippy happy female vibe. You can imagine her in a yoga position sending out positive energy to the universe. 

Ruiz, on the other hand, it all about weaving color into her compositions much like threads in a native rug or blanket. She uses the symbols from native Americans to communicate the paths we take in life. Along the way she makes fetish objects that live as sculptures outside the work. But in her most successful compositions the two meet together as she actually makes tapestries that are fetish objects. Home illustrated above is original, vibrant and very covetable. 

This was my very first time in the brand new gallery space at SD Mesa College. It is a long rectangular space which has possibilities, which the very talented director Alessandra Moctezuma and her gallery students will I am sure discover as the space is used for more and more exhibitions. In this instance the eye was immediately drawn to the ceiling by a large strung yarn piece by April Rose. The ceiling is full of industrial  pipes, conducts and cables and quite distracting for this show which is itself so colorful that it bombards the senses. 

PARK IN LOT 1 IN FRONT OF THE STUDENT SERVICE BUILDING
AND THE NEW FINE ARTS BUILDING.

Gallery hours: M, T, W 11am - 4pm, Th 11am - 7pm.
By appointment on Fridays. Closed weekends and Holidays.

http://www.sdmesa.edu/maps/

Katie Ruiz

Katie Ruiz

Katie Ruiz

Katie Ruiz

April Rose

April Rose

April Rose

April Rose