Art Spaces for Art Places

SDVAN was invited to attend a meeting with Victoria Hamilton, director of the SD Commission for Arts and Culture, to discuss a more successful way to obtain an Art Place grant. The previous year, San Diego organizations submitted a joint grant application which was not successful.

ArtPlace is a collaboration of ten leading national and regional foundations, eight federal agencies including the National Endowment for the Arts, and six of the nation’s largest banks to accelerate creative placemaking across the U.S. Participating foundations include Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Ford Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The William Penn Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation and an anonymous donor. Funds committed to ArtPlace are overseen by the Nonprofit Finance Fund, a nonprofit lender and financial consulting organization. ArtPlace is also supported by a $12 million loan fund capitalized by six major financial institutions We have been fortunate to have Carole Colleta, president, Art Place attend meetings in SD. And she will be again a participant at the Culture of Innovation global forum (more info below) Letter of inquiry open on  Sept 4, and close Nov 1. On Jan 2, 2013 finalists are  announced and grants on awarded in June 2013. Applications are due Nov 1

This year it was decided that individual organizations should be encourage to apply separately and the commission would try to supply help in terms of professional editing. The groups applying will also communicate with each other and make sure that any cross over is considered as a collaboration in hopes of making both applications stronger

Art Spaces who might apply include but are not limited to:

 David Malmuth with partner Pete Garcia through  I.D.E.A has placed a flag in the earth by acquiring a space between 13^th and 14^th and F and G for $1 a year for 2 years. This will be a great place for pop up events, art labs and artists installation. David is also behind the Culture of Innovation global forum held in Balboa Park Sept 5/6. Partnering with the Urban Land Institute (SD/TJ branch) and the Aspen Institute, the program will consist of keynote addresses, plenary sessions, in-depth discussions in small groups, workshops, artistic and cultural events, and the showcasing of creative and innovative experiences at the intersection of technology, culture, and business. It will close with a visit to the New Art City Art San Diego Fair for the VIP opening reception.

Lynn Susholtz’s Art Produce Gallery now includes the new garden and stage as she continues her innovative programming.  The gallery is being reconfigured into a larger gallery space adjacent to what will become a new Swoon Dessert Bar at Art Produce. The garden is open every Thursday from 4-6 pm.

Cheryl Nichel and Ruby Cougler from Space4Art  are looking for funding for new classroom in the short term and will be looking for an entire new space eventually. They want to stay in East Village if possible, and so the connection to I.D.E.A might make for a great collaboration.

Leticia Gomez Franco helped us understand more about Front in San Ysidro part of Casa Familiar, where emerging women artists are about to start on a repurposing bus project to use as a traveling art lab. Working with USCD Calit2 and their giant multiple video screens is one of their big advantages, bringing communication into the community and the community into the university.

Justin Hudnall of So Say All of Us is now working on East County rejuvenation and concentrating on programming geared for new population of first time home owners. So Say All of Us is bringing Arab American Film Festival to Santee, working with local historical societies and publishing stories about The Far East AKA El Cajon with the help of the Catalyst grant from the SD Foundation.

There are many other organizations that should be encourage to apply including Alan Ziter from  The NTC Foundation (where are meeting was held) whose goal is to build an art community, David White and Agitprop and Zack Nielsen from Sezio.

For an example of a successful program we were guided to check out Intersection Art Five M in SF Founded in the early 1960’s and incorporated in 1965, Intersection for the Arts cultivates inclusiveness, builds community, and inspires social change through art.

The commission itself does give out grants in this same area Creative Community grants from Commission of Arts and Culture .

Athenaeum's 21st Annual Juried Show

Athenaeum's 21st Annual Juried Show
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

1008 Wall St, La Jolla,  92037

More info: Katie Walders 858.454.5872

Ben Strauss-Malcolm, Director of the Quint Gallery, and Jill Dawsey, Associate Curator for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, served as the Athenaeum's 21st Annual Juried Exhibition's jurors. The Athenaeum received over two hundred submissions for this year's exhibition. It was interesting to note that many of the sculptures got honorable mentions and this is due mainly to the preferences of the jurors. Of course, every year is different depending on the works submitted and the jurors who make the choices. We were thrilled that Vince Robles who is Arline Fisch's selection of emerging artist for the SD Art Prize was the first place winner this year. 

Mathew Mahoney, a fur coat with place for a face, but a tail on the reverse side. You can see a peek of the second Vince Robles work in the background. This work was also featured at Susan Street Fine art where the New Contemporaries exhibition was held in June/July. That show was all the nominated artists for the emerging artist category of the SD Art Prize 2012

Vince Robles (first place)

Bijan Dowletshahi small squares of fabric nailed to surface.

Dan Adams

Larry Caveney...Naked man dancing series

Marie Najera - silver plate repurposed

Marilyn Mitchell - on of our Art Meets Fashion team members.

Mikey Eastman - strange box of metal filings like a tester for etch a sketch

The Art of Sound in San Diego

The Art of Sound in San Diego included interactive sonic sculpture and installations, stage performances and pop up gallery performances, listening stations and video installation. The Art of Sound in San Diego Presented by  Open Arts Collective at Space 4 Art Sat. August 25, 6-9 pm. (325 15th St, SD 92101) More info: Cara Mia Ciasulli  619.309.8537

John Chalmers

John Chalmers

Triadic Transformations
Digital Prints Based on Xenharmonic Music Theory. These works depict the melodic and harmonic transformations of musical scales based on triads, Mediants, and Dominants as the tuning of their constructing intervals changes over the span of an octave.

Jason Ponce

Jason Ponce,  Primal Screen

Primal Screen is an interactive multimedia experience that offers no content other than what the visitors provide. It presents a series of brief but intimate encounters with the inner lives of the friends and strangers that surround us, encapsulated in a single moment of expression, vulnerability and catharsis. Visitors are encouraged to contribute to the work by recording a scream according to the instructions found in the recording area. The scream itself can be one of happiness or frustration, joy or anger, tension or release. Recorded screams are played back in random order in the viewing area.

Cooper Baker

Cooper Baker, Ringtones
Ringtones is an interactive sound sculpture that generates algorithmic music based on any ten digit number dialed by a participant. Ten digits equates to ten billion unique phone numbers which means the phone is capable of creating ten billion unique pieces of music. The phone's original circuitry was modified and a microcontroller was grafted into useful parts such as the keypad, hook, indicator light, and speaker. The microcontroller senses the state of the earpiece, waits for a phone number, then configures and plays the synthesis algorithm to create a piece of music.

Berglind Tómasdóttir

Also of note on view: Joe Monzo Tonescape  Berglind TómasdóttirThe Origin Of Things explores cultural roots and heritage.

All photos by Cara Mia Ciasulli except John Chalmers which is produced by the artist.

Luminous Passage

Luminous Passage: Works in Glass and Light by  Michelle Kurtis Cole and Deanne Sabeck
starts on Sat. August 25 from 6 to 9  at the
L Street Gallery at the Omni (628 L Street, SD 92101)
More info: Kay Colvin760.492.2876

Article by Patricia Frischer

We are so lucky in San Diego to have a selection of artists who work in glass. Unfortunately there is no gallery that specializes in this contemporary medium. So it was a treat for the whole art glass community who turned out in force to see the latest work by Michelle Kurtis Cole and Deanne Sabeck at the L Street Gallery. Deanne gave us some new intimate works that were affordable and could be grouped to make a spectacular display. She use light as medium and the reflections of these pieces are actually more important than the pieces themselves in many ways. It is the whole package of color, movement and light that makes theses works extraordinary.

Deanne Sabeck

In depth article on Deanne Sabeck by Kay Colvin in the Coast News

Michelle Kurtis Cole

I heard many comments about how Michelle had raised the bar on her works. Not only were they spectacularly displayed in custom light boxes but works of this size and depth are most unusual. They captivated us and did indeed set the standard for fusion glass in San Diego. Some of these works took month of kiln time with firings too numerous to mention. Michelle has to baby sit the ovens and make sure that the works are developing just perfectly. She used rare colors and invents techniques that make these one of a kind.  There is much cold working of the glass in between firings and toward the end of the process for finishing. None of that matters when judging the works, but it all goes toward making them so special, honest and true so they speak to those who listen.

In depth article on Michelle Kurtis Cole by Kay Colvin in Coast News

 

Michelle Kurtis Cole

Michelle Kurtis Cole

Curated Exhibitions/OMA New Director

It is with unbridled joy that we pass on the new of the new director of the Oceanside Museum of Art. Daniel Foster is a long time friend and advocate for San Diego Visual Arts Network as one of the founders of the site. His time at the San Diego Art Institute followed by a position as Director of the Riverside Art Museum and  President/CEO of The Community Foundation of Riverside has more than prepared him for this position. He has a vision and we are excited to see what the future will bring and looking forward to working with him again.

 Oceanside Museum of Art
Facing West / Looking East
August 12 - Jan 13, 2013 at Bob and Estelle Gleason Gallery

I see a lot of art. I go to exhibitions, I subscribe to art newsletters, I look at art magazines, I view artist’s websites. I try to follow trends and I am always looking for some organized way of looking at art. That is one reason I am so passionate about supporting curated art exhibitions. Having an intelligent and dedicated professional gathering works together to illustrate a specific viewpoint is a delight for me. It helps cut through the masses of images that I bombard myself with daily. 

So when I viewed the Facing West/Looking East show recently at the Oceanside Museum of art, it was a relief to have someone as intelligent at Richard Turner as a guide. The show has two premises. The first is that California is a state of mind recognizing that all minds are individual entities. The second is that of the artist creating in California, many are” in the west but not entirely of the west.” They have Asian heritage or are world travelers, or simply have an affinity for things of the Far East. Reading Turner’s introduction to the show with its lack of art speak showed the roots of this show in his love for a TV show of his youth Kung Fu. I was charmed.

Having said all that, it was really my viewing of the show with none of this explanation that made me want to know more about the curator and the show’s heritage. I walked into the space after an invitation to a private cocktail party hosted by Mickelson Capital Investing. They very cleverly used the museum to attract the people interested in their direct lending strategies to help get the economy moving while making income for investors. My interest is in getting the art market moving while educating viewers on the value of having art in their lives.

The entire show is worth viewing but I made a choice of works that spoke to me below.

Brian Doan

Jacci Den Hartog

Kara Tanaka

Kim MacConnel

You have a few more days to check out Cruisin' Califas: The Art of Lowriding ending Sept 30, 2012 in the Singh Family Gallery at OMA. This is a smart, exhibition curated by local San Diegans Carlos and David C. de Baca that drew a record new Latino audience to the museum. Califas is a slang term that refers to California amongst the Latino culture with roots that going back to the mythological land of Calafia that inspired the naming of California.

Jesse Valadez

D.A. Garcia

Now I am looking forward to the next show which is curated by OMA Interim Executive Director, Tara Smith. YOU: Investigating Identity runs from Sept15 - Nov 11, 2012 and is displaying artworks by seven contemporary San Diego and New York based artists Alida Cervantes (SDVAN’s New Contemporary), Trish Stone, David Adey (SDVAN SD Art Prize), Kelly Schnorr, Lea Dennis, Cathy Begein and Melissa Cooke.

We also welcome the innovative projects emerging at the UC San Diego University Art Gallery (UAG) under the artistic guidance of Curatorial Fellow Michelle Y. Hyun. Hyun is the first recipient of the UAG Curatorial Fellowship award. This two-year paid Fellowship allows emerging curators to produce a series of exhibitions and projects for the UAG while participating in the intellectual and creative life of the visual arts department. The UC San Diego Visual Arts Department is one of the few in the country to blend graduate research in both art history and art practice in a single scholarly community.

San Diego Mesa College offers San Diego’s only hands-on program in Museum Studies and Gallery Management. Their next show is Seven Deadly Sins with a reception and lecture on Sept 6 from 5-7 pm.  In this exhibition seven accomplished artists reinterpret the Seven Deadly Sins and contextualize them for the 21st Century. San Diego based artists Marianela de la Hoz and Alexia Markarian are joined by Phyllis Davidson, Gene Flores, Doug Sutherland, Henning von Berg and Peter Zokosky. Art history professor Beate Bermann-Enn curated the exhibit. For more info: Alessandra Moctezuma 619.388.2829

Luc Leestemaker, “Stories of My Life"

Madison Gallery, La Jolla

Review by Cathy Breslaw

Luc Leestemaker’s “Stories of My Life” exhibition at Madison Gallery showcases a series of abstract paintings completed between 1990 -2012. Luc Leestemaker,recently passed away and was  originally from the Netherlands, has lived in California since 1990. His mostly large scale acrylic works heavily reference the landscape and his color palette appears to have been influenced by the light and colors distinctive of southern California.The pastel yellows, pinks, greens, and sky blues laid down with large and small sweeping brushstrokes punctuate his canvases. Deibenkorn’s palette and DeKooning’s brushwork come to mind as the viewer visually enters the often airy, loosely constructed abstract spaces that appear to have little if any horizon lines. Some works are layered with a fresco-like mixture of grainy concrete with active painterly brushstrokes, while others feature the black lines and strokes reminiscent of abstract expressionist paintings.

The title of this exhibition - “Stories of My Life” may have more to do with an overall reflection upon the lifes’work of this recently deceased artist rather than a statement about the theme of the work shown.  This exhibition will be on view through September 15^th.

New Contemporary Art Installtions for SD County Buildings.

We should all acknowledging the artists whose work is included in the new County Operations Center collection.in the newly constructed Office Buildings and Campus Center. (5510-5550 Overland Drive - Farnham at Ruffin Rd) You can park for free at 5520 when you go to see these  fabulous large commission sculptures in the lobbies of the five building. On each of the four floors when you leave the elevator are the constructed displays by Jay Johnson (SD Art Prize recipient). We congratulate the county for embracing these large scale works and the wonderful interiors of the modern new buildings of the complex.  This is a world class display. We have included a special video by Sean Ward about the installation by Anne Mudge.

Zadok Ben-David 

Anne Mudge  with Doug Simay  who says" The County has shown more moxie and insight than any other local governmental body when it comes to real art for real times."

Joyce Cutler-Shaw

Jay Johnson

Ball-Nogues Studio

Jay Johnson

John Rogers (not the SD John Rogers!)

Jay Johnson

  Gail Roberts (SD Art Prize recipient)

Marie Najera

Chris Puzio

Jay Johnson

Jay Johnson

Also works by Ellen Salk, Italo Scanga, Philipp Scholz Rittermann, Manny Farber, Glen Crooks
For more information, please contact
Gail Goldman of Gail M. Goldman Associates
(858) 490-9270 or gail@gmgassoc.com

Read Lonnie Hewitt's article in the La Jolla Light: Someplace special