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