Art of Photography 2012

The Art Of Photography 2012 Reception Sat. Sept 29 to Nov 11 Judge Julian Cox Curator at the de Young Museum, SF. Curator Presentation San Diego Art Institute Balboa Park, SD,. For info: Steven Churchill: 619.825.5575

The crowd was the biggest ever we have seen at a San Diego Art Institute reception and the energy was very high for this international show that was a selection of 104 photos from 17,000 entries, 3,700 photographers representing 33 countries.  Julian Cox from the Fine Art Museum of SF was the curator and enthusiastic supporter for this show. He pointed out how incredible the effort by Stephen Churchill, Lisa Smith and the whole team has been to build this into such a major world wide venue in just 10 years.

Churchill produces a wonderful catalog and works hard to make sure this is a quality product all around. Changes this year that I saw was a choice to include as many  images as possible for the space and thus the decision to make the format smaller. My feeling is that the image and artist determine the image size. Some need a small intimate scale that pulls you in, other need a grand stage to be fully expressed. In a juried show like this it is always a challenge to give the viewers some way into the art and several mini group selections were made that combined colors or subjects or even angles so that you paused to see the comparison of works near by. I had not seen that done as evidently before and found it rather charming.  There are 200 images on the online gallery well worth checking out.

The winner of the largest grant of $2000 was Aglae Cortes from Mexico. Ten thousands dollars in grants was awarded during the opening reception.

Julian Cox

Stephen Churchill

Aglae Cortes, Mexico, Process 1

Krisztina Fazekas-Kielbassa, Hungarian, Holofernes             Eran Gilat, Israeli, Untitled

Top: William godwin, American , Peppermint Shrimp in Vase Sponge
Bottom: Jeroen Berends, Dutch Eggs Frozen Right: Sandra Elkin, American, It Was Wishful Thinking of Her To Sauce It 

Behold America at MCASD, La Jolla

Behold, America!: Art of the United States from Three San Diego Museums, Sep 16, 2012 through Feb 10, 2013 at MCASD La Jolla

This exhibition is an exhibition put together from all of the permanent collections of The San Diego Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and Timken Museum of Art  but only the show at MCASD is already open. The others follow in November. I was most impressed with the contemporary works in the show and by the large amount of works that were on display by San Diego Artists including many SD Art Prize recipients. There is a rather strange combination of old master type landscapes either by American artist painting abroad or world wide artists painting American scenes which are sprinkled throughout the exhibition space. This was better than having them all segregated in their own section. If the curator made connections to the works near by, there was no visible explanation of what it was.  It was nice to notice that many of the contemporary works were actually from the SD Museum of Art collection.

Did the show hold together? Not very strongly but it was still a delight to see so many great works of art here in San Diego. And after all, Behold America is a fairly lose way to organize an exhibition. The categories of Frontiers,(landscapes) Figures (portraits), and Forms (still lives) is an excuse to gather the works but at least we get a chance to see these institution talking to each other and bringing works together that have not been shown together before. Huge Davies recently stated that the economy has dictated that they do less expensive show like those that are local and do not entail large insurance premiums.  Once we see all three shows, it will be interesting to take a revised view.

Albert Bierstadt

Alfred Jarr

Ann Hamilton felt boots as part of this installation below

Ann Hamilton presented a room with glass slides on the walls and a glass floor covering glass. A the far end was an embedded video of a mouth receiving a stream of water

Christ drawing

Deborah Butterfield

Iana Quesnel (SD Art Prize)

James Drakes

Paul Kos, Guadalupe Bell, 1989, bronze bell, steel, phosphorescent pigment and strobe light. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Museum purchase with contributions from the Awards in the Visual Arts program. © Paul Kos 1989.

There was this huge bell and when a visitor rang it, beside the bang of the clapper, you saw a split second image of the Madonna of Guadalupe in a slight blue that looked like an after image.

Always wonderful to see this James Irwin piece and it has been refreshed and you see all three glassless windows in this show.

One of my all time favorites is Milton Avery with these pale but charmingly potent works

Vito Acconci's works start flat on the ground. We were so fortunate to find adventurous visitors that made it come alive.

This is my star shot..amazing what a simple cell phone cam can do!

Einar and Jamex de la Torre (Baja map - SD Art Prize)

Ruben Ortiz Torres (SD Art Prize)

Tim Craighead at RB Strevenson

Tim Craighead,

R.B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA

Article  by Cathy Breslaw
Showing until Oct 27

Tim Craighead’s exhibition at R.B. Stevenson Gallery is a group of thirteen works – nine on linen and four framed works on paper. Craighead uses a combination of oil, alkyd, casein, ink and graphite to create paintings that sit somewhere within the spectrum of both abstraction and representation.  The color palette is decidedly organic and derived from the natural environment. He has a painterly style that also strongly references drawing and mark-making and there is special attention played to thebackground surfaces revealing the artist’s love of painting and the exploration of glazing and layering with an array of color values and tones. Within each work, the viewer may find what seem to be small areas of energy patterns created with brush and line as well as geometric structural shapes and realistically rendered drawings of plant-like forms. Craighead appears to be studying the relationships between geometry and the natural world and we as viewers are witnesses to his ongoing explorations.

"Dos Mundos"

oil, alkyd & casein on linen

72 x 60 in

2005 - 2009

"Totem"

oil, alkyd & casein on linen

72 x 60 in

2006

Cathy Breslaw is a southern California visual artist, writer and lecturer who has had over 25 solo exhibitions, and 50 group exhibitions across the country at museums, art centers, college and university galleries and commercial galleries. Her work can be found in many private and corporate collections. Her work and writing can be seen at:
www.cathylbreslaw.com
www.artfullifebycathy.blogspot.com
cathybreslaw@roadrunner.com

Art San Diego: New City Art Fair

SDVAN Art Booth at the Fair featuring SD Art Prize

San Diego Art Prize 2012 Booth #C19 at New Art City: Art San Diego Contemporary Art Fair: September 6-9 featuring Jeffery Laudenslager with emerging artist Deanne Sabeck , Arline Fisch with emerging artist Vincent Robles, VIP Opening night Thursday Sept 6 from 7 to 9 pm, $65 online, $75 at door . Hours: Fri and Sat, Sept 7/8 from noon to 7 pm, Sun, Sept 9 from noon to 5 pm $10 - $25 ( Balboa Park Activity Center, 2145 Park Boulevard, San Diego 92101).More info: Patricia Frischer 760.943.0148.

Local Galleries at the fair: Scott White Contemporary, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, Quint Contemporary Art, Susan Street Fine Art, Meyer Fine Art, McNabb Martin Contemporary Art, Salazar Contemporary and Modern Art, Tasende Gallery, Beyond the Borders, Sergott Caroff Art Alliance, CJ Gallery.

San Diego Art Prize 2012 at Art San Diego Contemporary Art Fair., Sept 6-9, 2012. This year the fair was at the Balboa Park Activity Center and it was hot, hot, hot. The temperature was killer but the art was also a high standard and really represented San Diego in a way that made us all proud. It is nice to show the international community that San Diego can hold its own in the marketplace. We understand over 10,000 people attend which is 20% higher than previous years. Our thanks go to the 24 volunteers and the four artists Arline Fisch with emerging artist Vincent Robles  and Jeffery Laudenslager with emerging artist Deanne Sabeck  plus Melissa Au who shows her stunning portraits of the artists along with a slide show of them in their studios. 

I am so sorry that I don't have captions for all these works below. I apologize to the dealers and the artists. This was a quick walk through of the art that caught my eye, but I was near heat exhaustion when I recorded these art works at the end of the fair.

Sabeck and Laudenslager Peep Show Exterior

Peep Show Interior

Sabeck painting with light and Laudenslager kenitic scultpures

Arline Fisch jewelry and Mobil, Vincent Robles sculpture

Former Art Prize recipients de la Torres brothers at Beyond the Border Gallery

Gail Roberts oil painting former SD Art Prize recipient

Part of the Chinese booth. This small plate was prized at $500,000

More Chinese ceramic art

Gerrit Greve large portrait painting

Two works from Quint Contemporary

Featured artist Wally Gilbert from CJ Gallery in SD

Part of the furniture display sponsored by SDSU

Filner, DeMaio debate on arts and culture and the economic future

Congratulations to John Eger, Paige Simpson with the San Diego Innovation Alliance and co-sponsored KPBS who arranged this debate at the Museum of Photography in Balboa Park. Watch and make your own decision.

Read the article about the debate on the KPBS website. Paige was able to announce the Innovation Incubator grant just awarded to SD from the National Science Foundation. This will be STEAM project (Science Technology, Engineering, ART and Math) and is one of the first in the nation!!!

SD Art Prize 2012 at Art San Diego Fair

San Diego Art Prize 2012 Booth #C19 
at New Art City: Art San Diego Contemporary Art Fair 
September 6-9 
featuring Jeffery Laudenslager with emerging artist Deanne Sabeck
Arline Fisch with emerging artist Vincent Robles,  
VIP Opening night Thursday Sept 6 from 7 to 9 pm, $65 online, $75 at door. Hours: Fri and Sat, Sept 7/8 from noon to 7 pm, Sun, Sept 9 from noon to 5 pm $10 - $25
Balboa Park Activity Center, 2145 Park Boulevard, San Diego 92101). 
More info: Patricia Frischer 760.943.0148.

Local Galleries at the fair: Scott White Contemporary, R.B. Stevenson Gallery, Quint Contemporary Art, Susan Street Fine Art, Meyer Fine Art, McNabb Martin Contemporary Art, Salazar Contemporary and Modern Art, Tasende Gallery, Beyond the Borders, Sergott Caroff Art Alliance, CJ Gallery.