San Diego Art Institute hosts MAS (Mutual Appreciation Society) Attack in Balboa Park

by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt

SDAI Director Ginger Shulick Porcella and MAS Attack co-founder Max Presneill, Torrance Art Museum Director, pose with his painting, ‘Redact 103.’ ‘All my pieces have to do with death and immortality,’ he said. Maurice Hewitt

A year ago, San Diego Art Institute hosted a one-night-only mass meet-up of artists called “MAS (Mutual Appreciation Society) Attack,” which brought together 150 art-makers from Los Angeles and San Diego to show and view their work. Nothing was for sale; everything was there to be appreciated, and the chance to interact with so many different artists at once made it a very special event for local art-lovers. 


The MAS concept was created by L.A.-based ARTRA Curatorial, and once again, co-founder Max Presneill, Director/Curator of the Torrance Art Museum, was here for the Balboa Park event, which took place at SDAI on March 19. This time, there were 100 artists from Los Angeles and 100 from San Diego, some of them natives of countries all over the world. MAS Attacks pop up in various cities, but only as far as L.A. artists can drive, since every artist has to be there, and is allowed to bring only one piece to display.


“The MAS Attack is a free event, open to the public, that really highlights the diversity of work being made in Southern California right now,” said Ginger Shulick Porcella, SDAI executive director. “And I think it shows that the art scene in San Diego is just as vibrant as that in Los Angeles.”

Born in Turkey, Beliz Iristay is a multi-media artist who lives in Baja California and San Diego. She just won the Exhibition Prize at the El Paso Museum of Art Biennial and will have solo exhibits on both sides of the border. Maurice Hewitt

Originally from Ecuador, Francisco Alvarado is now part of LA’s art community, and this is his fourth MAS Attack. Maurice Hewitt

San Diego Art Prize winners Debby and Larry Kline, with their supersized ‘Alchemist,’ made out of Perrier cans. Maurice Hewitt

 

Melissa Moore and Suzanna, recently moved from LA to North County, pose with mom’s acrylic ink piece ‘Separation 3’ Maurice Hewitt

Melissa Walter, who creates visuals for NASA’s theoretical concepts, did this pen-and-ink drawing of ‘Gravitational Waves’ based on a theory predicted by Einstein and recently confirmed by NASA. ‘At first I didn’t see the connection between my science work and my geometrical abstractions, but now I do,’ she said. Maurice Hewitt

Rouzanna Berberian, here with her husband, went from studying engineering in her native Armenia to an MFA at Cal State LA. ‘I’m redoing the flexible circuits inside our cameras and computers, exposing these hidden things that control our lives,’ she said. Maurice Hewitt