We are delighted with the professional display created by Hector with help from Art Unites. It is a beautiful day to get out and see so much art! Good luck to Hector. Pleases support him with a purchase to add to your collection or just stop in to have a look and say hello.
We also director you to the Art Reach Booth. Art Reach Art Education Charity Art Auctionof 100 vinyl records will be on display at the same time. Bids start at $100 and go up in $25 increments.
Hector Villegas
Hector Villegas
Hector Villegas
Hector Villegas
Hector Villegas
Wonderful day at Mission Fed ArtWalk 2022
Art Reach Art Education Charity Art Auction: Patricia Frischer
Art Reach Art Education Charity Art Auction : Patricia Frischer
Arts Alive (April 28 to May 1, 2022) is the annual fundraiser for the SD Museum of Art which pairs floral creations with various paintings and sculptures on display at the museum. There are many events surrounding this necessarily short lived event. After all, flowers don't last long and so 4 days is the optimum time for viewing. They pack in lots and lots of fun, decoration and food. I had a blast at the Bloom Bash but foremost in my mind is that this is about ART. The flowers in Arts Alive give you a chance to look more closely at the artworks. I went wanting to see the flowers, wanting to have fun but also wanting to see the Monet to Matisse; Impressionist Masterpieces from the Bemberg Foundation (until Aug 7) exhibition and Wang Qingsong: Social Mobility (until Aug 14) which I had previously written about at the time of the live interview with this impressive artist.
The following is a small video selections plus lots of photos of all of the above.
Rotunda Floral Installation by Britton Neubacher: Organized Chaos using mixed moses
Glitter and Neon and many, many selfie opportunities
View from the Ferris Wheel
View from the Ferris Wheel
Bloom Bash entertainment
Bloom Bash entertainment
Bloom Bash entertainment
Museum entrance decoration
Museum entrance decoration
Some amazing guests
Some amazing guests
Some amazing guests
So much amazing food...about 35 booths and real taste of San Diego
The gift shop will a full array of head pieces
Featured in the guest shop and present on the night: Norma Hill
Norma Hill with one of her special commissioned silk scarves: a private history in photos of a client's family.
The view from the Ferris Wheel finally gave us a view of the new outside terraces of the Mingei Museum. I hope this tempts you to make a trip to all the museums in Balboa Park.
From a 2017 production at Arizona State University. (Jill Steinberg)
Detail: From a 2017 production at Arizona State University. (Jill Steinberg)
It’s
safe to say you’ve probably never seen an opera like San Diego Opera’s West
Coast premiere of The Aging Magician, an amazing piece of
theatrical sorcery that includes live music, choral singing, puppetry and
stunning stage design and will only be here for three performances before—like
magic—it disappears.
Originally
scheduled for March 2020 but postponed by an unimaginable pandemic, it promises
to be an unforgettable auditory and visual experience for audiences lucky
enough to see it on May 13 or 14 at the Balboa Theater in downtown San Diego.
It’s
the story of Harold, an aged clockmaker in the midst of writing a book called “The
Aging Magician” while trying to figure out how it should end and how to make
sense of his own life and legacy. The opera was originally envisioned by
composer Paola Prestini, the artistic director of a Brooklyn arts center
and multimedia company who is known for her innovative collaborations with poets,
scientists and filmmakers.
Inspired
by a short story about an aging magician byJonathan Safran Foer which she read in an anthology of
writings honoring the box art of Joseph Cornell, she invited the
multi-award-winning writer/composer/vocalist/actor Rinde Eckert to write
the libretto for an opera; he would also take on the role of Harold. Her next
invitee was Julian Crouch, a visionary director/designer who started out
as a mask-maker and puppeteer in London and built an extensive career on both
sides of the pond.
I was already a Crouch fan, having seen some of his
work onstage, including Shockheaded Peter, which has been called “a sensational work of theater, dance, music,
cabaret, puppetry and circus that bursts with exquisite design” and was based
on one of my family’s favorite illustrated children’s books, a delightful piece
of poetic and visual weirdness whose title back then was Slovenly Peter.
I’d
also seen two of the operas he directed and designed for NYC’s Metropolitan
Opera on the big screen in “Live at the Met”—Satyagraha (about Gandhi)
and Doctor Atomic (about J.
Robert Oppenheimer)—so I couldn’t wait to see what he would do with The
Aging Magician here in San Diego.
Of
course, thanks to Covid, I had to…but now at last the waiting is almost over.
Produced
by Beth Morrison Projects, honored for its commitment to commissioning and producing provocative new works of “indie opera”
and music theater, The Aging Magician also features the Brooklyn
Youth Chorus, a Grammy Award-winning ensemble of young singers conducted by
Dianne Berkun Menaker, and the Attacca Quartet, formed at the
Juilliard School and formerly Quartet in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art. And Rinde
Eckert
will be center stage as Harold, the role he created.
All
in all, it’s a show you won’t want to miss, no matter what age you are.
From one of the earliest productions at MASS MoCA Museum in 2016. (Jill Steinberg)
SanDiego Operapresents
The Aging Magician May 13, 7:30 pm; May 14, 2 pm and 7:30 pm. Balboa Theater 868 Fourth Avenue, San Diego Ticket prices start at $45.
Lonnie Burstein Hewittis an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net.
Marianela de la Hoz in the gallery with her latest work-in-progress. ( photo: Maurice Hewitt)
On April 3rd, my husband and I drove south to North Park for what we thought would be a quiet chat with Marianela de la Hoz, who is doing Sunday paint-ins at Art Produce Gallerywhere, along with Helen Redman, she is half of the bilingually-titled exhibition Retelling/Recontar.
We had no idea that, in the hour or so we spent in the small-but-mighty gallery, more than a few members of San Diego’s art world would show up to see what Marianela was up to. What she is up to is showing some terrific new pieces in an artistic dialogue with her co-exhibitor.
The two artists’ styles are vastly different. Marianela, born in Mexico City, is brilliantly meticulous, working mostly in egg tempera, a medium favored by 15th-century European painters. She has a taste for surreal imagery and a sensibility that is wholly contemporary and usually satiric. Helen Redman’s style is bold and wildly self-expressionist, but the two share a love of symbolism and their artworks have a strong woman-centered perspective.
Marianela de la Hoz, Meme & the Influence (photo: Marianela de la Hoz)
Helen Redman, Monster Mama (photo: Helen Redman)
Marianela de la Hoz, Return to Infancy(photo: Marianela de la Hoz)
“We are both grandmothers, telling the same stories, but in different ways,” Marianela said. “How do we see the world and what’s happening in it—the world our kids are inheriting? We looked for the links between our artworks.”
She pointed out the similarity of facial expressions in two adjacent paintings: her own MeMe & the Influence and Helen’s Monster Mama, which also has something in common with Marianela’s Return to Infancy, whose Spanish title translates as: “In dreams I return to my infancy, an ignorant baby.”
Marianela de la Hoz Sing Along( photo: Maurice Hewitt)
Marianela de la Hoz Changing the WordsDoes Not Change the Condition (photo: Marianela de la Hoz)
The Missing Link: Marianela with Helen’s jigsaw-puzzle painting Puzzled and her catalog photo page. (photo: Maurice Hewitt)
What is particularly interesting about this show, curated by Art Produce owner Lynn Susholtz, is how the paintings are hung conversationally, making it easier for viewers to notice the similarities. In the accompanying catalog, with text by artist Bhavna Mehta, there are suggestions on How to Enter a Painting: “Paintings like repetition…They like having secret conversations. Surrender yourself in this exchange.”
An excellent thought for this exhibition.
Impromptu gathering of art producers: Lynn Susholtz, Gail Goldman, Marianela de la Hoz, Katie Ruiz, Alessandra Moctezuma, Tom Noel, Teresa Mill. (photo: Maurice Hewitt)
Retelling/Recontar On view through April 30. Art Produce Gallery 3139 University Avenue, San Diego, CA 92014
Hours: Thursday 5-8 pm;
Friday/Saturday 12-5 pm, or by appointment. Sundays with Marianela: April
17 & 24, 12-5 pm. (You may catch her working on a painting)
Lonnie Burstein Hewittis an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net.
Some days you just seem to get a gift from heaven and when
it is unexpected, then the thrill is really there. Does the outside of the
renovated Museum of Contemporary Art look like a destination building? No,
thank goodness! Instead, the architect has
honored the art, honored the visitors, honored La Jolla and this newly re-born museum
honors all of San Diego County!
You add in a very fine show of Niki de Saint Phalle which
highlights her earlier work from the 60’s and 11 new works that have just
joined the permanent collection and you have an overwhelming experience of joy.
Principal
Architect Annabelle Selldorf noted: “Our goal for the museum was
to allow the fantastic site and
views of the Pacific Ocean to guide a coherent circulation path and instill a
generous and inclusive spirit
to bring people to the great collection of MCASD.”
Selldorf
Architects is currently designing a major renovation and enhancement of the
Frick Collection in New York City and is leading the team reimagining The
National Gallery in London. Selldorf has brought those first class skills to
bear in a building that marks a coming of age for contemporary art in San Diego.
The construction started in 2018 with an existing 58,000 square feet. She added
46,400 square feet from the total of 104,400 square feet but the space now has
40,000 square feet of gallery space instead of the previous 10,000.
Kathryn
Kanjo, David
C. Copley Director and CEO of MCASD (since 2016), “…The design rejects
the notion of the hermetically sealed white cube and instead brings the
outdoors into the museum space. Selldorf Architects has opened up MCASD and let
in the light.”
The
new spaces are large and the layout complex. You can get pleasantly lost but
you will never tire. When the art is intense you have windows and terraces with
terrific views. When the art needs light, which is inherent in the requirements
for California made art, it is there. Everywhere you turn there is a vista tempting
you on to a new space. Pro tip, there is a map of the space to use so you don’t
miss anything.
Kathryn Kanjo, The David C. Copley Director and CEO MCASD, SD City Mayor Todd Gloria, Jonathon Glus, City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, Paul Jacobs, MCASD Board Chair (and wee one!)
Andrew Utt, Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego and Alan Ziter, NTC Foundation at Liberty Station
Mayor Gloria
Video: View of Niki de Saint Phalle galleries, Anniversary Donor wall, Kori
Newkirk, Glint, Kim MacConnel, Red
Lantern and Many Farber, Story of the Eye, Isaac Julien, Looking
for Langston, 1989/2016, Jonathan Borofsky, Hammering Man
Niki de Saint Phalle in the 60sis a collaboration with
The Menil Collection, Houston co-curated by Jill Dawsey, PhD, Senior Curator of
MCASD, and Michelle White, Senior Curator, the Menil Collection. The works is
on display in the Iris and Mathew Strauss galleries of the new Joan
and Irwin Jacobs wing. Many of the galleries are named and there is a long
wall of donors that you can see in the video above.
In
San Diego, we are very familiar with later works by Saint Phalle…the Nanas she
made while living here are bright, shiny, fun loving, bigger than life women.
So it was educational and exciting to see her Tirs, or “shooting paintings,”
which she created using a .22 caliber rifle. There are a collection of found
objects with pockets of colors buried within ,all attached to a substrate Shooting the gun at the objects, exploded the color which drips and stains and obscures and
highlights. Sometimes she would even let the viewers shoot the works. Saint
Phalle explained that her intention was “to make a painting bleed.” All this
violence built her reputation as a feminist and even the Nanas inviting
people into a giant vagina, was certainly outrageous and well before her time.
There is an extensive
catalog available of the Niki de Saint Phalle in the 1960 as well as the
Museum of Contemporary San Diego Art Handbook to the Collection. Everything but
the Saint Phalle show on view is from the permanent collection. This show is on view until July 17, 2022.
The MCASD has 5,600 works from 1950 to the present and
although most of them have been on display at some time in the history of the
museum, there were many works that I have never seen. Paintings by
Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Morris Louis, and Mark Rothko are among the
11 objects donated from the collection of Barbara Bloom, adding to the
Museum’s holdings in 2021.
I
was so glad to see that the Axline Court is still there and still impressive,
as are the Robert Irwin untitled paneless windows and the Jonathan
Borofsky, Hammering Man is
still in motion in the front.The older section is a bit sad, since
the ceiling are low and it seems a bit dim, but lighting could help. Maybe make
some drama with dark walls and spotlights? I was glad to see the video viewing
room showing the stunning Isaac Julien, Looking for Langston. I have added a random selection of works that caught my eye, but I will be back for many visits in the future. The museum is open to the public again starting Sat, April 9th. so plan a trip soon.
Axline Court
Robert Irwin, untitled
Jonathan Borofsky, Hammering Man
Isaac Julien, Looking for Langston
Maren
Hassinger, Wall Flower
Peter
Alexander, Orange Wedge, 1970
De Wain Valentine, Diamond Column, 1978
Adriana Varejão, Azulejaria “de tapete” em
carne viva (Carpet-Style Tilework in Live Flesh), 1999
Lorna Simpson, Guarded Conditions, 1989
Anselm Kiefer, Maria
durch ein Dornwald ging (Maria Walks Amid the Thorns),
2008
Robert Irwin (debut), Spanish
Fan, 1995
xx
Yayoi Kusama, Dreaming Pumpkin, 2012
Beautiful spread for guests at the ribbon cutting
This
year, both locations will feature solo exhibitions by trailblazing women
artists, including the current exhibition of the late Yolanda López at
MCASD Downtown, and the survey of the early work of Niki de Saint Phalle
followed by retrospectives of AlexisSmith in the fall and Celia
Alvarez Muñoz in the spring of 2023
Bring the whole family MCASD's Prebys Play Day,
featuring free admission, hands-on artmaking activities, an accessible food program and transportation. This
community access event will continue on the Second Sunday of every month.
The Museum’s revamped cafe, The Kitchen @MCASD opens in
July
Hours:
Thursday - Sunday 10 AM - 4 PM, Monday - Wednesday, Closed Open
Holiday Mondays (closed July 4, 2022) La
Jolla & Downtown, Third Thursdays 10 AM - 8 PM (Free All Day) Second
Sundays,
10 AM - 4 PM (Free All Day) Summer
Thursdays,
10 AM - 8 PM Memorial Day - Labor Day The
Shop @ MCASD Thursday
through Tuesday 10 AM - 4 PM
.jpg)
