San Diego Visual Arts Network presents the SD Art Prize at San Diego History Center

by Patricia Frischer

Gallery View

Gallery View

SD Art Prize 2024 presented by San Diego Visual Arts Network
at San Diego History Center, Balboa Park
Gabriel Boils, Francisco Eme, Marisol Rendón
Thurs. Oct 24, 2024 to Sun. March 30, 2025
Curated by Dr. Lara Bullock, Senior Civic Art Manager, City of San Diego

We hope you will be as lucky as we were to see this amazing exhibition with very few people in the space, as that is when it shines. At the opening it was crowded with a very large attendance of VIPs and art supporters to congratulate the artists and organizers in the 17^th year of the SD Art Prize 2024. This was the first time the prize exhibition was held in Balboa Park.  It will be up for five months giving, not only our local art lovers, but more national and international visitors  a chance to see what excellence in the arts looks like in San Diego. 

Gallery View

 Francisco Eme, Marisol Rendón, Gabriel Boils 
2024 SD Art Prize recipients

You first might be drawn to the slight breeze, soft wind chimes, and a small pond. A video of birds diving creates not only a background, but can also be seen reflected as they seem to skim over the mirror like surface of the water. Francisco Eme is one of the three recipients and they all made installations of new work this year, another first.  The show overall creates a series of puzzles and Eme gives clues in the wall text, which is very important to read this year. Rain of Birds poses the questions:  Is this a “mass exodus of bird silhouettes diving, or worse, falling from the sky”. Do you believe birds are a sign of hope or an omen of doom? Is the sound of a bell, an angel getting its wings or a death toll?  But most important is the meditative quality of this work that gifts you with the time and space to think of these questions. 

Francisco Eme

Francisco Eme

All of the works in this show have a connection to the climate crisis and the challenges that brings to our environment.  The puzzle master himself is Gabriel Boils. Two of his works on view have actual puzzle pieces. The Sun Flowers deconstructs a 1000-piece version of Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers from 1888, rearranging the works according to colors with yellows reaching upward and blues falling downward. The flow of this work is like a sound wave and if you stand in the middle of the piece and take a selfie, it could be butterfly winds. Did you know that Van Gogh's work has been repeatedly threatened by an eco-awareness group as an attention getter?

In Coral Reef Ghosts #3, Boils turns his attention to the oceans affected by temperature change. The chilly blue of this work reminds you of undersea life, but the work actually turned blue as that is what happens when a full color print is exposed to too much sunlight. Ornament and Storm, which resides overhead, is almost a stained-glass window of puzzled together pieces that represent hurricanes, thunderstorms and tsunamis. The artist has hand outlined each perfectly placed color section.  Hands are a central theme of this work, reaching across the space reminding us like Michelangelo’s famous ceiling illustrating God creating Adam, that man must respect nature. 

Gabriel Boils, Ornament and Storm

Gabriel Boils, Coral Reef Ghost #3

Gabriel Boils, The Sunflowers

Gabriel Boils, The Sunflowers, detail

Marisol Rendón presents Five Acts of Reconciliation in Searching for What is Not Lost. In 2008, worn remnants from the facade of the 1926 original San Diego Museum of Art were stored away. Rendón has borrowed those actual fragments and incorporated them (puzzle-like) within her original sculptural shapes. Those sculptures and a drawing have then been “painted” with mold which was allow to flourish creating almost lacy arabesque shapes on the surface. In one work, a partial column, beautifully lighted, also has a projection of ants busily eating away at the bottom of the structure. Frightening and funny at the same time, especially at this Day of the Dead time of year.

Marisol Rendón, Searching for What is Not Lost: Five Acts of Reconciliation 

Marisol Rendón

Marisol Rendón

Marisol Rendón

Marisol Rendón

Stochastic Elegies: Transcendence, Nature and Eternity is the title given to this show by curator Dr. Lara Bullock. Her careful placement of all the works, creates a harmony and gives space and life to the displayed art. She sees universal themes that unite the work including the impact we have on nature and on each other. Stochastic basically means random and in this context refers to the hits and misses that we make as we stagger towards the future. The San Diego History Center has a mission to present the past, present and future of our lived existence and this year’s San Diego Art Prize displays all three with authenticity and visual stimuli.  

Dr. Lara Bullock

The SD Art Prize recipients bonding!

We acknowledge and thank all those who made the prize possible this year: To the SD History Center  Leilani Alontaga Caithness, Tina Zarpour and Jeremy Prince with thanks to the center for sharing the cost of the ArtForum ad (another first) and the lovely opening buffet. To the SD Art Prize Committee and donors: Alessandra Moctezuma, Eloisa Haudenschild and INSITE, Felica Shaw and Art Matters, Jonathon Glus and City of SD Commission for Arts and Culture, Debra Poteet, Erika Torri and special thanks to The Seth Sprague Foundation for funding our national selectors and all the other donors including Dion Frischer, Alan Ziter, Lisa Croner, Naimeh Woodward, Philip Beaumont  and David Ruecker.

Selectors:
Lucía Sanromán, Director, Laboratorio de Arte Alameda, Mexico City and Curator at Large Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Silvia Karman Cubina , Executive Director, The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach
Carmen Hermo, Associate Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art

A free catalog will be available at the SD History Center and online in late November.
Writer for this year's SD Art Prize 2024 catalog:
Chelsea Behle Fralick, Art Historian, Writer, Lecturer, University of San Diego, for Francisco Eme
Derrick R. Cartwright, Director of University Galleries at the University of San Diego, Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Timkin Museum,  for Marisol Rendón
Carlos E. Palacios, Independent curator, Lecturer, for Gabriel Boils

Read full SDVAN  press release

Yes, that’s me, Patricia Frischer... so proud to be the presenter for the last 17^th years of the SD Art Prize. I am inviting you all to the San Diego Visual Arts Network Annual 2024 Holiday Potluck Lunch on Tuesday, Dec 10, 11 am to 2 pm. Please bring: One dish or drinks for 8 to share. Help us celebrate Doug Diamond Day (it his birthday!) Jewelry and Accessories for our swap exchange. For details go to www.sdvan.net and sign up for our monthly newsletter 

SD Art Prize 2024 presented by San Diego Visual Arts Network

Gabriel Boils, Francisco Eme, Marisol Rendón
San Diego History Center, Balboa Park
Thurs. Oct 24, 2024 to Sun March 30, 2025
Curated by Dr. Lara Bullock, Senior Civic Art Manager, City of San Diego

San Diego History Center
1649 El Prado, Suite #3
San Diego, CA 92101
info@sandiegohistory.org
619-232-6203
Wednesday through Sunday, 10am – 5pm

Birds by Hummer at Twenty 20 Gallery in Oceanside

by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt

Just too fun: a backyard hummingbird
photographed by Debra Hummer (her real birth name!) 

Photographer Hummer didn’t develop an interest in birds until she moved to San Diego in 1987.

“I came here from Wisconsin,” she said, when we talked about her background at the October 19^th opening of her exhibit. “It was California Dreaming! I had 35 dollars in my pocket, I’d never been on a plane before, I was in the snow that morning and on the beach that afternoon. We didn’t really have hummingbirds in Wisconsin and there were so many of them here! So I started photographing birds in my Carlsbad backyard on my smart phone.”

 

Nigel.

 

In the beginning, she was just “snapping pictures,” but her daughter had a good camera, so she started using that.

“You need patience to photograph birds, but I have plenty of patience,” she said. “Over the years, I’ve created a habitat they like and give them what they want to eat. I want people to know that we have these birds in our backyards and they’re beautiful and tenacious and amazing.”

Tea for Two.

 

Violetear.

She began showing her work at the Sedona Hummingbird Festival, the Carlsbad Artwalk, and other festivals, and in 2009, when she stepped into what remains her current position as Office Manager at Pendleton Eye Center, Dr. Robert Pendleton began encouraging her to go even further with her photography.

Rob Pendleton and Debra Hummer with Fledglings.

Rob Pendleton opened his medical practice in 1997, and it’s definitely a practice with a difference: a built-in art gallery appropriately called Twenty 20 Gallery. 

When he was a resident in Chicago, he would go to art galleries whenever admission was free, and he decided that once he had his own medical practice, he’d design the space to include a gallery that would feature local artists. He opened the gallery in 2009… and the first exhibition was bird photography!

He has now given Debra Hummer her first solo show, and even when he retires, he plans to continue the quarterly art exhibits at Twenty 20 Gallery.

 

Hummer with her photograph Serenity and her book: Birds by Hummer.

“I dedicated it to Rob, because he spurred me on,” she said.

To order a copy: birdsbyhummer@gmail.com

Birds by Hummer
Twenty 20 Gallery
Oct 20, 2024 to Jan 17, 2025
Pendleton Eye Center
3637 Vista Way
Oceanside, CA 92056
760.212.4077 (Call to arrange a time to see the whole Birds by Hummer exhibition.)

 

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is 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

First Annual People’s Choice Best of Show for the Year at Fallbrook Art Center.

 by Patricia Frischer

 

Rosemary KimBal, The Blues Piano,
with  Buzz Blodgett's glass sculpture

At every show held at the Fallbrook Art Center, the public is invited to write down the name of their favorite artist and deposit that slip into a bowl. All those entries are tallied and saved and this People’s Choice show is the result of those votes. It is not curated by a single individual or a committee, but by the patrons of the Art Center. It is democracy in action…just like your right to vote right now in our national elections!

But there is one featured artist chosen by the director Brenda Andrews and Rosemary KimBal’s Contemporary Zen Paintings  are represented by 6 works. KimBal is a Zen Brush painter who sometimes used enormous brushes and the technique of one breath with a stroke. “To paint one stroke and show the variation of the ink from dark to light and end up with flying white is a desired effect in brush painting,” is one of her stated goals,  “Sometimes painting is about not thinking.”

Rosemary KimBal holding one of the giant brushes, center, with Brenda Andrews, Director of Fallbrook Art Center. (Photo by Raymond Elstad)

Brenda Andrews in front of a trio of works by Rosemary KimBal

Rosemary KimBal

Rosemary KimBal

Rosemary KimBal

Rosemary KimBal

Rosemary KimBal "When the stroke in a breath becomes a circle, it means the heart and mind are one. Otherwise, it's a frozen moment."

The following selection of work is a tiny taste of the variety on view in the gallery. Notice the public comments that have been threaded together and are on view. A particular favorite is the mosaic dog by Ann Abbott with instruction to name man’s best friend…no voting for a favorite artist this time.

Frank Waters

Frank Waters

Christine Alfery

Nic McGuire

Ann Abbott

Karen Williams Smith

 
 

A quick glimpse into the gift store on the right displaying a huge variety or styles, mediums in all price ranges.  

Casey O'Connor - vases just right for Halloween!

First Annual People’s Choice Best of Show for the Year’s  at Janice Griffiths Gallery at The Fallbrook Art Center
Oct. 19, 2024 - Nov. 9, 2024
103 S. Main Ave, Fallbrook, CA 92028
760.728.1414  info@fallbrookartcenter.org
Tues - Sat 10– 4 pm | Sun noon to 3. Closed Mondays & Major Holidays

Face Off: Portraits and Masks at PHES Gallery

 by Patricia Frischer

 

Gail Schneider

We were first attracted to this show because it includes some of our SD Art Prize and New Contemporary Artists like  Deanne Sabeck, Marianella de la Hoz, Gail Schnider, Irene de Watteville, Cheryl Tall, and Deanne Sabeck. (Our prize opens this month for the 17^th year at the SD History Center Thurs. Oct 24 from 6 to 8 pm. Free but RSVP is required)

This is the first open call for the PHES gallery and so instead of me making a selection of the work, we asked many of those at the opening what were their favorite works.  (Name of choosers are being withheld to avoid any hard feelings.) We hope this tempts you to attend to see the whole show, 

Gail Schneider

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz is in a larger show at Art Produce right now. Check out our report at 
Marianela de la Hoz Opens Our Eyes and Minds with Stardust (Polvo de Luz) at Art Produce Picked RAW Peeled by Lonnie Burstein Hewitt, photos by Maurice Hewitt

Monica Loss

Monica Loss

Monica Loss

Monica Loss was featured with several pieces in her own small room. This type wearable art is trending and will be featured next year  in the fall at the Vision Museum of Textile Art. 

Cheryl Tall

Irene de Watteville

Deanne Sabeck

 

Tiffany Bociek

Ellen Dieter

Warren Bakley

Kathleen Kane-Murrell

Helen Redman

Rin Colabucci

You have until Dec 1 to go and pick your favorite work. Prices range from $300 - $9000.

Face Off: Portraits and Masks at PHES Gallery
October 13 – December 1, 2024
2633 State St, Carlsbad, CA 92008
Gallery Hours Thurs– Sat 2 – 7pm and by appointment
info@PhesGallery.com 760-696-3022