Las Hermanas Iglesias: Sisters Bring Heartfelt, Mind-Opening Art to ICA North, Encinitas

 By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

 

Tres Iglesias. Artists Janelle and Lisa Iglesias, with their Norwegian-born mother, Bodhild, who still lives in their childhood home in Queens, NYC. (Iglesias is the family name, from their late father, born in the Dominican Republic.)

On August 16^th, on the ICA San Diego North campus, there was a special CU Saturday: In Celebration of Las Hermanas Iglesias. The sun was shining that afternoon on sisters Janelle and Lisa Iglesias, who actually live 3,000 miles apart, and getting to hear them talk about their very personal, love-hope-and wordplay-infused collaborative artworks was something worth celebrating.

 They had artworks in ICA’s street-level galleries but Maurice and I especially loved the ones uphill in the Artist Pavilion.  The first thing we noticed was their Holding Hands series, plaster casts of their hands, their mother’s hands, and one of their son’s hands too. Family and community are very important to them, and it was great to meet Bodhild and Lisa’s son, Bowie, and have them pose with their plaster-cast hands. (An interesting footnote to the hands: 70 percent of the proceeds from sales of these pieces will benefit migrant families.)

 

From the Holding Hands Series

From the Holding Hands Series

Note: All the hands are holding something, and Bodhild & Bowie are also holding hands.

Heart Before the Course (Get the wordplay?) Made of cast beeswax, foam, copper tubing & hardware, steel footings.

 

Plumb & Fathom (Sea Change) Made of wool, natural dyes, copper tubing, plaster cast hands, found objects.

Wontloversrevoltnow  Neon, on the wall above Plumb & Fathom. (More wordplay: it’s a palindrome, reads the same backward and forward!)  It’s also the title of the exhibition.

About the artists: Janelle Iglesias lives in San Diego and is assistant professor in the Visual Arts Department at U.C.S.D.  She has written: “I trace much of my creative impulse back to my parentage…Scandinavian folk tradition/modern design and the Latin world approach that makes the most from the least.”  She was one of SDVAN's SD Art Prize recipients in 2023. 

Lisa Iglesias lives in Massachusetts and is Associate Professor in the Art Department at Mount Holyoke College and Chair of the Art Studio Department. Both sisters do individual artworks in addition to their long-distance collaborations, which started out by mail when they were in grad school. And they like to keep a sense of improvisation in their work.

“We have circular ways of thinking,” Lisa said. “Heat gets things moving around in different configurations, so we use hot beeswax. We are percolating all the time.” 

“Making art is a practice of freedom and curiosity,” said Janelle. 

As ICA San Diego Curator Jordan Karney Chaim pointed out: “Their structures can be read from many directions. Their hands are a metaphor for care, and the shells are like ears--they’re about listening.”

The following close up details and videos  photographed  by Patricia Frischer

and from the lower galleries...

Notice the bronze hands holding this herbal wreath

Las Hermanas Iglesias:wontloversrevoltnow
On view at ICA North through December 27.
1550 El Camino Real, Encinitas 92024
Open Sat and Sun only 12-5 p.m. (last entry 4:30 p.m.)
info@icasandiego.org   760-436-6611

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

Xicana! San Diego: A remarkable exhibition of women’s art at CCA in Escondido

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

 

The End of Innocence by Ginette Rondeau

If you haven’t been to the California Center for the Arts in Escondido for a while, now is a great time to visit their museum. The main attraction is Xicana! San Diego, a showing of 218 artworks by women who identify themselves as Chicanas--born in the U.S., but celebrating their Mexican heritage. The Xicana spelling references the indigenous Nahuatl language, dating back to the Aztec empire. 

Curated by Dulce Stein, at ESMoA (Experimentally Structured Museum of Art) in Torrance, Xicana! was originally presented at El Camino College last year. For the Escondido exhibition, San Diego artists were invited to submit their works in May, and 46 of them were chosen. The current exhibition includes artworks from the previous show along with these new additions. 

The image above is a detail from a piece by surrealist Ginette Rondeau, a well-known Los Angeles artist whose art and designs can also be seen in books and calendars. And Xicana! will surely end any innocence you may have about what women artists are capable of creating.

 

Lady Lowrider by Rachel Zepeda.

 This is the first thing you notice as you enter the museum. It’s more than a tricked-out Lincoln Town Car; it’s a work of art by a San Diegan who does videography of lowrider cars and events.

 Untitled, by Stephanie Mercado.  A woodcut by a Los Angeles artist/art administrator whose website proclaims her interest in creating meaningful connections.

Las Maias by Gloria Favela Rocha and Maria Islas. A three-panel 4’ x8’ mural by Rocha, a muralist/paint contractor/art instructor who lives in the foothills of San Diego and says her artwork has been influenced by her mother’s faith and her father’s farming life; and Islas, her collaborator, a self-taught artist raised by a single mom in Southeast San Diego, who spent 38 years in the Navy and has painted murals throughout San Diego County.

An Invitation by Emilia Cruz. Mixed media on paper by a San Diego artist who teaches at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park and writes: “I am exploring different ways I can depict vulnerability, self-healing, and empowerment.”

 

Tree of Forgotten Prayers by Sonia Romero. Acrylic on canvas by an L.A. artist known as a painter, printmaker and specialist in public art. Her work documents the cultural symbols and narratives of her city.

There are many other artworks to admire and consider in Xicana! San Diego, including a video installation in the rear of the museum. The only problem is: there is no signage, no artists’ names or information, only numbers on the floor at each piece that you have to scan into your phone. And then, all you get is a name and a title, so it turns out to be very difficult to find out about any of the artists or the work on view.  A suggestion: when you see something you like and want to know more about it, ask the friendly Museum Manager, Rokhsane Hovaida, who will do her best to help.  She’ll be happy to tell you about all of the art on the CCAE campus and upcoming events as well.

In a small gallery behind the museum there’s another part of this exhibition that you definitely don’t want to miss-- the one piece not made by a woman.  It’s Tonantzin, an 11-foot-tall goddess created by artist Louis Verdad. 

 

Tonantzin by Louis Verdad.

Verdad, an acclaimed fashion designer born in Guanajuato and based in L.A., worked with muralist Eloy Torres and a team of sculptors, historians, and glass and embroidery artists to create this Aztec Earth Mother Goddess. Tonantzin, who was impregnated by a feather, is considered a precursor of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Xicana! San Diego will be on view through November 2, 2025. Bring family or friends, so you can talk about what you see.

And if you love Xicana! San Diego put September 27^th on your calendar: There will be a Chicana Block Party on the campus that afternoon, including a lowrider car show and a chance to build your own paper lowrider and help create a community mural. See you there! 

California Center for the Arts Museum
Xicana! San Diego 
Louis Verdad:Tonantzin 
on view until Nov 2
340 N. Escondido Blvd. Escondido, CA 92025
Hours: Wed-Sat, 11a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday: 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
Admission: Adults $12 Over 65: $10 Students $6 Under 18: FREE
Pay admission once, return for free all year!  
For more information: 760- 839-4120 or museum@artcenter.org

 

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

Artists Respond to the Moment at PHES Gallery

 by Patricia Frischer

Viviana Lombroso – Threatening the very fabric of our democracy

In this exhibition at PHES Gallery filled with such a large variety of works, artists were asked to respond to the moment. That was taken by us to think about how the world as being subjected to acute political forces.

Co-owner of PHES Gallery Paul Henry remarked,  “From over 200 entries, the 39 selected artworks illustrate a wide and varied range of expressions that are personal, political, and powerful.” He was hoping for work that would, “ challenge us to confront “uneasy” realities” and that was what was delivered in a diverse variety of mediums.  

Many of the works are directly political: Scott Bruckner’s “My Country” and Viviana Lombroso’s “Imperiled” all draw from conflicts in today’s headlines.  Other works respond more personally like Phil Petrie confronting his personal issues in “Home”, Some are hopeful or ask us to have faither, others seem perilous and worried about the type of world we are leaving to later generations,

All the art has justifiable statements about the topic,  and are highly personal and that is what makes this gathering of art such a great place for contemplation. Examine the works with the printed artist statement and you can find relevance to the world at large and for your own self. 

Scott Bruckner – we are so divided we are we are no longer functional

Heidi Rufeh – migration meets climate changes in  this warm colored composition

Richard Hawk – Life often goes at a glacier pace, but sometimes you need a bold fast action

Anna Stump – the back of lost and found needlepoint, embellished with words reflecting those lost women

Philip Petrie – an empty home representing an empty life, an empty society  

Denise Yaghmourian – discarded and distressed flag badges

Denise Yaghmourian – discarded and distressed flag badges (detail)

Aleya Lanteigne – the artist’s statements refers
 to a “life lived” and an object
“embedded with history”, but the
erotica screams out…who wants to grab this pussy?

Paul Henry – Little Hope Chest….it says it all.

Artist Talk moderated by Ellen Speert, co-own of PHES Gallery (left to right) Heidi Rufeh, Michelle Moore, Jim Bliesner, and Christiana Rosenthal.

Artists Respond to the Moment at PHES Gallery
July 27 – September 1, 2025
2633 State Street, Carlsbad, 92008
Gallery hours Thursday through Saturday 2-7pm and by appointment.
info@PHESGallery.com 
The full catalog can be found at PHES Gallery

Fabulous Fiber at the Oceanside Museum of Art

 by Patricia Frischer

Susan Davis

Quilting, tufting, felting, weaving, beading, crocheting, stitching, on and with fabric, metal, bamboo, thread, canvas, paper…the list goes on an on with this exhibition of Fabulous Fiber at the Oceanside Museum of Art curated Kate Stern showing until November 2. The exhibition curator chooses the most inventive and unique art works to put together a show which makes us smile, think and feel inspired to make.  From goofy felted heads to comic strip stitchery, it felt good to laugh out loud and accept cuddles, marvel at thousands of beads in a head piece, ponder the bubbles of fabric over a brides face, wonder through streams and streets in a San Francisco creek system, be mesmerized by the cascade of colors in draped waterfalls of fabric, or be punked by the Pink costume on display. And this is just a few of the selections we made.   

Marianna Baker

Susan Maddux

Peg Grady

Linda Gass

Adriene Hughes

Monica Loss

Michelle Kingdom

Isa Guasalupe Medina

Stephanie Metz's art being cuddled by Darwin Slindee

v

The Space Between: Texture Studies by Denja Harris until October 12,  is the second of three fiber shows at OMA. This one person exhibition is a look at this artist attempts at healing. There are elements of vulnerability and softness but also the harshness of light and the spikiness of metal warming us that this process entails revealing of ourselves and protecting when necessary.  

 

Denja Harris

Denja Harris

Denja Harris

Denja Harris (detail)

We now get to see the results of the workshops that made yarn "Tsikuris" or God's Eyes at the b.  Ventana Huichola will be on view in the small top gallery and staircase until September 21, 2025 curated by Natalie Gonzalez who directed this work. Tsikuri means,"the power to see and understand things unknown" in the Huichol language. The Mesoamerican society that we know today as the Huichol or Wixárika, is an Indigenous group of approximately 48,000 inhabiting the southern Sierra Madre Occidental, in North-Western Mexico. They act as spiritual protection for much of South America, but it is the act of actually weaving a God’s Eye that connects one to the unknown. This simple process of uniting two crossed sticks is a meditative exercise that anyone can perform. The united results on display bounces off the walls with energy and can also be viewed as an aid to being in touch with something or someone on a higher plane. 

Natalie Gonzalez

Natalie Gonzalez and workshop participants

Fabulous Fiber  until November 2.
The Space Between: Texture Studies by Denja Harris until October 12
Ventana Huichola until September 21, 2025

at Oceanside Museum of Art 
704 Pier View Way, Oceanside 92054

Wednesday, through Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm
First Friday of Every Month - Extended hours 11:00am–8:00pm