Francisco Eme: Future Rituals & La eco-resistencia at Oceanside Museum of Art

 By Patricia Frischer

For his exhibition Future Rituals & La eco-resistencia at Oceanside Museum of Art Francisco Eme has been tracking landscapes, particularly the canyon near his suburban home in San Diego for more than 5 years, recording and collecting artifacts and thinking deeply about the balance between wildlife and mankind. He has been involved in what he calls the canyon’s “eco-resistance” by nurturing native plants, removing invasive ones, and working in collaboration with scientists.

Some of those found objects have inspired fetish pieces that reflect the authenticity and depth of his feeling about the environment.

This series was first shown at Mesa College Gallery in 2023, curated by Alessandra Moctezuma. In 2024,  Francisco Eme was a SD Art Prize recipient and in the piece he exhibited at the San Diego History Center curated by Lara Bullock, Rain of Birds, a video of birds diving creates not only a background video, but can also be seen reflected as they seem to skim over the mirror surface of the pond he created in the space.  Eme poses questions more than shouting protests. Most important is the meditative quality of this work that gifts you with the time and space to think of these questions. In Future Rituals at OMA, he is suggesting a time when all we have left of birds is the recordings of their songs. By placing a metal rusted tube as an instrument in this part of the gallery, he asked, will you perform, will you become involved?

As a musician/composer as well as a fine art artist, sound is fine tuned into his work. The buzzing of insects informs the other installation The Resistance of Echoes with two videos, three tapestries and a ceramic sculpture. The video lens has been distorted, almost like we are looking at the scene through the eyes of an alien with altered retinas or maybe it is a bee’s eye view.

Oceanside Museum of Art gives us a wide variety of exhibitions (note below the line up), but in this exhibition we are reminded in a subtle and highly aesthetic way, that we share earth, not just with each other, but with animals, minerals and plants. 

 

Francisco Eme: Future Rituals & La eco-resistencia is on view until March 22, 2026.

Honoring the visionary architect of the OMA with a new exhibition, Modern Simplicity: The Architecture of Irving J. Gill in Oceanside, this show opens November 1, to April 26, 2026.

Surf Art: Exploring Southern California's Coastal Culture is on view until Feb 1 is a joyous exhibition celebration all things about our ocean waves.

2025 – 2026 Artist Alliance Biennial open Nov 22 and is on view until March 8, 2026

OMA will host an Exhibition Celebration for both on Saturday, November 22, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, where the community is invited to meet the artist and celebrate all these OMA’s current exhibitions.

Oceanside Museum of Art 
704 Pier View Way, Oceanside 92054 h
Wednesday, through Sunday 11:00am-5:00pm
First Friday of Every Month - Extended hours 11:00am-8:00pm