The Art of Banksy: Without Limits at the Activity Center of the Del Mar Fair Grounds

 by Patricia Frischer

The story of Banksy is without doubt one of the most amazing art sagas of the last 30 years. His secret identity plays into his subversive philosophy. In fact is he a man, a woman or even a collective? They/he is openly anti-establishment and therefore a hero to a whole generation. But his success in the high-end market is the twist that makes the story complicated. 

That old Groucho Marks comment, “I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.” seems to apply. As does the one by Mark Rothko who withdrew his painting from the Four Seasons in New York, stating, “anybody who will eat that kind of food for those kind of prices will never look at a painting of mine”.

Banksy arranged for his  Girl with Balloon (2006) painting that sold in 2018 for over a million at auction, to be shredded when the hammer came down. It was retitled Love is in the Bin and sold in 2021 for $25 million.  This show gives a wide selection of works unofficially attributed to Banksy. No one really knows who makes the money from the sales but a company called Pest Control is set up as the authentication specialist and they make money from this service.  

This show has about 200 artworks, with some certified originals which are not identified and many, many replicas/reproductions.  This is a traveling exhibition produced by Sorina Burlacu started in 2019 in Romania and has been in as London, Vienna, Seoul, Singapore, Melbourne, São Paulo, Mexico City, and multiple U.S. locations.  The work we all know is the stenciled pieces created right on the walls and they remain favorites. Some of these originals have been torn off their walls and changed hands. Yes, he makes fun of the police, but he often humanizes them. So it is the social currency which is the lasting value of his works.

The array of other works in this exhibition is rather staggering. There is a room full of master works that have been commandeered like the Monet that has old shopping carts dumped into the pond. Classical sculptures are cleverly vandalized.  But there are also album covers, installation like the bathroom, the phone box, the hotel room.

Try to allow time to watch the video documentaries, the hologram of Banksy speaking (no, you never see his face but the hoodie is a trademark outfit), the mirror room. Banksy has been involved in many conflict-affected areas which are showcased. Below is a drawing he gave to a hospital during COVID to show how nurses are the real heroes of our communities.  A sculpture of a boat load of refugees was so poignant. There are ways at the exhibition to contribute to MV Louise Michel - a charity that helps refugees and rescues migrants in distress at sea in the Mediterranean. Parker Edison is the project manager who took an empty shell at the Activity Center at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and transformed it. The Parker Edison Project is a KPBS podcast featuring insightful conversations about creativity and community.

CD disk cover

Album cover

Dismaland

“Exit Through the Gift Shop.” 

Magnets so everyone can afford their own Banksy...better yet make one for yourself. 

Don't forget to look up. 

Don't forget to look down. 

Patricia Frischer is the founder and coordinator of the San Diego Visual Arts Network. She writes these visual art reports for SDVAN covering the entire region of San Diego, as well as a monthly  A+Art Blog. Reach her at patricia@sdvisualarts.net , Remember to list your SD arts events on SDVAN

P.S. A Love Story Behind The Art of Banksy
By Lonnie B. Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

Xavier Pacheco and Sorina Burlacu on Opening Night in Del Mar.

For me, a special event on opening night was getting to meet and chat with Xavier Pacheco, Production Manager of the exhibition, who shared with me his personal story of love and art.

Originally from Chile, he met Art of Banksy’s producer Sorina Burlacu, who is from Romania, four years ago, when she brought her show to the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral (GAM) in Santiago, Chile, where he was the manager. 

It was pretty much love at first sight, so they needed to meet again, somewhere between Chile and Romania. They decided on the Bahamas, and they’ve been touring together with the show ever since. 

The Banksy Hologram

Xavier and a Chilean team created the hologram, which really calls out to be seen in person. Here’s my favorite Banksy quote from this piece: “Monet had light, Hockney had color; I only have a few minutes until the police get here.”

This month, the happy couple were in Bucharest, where they now live, and then went on to London, to “refresh” the show there.  They’ll be back here in April to close out the Del Mar show, which continues through April 19.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you have time, and it’s something you won’t want to miss. 

I’m closing out this love story with a Banksy piece I love and hope you will too.

 

Not just monkeying around.

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

The Art of Banksy: Without Limits
Del Mar Fairgrounds Activity Center
2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar 92014
On view through April 19, 2026
Exhibit hours:
Noon to 8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays
10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays
 Tickets start at $22

Marianela de la Hoz, Vicki Walsh and Juanita Perez-Adelman at PHES Gallery in Carlsbad

 by Patricia Frischer

Marianela de la Hoz - explaining to her grandchildren what a
real rose is and how the petals can fall and the thorns can prick.
Not everything is an image on a device.  

Three artists come together with common attributes. All their work is intimate but universal at the same time. The techniques used are highly skilled and refined, honed over years of practice. This new PHES Gallery exhibition Fluid Visions is now open in Carlsbad. It features Marianela de la Hoz, Vicki Walsh, and Juanita  Perez-Adelman and runs until March 21st. 

“My painting is intended as observation without judgement or accusation, I aim to uncover situations that must be seen.” Marianela de la Hoz

Following Marianela de la Hoz's career in the arts has been a fascinating journey. Her process of using the yolk of an egg to mix dry pigment, when each individual stroke of the brush is completely transparent, is painstaking.  It takes two layers to begin to see color, so it slowly builds up creating the finest possible details. This is a medium favored by 15^th-century European painters. De la Hoz uses it to make her small highly detailed compositions. She has a taste for surreal imagery and a sensibility that is wholly contemporary and quite often humorous. The works chosen for this show seem to be lighter in nature, even when they are highly political. 

Marianela de la Hoz was the SD Art Prize recipient in 2014. The last two years have been full of exhibitions. She is in another show curated by Marisol Rendón at Southwestern College later this year. The following two are on view or coming up soon: 

Marianela de la Hoz with soundscapes by Grammy Award-winning producer Marc Urselli collaborated on Marianela de la Hoz and Marc Urselli: Palpitations The Cadence of Heartbeats at the San Diego Museum of Art on view until Feb 22, 2026.

Politics of Portrayal: Three Generations of Chicana Portraiture in Los Angeles In Conversation with San Diego Artists exhibit on view Feb 9 – March 5, 2026 at Mesa College Gallery. Reception: Wed, Feb. 11, 4 – 7 pm. Artist Panel and Reception: Sat, Feb. 28, 4 – 7 pm.

Vicki Walsh presents four works that explore the hidden world of the woods. She treats this subject just as she has treated her deeply psychological portraits of people. The one exception is the work in the back of the gallery.  While watching a murder mystery on TV, an amputated limb was covered with a sheet and bang, Walsh was back in her medical illustration mode from her early career. It was a short jump to a seahorse spilled out of a glass of water. Fantasy and reality, innocence and irony, light and dark, all inform these narratives. Walsh’s own studio has blossomed into a vibrant center for creativity, fostering not only technical skills but a deep sense of camaraderie and commitment to the arts within the local community. To read more about Vicki Walsh and Sip art Space see the North County Arts Network profile.

Juanita  Perez-Adelman was born in Bogotá Columbia but considers her home in two other places where she has homes and studios; Mexico where she has had a home since 1987 and Carlsbad, not too far from PHES Gallery. These very colorful works not only have layers of patterns and images, but the substrate of some of them is very special. Amate is pre-Hispanic, handmade Mexican paper using fig, nettle, or mulberry bark. Raw bark is washed, boiled, woven and beaten until the fibers fuse. Perez-Adelman, in the past, made this paper for her works. She now employs a talented craftswomen to create it for her, or works on canvas.  As you explore what at first looks very abstract, you start to notice all sorts of symbols that are repeat; doors and windows, waterfalls, ladders, volcanos. These created visual forms, which together with the influence of worldwide textiles textures, make a rich language.

Marianela de la Hoz - even the dangerous coyote needs help in
difficult time. We need to share our bounty and help each other. 

Marianela de la Hoz - St. Francis helps the fortune telling birds
spread their messages with the aid of angel doves. 

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz - Her oldest daughter feeling her sun was swallowed
 when her younger brother was born. 

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz - our education, our rights, our books being destroyed

Vicki Walsh

Vicki Walsh

Vicki Walsh

Vicki Walsh

Juanita  Perez-Adelman

Juanita  Perez-Adelman

Juanita  Perez-Adelman

Juanita  Perez-Adelman

Juanita  Perez-Adelman

 

Fluid Visions
PHES Gallery
Jan 25 to March 21^st. 2026
2633 State Street, Carlsbad, 92008
Gallery hours Thursday through Saturday 2-7pm and by appointment.
info@PHESGallery.com 

San Diego Gallery News: Space 4 Art @ Art Produce

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

The centerpiece of the new show at Art Produce in North Park:
Urban Totem by Brennan Hubbell.
The artist also led a free Cardboard Art Workshop
in the gallery’s garden January 25^th.

There’s a small but interesting exhibit at Art Produce Gallery now with the somewhat daunting title Non-Objective Lessons.  It’s a display of mostly small pieces by 14 San Diego artists unrestrained from expressing reality in a gallery that has been an experimental art-space for over 25 years and is now going into a new phase of existence.

For decades, Space for Art in East Village and Art Produce in North Park have been known for creating and encouraging community-based art. This exhibit is the first in a yearlong Space 4 Art @ Art Produce residency and includes a piece by the gallery’s founding director, Lynn Susholtz.  It’s also an introduction to the gallery’s new interim director, Katie Ruiz, an artist/curator from Space 4 Art who curated the current show.

Katie Ruiz with several of the artworks on view.

Maurice and I were lucky enough to be able to chat with both Lynn and Katie just before the show opened, so we got the full scoop. 

To begin with: The Space 4 Art @ project is funded by a major grant from the Prebys Foundation, which enables Space 4 Art collaborations with varied arts organizations to produce workshops, performances, and all sorts of cultural programs. The inaugural connection with Art Produce comes at a perfect time, just when Lynn Susholts was ready to step back from all the administrative obligations of running a gallery and concentrate on doing her own artwork. But she won’t actually be leaving for good.

“My studio is on the other side of this wall,” she said, tapping on the gallery’s back wall. “So I get to show up at receptions and have a cocktail, but I don’t have to manage everything anymore.”  

 

Lynn Susholtz with her own artwork Anyforce

The current show will be on view through February 12^th.

Art Produce Gallery
3139 University Ave., San Diego.
Gallery Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 12-6 p.m., 
Or by appointment by contacting Katie Ruiz

There will also be more art workshops in the garden.
Next up: A Community Knitting Circle January 31^st 

That’s it for now. Keep in touch with Katie for more news about Space 4 Art projects at Art Produce and other locations in the coming year.

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