Reflections: Selections from Oceanside Museum of Art's Artist Alliance at PHES Gallery

 by Patricia Frischer

David Condit

Juried exhibitions are a way of life in San Diego county. The 34^th Athenaeum Music and Art Library’s Juried Show opens to the public on August 1  and there is still time to apply to the Cannon Biennial Exhibition  until the end of August for their show starting toward the end of Oct. The challenge for the selectors in all these exhibitions is to choose, usually from a large selection (often over 200 entries) to make a show which is coherent, relevant and of the highest quality possible. They are usually looking at digital images so it can be a surprise when the actual artwork arrives.

The PHES Gallery in Carlsbad in located on State Street in small cottage with five rooms each also limited in square footage. The Oceanside Museum of Art’s Artist Alliance put its best foot forward and Paul Henry (PH) and Ellen Speert (ES) with learned knowledge of their own space, choose carefully to display their selection to honor these artists. A small selection is shown here with a watery or figurative theme, which was very prevalent in the exhibition, aptly titled Reflections.

Bronle Crosby

Gia Moody

Alice Lemon

Julie C R Gray

Laurie Mika

Michael James

Fabrienne Fox and Marianna Baker

Video of just one of the five rooms at PHES Gallery

Jeff Crusberg - keeping still life tradition alive. 

Reflections, Selections from the Artists Alliance of the Oceanside Museum of Art Oceanside 
at PHES Gallery
July 26 to Aug 29th
2633 State St., Carlsbad, 92008
Gallery hours Thurs - Sat 2-7pm and by appointment
Paul Henry 760-696-3022

YOU ARE INVITED SAN DIEGO ART PRIZE CAKE WALK

 

YOU ARE INVITED

SAN DIEGO ART PRIZE CAKE WALK

SUNDAY, AUGUST 9 FROM 3-5PM

Hosted by DEBRA AND LARRY POTEET
2425 Lozana Road, Del Mar,CA,92014

To benefit  SAN DIEGO VISUAL ARTS NETWORK and
the San Diego Art Prize 2026
An Eat Your Art Out Event
ORDER YOUR TICKETS NOW

 

Join us for an extraordinary evening where art and pastry come together in a delicious celebration. We invite amateur bakers and art lovers alike to participate in this unique event. We are asking those of you who are bakers to supply cakes inspired by the SD Art Prize recipients owned by the Poteets. 

If you bake a cake, we will match you with an artist from the collection before the event and you can let your imagination run wild with decoration!  

Amateur or professional bakers who supply cakes inspired by the SD Art Prize recipients owned by the Poteets will get reduced admittance. 

Cake Bakers: $25 donation + bring an artist-inspired cake. 
                        $10 donation + bring two artists -inspired cakes. 
Once you RSVP you will be given an image and description of the artist and artwork.  We have 25 art works to match. 

Non-Bakers: $40 donation 

Once we have viewed all the cakes, it will be time to eat them! Everyone will be given a collector cake box to enjoy at the event and to take home leftovers 

So put on your thinking toques blanche and let us know if your interest is piqued and if you want to come as a baker or a supporter.  RSVP ASAP to allow plenty of time for creative baking. This is a limited space event. 

ORDER YOUR TICKETS NOW
Questions? -  info@sdvisualarts.net 

Join us for a creative cake celebration with gâteaux galore. Perfectly perfected pastry for patrons of the arts.

At 4:30 pm during the SD Art Prize Cake Walk event the high bids for the Silent Auction to benefit SD Art Prize featuring Deanne Sabeck and Jeffery Laudenslager will be announced

Image of Jeffery Laudenslager credit Sidney Wildesmith 
Bidding is now open, 2026  until Aug 9

 

This SD Art Prize Cake Walk fundraiser is in support of the 
2026 SD Art Prize Soft Power: On Color, Time, and Resistance 
held for the first time at Oceanside Museum of Art 
Opening on Sept 5th, 2026 and showing  until February 7, 2027.  
2026 SD Art Prize recipients Danielle Dean, Ingrid Hernández, Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio 
Buy tickets here

Soft Power in Practice: A Conversation with the 2026 San Diego Art Prize Recipients
Sun Sept 27th from 2 to 4 pm.  The artists in conversation with curator Dr. Lara Bullock at the Groves Gallery at Oceanside Museum of Art. Limited seating $20-50 Buy tickets here

A Tale of Two Art Activated Spaces in La Jolla with one Curator

by Patricia Frischer

Jess Bergman

The San Diego Art Directory (SDAD) has two exhibitions now on view as part of their Activated Spaces Program. The idea is to curate and install rotating exhibitions of artwork in business spaces throughout San Diego — from cafés and offices to boutiques and co-working spaces.

Both exhibitions are curated for SDAD by Blanca Lucia Bergman, MBA (Art Unites/Mental Wellness for Artists) who was challenged to put together work for two quite different spaces, but both in La Jolla. Seen and Whole is at the Congregational Church of La Jolla and In Situ is at Unscripted Spaces. The audiences for these works could not be more different. The average age at the Church is early 80’s while the clients at the interior design space are ultra contemporary.

Even with two such extremes, Bergman was able to find more than one artist who had work that could live in both spaces. Above and below are two images each by Jess Bergman and Ana Maria Herrera. With careful choice of the artwork, you have the graphic impact that a modern space demands, as well as the more contemplative appeal of work which spurs the imagination. Several other artists are represented in both spaces although the selection here could not include the huge selection that is on view at both spaces.

At Seen & Whole, Cecilia Anastos, who is represented in both spaces, give us a punch of color in a surrealist composition. Abbygail Zanoni almost shouts out the message that we all need to be heard. The bright changing lights of Janet Hansen, led one the parishioners to wonder what the minister would look like wearing this as vestments. Julio Martha multi-media sculpture is meant to disintegrate with a picture of his younger self symbolizing his growing distance from a younger self.  The stunning photos by John Mireles almost look like paintings, maybe because the subject is of transsexuals in full war paint. Missy Galang and Laurie Batter carry forward the figurative theme but in quite different ways. The works are in two of the communal rooms of the church, which are used for all sorts of gatherings. Bergman was able to move furniture to showcase the art and keep it all very conversational. 

 

Jess Bergman

Ana Maria Herrera

Ana Maria Herrera

Cecilia Anastos

Abbygail Zanoni

Janet Hansen

Julio Martha

John Mireles

Missy Galang

Laurie Batter

Unscripted Spaces is laid out like a home on two floors with a living room at the entrance, a kitchen, bedroom, dining room and bathroom.   Continuing the figurative theme at In Situ, Adrian Huth contributed the perfect bedroom painting. Wonderful pottery by Greg Lowe is spread out on both floors. There is a hallway leading to the staff room that has been made into a fantasy world with work by Finnigen Rynehart.  A charming transparent floral kimono in unusual dark tones hangs over the bathtub by Doshi.

Jean Keane’s  quiet photograph of umbrellas, joins the very pared down sculpture of a kneeling figure by Franco Vianello. Anna Zappoli never fails to impress with her high contrast works with the integrity of a seasoned artist who can instill emotion in the most abstract of works. Galina Marcus provides another pop of color with portraits with no faces. 

Adrian Huth

Greg Lowe

Greg Lowe

Finnigen Rynehart

Jean Keane

Franco Vianello

Anna Zappoli

Galina Marcus

Blanca Lucia Bergman says that her choices were made with intuition, studied thought and care, and they were spot on for the viewers of both. 

Seen & Whole
Congregational Church of La Jolla (CCLJ)
On view until Aug 29, 2026
1216 Cave St, La Jolla, CA 92037
Open during Church events

 In Situ   
Unscripted Spaces
On view through September 2026  
7730 Girard Avenue, San Diego, CA 92037
Open during showroom hours. Contact to confirm is suggested: 619 361 1055  info@unscriptedspaces.com

Unfold Projects presents We Must Imagine It at ICA San Diego/North

 by Patricia Frischer

Laura Huerta

 

Wendell Berry’s, the environmentalist, most famous quote might be, “To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.” But Mel Meagher, founder and creative director of the Unfold Projects has chosen to focus on his words,  “…that imagination thrives on contact, on tangible connections…to live from a place without destroying it…”. To that end they formed a Unfold Project Guild of artists who have helped restore a Cardiff by the Sea house to use as a headquarters for this platform. The exhibition We Must Imagine It at the Institute for Contemporary Art San Diego/North is displaying works by those guild artists, some of which are using actual upcycled materials from that dwelling.

The first thing that strikes you on entered the gallery on the hill at the ICA are the burnt and burnished recycled large-scale slabs of wood used at sculpture stands for many of the works. This gives a warmth and an elegant style to the display.  Laura Huerta has set construction site rebar into three rammed earth and ceramic circular cores. On top of each is a beeswax candle equally as burnt and burnished. Set on the largest wood slab and against a backdrop of the view of trees on the lower property, this combination of constructed and natural is a perfect representation of the connections Unfold seeks to encourage.

The decorative glazed shapes on Ren von Hasseln  impressive large vessel are clay remnants from her own workshop.

Nicholas Pourfard worked with Stephen Hartzog to use copper piping to make small barred windows in this unusually shaped wall cabinet. Pourfard used old growth recovered redwood in his chest of drawers as well as pewter and copper remnants to make up his metal lamp. While Hartzog has constructed a wall hanging woven of the repurposed copper.

Nik Gelormino uses salvaged eucalyptus and recycled brass along with other found object to create this man in a box…a wind-up toy with all seeing eye? The fabric on Lauren Verdugo’s black walnut chair comes from a San Diego mid-century modern furniture restoration workshop, Hobbs Modern. Vince Skelly utilizes sustainably sourced camphor from a company that rescues retired street trees. Aaron Glasson design of geometric and curving shapes takes full advantage of the wood grain and  has been hand crafted of Californian walnut by  Brillan De La Cerda with Jorge Prieto. 

Laura Huerta

Ren von Hasseln

Nicholas Pourfard with Stephen Hartzog

Nicholas Pourfard with Stephen Hartzog, open view

Nicholas Pourfard

Nicholas Pourfard - "Iranian earth embellishes the cabinets, bearing the thumbprint of my grandfather... the earth was sourced more than 15 year ago by my father..."

Stephen Hartzog

Nik Gelormino

Lauren Verdugo

Vince Skelly

Aaron Glasson with Brillan De La Cerda

Additional artists included in the exhibition: Daniella Algarate, Debbie Bean, Miki Iwasaki, Jason Lane, Christine Lee, Heather Levine, Annalise Neil, Britton Neubacher,  Sasha Seyb, Margaret R. Thompson, and Lani Trock.

We Must Imagine It presented by  Unfold Projects
ICA San Diego/North
On view until August 2, 2026
Sat only 11 to 4 but additional weekday visits are available by appointment. Contact hello@unfoldprojects.com
1550 El Camino Real, Encinitas 92024

Curator Guided Tour: June 27, 11 AM - RSVP www.unfoldprojects.com/events 
Watch for a tour of the Cardiff by the Sea renovated headquarters later in the year. 
Works are on sale with a portion benefiting ICA. 

Endless Summer at Techne Art Center

 By Patricia Frischer

Yena Kim

Chuck Thomas wrote of this exhibition Endless Summer,  “ Endless Summer affirms that San Diego is not only a remarkable place to live, but a vital place to create. “ This is the second in a series started in 2023 with Fresh-Squeezed at Techne Art Center which continues to present their artists with multiple works in mini one-person exhibitions. The space accommodates this so well with multiple rooms and two levels.

Yena Kim’s wickerwork was so impressive as it was if it grew in the room, looping over existing pipes and creeping up and down walls.  These baskets by Kim started as light shades but the wild nature of their shape took over and catapulted them in to sculptures.  

Gail Roberts’ flower in the work below is actually a composite of many different flower parts, but it reads as one. Her colors continue to impress with their vividness, as she develops from earlier works to these color field and natural selection series.  

Ashely Kim charming pots with elephant motifs and her hanging spoons/small shovels hanging from baby arms are a bit at odds with each other. The pots seem to be the way to go as their reflect on a more ancient history.

John Dillemuth continues to entertain us and this is another chance to see his contraptions and even play with them in a more casual setting than a museum.  

Jay Bell goes back to his first cars and moves on to trucks in this group of flat backgrounded compositions. A whole series of white trucks seems to have grabbed his attention as they represent the work horse of the modern era.

Lee Puffer presents paintings we have never seen before along with more disturbing version of her well-know ceramics. The color from previous sculptures in now splashed on canvas, and the pottery heads are left almost red clay bare.

You have to come close up to see Maddie Butler‘s photographic images embedded and laying on the surface of what looks like computer components. It is almost as if the hard surfaces are holding the real images captive.

Steve Harlow running images stretched down the hall, around the corner and even jumped the staircase into the next room and we ran right along with them. They are dense with color and imagery and maybe the pages of a story leaping right out of a book.

Scott Bruckner long lean finely finished wood sculptures are almost a through back to another time, maybe, mid-century modern meets Brancusi.

Other artists included in this exhibition: Phillip Ritterman, Kelsey Overstreet, Marisa DeLuca, Ahavani Mullen, Philipp Rittermann

Yena Kim

Yena Kim

Gail Roberts

Ashely Kim

Ashely Kim

Ashely Kim

John Dillemuth

Jay Bell

Jay Bell

Lee Puffer

Maddie Butler

Maddie Butler

Steve Harlow

Steve Harlow

Scott Bruckner

Endless Summer at Techne Art Center
Showing until August 1^st, 2026
1609 Ord Way, Oceanside, CA  92056
Chuck Thomas 917-972-1752
Thurs, Fri and Sat 1-6pm