Luminous Passage

Luminous Passage: Works in Glass and Light by  Michelle Kurtis Cole and Deanne Sabeck
starts on Sat. August 25 from 6 to 9  at the
L Street Gallery at the Omni (628 L Street, SD 92101)
More info: Kay Colvin760.492.2876

Article by Patricia Frischer

We are so lucky in San Diego to have a selection of artists who work in glass. Unfortunately there is no gallery that specializes in this contemporary medium. So it was a treat for the whole art glass community who turned out in force to see the latest work by Michelle Kurtis Cole and Deanne Sabeck at the L Street Gallery. Deanne gave us some new intimate works that were affordable and could be grouped to make a spectacular display. She use light as medium and the reflections of these pieces are actually more important than the pieces themselves in many ways. It is the whole package of color, movement and light that makes theses works extraordinary.

Deanne Sabeck

In depth article on Deanne Sabeck by Kay Colvin in the Coast News

Michelle Kurtis Cole

I heard many comments about how Michelle had raised the bar on her works. Not only were they spectacularly displayed in custom light boxes but works of this size and depth are most unusual. They captivated us and did indeed set the standard for fusion glass in San Diego. Some of these works took month of kiln time with firings too numerous to mention. Michelle has to baby sit the ovens and make sure that the works are developing just perfectly. She used rare colors and invents techniques that make these one of a kind.  There is much cold working of the glass in between firings and toward the end of the process for finishing. None of that matters when judging the works, but it all goes toward making them so special, honest and true so they speak to those who listen.

In depth article on Michelle Kurtis Cole by Kay Colvin in Coast News

 

Michelle Kurtis Cole

Michelle Kurtis Cole

Curated Exhibitions/OMA New Director

It is with unbridled joy that we pass on the new of the new director of the Oceanside Museum of Art. Daniel Foster is a long time friend and advocate for San Diego Visual Arts Network as one of the founders of the site. His time at the San Diego Art Institute followed by a position as Director of the Riverside Art Museum and  President/CEO of The Community Foundation of Riverside has more than prepared him for this position. He has a vision and we are excited to see what the future will bring and looking forward to working with him again.

 Oceanside Museum of Art
Facing West / Looking East
August 12 - Jan 13, 2013 at Bob and Estelle Gleason Gallery

I see a lot of art. I go to exhibitions, I subscribe to art newsletters, I look at art magazines, I view artist’s websites. I try to follow trends and I am always looking for some organized way of looking at art. That is one reason I am so passionate about supporting curated art exhibitions. Having an intelligent and dedicated professional gathering works together to illustrate a specific viewpoint is a delight for me. It helps cut through the masses of images that I bombard myself with daily. 

So when I viewed the Facing West/Looking East show recently at the Oceanside Museum of art, it was a relief to have someone as intelligent at Richard Turner as a guide. The show has two premises. The first is that California is a state of mind recognizing that all minds are individual entities. The second is that of the artist creating in California, many are” in the west but not entirely of the west.” They have Asian heritage or are world travelers, or simply have an affinity for things of the Far East. Reading Turner’s introduction to the show with its lack of art speak showed the roots of this show in his love for a TV show of his youth Kung Fu. I was charmed.

Having said all that, it was really my viewing of the show with none of this explanation that made me want to know more about the curator and the show’s heritage. I walked into the space after an invitation to a private cocktail party hosted by Mickelson Capital Investing. They very cleverly used the museum to attract the people interested in their direct lending strategies to help get the economy moving while making income for investors. My interest is in getting the art market moving while educating viewers on the value of having art in their lives.

The entire show is worth viewing but I made a choice of works that spoke to me below.

Brian Doan

Jacci Den Hartog

Kara Tanaka

Kim MacConnel

You have a few more days to check out Cruisin' Califas: The Art of Lowriding ending Sept 30, 2012 in the Singh Family Gallery at OMA. This is a smart, exhibition curated by local San Diegans Carlos and David C. de Baca that drew a record new Latino audience to the museum. Califas is a slang term that refers to California amongst the Latino culture with roots that going back to the mythological land of Calafia that inspired the naming of California.

Jesse Valadez

D.A. Garcia

Now I am looking forward to the next show which is curated by OMA Interim Executive Director, Tara Smith. YOU: Investigating Identity runs from Sept15 - Nov 11, 2012 and is displaying artworks by seven contemporary San Diego and New York based artists Alida Cervantes (SDVAN’s New Contemporary), Trish Stone, David Adey (SDVAN SD Art Prize), Kelly Schnorr, Lea Dennis, Cathy Begein and Melissa Cooke.

We also welcome the innovative projects emerging at the UC San Diego University Art Gallery (UAG) under the artistic guidance of Curatorial Fellow Michelle Y. Hyun. Hyun is the first recipient of the UAG Curatorial Fellowship award. This two-year paid Fellowship allows emerging curators to produce a series of exhibitions and projects for the UAG while participating in the intellectual and creative life of the visual arts department. The UC San Diego Visual Arts Department is one of the few in the country to blend graduate research in both art history and art practice in a single scholarly community.

San Diego Mesa College offers San Diego’s only hands-on program in Museum Studies and Gallery Management. Their next show is Seven Deadly Sins with a reception and lecture on Sept 6 from 5-7 pm.  In this exhibition seven accomplished artists reinterpret the Seven Deadly Sins and contextualize them for the 21st Century. San Diego based artists Marianela de la Hoz and Alexia Markarian are joined by Phyllis Davidson, Gene Flores, Doug Sutherland, Henning von Berg and Peter Zokosky. Art history professor Beate Bermann-Enn curated the exhibit. For more info: Alessandra Moctezuma 619.388.2829

Luc Leestemaker, “Stories of My Life"

Madison Gallery, La Jolla

Review by Cathy Breslaw

Luc Leestemaker’s “Stories of My Life” exhibition at Madison Gallery showcases a series of abstract paintings completed between 1990 -2012. Luc Leestemaker,recently passed away and was  originally from the Netherlands, has lived in California since 1990. His mostly large scale acrylic works heavily reference the landscape and his color palette appears to have been influenced by the light and colors distinctive of southern California.The pastel yellows, pinks, greens, and sky blues laid down with large and small sweeping brushstrokes punctuate his canvases. Deibenkorn’s palette and DeKooning’s brushwork come to mind as the viewer visually enters the often airy, loosely constructed abstract spaces that appear to have little if any horizon lines. Some works are layered with a fresco-like mixture of grainy concrete with active painterly brushstrokes, while others feature the black lines and strokes reminiscent of abstract expressionist paintings.

The title of this exhibition - “Stories of My Life” may have more to do with an overall reflection upon the lifes’work of this recently deceased artist rather than a statement about the theme of the work shown.  This exhibition will be on view through September 15^th.

New Contemporary Art Installtions for SD County Buildings.

We should all acknowledging the artists whose work is included in the new County Operations Center collection.in the newly constructed Office Buildings and Campus Center. (5510-5550 Overland Drive - Farnham at Ruffin Rd) You can park for free at 5520 when you go to see these  fabulous large commission sculptures in the lobbies of the five building. On each of the four floors when you leave the elevator are the constructed displays by Jay Johnson (SD Art Prize recipient). We congratulate the county for embracing these large scale works and the wonderful interiors of the modern new buildings of the complex.  This is a world class display. We have included a special video by Sean Ward about the installation by Anne Mudge.

Zadok Ben-David 

Anne Mudge  with Doug Simay  who says" The County has shown more moxie and insight than any other local governmental body when it comes to real art for real times."

Joyce Cutler-Shaw

Jay Johnson

Ball-Nogues Studio

Jay Johnson

John Rogers (not the SD John Rogers!)

Jay Johnson

  Gail Roberts (SD Art Prize recipient)

Marie Najera

Chris Puzio

Jay Johnson

Jay Johnson

Also works by Ellen Salk, Italo Scanga, Philipp Scholz Rittermann, Manny Farber, Glen Crooks
For more information, please contact
Gail Goldman of Gail M. Goldman Associates
(858) 490-9270 or gail@gmgassoc.com

Read Lonnie Hewitt's article in the La Jolla Light: Someplace special 

Michael Kenna at Joseph Bellow Gallery

Michael Kenna: New andClassic Images is a special exhibition of work from Japan  showing until - September 8, 2012 at Joseph Bellow Gallery  (7661 Girard Avenue , La Jolla, 92037) More info:858.456.5620 info@josephbellows.com

Written by Cathy Breslaw

Michael Kenna’s New and Classic Images exhibition at Joseph Bellows Gallery comprise a selection of  black and white ethereal and contemplative photographs. These fifty images span twenty years and thirteen countries..Kenna has been photographing for forty years and still relies on Kodak film in spite of the growing digital marketplace. He makes his own sepia toned silver gelatin prints in a traditional darkroom, creating precisely7 ¾” square images, which are dry mounted on 16” x 20” museum board. He doesn’t deviate from his methods and there seems to be no reason he should. His remarkably atmospheric and surreal architectural and landscape scenes are uninhabited but hint at human intervention.

Kenna has traveled the world taking photographs and has spent countless nights outdoors using sometimes ten to twelve hour exposure times to create his vision of the locations he is capturing on film. Some images possess the stark contrast of darkness against the drama of focused light like a Rembrandt painting while others portray a dreaminess - a misting and blurring of objects against a distant cloudless sky.  One group of images in the show closely resembles delicate line drawings or detailed paintings rather than photographs.  Many of Kenna’s images were photographed in Southeast Asia and directly reference Chinese or Japanese brush painting.

Michael Kenna’s work possesses a universal classic style with a unique personal vision – seemingly a travelogue marking places he has been and places we would all like to visit.