Shellie Zhang: What We Bring and Leave

By Patricia Frischer

ICA San Diego North showing until Feb 12, 2023

There are a small group of us that are devoted to the Encinitas 99cent shop off El Camino. Sadly it closed at the end of 2022, but not before we had scored some wonderful treasures: a clear magenta bowl which I used as a sculpture stand for a set of isomalt fingers, a Mona Lisa plate, tiny plastic dogs on which I glued scores of packages of glitter, tons of glue guns, shiny aluminum tape, the list is endless for 20 years of visits. I dedicate this story to that store which gave me hours of shopping pleasure for ridiculously low prices.

 
Shellie Zhang’s exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego North shines a lovely light on the origin of much of those goods that were made in China. She got her inspiration from the Toronto Canada dollars stores where much of the merchandize originates from Yiwu, China. Wikipedia tells us that this International Trade Market is divided into 5 districts covering an area of 4 million square meters for 75,000 booths where 100,000 suppliers exhibit 400,000 kinds of products. The products come from around 40 industries and include 2,000 different categories of goods.

Zhang is interested in how those objects take on new personalities which reflects their new owners. Means of Exchange showcases a selection of like objects arranged on a colorful background and photographed in a context of her choosing.  The names on the labels reflect the amount spent for the objects use in each composition. It is not the price tag for this “art”.  The ICA  San Diego North used a selection of left-over paint colors chosen by Zhang to set off each large photograph which makes a stunning display. 

The Facades, on the other hand, are a set of illuminated signs with no message or logo within the graphic framework. The attachment to the wall has a symbolically painted crack leading you to believe they are obsolete instead of waiting to be filled. Maybe there is no one there to see what is now gone. So we have a bustling shop in contrast to  abandoned signs. For me this encapsulates the fate of our local 99 cent shop.

In the final parts of this display Zhang invites us to fill in a typical shopping list as part of the Grass is Greener on the other side. Although she knows about American/Canadian borders towns, SD/TJ is the largest one she has experienced. She has started to collect objects based on some of those lists with a variety of different language labels and is using her time here to explore their origins. I believe she hopes to see some patterns, perhaps, in the handwritten shopping list, or maybe they will simply becomes the poetry backdrop for a new work. After all an artist residency is about exploring your surroundings, in hopes of creating some magic. 

Her lecture on Friday Jan 13 is 5:30-8:30 pm is shared between her and contemporary composer, Lei Llang.  After the talk, the  Art of Elan will perform as they work closely with each Artist-in-Residence to create a program inspired by the themes in the artist’s work.

You still have a chance to visit with Shellie Zhang in the studio on Jan 14, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

ICA San Diego North, 1550 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas, 92024
This exhibition continues until Feb 11,2023
Regular open hours are Thurs - Sun from 12pm to 5pm.

The Stiletto Collection by Beth Smith at the Encinitas Community Center

by Patricia Frischer

Beth Smith is a self-proclaimed 'hunter and gathering of materials". These assemblages reflect that need to pick up stray objects and mull over them until they reflect her interest. But what a lot of people do not realize about Beth Smith is her absolute fascination with shoes. She has even been known to leave a pair of shoes that may be hurting her at any odd spot at the end of an evening, but mainly they seem to be a detour from her regular life as an avid supporter of textiles. 

A founder and executive director emeritus of Vision Museum of Textile Art formerly the Quilt Art Museum: Contemporary Quilts + Textiles at Liberty Station and also a previous Director of Development at the Oceanside Museum of Art, Smith is now the editor of a prestigious textile magazine Fiber Arts Now. 

This intriguing exhibition might be filled with quite small objects but they are worth a serious look. They are anything but obvious and instead dip deep to find the essence of a arch, a toe and a heel. These mini-wonders are true sculptures. 

My apologies to the artist for the photos I took which, because of the glass case that protects them, were a challenge to capture.  The video at the end of the blog gives you just a glimpse of all the works. 

 

Beth Smith: Stiletto Collection
Encinitas Community Center 1140 Oakcrest Park Drive, Encinitas
Showing until January 11. 2023
To purchase work: contact the artist directly at bethsmith.sd.ca@gmail.com 

Let SDBG Light Up Your Life This Holiday Season

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt 

 

Full Moon over Lightscape

The brightest initials in our area right now are SDBG—San Diego Botanic Garden—where you can stroll through an extravaganza of multicolored lights, illuminated trees and inventive installations called Lightscape. It’s a great way to spend a chilly evening this holiday season.

For the past year, Ari Novy, SDBG’s president/CEO, has been meeting with representatives of Culture Creative, a U.K.-based company that works with Sony Music to create lighting festivals—including Lightscapes individually designed for botanic gardens. And on a full-moon evening earlier this month, my husband and I were lucky enough to walk the mile-long Lightscape trail with him.

Ari Novy in the Winter Cathedral

Lightscape first appeared in the U.S. at Chicago Botanic Garden in 2019 B.C.—Before Covid—and Novy was there to see it. He was immediately interested and began talking with Culture Creative shortly after. But when the pandemic made long-term plan-making impossible, he had to wait awhile before committing to the project. 

“We needed to have a full 12 months to work out the logistics and last year we were finally ready to start,” he said. “Working with their team was great. They’re really creative; they’re all plant people, and they’re artists and tech pros too. I wanted our plants to be co-stars along with the lights, so there’s always an interplay between the plants and the lighting.” 

Neon Strings

There are 12 artful installations—Novy calls them vignettes. “It’s a play in 12 acts, with a rising and falling arc, like in storytelling.” But individual trees can also be stunning, and he says visitors have been “newly amazed” by trees that take on a whole different look with expressive lighting.

Transformed trees

“Everything is unique to our space,” he added. “So if you go to see Lightscape in Chicago, Los Angeles or Brooklyn, you’ll be seeing something else.”

His personal favorites are the Neon Tree and the “trippy” Laser Forest and he’s already beginning to think about next year’s Lightscape, which will definitely include two super-popular installations: the Winter Cathedral and the Fire Garden.

Neon Tree

One view of the Laser Forest

Fire Garden

But this year’s event isn’t over yet. Over 80,000 tickets have been sold so far, but there are more left to sell, and visitor response has been so enthusiastic that they’ve decided to extend Lightscape beyond its originally announced end date January 1, 2023. The new end date is now January 8.

Oh, yes…there’s music playing along the trail… though I’d have liked a little Bach interspersed with the pop-rock and holiday tunes. And there are food and drink concessions, but we were too involved with what we were seeing to stop for that kind of sustenance. Our personal favorites?  We shared Novy’s love of the Laser Forest, which gives an otherworldly look to the Bamboo Garden, always one of our favorite spots at SDBG. And we shared the general enchantment with the Winter Cathedral, designed by Australia-based MandyLights, whose website proclaims: “We create outstanding visual experiences.”

In fact, all of Lightscape is an outstanding visual experience, especially if you’re willing to slow down and give yourself a chance to spend time with what you see. We saw all ages enjoying themselves, even infants in strollers…and their grandparents. To sum up our experience in a word: deLIGHTful!

Poinsettias

Nova

Fire Lily

Lightscape
San Diego Botanic Garden
230 Quail Gardens Dr. Encinitas      
Now through January 8, 2023
Book timed tickets in advance at https://sdbg.org/lightscape/
Cost: $15-$29 +parking fee.
There are 3 different parking lots, so 3 different ways to start and end your walk.
Hot tip: For smaller crowds, choose an entry time after 7pm.

You may still be able to get tickets for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day Eve, and whatever the weather, Lightscape will shine.

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. 

Cog•nate Collective, Tianquitzli: Portraits of the Market at Institute of Contemporary Art North

by Patricia Frischer

Amy Sanchez Arteaga & Misael Diaz

Cog•nate Collective’s is Amy Sanchez Arteaga & Misael Diaz and they are real people who get ideas, which they play off each other and put into their art practice. One of the ideas that interested them was Pleiades AKA the Seven Sisters in Greek mythology, who were the seven daughters of Atlas, a Titan who held up the sky, and the oceanid Pleione, protectress of sailing. This constellation is a star cluster which means they were born at the same time from a large cloud of gas and dust. In the Aztec culture Pleiades is known as Tianquitzli. In the USA (and around the world) there are many street and farm markets called Seven Sisters.

detail

So, the exhibition at the ICA is all about street markets and how they are meeting places and centers of negotiation, places to try new experiences in food and consumption of all types. At these markets, Cog•nate Collective found an artist sharing a stand with his family who sells clothing. He does commissioned portraits, and so Amy and Misael asked him to make portraits from photos they have been gathering of various markets those in including Tijuana. These portrait of market stands are a big part of this show. But it is the intervention into the market place that is a central job of Cog•nate Collective

At the market, Cog•nate Collective found themselves drawn to mirrors and starting purchasing them. They then photographed various people holding the mirror often pointing up to the sky in the direction of the constellation Tianquitzli (The Seven Sisters). The markets, the mirror, the drawings all become portals for us to enter a dialogue about  another sister culture.

MICA trailer

Parked outside the front door is the small trailer (Mobile Institute for Citizenship and Art, MICA) that is the depository for all sorts of documentation of interactions by this team. It is also  a place of gathering and a library.  It has traveled with them over the last ten years to paths unknown to them, but eventually revealed to us all.  

Cog•nate Collective at ICA San Diego North Education Pavilion
Until Jan 29, 2023
1550 S. El Camino Real, Encinitas, 92024
For more info: 7604366611  info@icasandiego.org

Free Reception and artist talk on Nov 19, 2023 
 https://icasandiego.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list/cognate-collective-opening-reception-and-artist-talk

NOTE: Cog•nate Collective is one of the four recipients of the SD Art Prize at Central Library Art Gallery  until Jan. 7th, 2023.Presented by San Diego Visual Arts Network and curated by Chi Essary
Alida Cervantes, Angélica Escoto, Carlos Castro Arias, Cog • nate Collective
SD Art Prize Catalog 2022

Breaking Ground in Encinitas for the Arts + Day of the Dead

 by Patricia Frischer

It was a great day for Encinitas on October 28 when we celebrated the symbolic ground breaking for the renovation of the Pacific View Art Center.  The center is due to open to the public in 2024. The renovation contract went to Conan Construction Inc. for $4.56 million and a 20 percent contingency fund. Plus $800,00 will go to Kleinfelder Construction Services to manage and inspect the construction project. Photos: Patricia Frischer

Shovels and hardhats to the ready

Sand sculpture creation

Visual arts represented. Dog paying rapt attention
to Mayor Blakespear's remarks

One, two three...Hurrah!

Danny Salzhandler, Ecninitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear,
Naimeh Woodward (Encinitas Friends of the Arts), Councilman Tony Kranz

Mayor Blakespear and her Aunt Rosemary KimBal,
ardent Pacific View Art Center Supporters

The next day was another successful Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, celebration at the Encinitas Community Center orchestrated, produced and sponsored by the Encinitas Friends of the Arts with Naimeh Woodward leading the charge with lots of city, county and private donations and tons of volunteers.  Photos for this event by John Campbell. 

Community Ofrenda

Callejeros de Encinitas Car Club

Super face painting

Aztec Dancers 

Stage performances by Ballet Folklórico de San Dieguito, Ballet Folklórico Rancho Buena Vista High School, Mariachi Nuevo San Diego, Mariachi Estado de Oro

Tissue flowers, sugar skulls making and art displays abound

Safe broadcast of all the performances outside and food trucks.