Our picks of this week's events
An interactive cube, breakdancing ballerinas and the rest of our favorite things this week
ART
Moving pictures
Artist Lincoln Schatz has completely recreated the concept of portraiture. Sticking with the basic principles of representation and visual signifiers—think Frida’s flowers and monkeys or the Mona Lisa’s smile—the Chicago artist creates what he calls generative video portraits by inviting his subjects to spend precisely one hour in his cube, a structure made of Plexiglas and outfitted with 24 video cameras. Schatz encourages his subjects to bring in objects or even friends and family, and as far as the activity in the cube is concerned, everything and anything is allowed. The artist then takes the video from the multiple cameras and layers it into one dense video portrait that’s both beautiful and a bit eerie—picture the image of a child’s doll freezing while her father paces back and forth in another dimension of the footage. CUBE opens from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, at Quint Contemporary Art, 7739 Fay Ave. in La Jolla. 858-454-3409 or www.quintgallery.com.
Don’t forget: San Diego Public Library curator Mark-Elliott Lugo is a strong force in the local art scene. Lugo pays special attention to mid- to late-career artists whom everyone should already know about but likely doesn’t, giving those artists the opportunity to show their work at a time when most other local galleries have already moved on to the next hot trend. From 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, Lugo will open an exhibition of sculptures and drawings by Robin Bright, reminding us of the longtime artist from Cardiff, whose “Hector Vex” series of minimalist sculptures demonstrate a remarkable mastery of material elements and chemical processes. The exhibition will be on view at the Taylor/Pacific Beach Branch Library, 4275 Cass St., through March 23. www.sandiegolibrary.org.
WORKSHOPS
Internet art
If you’ve ever met Philly Joe Swendoza in person, you know he’s a guy who usually gets what he wants. The co-host of the local Art Rocks! Internet radio show is so charismatic, in fact, that he could probably sell a carton of milk to a dairy cow. From 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, at Balboa Park’s Museum of the Living Artist, Swendoza will shed light on some of his selling skills in Walt Whitman Wired: The Secret to Art Marketing on the Internet, a workshop for anyone and everyone in the art world—visual artists, dancers, writers and more—who could use a little help reaching out to their audiences through hi-tech, interactive means. $10. www.sandiego-art.org.
DANCE
B-boys and girls
To refer to the performance of Canada’s Rubberbandance Group as “hip-hop ballet” might seem like something of an oxymoron. However, former L.A. break-dancer and current Rubberbandance director Victor Quijada would surely disagree. After attending the L.A. County School of the Arts in his teenage years, Quijada has continued to develop his unique style, holding tight to his b-boy spirit while applying it to more traditional dance styles. The result is an elastic, hybridized performance that’s as much Rock Steady Crew as it is Tchaikovsky, offering audiences the best of both worlds. You can witness the company break it down at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, at UCSD’s Mandeville Auditorium. Tickets are $32-$36 and can be bought online at artpower.ucsd.edu.
BOOKS
Stonewall’s cracks
Gay writers have more fun. That’s what Felice Picano’s new book, Art and Sex in Greenwich Village: Gay Literary Life After Stonewall, will leave you believing. Half who’s who of the gay literary scene in New York from the mid-’70s to the mid-’90s, half flamboyantly flowered-up autobiography, the book is an important piece of history that thus far has been told only as oh-my-God-did-I-ever-tell-you-about-the-time bar tales. Thank goodness Picano had the good sense to finally write everything down. He’ll be reading and signing his memoir at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, at D.G. Wills Books, 7461 Girard Ave. in La Jolla. 858-456-1800 or www.dgwillsbooks.com. Free.
Find it: Almost every time author Trisha R. Thomas puts fingers to keyboard, she churns out something that eventually gets her nominated for a prestigious literary award. Her bestselling novel, Nappily Every After, was a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Fiction and a Gold Pen Awards nominee for Best New Author and Best Mainstream Fiction. Do yourself a favor and go see Thomas speak and read from her latest, Nappily Faithful, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, at the UCSD Bookstore in La Jolla. bookstore.ucsd.edu. Free.
COMEDY
Lovitz love
The film flop Benchwarmers was bad, it’s true, but on Saturday Night Live, Jon Lovitz was actually very funny—even hilarious at times. Lovitz likes to make people laugh, and since he can’t seem to find the right film to ply his trade, he’s started a comedy club right here in San Diego in the back of Aubergine, 500 Fourth Ave., Downtown. So far, Lovitz has lined up some pretty stellar comedic talents, and he carries on the tradition Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8 and 9, with Jamie Kaler. Some of you might recognize Kaler from his recurring role on Will and Grace or his intermittent voiceovers as the suicidal blooper host in Robot Chicken. $20. www.jonlovitzcomedyclub.com or 866-468-3399.
LECTURES
Think about it
Barbara Stafford has many leather-bound books. Seriously, the professor of art history at the University of Chicago is one smart lady. Author of Echo Objects: The Cognitive Work of Images, a groundbreaking book that looks at the effects of art and imagery on our brains, Stafford is connecting the humanities with neuroscience findings in ways that have never been done before. Join Stafford at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12, at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St. in La Jolla, for a conversation titled What Ever Happened to Conscious Attention?: Why the Brain Sciences Need the Aware-Making Visual Arts and find out why art is so much more than a pretty picture. 858-454-5872 or www.ljathenaeum.org.
Published: 02/05/2008
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT