Three art shows to check out

One of Francisco Sandoval’s box creatures

Barrio Logan’s The Spot (1835 Main St.) is also opening up its Dia de los Muertos celebration to the masses. From 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, check out the group show of sugar skulls decorated by 50 artists, including Bret Barrett, Matthew Land, Chikle and Kelly Orange. The show is free, and guests are encouraged to wear costumes, but if not, there’ll be face painting by Elizabeth Piña and Debi Winger.

During Saturday’s Barrio Art Crawl, Voz Alta Project (1754 National Ave.) will preview its show Mole and Hot Sauce, which opens at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28. The exhibition explores the cultural identities of its five participating artists from Los Angeles and San Diego: Ivan Camarena, Carlos Beltran, Israel Castillo, David Smith and Noe Olivas. “Instead of me being a Mexican artist,” Castillo says, “I took it [the theme] as the culture of who I am and how I developed as a person.” Castillo is a photographer and skater, so he’ll show black-and-white portraits of characters he’s met along the way.

Francisco Sandoval is a neuroscience major at UCSD with a passion for illustrating and painting bubbly characters. During his freshman year, he entered an art contest on a whim, ended up winning and got to paint a mural in the dining-hall lounge at UCSD’s Thurgood Marshall College. After the mural was unveiled in early 2012, Sandoval’s reputation as an artist grew on campus, and now he’s on to his fourth solo show with Outside the Box, happening from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, at Thurgood Marshall Hall. “For this show, I’m working with cardboard,” he says. “It has a playful touch to it, and it’s not expensive. Being a college student, I can’t buy expensive canvases.” The show is about transcending limits, Sandoval says, which, today, means looking away from the computer and discovering more creative forms of expression.

Amy blogs at saysgranite.com and you can follow her on Twitter @saysgranite.