San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
Magnolia Blossom by Imogen Cunningham
Photography
Beautiful botanicals: Imogen Cunningham was a major force in photography, snapping iconic shots of subjects ranging from dancers to politicians to flowers. All of her work is striking, but her photos of flowers are perhaps the most gorgeous: The black and white images give flowers new life, showing the delicate curves of their petals as if they were human body parts. The photographer, widely credited with helping to establish photography as an art form, died in 1976, but her work is still considered some of the finest in the industry. See a selection of her botanical photographs taken during the 1920s and ’30s at the Oceanside Museum of Art (704 Pier View Way) in Botanicals: The Photography of Imogen Cunningham. A reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 8. $10. oma-online.org
Art
Come together: There’s an art collective in town called Aesthetigeist. The name is strange, but the group has a mission that’s pretty straightforward: Organize exhibitions for emerging and established artists and create a sort of meeting ground where artsy folks can get together and critique, collaborate and encourage. For the upcoming Ray at Night art walk, from 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 8, the crew is doing just that and setting up shop at Queen Bee’s (3925 Ohio St. in North Park) with a show called Psykhe. You can expect an eclectic mix of works ranging in mediums and levels of artistic experience. While you’re there, be sure to head to the back room and check out Eyemax’s 3D-art show. queenbeesd.com
Own backyard: Got some free time? Head to UCSD for a self-guided tour of the Stuart Collection—site-specific sculptural works by artists like Robert Irwin, John Baldessari, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jenny Holzer that dot the campus. Or, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7, go to the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall St. in La Jolla) for the opening of Concepts Realized: The Stuart Collection at 30. On display will be ephemera from the collection— proposals, 3-D scale models and artists’ books—including items from “Fallen Star” by Do Ho Suh, the soon-to-be-built house that’ll be cantilevered to the top of a seven-floor building. The exhibit will be on view through Feb. 12, and at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13, Mary Beebe, the collection’s executive director, will talk about its history and significance. Both events are free. ljathenaeum.org
Second life: Look up “Painting Transformations by Larry Caveney” on YouTube to get a sense of the process behind the works in Party Whites, the San Diego artist’s latest collection on display A rendering of “Fallen Star” by Doh Ho Suh at the Martha Pace Swift Gallery (2820 Roosevelt St., Suite 204, in Point Loma’s Liberty Station). In 2008, Caveney exhibited colorfully painted, sculpted fabric in a show called Can’t Say. He then whitewashed the paintings until they were ghostly versions of their former selves and began adding back in bits and pieces of color. As curator Wes Chester puts it, it’s “a show that is all about process, transformation and deconstruction.” There’ll be an opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7. arts4change.com
Discussion
Stagecraft: Followers of pop art know that David Hockney has found ways to express himself in paint, Polaroids and iPhone apps. But the British artist also dabbled in the more traditional medium of stage design, from Bizet’s Carmen to Puccini’s Turandot. The latter will be the first production of the San Diego Opera’s 2011 season. At 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 9, at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s La Jolla location (700 Prospect St.), Dr. Nicolas Reveles, the opera’s education and outreach director, and Kathryn Kanjo, MCASD’s chief curator, will discuss Turandot: The Operatic Designs of David Hockney. The “Community Conversation” is free and includes admission to the Kim MacConnel retrospective at the museum. sdopera.com, mcasd.org
Bone to pick: If you ever thought that an episode of CSI:Miami seemed implausible (and we’re not just talking about David Caruso’s cool factor), then you’re in good company. Tori Randall, the curator of physical anthropology at the Museum of Man, says crime dramas present an unrealistic image of forensic science. Dead men do tell tales, just not ones that can be wrapped up in 50 minutes. At 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 8, Randall will present a lecture, called Crime Show Debunking, in conjunction with the museum’s current Strange Bones: Curiosities of the Human Skeleton exhibition. The event is free with $10 museum admission (1350 El Prado in Balboa Park). museumofman.org
Special Events
Open source: In today’s technological landscape, the open-source movement is as cool and open-minded as the hippie movement was in the ’60s or the punk scene in the ’70s. Yes, the people behind the movement are geekier than their subculture counterparts, but they’re interesting nonetheless, and any movement with the end-goal of opening access and sharing information is something CityBeat can get behind. All day Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 8 and 9, at the Hall of Champions in Balboa Park, the San Diego Drupal User Group is putting on a $10 two-day conference on Drupal, an open-source web-development platform used by some pretty big names (The Economist and Popular Science Magazine are among them). The conference is the first of its kind, and the group wants to make it the “the Comic-Con of the Drupal open-source community.” 2011.sandcamp.org
Theater
What a year: Black Kat Theatre should have no shortage of material for its 2010 in Review: A Living Newspaper. With all that happened this year, there’s plenty to joke about: the Chilean miner debacle, a volcano eruption in Iceland, the great Gulf Coast oil spill, WikiLeaks, the World Cup and plenty of natural disasters. The theater company aims to keep performances to around an hour and, by holding it in an unusual space—Desi ‘N’ Friends Bar (2734 Lytton St. in Point Loma)—the creative writers and actors hope to create an informal vibe so audience members can discuss the performance immediately after it happens, over a cocktail. Shows start at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Jan. 7 through 22. Doors open at 7 p.m. $12. sites.google.com/site/blackkattheatre
