Digable art

Some fathers and sons bond over restoring old cars in the garage or talking baseball while watching a game. Roger and François Guillemin have a more highbrow approach to quality father/son time. Both men are accomplished artists and, for the first time ever, will be exhibiting their distinctinve work together in Roger Guillemin & Le Corbeau: Father & Son, which opens Friday, May 25, in the Joseph Clayes III Gallery at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall St. in La Jolla). Each man works in different media. Roger is considered a pioneer in digital art and will be presenting numerous prints that range from abstract to impressionist in style, while François is a surrealist sculptor ("Doree" shown here) who uses bronze as his material of choice. This exhibition is a peek into the interesting work of both men and how son was ultimately influenced by father yet was able to carve out a style all his own. The opening reception is free and goes from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., with the works on display through June 16. Afterward stop by the Main Reading Room for an exhibition of prints by Brigitte Feucht.

Alessandra Moctezuma’s roster of former students reads like a who’s-who of the San Diego art scene. The recognizable alumni include artist and freelance curator Nuvia Crisol Guerra, Ginger Rosser of the Women’s Museum of California, Brynn Morales of Alexander Salazar Fine Art and staffers at the San Diego Museum of Art and other big culture venues around town.

This week, artist Sheryl Oring reports for duty as the first-ever artist-in-residence at the San Diego International Airport. She’ll be at the airport Monday through Friday, eight hours a day for three months. At the end of the residency, Oring, a performance artist known for civic engagement, will produce a piece for the airport.

“Sheryl has a tall order to take on,†said Constance Y. White, the airport’s art program manager. “From her residency here, she’ll be able to be inspired and create an experience or project that will be really provocative and provide a window into what goes on here at the airport.â€

El Cajon Boulevard has seen a revival in the last few years. Sure, you can still see the occasional lady of the night strolling the street, but with new bars, restaurants, awesome neighborhood events and a complete renovation of the Lafayette Hotel & Swim Club, it’s got a lot more to offer these days. That includes Rock the Boulevard, happening Friday, May 4 through Sunday, May 6, at the Lafayette. On Friday there will be a happy hour with Roy Rapid & the Rhythm Rock Trio (pictured) and the film La Bamba playing poolside. Follow that up Saturday with brunch, zumba classes and a pool party featuring a swimsuit fashion show by Fables by Barrie. That night, an ’80s party goes down in the hotel’s Mississippi Room until 2 a.m. The next day, there’s yet another pool fiesta. Soak up some sun and salute the boulevard. See website for info. theboulevard.org.

The Museum of Man is building an indoor skate ramp. Seriously. It’ll be a fully functioning half pipe by the time it’s done. The ramp is part of Ramp it Up: Skateboard Culture in Native America, an exciting new exhibition opening Saturday, April 28, that’s indicative of the museum’s much-talked-about new strategic plan, which promises to transform it into a more contemporary, participatory place of education and dialogue and make the institution more profitable.

Space 4 Art has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $8,000 by May 21 to pay artists who exhibit in the space and to make gallery improvements. In an email, May-ling Martinez, one of the studio artists at Space 4 Art who sits on the gallery committee, said the venue has been holding exciting, relevant shows without much of a budget for the last two years.

America has a lot to see. Why not let a pop-culture humorist take you along for a musical tour and point out all the cool and kooky spots? That’s where Charles Phoenix and His Retro Slide Show comes in. Phoenix, decked out in his vintage Colonel Sanders ties and bright shirts, will be saluting San Diego and name checking his favorite local spots at 3 p.m Sunday, April 29, at the Museum of Photographic Arts (1649 El Prado, Balboa Park). Be prepared to hear him croon about the Chicken Pie Shop and mai tais at the Bali Hai during his one-man show, and possibly inspire you to hit up some of these favorite local spots once again. Tickets are $25.

“Quetzalcóatl†was the first mural to go up on the freeway underpass cutting through Barrio Logan. The artists collaborating on the introductory piece made sure its imagery packed a political punch. At the center of the mural, nestled among a beautiful depiction of the Coronado Bridge, a huelga eagle, farm workers and other more expected renderings, is a bright-red swastika. One of the muralists, Mario Torero, says the symbol was included partly because of its connections to ancient Native American and Asian civilizations, but mostly because it’s controversial.

“It was anti-establishment,†Torero said. “If the establishment liked something or didn’t like something, we went against it because we never trusted them. We were challenging the system.â€

It was the late ’60s and early ’70s, and racial tension was high. A group of multimedia Chicano artists who called themselves Toltecas en Aztlan had recently taken over—first by permission, then by protest—an unused space in Balboa Park called the Ford Building (now the San Diego Air & Space Museum). They were eventually kicked out and given the large water-storage tank that now houses the Centro Cultural de la Raza. The painters in Toltecas en Aztlan eventually broke off from the larger group and participated in the 1970 takeover of what’s now known as Chicano Park.

On March 27, 1973, work on “Quetzalcóatl†began. 

“It’s the only mural that has a date,†Torero said. â€œI knew we were doing something very historical, so I tagged it up on the left corner.â€

The artists working on the mural called themselves the Congresso de Artistas Chicanos en Azltan—that’s CACA for short (the Spanish word meaning “poop†or "doo-doo"). Again, the artists were interested in being contentious.

“And we were stoners at the time, getting our shit together, so it made sense,†Torero laughed.

“Quetzalcóatl†is one of four remaining murals in line to be retouched as part of the Chicano Park Mural Restoration Project, a federally funded endeavor that began last June 20 and was originally scheduled to be finished by this year’s Chicano Park Day, happening from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 21. At the event, folks can see the 14 murals that have been restored and compare them with the four that’ll be retouched in coming months, plus enjoy music, food, a lowrider show and more. Also, Chicano Park-related exhibitions will be on view at The Roots Factory (1878 Main St.) and Blueprint Café (1805 Newton Ave.).

Horror movies are a dime a dozen these days, so heads turned when it was announced that Joss Whedon, the man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and director of the summer tent-pole movie The Avengers, was producing and co-writing a horror flick with Drew Goddard, a longtime writer on Lost, who’d be making his directorial debut.

There used to be plenty of galleries in Solana Beach’s Cedros Design District. At one point, four were clustered in the storefronts at 348 S. Cedros Ave. alone.

These days, aside from a handful of photography and framing shops, only fine-art mainstays like the Aaron Chang Ocean Art Gallery, Ordover Gallery and Susan Street Fine Art Gallery n(which recently moved to North Cedros Avenue, which is technically a nhair outside the Cedros Design District) remain while the rest have beenn wiped out, mostly due to economic travails. 

Newbie RE-Gallery n(348 S. Cedros Ave., Suite H) opened in 2010 when the economy was at or nnear bottom, but the little art space, which focuses on showing and nteaching workshops on art made with sustainable, recycled or reused nmaterials, is not only chugging along; the owners are getting more nambitious with every show.

Two art exhibitions opening Saturday, April 14, in North Park focus on food, but the conversations they hope to inspire are as different as apples and oranges.

Most of us hated hand-me-downs as kids. A worn-out pair of button-fly Jordache jeans only ever worked on Kelly Kapowski and your big sister. But when we’re short on cash and, thus, unable to hit the mall, a hand-me-down might not be so bad. At the Fashion with a Passion event happening Saturday, April 14, at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (350 10th Ave., Downtown), you can exchange your old accessories—shoes, bags and jewelry—for someone else’s to give your wardrobe a bit of a kick on the cheap. Attendees can also check out a runway show, sip on wine and mimosas and snack on gourmet bites. The event starts at 11 a.m. with tickets going for $25. Proceeds benefit the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Forget everything the always-chipper TV character Leslie Knope has taught you about the inner workings of a municipal Parks and Recreation department. Judging from a brewing battle between the WorldBeat Cultural Center and San Diego’s Park and Recreation department, things can be far less comical in real life than they are on the NBC mockumentary.

This past weekend, WorldBeat hosted an emergency community meeting to discuss ongoing issues with Park and Recreation. The cultural center, which regularly hosts African and African-American arts, health, music and community events, is housed in a colorfully painted former water tower in Balboa Park. Park and Recreation has jurisdiction over institutions and events in Balboa Park, and the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) steps in when enforcement is needed.

Tijuana artist and educator Leslie García is the type of soft-spoken intellectual who, a few minutes into a conversation, will slowly but surely blow your mind. Her work seamlessly merges art with technology and through projects like DreamAddictive, her art collective with Carmen Gonzalez, and protolab, an experimental electronic-workshop lab in downtown Tijuana, she engages the community and makes life a lot more interesting. García will be the featured speaker at the next Upgrade! San Diego talk at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, at Space 4 Art (325 15th St., East Village). Part of the Upgrade! International movement, the ongoing series seeks to tap the creative minds of folks working in the art and technology worlds.

Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir’s life-size figures can be compared and rated against many of her contemporaries: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Bruce Nauman, George Segal and Antony Gormley, to name a few. However, her passive figurines, seemingly accepting of their fate (’tis more noble to be cast in bronze or gold), emanate a less agonizing, less violent and almost human existence than any works by her peers.

Chula Vista native Bradford Lynn likes to say he started as a graffiti artist when he was 4, using red marker to revamp the walls of his family’s apartment (which led to their subsequent eviction). Lynn has since traded in the red marker for acrylics, galosh, ink and other mediums to create eerie images he hopes will inspire wonder.

“I like the mystery,” Lynn says. “That’s what draws me in. I just want people to follow their curiosity.”

Lynn drew his inspiration for the illustration on the cover of this week’s CityBeat from the song “Ghost” by Harvard, which led him to title the image “Ghost.” The lyric “I can feel it in the air” stirred Lynn to envision what ominous thoughts might actually look like. He wanted to create an image of the invisible insecurities people carry around.

“Your thoughts, negativity or your fear could be some sort of entity, almost like a spirit that follows you everywhere,” he explains.