Lisa Ross: 'Elegy to a Uyghur Homeland'
San Diego Museum of Art
One of three contemporary art exhibitions on view this fall at San Diego Museum of Art, photographer Lisa Ross' "Elegy to a Uyghur Homeland" exhibition includes a series of works that document the former Silk Route in China's Uyghur region, against the dramatic backdrop of the dunes of the Taklamakan Desert.
The Uyghurs (pronounced "we-gurs") are a Muslim people in the Xinjiang province in western China, a group that in recent years has faced kidnapping, torture and other violent atrocities in camps at the hands of Chinese authorities. Recent reporting from NPR's Beijing correspondent, Emily Feng, illustrates some of what the Uyghurs have endured. The United Nations recently assessed the treatment as "serious human rights violations."
Ross, who spent more than a decade following and photographing the Uyghurs, has since lost contact with many of their subjects and collaborators.
Ross is interested in the intersection of Uyghur holy sites and monuments ("mazars") found along the former pilgrimage route with the way locals move their beds outside in the summer. The photography feels as stark and sculptural as the subjects: some are wooden monuments fashioned from sticks and torn fabric flags, jutting against a pale sky. Others show people — the Uyghurs and their outdoor beds set similarly against the sky.
The exhibition at SDMA will be on view in gallery 12, as well as in the admission-free galleries adjacent to Panama 66 and the restrooms. In addition to still photography, Ross will also show video works that document the Uyghur homeland and Ross' work.
[Exhibition information] On view through March 5. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Wednesday. San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park. $8-$20.
Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio: 'Light Cones'
Athenaeum Music and Arts Library
Mexican artist Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio will open a new exhibition of charcoal and graphite, featuring more in her ongoing cloud series. For this series, Ortiz-Rubio is inspired by the words of poet Jorge Luis Borges, from his poem "Clouds I":
"We are the ones who drift away. The host
Of evening clouds dispersing in the west
Is our very image."
The black and white murals and drawings are as amorphous and nebulous as clouds — but the cloud-like subject is, curiously, the negative space, the absence of charcoal’s pigment. Ortiz-Rubio's works range from smaller sketches to massive wall murals, and she's informed by a fleeting, snapshot idea of time, and the way people mark the present moment.
[Exhibition information] On view Nov. 11 through Dec. 31, 2022. Artist walkthrough at 11 a.m. on Dec. 3. Athenaeum Music and Arts LIbrary, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla. Free.
Francisco Eme: 'La Memoria es un Pájaro / Memory is a Bird'
Best Practice
Artist and musician Francisco Eme, who is also the gallery director at The Front Arte & Cultura in San Ysidro, has a new immersive installation opening at Best Practice Gallery (in the Bread and Salt building).
It's a study of family, death and birds — exploring the way cycles of grief, memory and nature fuse together in a haze.
Combining photography, projection, video and drawing with sound, Eme has created what he's calling a "multimedia poem."
[Exhibition information]. On view Nov. 12 through Dec. 17, 2022. Opening reception is Nov. 12 from 5-8 p.m. Best Practice, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. Free.
'Piñatas: The High Art of Celebration'
Mingei International Museum
Guest curated by Emily Zaiden, director of the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles, this new exhibit at the Mingei is a "reimagining" of one held at the Craft in America gallery last fall. The piñata is celebratory, fun and accessible as an object — and as art they become complex, disruptive and innovative without compromising that accessibility, humbleness or approachability.
This exhibition of more than 80 piñata-inspired works by Latino/a/x artists includes plenty of sculptures made as piñatas, but also pieces that take just one or two elements, materials or style cues from the piñata — including that of performance. Political resistance is also a throughline in some of the works
Featured are works by local Diana Benavidez, who has constructed a series of remote controlled cars. There's also a massive, eye catching low rider by Justin Favela.
The exhibition also includes intricate work by Roberto Benavidez, countless suspended butterflies from Isaias Rodriguez and a huge rendering of the border wall by Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik and Rodriguez.
Other artists are Mari Carson, Amorette Crespo, Justin Favela, Lisbeth Palacios, Francisco Palomares, Yesenia Prieto, Josue Ramirez, Lorena Robletto, Ana Serrano, Giovanni Valderas, Piñata Design Studio and Piñata District.
[Exhibition details] On view through Apr. 30, 2022. Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park.
Script/Rescript
San Diego State University Art Gallery
“Script/Rescript” is a group exhibition of works by ten artists identifying as disabled, featuring art that aims to rewrite the medicalized narrative around disability. The word "script" does layered duty here — prescribed medicines and treatments as much as prescribed stories and narratives.
The exhibition features locals Bhavna Mehta and Akiko Surai, as well as nationwide artists Dominic Quagliozzi, Chun-Shan (Sandie) Yi, Katherine Sherwood and more. It is curated by local Amanda Cachia.
Each individual work is powerful on its own, but combined, this thoughtfully curated exhibition is striking — and a significant contribution to both the contemporary art world and the narrative of disability.
[Exhibition information] On view through Dec. 8, 2022. Panel discussion with Amanda Cachia, Ana García Jácome and Bhavna Mehta at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10. San Diego State University Art Gallery, 5500 Campanile Dr., SDSU.
For more visual arts coverage from KPBS, go here. For more visual arts events, visit the KPBS/Arts Calendar.
