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Arts & Culture

San Diego weekend arts events: An 'urban art takeover,' Kate Bush theatrics and 'Interlaced'

Baby Bushka is shown on stage in an undated photo.
Dorka Hegedus-Lum
Baby Bushka is shown on stage in an undated photo.

Baby Bushka's Final Show

Music, Theater | San Diego's "Kate Bush experience of your dreams," aka Baby Bushka, performs their final show in San Diego. Don't call it a cover band — this is a theatrical production, with multi-part harmonies, a narrative arc, costumes and sets, delivered beautifully by a group of eight talented women musicians from San Diego.

"A lot of Kate's music are stories and narratives — especially her early work. And she sort of puts herself in the shoes of different human experiences. So you have songs coming from the perspective of a soldier or a ghost or a housewife or father or mother," said founder and bandleader Natasha Kozaily. "So as we started diving into the music, and because she's so theatrical and her music videos are like that and even her stage performance is — it just made sense that you couldn't just go on stage and play the music. It had to be visual. It had to have that dance in it."

The band has reached their final curtain call, and will embark upon one more tour after this last show in San Diego.

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"Every show we've done feels like it could be the last. Because it's such a miracle to put the show together. Eight women. It's a huge two-act musical. It's expensive. Going on tour. And we all have other jobs and other projects that we're doing. So this is just a piece of our lives — I mean, a big important piece, but that's it," Kozaily said. "It's one thing to sort of just deny that and continue and then one day wake up and be like, oh that was the last show, I guess. I wish I had known."

Read more from my interview with Kozaily in our KPBS Fall Arts Guide here.

Details: 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 15. Music Box, 1337 India St., Little Italy. $49.75.

Performers and puppets from Animal Cracker Conspiracy. Several giant animal puppets are shown in the dark, but the puppets are lit from within. The animals are mystical creatures.
Courtesy of Animal Cracker Conspiracy
Performers and puppets from Animal Cracker Conspiracy are shown in an undated photo.

ENVZN24 Urban Art Takeover

Dance, Theater, Visual art, Poetry, Storytelling, Fashion, Music, Food | One hundred artists from close to 20 arts organizations will perform and participate in this year's ENVZN Urban Art Takeover, which presents immersive art experiences and presentations of dance, theater, music, visual art, poetry, storytelling, film, fashion, puppetry, circus and more — all on one day.

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Dancers from The Rosin Box Project are shown in an undated photo. One dancer is lifting another, who is wearing pointe shoes and has both legs extended in the splits in the air. Her hand is curved up above her head. Three columns of bright white light are positioned on the stage behind the dancers.
Jim Carmody
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The Rosin Box Project
Dancers from The Rosin Box Project are shown in an undated photo.

Some participating organizations and artists are: The Rosin Box Project, Sisu Dance Company, Voices of Our City Choir, Fern Street Circus, Animal Cracker Conspiracy, Outside the Lens, San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery, John Mirelles, Xoque, Poets Underground, So Say We All, Fashion Week San Diego, Malashock Dance Company, Drumatix and more.

Details: 2-10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14 at the Soap Factory in Logan Heights. $20-$40 (kids are free)

Artwork by Christian Garcia-Olivo.
Courtesy of the artist
/
The Hill Street Country Club
Artwork by Christian Garcia-Olivo from "Interlaced," opening Sept. 14 at Gallery 201.

Christian Garcia Olivo: 'Interlaced'

Visual art | I love the way San Diego-based artist Christian Garcia-Olivo uses "paint skins" as material in his sculptures, and he has a new exhibit at Liberty Station's Gallery 201 curated by The Hill Street Country Club and Dinah Poellnitz. Poellnitz is currently the inaugural curator-in-residence at Arts District Liberty Station.

In this exhibition, "interlace" indicates the complex and delicate interaction and cause-and-effect that exists between identity and culture — and a disruption of the boundaries surrounding identity. In one work, Garcia-Olivo has woven what appears to be drizzled and dried strands of paint, forming a striking acrylic textile. .

Details: Opens with a reception from 12-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14. On view from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, Sept. 12, 2024 through January 10, 2025. Gallery 201, 2820 Roosevelt Rd. #204, Liberty Station. Free.

Castmembers of "Jersey Boys" are shown in an undated photo. The show runs Sept. 13 through Oct. 6, 2024 at California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
Courtesy of CCAE Theatricals
Castmembers of "Jersey Boys" are shown in an undated photo. The show runs Sept. 13 through Oct. 6, 2024 at California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

'Jersey Boys'

Theater, Music | CCAE Theatricals will present the touring production of "Jersey Boys." It's been 20 years since this Grammy- and Tony-winning musical got its start at the La Jolla Playhouse. The show, a jukebox-style musical, revolves around the story and music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, with plenty of their famous tunes peppering the action, like "Sherry," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "Big Girls Don't Cry." The theater recently extended the run through early October.

Details: On stage Sept. 13 through Oct. 6. Shows are 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday. California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $40+.

Roman de Salvo's 2019 mural, "McCairn," is shown installed in La Jolla. The mural has been removed, and de Salvo has salvaged and repurposed it into new works of art, to be shown at Two Rooms Sept. 15 through Oct. 19, 2024.
Philipp Scholz Ritterman
Roman de Salvo's 2019 mural, "McCairn," is shown installed in La Jolla. The mural has been removed, and de Salvo has salvaged and repurposed it into new works of art, to be shown at Two Rooms Sept. 15 through Oct. 19, 2024.

Roman de Salvo: 'O Petravia'

Former local sculptor and installation artist Roman de Salvo will hold a solo exhibition at Two Rooms gallery in La Jolla. Part of the exhibit is a salvaged 2019 mural "McCairn," which was installed on a La Jolla billboard as part of the Murals of La Jolla program — when this mural was recently taken down, de Salvo said it spurred a reflection on and a deeper exploration of his process.

The show will feature photography from a shoot on the actual Bird Rock formation off the coast of La Jolla; several ceramic sculptures, and what de Salvo referred to as "60 of the smallest sculptures of my career" — tiny abstract birds made from beach pebbles.

De Salvo's work is marked by curiosity toward nature and human impact, and his astonishing ability to capture and shape artworks that are as much a sculpture as they are something else, whether it's a cairn, a billboard or a giant drinking fountain. There's a thoughtfulness, a drive for unique preservation and a deep sense of wonder in his art.

Details: Opening reception is 5-7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 15. On view through Oct. 19. Gallery hours are by appointment. Two Rooms, 5560 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla. Free.

The Hausmann Quartet
Sam Zauscher
The Hausmann Quartet is shown in an undated photo.

Haydn Voyages: Music at the Maritime

Music, Classical | Local chamber ensemble The Hausmann Quartet is back on deck (pun intended) at the Maritime Museum's Berkeley ship for their Haydn Voyages concert series. They will continue to chip away at Haydn's works, mixed with his colleagues (this concert features Johannes Brahms) and a contemporary composer. This performance will open with Reena Esmail's 2023 composition "This Is It."

The piece is an enchanting set of short movements inspired by a book on meditation by John Kabat-Zinn, "Wherever You Go, There You Are." In the program notes, Esmail writes, "He speaks of how we are always encouraged to look forward, to think into the future — but what if this is it? What if we sat with each moment, savoring it as if it was that special, unique, pinnacle moment?"

Details: 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 15. Maritime Museum, 1492 North Harbor Dr., downtown. $10-$60.

A cotton and indigo textile is shown in an undated photo. It's part of the Mingei International Museum's "Blue Gold" exhibition.
Ron Kerner
A 20th century cotton and indigo textile from the Yoruba people in Nigeria is shown in an undated photo. It's part of Mingei International Museum's "Blue Gold" exhibition.

'Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo'

Visual art | This exhibit at the Mingei is part of the Getty's PST: ART initiative. This exhibit centers on the striking deep-blue dye created by the indigo plant, bringing together the botany, chemistry, history, labor and craft of its use with the artforms that use the plant and dye. Co-curators Emily Hanna and Guusje Sanders worked with guest co-curator Barbara Hanson Forsyth on the exhibit, which includes more than 180 works of art involving indigo, including several commissions from contemporary artists like Christina Kim and Porfirio Gutiérrez.

Details: On view Sept. 14, 2024 through March 16, 2025. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. $0-$15.

Best Practice: 'INSITE_LAB'

Visual art | Longstanding regional art collective INSITE will unveil a new installation about their newest initiative, the INSITE Lab, which is intended to be a "roving platform" on both sides of the border for artists to exchange ideas, research, discourse and processes and to allow that exchange in settings beyond academia. In this installation at Best Practice (inside Bread and Salt), artists Jair Arias, Roxana Alvarado, MR Barnadas, Héctor Bázaca, Gosia Herc, Aleya Lanteigne, Adrián Pereda Vidal, Talia Pérez-Gilbert and Josh Tonies will show works.

While you're at the opening reception this Saturday, check in on Quint ONE's newly installed 1981 work by Kim MacConnel, "Kudos," as well as Hugo Crosthwaite's phenomenal exhibit, "Tijuacolor" in the main gallery.

Details: Opens with a reception from 5-9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Best Practice, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights. Free.

Live music picks

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More arts and culture weekend events:

Event Date Time Location
Book Sale | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library This event is in the past. Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
'A View From The Bridge' by Arthur Miller See event for details. North Coast Repertory Theatre
'Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express' 10/5/24 2 PM Old Globe Theatre
FilmOut San Diego LGBT Film Festival This event is in the past. Balboa Park
Light in Darkness This event is in the past. Thorn St. and 32nd St.
This fall, discover our picks for the best art and culture in San Diego, including visual art, theater, dance, music and literature — and even some picks for kids.