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5 works of art to see in San Diego in February

By Julia Dixon Evans / Arts Reporter/Podcast Host

Published January 27, 2022 at 12:39 PM PST

This story was published more than 2 years ago.

Speaker 1: (00:00)

We have a short list of five noteworthy works of visual art that are on view in San Diego county. In February there's painting photography, sculpture, a mural, and even lithography printmaking. Joining me to discuss the selections is K PBS arts editor and producer Julia Dixon Evans. Welcome Julia. Hi

Speaker 2: (00:21)

Maureen. Thanks for having me now.

Speaker 1: (00:23)

Let's start with duke Windsor. Let's eat and I must say these are still lives of some crazy big hamburgers. What's so unique about this San Diego artist's pieces.

Speaker 2: (00:35)

First of all, it's just that the whimsy of a bunch of fine art portraits of hamburgers. I think that's so great. So he's already playing with this line between the sacred and the profane, the sublime, and the every day. And then, um, he also adds gold leaf to the mix to really step it up. This is actually kind of a hallmark of duke Windsor's work. We've seen it and his paintings of things like puddles in alleyways or even trash cans. It's really beautiful and striking. And in those settings, it's all about finding beauty in unexpected places, or even elevating simple or mundane things into something really fine and grand, which is what his new exhibitions all about. It's called nothing's impossible. And it's a collection of hamburgers and traditional food. Still life paintings. It draws from the Dutch old masters. Can you

Speaker 1: (01:34)

Describe this particular painting? Let's eat.

Speaker 2: (01:38)

This one is a single cheeseburger. It's kind of offset to the side. Again, a golden backdrop. There's really realistic glimpse of light on red onions. The tomatoes look red and juicy there's cheese oozing out onto the table and then crisp bacon curling out in all directions. I'm vegetarian and it still looks absolutely delicious. I also really love the title here let's eat and how it's kind of an invocation. There's something pretty playful about all

Speaker 1: (02:11)

Of that. It gives a whole new meaning to impossible burger duke Windsor let's eat is on view at the Oceanside museum of art. Now through March 13th, next is Melissa Walter's gravitational lensing art piece. And this one is made out of paper,

Speaker 2: (02:28)

Right? Yes. And that's it. Besides the magnets used to position and hang it and black paint for a backdrop. Melissa Walters installed this one several times since she developed it. She first made it during a residency at BRNs salt. That was back in 2017 and every time it's looked so different, the title gravitational lensing is named after this astrophysical phenomenon that makes light bend. It's when huge amounts of matter like, uh, black hole or clusters of galaxies. That's the kind of huge amount we're talking about here. When that gets between a light source and the person viewing it, the light will will bend. So Melissa Walter takes these long strips of paper and slices them into fine lines, kind, kind of like waves and then drapes and twists it all into place. And this piece is only on view until February 5th, this Saturday it's at cannon gallery in Carlsbad, which is part of the civic library complex. There they're open Tuesday through Thursday from noon to seven. So you can swing by after work or no to 5:00 PM on Friday and Saturday. And then that's it.

Speaker 1: (03:43)

Melissa Walter's gravitational lensing is on view at cannon gallery. Now through this Saturday, February 5th, Andres Hernandez piece, my faith won't move mountains, but my longing builds bridges across the Mexican border to be by your side is a, that has a strong message behind it. Tell us about that.

Speaker 2: (04:03)

Yeah. This is a solo exhibition on view right now at the hill street country club in Oceanside. And it's all analog photography, some video and poetry work too. And the photography is all taken from the route she takes after crossing the border. The exhibition's called crying on the blue line, trolley her work in general, but especially on this exhibition is about the rift that the border makes, whether it's in a life or in a community or family or in her case, what it does to her relationship with her partner. She was stuck at home in Tijuana when the border was closed during COVID. And I talked to Hernandez on the day, the border finally reopened. This was a couple of months ago and she told me a little bit about the spark for this photography exhibition.

Speaker 3: (04:53)

Yeah, it's always this anxiety and not only has the process of crossing the border, like architecturally been designed to make you feel like you're an animal or like you're not human, but also just like the interrogation part is just frightening.

Speaker 2: (05:11)

So in these photographs, she's honing in, um, the architectural bridges and divisions, even the natural ones like fields or rivers, these the mark, the changes between Tijuana and San Diego and their photographs mostly taken from the trolley. So in this one, the frame's divided into three parts. Basically there's a weed filled landscape in the foreground and then a pretty indistinct green structure. And then criscrossing freeway overpasses in the distance. And it's against a sky that's somewhere between desk or, or sunset and smog. The sense of place is really powerful in these works, but there's also just an undeniable movement to it as well.

Speaker 1: (05:56)

Andres Hernandez, peace. My faith won't move mountains, but my longing builds bridges across the Mexican border to be by your side will be on view at the hill street country club through February 28th. This next

Speaker 2: (06:09)

Piece of art by Marie wat is called the blanket stories, continuum book one, book three, how is this piece so different from other pieces? Is it an actual blanket? This is a print. And it was made as a sort of sketch or inspiration, maybe even a companion piece to Marie Watts' famous blanket stories works, and those are actual blankets or sculptures made of folded and stacked blankets. And this particular piece is part of her printmaking work up close it's countless lines of script lines from stories or things people have said about blankets, uh, because blankets are often part of rights of passage, whether births or deaths, new homes, journeys, migration. So they're always packed with stories. And then those lines of text they're colored and almost woven together. So that from afar, it almost looks like a piece of fabric almost looks like woven cloth itself.

Speaker 1: (07:13)

And what can we expect in the rest of this exhibition at the university of San Diego is printmaking also something that Marie wa is known

Speaker 2: (07:21)

For. Yeah. So this is, um, mid-career retrospective and this U S D exhibition is actually the first time she's had an exhibition focused on her printmaking and she came to printmaking after already working as a sculptor and participated in some pretty famous printmaking studio and workshops like tamarin. She also did some printmaking with the CKA center for art and ecology. She's actually remarkably prolific as a print maker, but they've usually been shown just alongside her sculptures. And in this exhibition, there are also some sculptures. You can see some of those, uh, incredible blanket works, but printmaking really does take center. Sage

Speaker 1: (08:01)

Marie Watts, blanket stories, continuum book one book three is on view at university of San Diego gallery starting this Friday, February 4th through May 13th. And last is muralist Tatiana orts Rubios intrinsically asymmetrical piece. Her work focuses on what separates the past and the future. Tell us about

Speaker 2: (08:24)

It. Yeah. This one is huge. It's the newest of Tatiana Ortiz's Rubio's charcoal cloud pieces. And while from afar, it looks like this incredibly rendered realistic cloud. There's so much meaning to it. She is in informed by time and it's complicated physics and philosophies kind of how time is both linear and circular or finite and infinite at the same time. And she is particularly curious about how we try to capture moments about these transitions that separate the past from the future

Speaker 1: (09:00)

Tatiana Ortiz Rubio's intrinsically asymmetrical piece is on view at the city college gallery from this Saturday, February 5th, through March 1st, you can find pictures of these works of art, as well as de tales on how to see them in person on our website, kpbs.org/arts. I've been speaking with K PBS arts editor, producer, Julia Dixon, Evans, and Julia. Thank you. Thank

Speaker 2: (09:27)

You, Maureen.

Duke Windsor's "Let's Eat" is currently on view at Oceanside Museum of Art through Mar. 13, 2022.

Duke Windsor: 'Let's Eat'

On view at Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) through Mar. 13, 2022

Toying with reverence is part of Duke Windsor's magic. The San Diego artist uses gold leaf in unexpected places, like puddles in alleyways, telephone pole-studded skies or even hamburger portraits. It elevates the quotidian, adding gilded glamor to everyday landscapes, everyday neighborhoods and — in this new exhibition, "Nothing's Impossible," everyday foods. Hung on the walls in ornate frames, Windsor pits burgers against traditional food still life paintings, drawing on the influence of traditional Dutch still life painters as well as wood panel iconography.

For "Let's Eat," a portrait of a single cheeseburger in his "Burger Series," the title's invocation is a cheeky spin on the reverence. Realistic glints of light on crisp red onions, plump tomatoes, the glistening cheese oozing onto the table, and an almost dainty curl of crisp bacon are all set against a luminous gold leaf backdrop. Fair warning: try not to visit while hungry.

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OMA is open to the public Thursday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. [Exhibition details]

Melissa Walter: 'Gravitational Lensing'

On view at Cannon Gallery through Feb. 5, 2022

This one closes very soon, so make your plans to see it now. Walter's exceptional large-scale paper-cut installation piece, "Gravitational Lensing," is part of the 2021 Cannon Invitational.

"Gravitational Lensing" by Melissa Walter (cut paper) — Melissa Walter's large-scale cut paper installation, "Gravitational Lensing," shown installed at Bread and Salt in 2017. The work is installed in a variation at Cannon Gallery in Carlsbad through Feb. 5, 2022.

Each time Walter installs this work, it feels different — whether from the surroundings or the positioning and orientation. Maybe you saw her original installation at Bread and Salt in 2017, or San Diego City College in 2018, but she also installed it in Denmark in 2019 wrapped around a metal column. "Gravitational lensing" refers to the astrophysical phenomenon when huge amounts of matter (a black hole, or clusters of galaxies, for example) block or distort a light source and cause the light to bend.

"Gravitational Lensing" by Melissa Walter, created during her artist residency at Bread & Salt in 2017. A variation of the work is currently installed at Cannon Gallery through Feb. 5, 2022.

Walter also has some brand new works to accompany the sculpture, and the other artists in the invitational are Samantha Barrymore, Griselda Rosas, Brad Maxey and Jiela Rufeh.

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Cannon Gallery hours are noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and noon to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 1755 Dove Ln., Carlsbad. [Exhibition details]

Andrés Hernández: 'My Faith Won't Move Mountains But My Longing Builds Bridges Across the Mexican Border To Be By Your Side'

On view at The Hill Street Country Club through Feb. 28, 2022

Tijuana-based artist and writer Andrés Hernández opened a solo show, "Crying on the Blue Line Trolley" at The Hill Street Country Club (HSCC) in January, her first solo exhibition. It's multidisciplinary, though at the center of the show are oversized prints of analog photographs taken from her route back and forth across the US-Mexico border, mostly on the trolley. In this way, it's hard to pick just one work — each seems like a pause, a breath taken, on a journey.

Hernández's work is intensely vulnerable and specific, though in these pictures of bridges, overpasses, trolley seats and landscapes she manages to offer her deeply personal story in a universal form.

"My Faith Won't Move Mountains But My Longing Builds Bridges Across the Mexican Border To Be By Your Side" by Andrés Hernández is on view at The Hill Street Country Club through Feb. 28, 2022.

This work, "My Faith Won't Move Mountains But My Longing Builds Bridges Across The Mexican Border To Be By Your Side" packs so much into one relatively sparse scene, washed in an analog softness: a border dividing two partners, and a suggestion of the agony of separation and a long and volatile history at the border.

An artist talk with Hernández along with regional poet and professor Karla Cordero will take place Saturday, Jan. 29 at 1 p.m. (RSVP for the talk here).

HSCC is showing the exhibition by appointment only, Friday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. 530 S. Coast Hwy., Oceanside. [Exhibition details]

Marie Watt: 'Blanket Stories: Continuum (Book I/Book III)'

On view at University of San Diego Gallery Feb. 4 through May 13, 2022.

Marie Watt's sculptural blanket series works are profound, powerful and eye-catching. Huge, towering pillars of folded and stacked blankets, installed inside or outside, some curving and hooking into shapes, others a simple column.

University of San Diego will show a mid-career retrospective this month of the artist, who is an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians and who draws on Iroquois and indigenous histories and influence in her work. But rather than her sculptural works, they're focusing on her remarkable career in printmaking.

The exhibition is called "Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt," pulling from the collections of the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation.

"Continuum (Book I/Book III)," 2007, by Marie Watt, from the USD collection.

This work, a six-color lithograph with chine collé — a type of multilayer tissue-thin paper used in printmaking — is a companion to her blanket works, and the stories and traditional rites of passage or transitions that those blankets represent. Etched into the paper are countless words and sentences, woven together like fibers in a cloth.

Detail of Marie Watt's "Blanket Stories: Continuum Book I/Book III," which will be on view at University of San Diego gallery Feb. 4 through May 13, 2022.

Many of her prints served as sketches or designs for larger installations, but stand alone as works of art. In her printmaking, Watt has collaborated with the Tamarind Workshop, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology and more. Many of Watt's shows have included some of her printmaking, and while this USD show will also include some of her striking sculptures, this exhibition will be the first to feature her printmaking as the primary focus.

The USD Hoehn Family Gallery is located in Founders Hall, and hours are Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m., with closures during university holidays. Watt will be onsite to lecture on Feb. 16. Founder's Hall, 5998 Alcalá Park, USD. [Exhibition details]

Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio: 'Intrinsically asymmetrical'

On view at City College Gallery Feb. 5 through Mar. 1, 2022

Muralist Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio's latest charcoal cloud piece will be part of a group show in the newly reopened City Gallery at San Diego City College. In this new large-scale work, she's informed by time and its complicated physics and philosophies. In her artist statement, Ortiz-Rubio writes, "I examine the experience of time as both linear and circular, as finite and infinite, of the impossibility of it being defined yet always striving to capture it."

The work focuses on what separates the past and the future, and a heightened awareness of the present: transitions and instants, moments that are gone long after we even begin to try to document them. Ortiz-Rubio's massive works are always absolutely mesmerizing. You can also see her recent marigold work (part of the California Department of Public Health's "#StopTheSpread outreach program) on the side of the Bread and Salt silo.

At City Gallery, Ortiz-Rubio will show "Intrinsically asymmetrical" alongside works by Dakota Noot, Catherine Ruane and Vicki Walsh. There are two receptions, one to open the show on Feb. 5 and another to close it out on Feb. 26, both from 5-7 p.m. Arts & Humanities Building AH314, 1508 C St., downtown. [Exhibition details]