This weekend in the arts, there's some haunting solo piano music from the Athenaeum Art Center, Flavia D'Urso's sculptural installations at Art Produce, an eccentric virtual film program centered on domesticity, a new women-centric group show at Oceanside Museum of Art and a theatrical deep dive into comedy and maybe even masks.
Logan Lone Piano Concerts: Carrie Feller
Music
Trust Carrie Feller, front person for the bands Hexa and Hours, to add some goth to the refined classiness of a lone grand piano in an empty art space. The Athenaeum Art Center's Logan Lone Piano Concert series features local musicians with stripped down sets for solo piano or solo piano and voice, all recorded safely in the Athenaeum's newly renovated AAC space in Barrio Logan. They've featured Joshua White, Mara Kay, Clinton Davis, Kelly Einbinder and others, representing a range of styles from jazz to rock, and the short videos can be found on the Athenaeum's YouTube page.
Launching April 1 is Carrie Feller's 10-minute concert, where she'll perform two original works: "Prelude in Terror" and "Little Man." These compositions are mesmerizing. I'm used to seeing Feller rocking out amidst a wall of sound in a dimly lit venue, so it's great seeing her work in the raw musical extreme of the lone piano. "Prelude in Terror" is a darkly meditative instrumental. "Little Man" includes vocals and felt a touch more like an unplugged version of one of her band tracks, and it still somehow manages to show off Feller's piano chops front and center.
For more of Feller's recent work, listen to her solo EP, "Damage Orbit," and the collection of remixes, "Damage CTRL."
Details: Available to stream on demand on YouTube beginning Apr. 1. Free.
Flavia D'Urso: 'I Will Not Carry You'
Visual Art
Art Produce artist-in-residence Flavia D'Urso is wrapping up her time in the studio, and this work is a continuation of her project, "I Will Not Carry You." D'Urso's work studies the queer female body, and with this vessel sculpture project, she breaks down oppressive gender-based ideals and reproduction myths. And these vessels are beautiful — fractured, shell-like jugs scattered about the space, some that seem to transform into feathery, wispy textiles from base to mouth. It's viewable from the street, on University, or you can make an appointment this Thursday and Friday 3-6 p.m. and Saturday 2-6 p.m. while D'Urso is in studio.
Details: On view through Saturday. By appointment or viewed from the street. 3139 University Ave., North Park. Free.
The Old Globe's Word Up: Commedia Dell’Arte
Theater
First, let's define "commedia dell'arte." It translates in Italian to "comedy of the profession," and in the 16th century, it emerged as a format which centers around a masked character — mostly as a way to use archetypes and stock characters. It's also one of the earliest theatrical forms that allowed women to perform on stage. It will be discussed this week in Word Up, the Old Globe's Arts Engagement wing's weekly Friday night theater master class, mad libs game and hang session all in one. This week's episode features special guests Valeria Vega and Jesus Quintero, as well as The Globe's public relations associate Lucía Serrano. Vega is a member of the theater company Tijuana Hace Teatro and runs Café Dionisio in Tijuana. Quintero is the founding director of Teatro Las Tablas and executive director of Tijuana Hace Teatro, as well as a renowned scenic, mask, prop and costume designer. Tune in if you're interested in theater history, masks, design, character and comedy, as well as what's going on in the Tijuana theater scene.
Details: Friday at 6 p.m. on The Old Globe's Arts Engagement YouTube channel. Free.
'Twenty Women Artists: NOW' At OMA
Visual Art
Alessandra Moctezuma curated Oceanside Museum of Art's newest exhibition, "Twenty Women Artists NOW," which will open to in-person visitors this weekend. Not quite ready to go indoors yet? The works have been beautifully photographed from several angles and placed in a browsable online gallery. It's not a 360 degree tour, but you can still get a sense for how the exhibition feels as a whole, in addition to an up-close look at each piece. The selection of artists and works is broad and stunning, including Kaori Fukuyama's magically glowing acrylic "Totem," several figurative sculptures by Manuelita Brown, an encaustic diptych by Maite Benito Agahnia, works by Julia San Román-Naughton and many more from a broad range of ages and backgrounds. Advance online reservations are required, and limited — just pick a time slot and enter your information to buy a ticket before you head out.
Details: Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays until 4 p.m, through Aug. 1. 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. $0-10.
Domestic Geographies Film Program: 'Home: That Obscure Object Of Desire'
Film
Part of the Front Arte and Cultura's Domestic Geographies exhibition is a special film program, "Home: That Obscure Object of Desire," curated by Itzel Martinez del Cañizo. It includes six iconic feminist films from the last 50 years, including Chantal Akerman's short 1968 silent work, "Saute Ma Ville," ("blow up my town"). The film program synopsis excellently describes the plot as such: "A young woman comes to her house and in a dance of clumsy and everyday movements, she dines, reads, feeds her cat and puts an end to everything." Also featured is a 1975 six-minute film by American performance artist Martha Rosler, "Semiotics of the Kitchen," where she identifies and names culinary items in alphabetical order. Tracey Moffatt and Gary Hillberg's 2003 short film "Love" is a series of clips from countless films, each scene alone too brief to tell a story but the filmmakers stitch these together as a longer, patchwork narrative, sometimes violent and jarring, sometimes laugh-out-loud absurd.
There's also the full-length 2016 Mexican documentary "Batallas Íntimas," which chronicles the stories of five survivors of domestic violence; "Brødre" an eight-year project from Norwegian director Aslaug Holm where she filmed her two sons growing from children to adolescents; and "Niñato," Adrián Orr's 2017 feature about a hip-hop musician struggling to raise children.
Details: Viewable on-demand Friday through April 11. Some films require passwords, listed in the program here along with viewing links. Virtual. Free.
For more art events, visit the KPBS/Arts calendar, and be sure to sign up for the weekly KPBS/Arts newsletter.
