San Diego's Top Weekend Arts Events: From Border Art To Indie Rock

Speaker 1: 00:00 It's super bowl weekend and for our weekend preview, here are some art events to do instead from indie rock at the belly up, finding hope in the youth to a cross border artists. Plus we've also got the details on San Diego museum month. Joining me is KPBS arts editor, Julia Dixon Evans. Julia, welcome. Hi Jane. Born and raised in Tijuana. Griselda Rosis has worked on display right now at Lux art Institute with more shows on the way in February. Tell us about her work. So she does a lot of mixed media using brightly colored embroidery threads, stitched across her paintings and collages and she's also a sculptor. When I visited her studio this week, she was putting the finishing touches on these giant cement maps in the shape of two Mexican States and also California. A lot of her work gets suspended from giant rope systems that she builds. She definitely has a recognizable style, but it's all vivid and unexpected. Speaker 1: 01:00 Um, how does she incorporate the border into her work? The work she does is incredibly informed by place and these obvious ways like those maps, but she also uses some post-colonial imagery. And the way she sources her materials is really important to her too. She'll get her materials in Tijuana and bring them to San Diego, to her studio to work stuff like thread salts to grow her own crystals for sculpture and vintage placemats. All of these little migrations of objects and of her art. And where can we see her work this month? Well, she has four shows this month alone. Uh, her works currently on display at Lex art Institute and Encinitas plus. She's part of a group show starting at San Diego art Institute next weekend and another one at city college gallery also opening next weekend. And then starting on the 15th. She'll show work at Oceanside, museum of art with the ocean side libraries. Speaker 1: 01:53 Big read program. It's work inspired by Louis sub Barta [inaudible] novel into the beautiful North. And that's what those giant summit maps are for. Wow. You can see pictures and learn more about rossos work@kpbs.org also Canadian indie rock band. Wolf parade performs at the belly up tonight with a brand new album. Tell us about them. So we'll parade formed in 2003 most people discover them when they release their incredible first album. Apologies to the queen Mary and that was in 2005. I didn't discover them though then. I think I was living under a rock in 2005 but it was such a golden age of Indian music. Um, I came to Wolf, prayed by way of singer Spencer, Craig's other projects, moon face. His side project is really raw and orchestral. His song writing's poetic and really specific, kind of like you're reading his diary out of control is a Spencer Krug contribution on Wolf parade's new album, thin mind. Let's take a listen to that. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 03:19 Craig plays keyboard and sings about half of the songs in Wolf parade. Dan Buckner, who is also in divine fits with [inaudible], which is a project with the lead singer of spoon. He's the other vocalist and songwriter and they sort of trade off songs. I love that the having distinct voices and styles in a band, but they still put out a really unified album. My, I hear the influence of David Bowie in there. This album was just released last week. How does it compare to their earlier work? Yeah, I've seen some critics say things like Wolf parade may never measure up to their first album, but everything they've done in the 15 years since has felt thoughtful and really fresh to me. We'll parade performs tonight at belly up with land of talk. The 35th annual plays by young writers festival is on Saturday. Who are these emerging playwrights? Well, the playwrights project runs the competition each year among high school students and recent graduates. Speaker 1: 04:20 Looking at full script submissions this year, there four winners, three having their scripts turned into full productions and one younger writer and 11 year old will have a stage reading of that play. How were these scripts selected? Well, there are hundreds of submissions, like over 500 from all over California. One of the judges was play right, Lauren [inaudible] who won the contest herself when she was a teen. She's now one of the most produced playwrights in the country. What kinds of plays can we look forward to? The three selections are all from San Diego youth and they're all pretty diverse. One's a dystopian love story where love is considered treason. It's set in a distant future of 2021 and this was written by a 15 year old Aiko Lasar from Carlsbad and another play. His 16 year old is he stares like father like daughter, which is a string of conversations between a father and a daughter over coffee sort of quietly chronicling the passage of time into adulthood through dialogue. Speaker 1: 05:18 The plays by young writers festival takes place at the Joan B Kroc theater on Saturday at 7:30 PM kicking off just in time to give us something a little more cultured to do on super bowl Sunday. Museum month begins February 1st tell us what's great about museum month. Well, museum month's, a project of the San Diego museum council and agency that supports and represents member institutions in their region. It's actually just one of a few of their main projects that focus on increasing access. Sure. Our museum month is a program that seems to work well for residents and tourists. How does it work? The way it works is you pick up a museum month pass at any library or when you stay at a Hilton hotel, and I think you can pick them up at a Macy's store too. You'll receive half price admission at more than 40 of the museums in the council. Wow. Museum month kicks off on Saturday and last all of February to stay on top of San Diego art scenes. Go to kpbs.org/newsletter to subscribe to the KPBS arts newsletter and find more arts events at kpbs.org/arts I've been speaking with KPBS arts editor, Julia Dixon, Evans. Julia, thanks so much. Thank you.