Andrew Alcasid will give an artist’s talk on April 11. His installation, “Turning Pages,” at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library has drawn viewers to his intimate drawings and alterations that highlight the library’s architectural assets. A graduate of the museum studies program at San Diego Mesa College, Alcasid also studied figure drawing at Miramar College and in the North Park Drawing Group. He has held artist residencies at Bread & Salt and Helmuth Projects, creating site-specific interventions. With an eye for scale, he began experimenting with street art and became a member of the electrical box program. His large-scale murals include “Omega” in Mira Mesa and “Cube, Palm, Orchid” in Normal Heights. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2019, Alcasid focused his energy on smaller scale still-life paintings. His partner, Aubrey Mejia, a floral designer, brought a variety of flowers to hospital and home as Alcasid underwent chemotherapy, and his resulting watercolor series of simple daisies in glass vases became the subject of the sold-out show “Get Well Soon” at Visual Art Gallery in North Park in 2021. Continuing the collaboration, the couple began the “Turning Pages” series. Combining both shared passions of reading and drawing, they used the time during the global pandemic and Alcasid’s convalescence to create the quiet studies on view at the Athenaeum through May 6, 2023. Athenaeum Music & Arts Library on Facebook / Instagram
