Art Seen

By Patricia B. Dwyer

9/28-10/26: Adjacent Possible II
Space 4 Art, East Village / sdspace4art.org
Five teams of artists, scientists and educators are coming together to create Space 4 Art’s biggest event of the year. Works on display include “Mechanical Grace,” described as “a biomedical exploration of the kinesiology, anatomy and form in movement through circus arts and illustration.”

10/5-10/15: Stick Em Up
Visual Shop, Normal Heights / visualshopsd.com
For this third annual sticker-and-zine swap, local creators of each are invited to attend, admire and trade each other’s work. The event culminates with the artists plastering an indoor “street” installation (benches, signs, etc.) with their adhesive-backed art.

10/5-10/26: Neill Orje
Gym Standard, North Park / gymstandard.com
Being from the 1980s Nintendo generation, Neill Orje has a special fondness for the pixilated, flat aesthetic of video games and computer screens. The Los Angeles-based painter creates scenes that look like they’re from a digital world, but are actually the products of meticulous color-mixing and rigid painting.

10/5-3/30: Please Be Seated
Mingei International Museum, Balboa Park / mingei.org
This exhibition spotlights sitting devices from various cultures and eras, showcasing floor mats, pillows, stools, benches and thrones - from quirky to comfortable, and common to strange.

10/8-1/26: Staking Claim - A California Invitational Museum of Photographic Arts
Balboa Park / mopa.org
Sixteen California photographers display their recent works shot on film alongside images that embrace photography’s modern technological trends.

10/12-11/17: Art of Photography
Museum of the Living Artist, Balboa Park / artofphotographyshow.com
Each year, a different world-class curator sifts through thousands of photographs submitted from across the globe, whittling them down to a couple hundred images in an attempt to display the world’s best photography. During the October 12 opening, $10,000 in grants will be awarded to the top artists.

10/13-11/6: Phantom Gardens Fortified Cities
Helmuth Projects, Bankers Hill / helmuth-projects.com
Local artists Timothy Earl Neill and Robert Andrade are setting up large installations for this exhibition, including a living wall made of plants and a faux mall kiosk. Their installations explore the ideals society aims for in the architectural design of public places, and the realities of those intentions as reflected in said architecture’s destruction, abandonment and decomposition.

10/16-11/2: “Luck” by Gabe Leonard
Distinction Gallery, Escondido / distinctionart.com
Gabe Leonard’s paintings look like movie stills, this particular series being that of a casino flick that portrays the highs and lows of gambling life. The Los Angeles painter is known to sell out shows and has acquired celebrity collectors including Quentin Tarantino, John Travolta and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

10/19-10/31: Integral Players
Visual Shop, Normal Heights / visualshopsd.com
Local can-shakers and graffiti-makers Anthony Perez, Jack Stricker, ZOKE 1 and CROW show off their law-abiding artworks on canvas, panel and toy trains.

10/19-2/2: My City, Your City
Museum of Photographic Arts, Balboa Park / mopa.org
Local kindergarten through high school students showcase what it means to call San Diego home in this display of their photography and videos.

10/19-2/18: Women, War and Industry
San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park / sdmart.org
Focusing mainly on World War I and II , these historical and modern images present real and fictionalized ways women have been portrayed and treated during wartime.

10/25-11/24: “Catch & Release” by William Sager
Subtext Gallery, Little Italy / subtextgallery.com
This artist’s background in graphic design and oceanic lust give rightful context to his clean combinations of photography and painting. Full of geometric patterns, vintage coastal photography, aquatic motifs and images of surfing, William Sager’s works are a hip mix of organic chaos and calculated composition.

10/26-2/23: Nature Improved - San Diego Artists Interpret Our Landscape Oceanside
Museum of Arts, Oceanside / oma-online.org
This invitational exhibition showcases works from 25 regional artists inspired by and celebrating San Diego’s landscape, natural or otherwise. The project is being conducted in conjunction with the San Diego History Center, which will display half of the exhibition’s works at its space in Balboa Park.