Spring arts: Visual art events for your calendar

“Street Photography Around the World”

Before moving to Rancho Bernardo in the 1990s, Arthur Lavine worked as a freelance magazine photographer in 1950s New York City. His photos of everyday scenes and people were featured in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine and Newsweek, as well as in a 1955 exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Lavine, who died last summer, is honored in this Edward Steichen-curated exhibit of images selected from the photographer’s seven-decade career.

March 22-April 3. Gallery 21 at Spanish Village Art Center, 1770 Village Place. Free. (619) 233-9050 or gallery21art.org

“Viacrucis”

In time for Semana Santa (Holy Week), Tijuana’s CECUT displays 27 canvases and 34 drawings on paper by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, famous for skewering the upper classes with his paintings and sculptures of rotund figures. In this exhibition, presented in collaboration with Medellín’s Museo de Antioquia, Botero considers the role of religion in modern life by depicting the Stations of the Cross in a 21st-century context.

March 24-June 25. El Cubo at Centro Cultural de Tijuana, Paseo de los Héroes 9350, Tijuana. $48MXN (about $2.50). (664) 687-9600 or cecut.gob.mx

“Richard Deacon: What You See Is What You Get”

Winner of the 1987 Turner Prize, British abstract sculptor Richard Deacon gets his first major U.S. museum survey with this exhibition of about 40 works spanning three decades. Deacon makes monumental sculptures from everyday materials such as linoleum, and he titles his pieces after familiar sayings. He once told The Guardian, “I don’t think there is ever someone who ‘gets’ (my work). I don’t get it particularly.”

March 25-July 25. San Diego Museum of Art, 1450 El Prado. $8-$15 (free for members). (619) 232-7931 or sdmart.org

“Chris Thorson: Tabula Rasa”

Children of the ‘80s will appreciate the work of Bay Area sculptor Chris Thorson, who re-imagines everyday items (from cigarette butts to dirty socks) as art objects. In this show, she turns her critical gaze on sticker books, which she casts in urethane to highlight the consumerist messages that underlie seemingly innocent cartoon characters and pop icons.

April 1-May 13. Quint Gallery, 5171-H Santa Fe St. Free. (858) 454-3409 or quintgallery.com