ARTISTS ANNOUNCED FOR HERE NOT THERE: SAN DIEGO ART NOW EXHIBITION – OPENS JUNE 6, 2010, AT MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO IN LA JOLLA

Exhibition will reflect the vitality and variety of work being produced by contemporary artists living and working in San Diego County

April 12, 2010

San Diego, CA — The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego announces the artists participating in the upcoming exhibition, Here Not There: San Diego Art Now, which focuses on the range of individual and collective contemporary art practices in the San Diego region. Opening June 6, the exhibition will be on view through September 19, 2010 at MCASD La Jolla.

Here Not There will offer a stimulating and provocative view into the variety, strength, and vitality of work being produced by contemporary artists living in San Diego County. The exhibition will focus on emerging artists—serving as the first museum exhibition for many—as well as under-recognized mid-career artists, and will include artworks in a wide range of genres, from painting, drawing, and sculpture to installation, video, new media, conceptual and performance art.

In Fall 2009, the Museum solicited submissions from artists living and working in San Diego County for consideration in this exhibition and received over 230 submissions through this process. In addition, MCASD Associate Curator, Lucía Sanromán, conducted studio and gallery visits and investigations into the social networks through which individual artists coalesce—such as universities, colleges, commercial and alternative gallery spaces, and collectives and artists’ groups. Informed by this research, Sanromán selected the 45 artists and collectives who will participate in the exhibition:

David Adey
Agitprop
Adam Belt
Susannah Bielak
Brian Black and Ryan Bulis
Kelsey Brookes
Sheldon Brown
Micha Cárdenas and Elle Mehrmand
Brian Dick
Tom Driscoll
Kelly Eginton
Electronic Disturbance Theater/b.a.n.g. lab
James Enos
Steve Gibson
Brian Goeltzenleuchter
Matthew Hebert
John Brinton Hogan
Jeff Irwin
Glenna Jennings
Wendell Kling
John Oliver Lewis
Lev Manovich and William Huber
Heather Gwen Martin
May-Ling Martinez
Jessica McCambly
Gretchen Mercedes
Patricia Montoya
Ingram Ober
Christopher Puzio
Andy Ralph
Marisol Rendon
Allison Renshaw
Jason Sherry and Matt Hoyt
Tristan Shone
The Border Corps (Armando de la Torre, Anthony Vasquez, Endy, Perry Vasquez, and Shondra Dawson)
Stephen Tompkins
Michael Trigilio
Robert Twomey
Zlatan Vukosavljevic
Vicki Walsh
Allison Wiese

San Diego’s visual arts have developed a critical mass of local talent remarkable for their commitment to creating practices—studio-based, public, or collaborative—that explore unorthodox, often solitary, forms of production while experimenting with innovative structures for the dissemination of art. Here Not There does not aim to reach definitive conclusions about the nature of artistic production in San Diego County, nor draw a single narrative illustrating notions of identity or regionalism. The main objective is to chart as straight a trajectory as possible: from the artist’s studio to the exhibition space. From this investigation, the exhibition emerges as a site of multiple overlapping thematic lines, encircling around disparate communities with their own gravitational centers, each defining a “here” that nearly touches another.

In the past 25 years, MCASD has organized six survey exhibitions of San Diego artists—notable among them are A San Diego Exhibition: Forty-Two Emerging Artists (1985), which surveyed visual arts, as well as theater, performance art, and fashion design; and Off Broadway: New Art from Downtown San Diego (2000). San Diego artists have participated in numerous group exhibitions organized by MCASD, including the international group exhibitions Weighing and Wanting: Selections from the Collection (2008); Soundwaves: The Art of Sampling (2007); and From Baja to Vancouver (2004).

Additionally, MCASD has given solo Cerca Series exhibitions to several San Diego artists throughout the program’s six-year history, and artists from the region are an integral part of the Museum’s collection. San Diego artist Lael Corbin is currently featured in a Cerca Series exhibition, on view now through June 20, 2010 at MCASD’s downtown Jacobs Building location.

Related Programs

In conjunction with Here Not There, the following related programs will be offered (note: more programs to be added; please visit www.mcasd.org for up-to-date information).

Members’ Opening: Here Not There
Saturday, June 5 > 7–9 PM > La Jolla
Free to MCASD Members; $20 General

Join the featured artists in the galleries and get an exclusive sneak peek at this locals-only exhibition. MCASD Members get in for free; the event is $20 for Non-Members. To become a Member, please contact Julia Altieri at 858 454 3541 x172 or jaltieri@mcasd.org.

Here Not There: Performance Evening
Saturday, June 19 > 7–10 PM > La Jolla
Free to MCASD Members; $5 Students; $7 General

MCASD will present a dynamic evening of performance work by featured artists in the exhibition. Recognizing the prominent role performance and public engagement plays in the vitality, strength, and variety of contemporary art practice in San Diego, this event will function as a key component of the exhibition as a whole. Planned to unfold simultaneously throughout the night, attendees will have the opportunity to experience a range of different time-based art practices in the Museum’s various spaces as the evening progresses. For an updated list of program participants, visit www.mcasd.org.

Support

Here Not There: San Diego Art Now is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and is made possible by a generous gift from an anonymous donor, with additional support from the Cochrane Exhibition Fund. Related programs are supported by grants from The James Irvine Foundation Arts Innovation Fund, the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Fund, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

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MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO

Founded in 1941, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is the preeminent contemporary visual arts institution in San Diego County. The Museum’s collection includes more than 4,000 works of art created since 1950. In addition to presenting exhibitions by international contemporary artists, the Museum serves thousands of children and adults annually at its varied education programs, and offers a rich program of film, performance, and lectures. MCASD is a private, nonprofit organization, with 501c3 tax-exempt status; it is supported by generous contributions and grants from MCASD Members and other individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies. Dr. Hugh M. Davies is The David C. Copley Director at MCASD.

Institutional support for MCASD is provided by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.

KPBS is the official media sponsor of MCASD.

www.mcasd.org