Jenny Yoshida Park

There is a weekend of LGBT art openings before us; something happening every night and therefore something for everyone. Here below are the details:

First up, Friday, June 7 stop by AHF Pharmacy (below Martini’s above Fourth) at 6:30 p.m. and enjoy The Works of John Keasler.

Keasler works in many media but began painting in the mid-1970s, his work influenced by the freedom and beauty of Southern California. He began working in wood in the 1990s. He has shown his work extensively and facilitated many art therapy sessions but he might best be known locally as an art administrator and activist. He served as the exhibition coordinator for AIDS Art Alive and was the creative artist for the Dr. A Brad Truax awards for fifteen years. He contributes work for the annual Visual AIDS Postcards From the Edge benefit shows in New York and he currently co-coordinates the Art of Pride in conjunction with the San Diego Pride festival.

Keasler has volunteered extensively on behalf of the arts and artists in the community so show him some love, have a few Friday happy hour drinks and then check out his mini-retrospective!

Jody Mitchell

Needless to say Keasler also has a hand in the second of the weekend’s art events. Heavens Above, Earth Below is a photography exhibit opening at the Art of Pride in North Park Saturday, June 8. This month Patrick McMahon and Robyn Garcia will be showing their work. Patrick will be exhibiting many new 16 x 20 prints that complement Robyn’s black and white infrared images of botanical subject matter.

The reception is from 6-9 p.m. and as always is timed in conjunction with Ray at Night.

Timothy Bruehl

Finally, Frame of Reference is a group exhibition that opens at the 10th Avenue Theatre building Sunday, June 9. Featured artists’ include Jenny Yoshida Park, Spencer Epps, Jody Mitchell, Timothy Bruehl and Elijah Rubottom. Meet the artists at the opening reception that runs from 6-8 p.m.

The exhibit runs June 6-30, in concert with Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company’s Extraordinary Chambers.

Lisa Bebi at Art of Pride 2012

Last year I had the distinct honor of co-jurying entries to the Art of Pride juried exhibition which happens in conjunction with San Diego’s LGBT 2013 Pride festival. Whoosh, and believe it or not 11 months have rolled by and the deadline is looming for artists interested in exhibiting their work at this year’s show.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the origin story of the Art of Pride, here’s how it goes: For many years sunny San Diego’s very own LGBT Pride offered a unique venue beneath the beautiful trees of Balboa Park for local artists to display their work. It was a win-win for all concerned. Artists, especially those with an LGBT emphasis to their work had a massive annual audience while our local Pride organization benefitted from the participation of the most creative members of the community.

If there was a downside it was only that the artists were dispersed throughout the festival grounds which didn’t make it easy for visitors to know where all the artwork was. So, several years ago “Judy the Beauty on Duty” of the Big Kitchen thought to pool the artists together in one place and organize it under the banner Art of Pride. The San Diego LGBT Pride Organization supported this idea by allowing Art of Pride to offer affordable space to self-representing artists to show and sell their work.

Now Art of Pride is fully established at Pride and within the community. The organization seeks to promote and support the work of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and LGBT-allied artists. It coordinates a monthly exhibition at the San Diego Pride offices in North Park with artist receptions on the second Saturday of each month, coinciding with Ray at Night. And, once a year as our LGBT community comes together to recognize its progress and chart a new future it provides low cost display space to a variety of artists offering a relaxing cultural oasis inside the festival grounds.

The deadline for entries is Sunday, June 1. Accepted artists will be notified by June 12. Pride weekend is July 12-14.

Go to artofpride.weebly.com to access the submission form.

Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell and Ralph Macchio in The Outsiders

If you are on Facebook (duh!) then you might have noticed a recent weekly phenomenon that has come to be known as Throwback Thursday. It is an opportunity for “friends” to post an image of themselves from sometime in the past so that we can all laugh and/or go ahhh. Quite often the photo is of the person we know now looking quite dated and ridiculous (but sometimes cute and sometimes hot) in an outfit from the 1970s or the 1980s and with a whole lot more hair.

The Museum of Photographic Art (MOPA) is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and it is in a similar mode as far as its programming is concerned. Their May POP Thursday this week is all about 1983 and you are invited to get in on the action,

Voting has just ended and members determined which of three classic 1983 movies to screen. The Outsiders beat out Risky Business so you can enjoy watching the very beginning of some pretty luminary Hollywood careers (Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe). There will be music and food and libations and it is a perfect opportunity to dig out your best ‘80s attire. In conjunction with this screening there will also be a Push Pin Party. Just like when MOPA opened in 1983, they invite you to put your pictures up on the walls of the museum. It’s a rare opportunity for the aspiring photographer to have an image hanging in a world-class photography museum.

mopa.org

Liquor by Carla Richmond, The Art of Photography Show 2012

The Art of Photography

If you are a photographer you have probably heard of or perhaps even entered the locally organized Art of Photography juried exhibition. It is a notable opportunity to have your work seen by a respected authority in the world of photography and possibly win acclaim and a cash prize. The organizers of this year’s show have just extended their deadline to June 10 so you have time to review your work and submit your best.

The juror this year is Julia Dolan, curator of photography at the Portland Art Museum. The winners will be announced later in the summer and the exhibition takes place at the San Diego Art Institute right here in San Diego.

artofphotographyshow.com

Visible Bodies Photo: Wolfgang

San Diego will help rewrite the way stories about transgender people are told thanks to Visible Bodies an exciting exhibit of more than 30 portraits of people in the local transgender community.

Visible Bodies, a photography series highlighting transgender and genderqueer individuals will be exhibited the entire month of May at Art of Pride in North Park. Through captions written by participants and a close collaboration between subject and photographer, the photographs on display in this exhibition empower transgender people, giving them the space to express what their gender means to them. The exhibit is part of a fledgling movement of transgender people telling their own stories, in contrast to the biased and overly simple narratives told about them in the media.

Started as a legacy project by Ph.D. candidate Scott Duane to document and empower transgender students at the University of California San Diego, Visible Bodies quickly grew to encompass the larger transgender community. “San Diego trans people are excited to see accurate, positive representations of themselves in this project,” says Duane. “The response has been so overwhelming; we’ve actually had to turn down several potential participants. On the other side of the coin, non-trans people find Visible Bodies educational and enlightening.”

Historically, and still today, the narratives of transgender people have been written by people who are not themselves trans. In mainstream media, trans people are almost always characterized as one-dimensional. The focus of these stories is narrow, typically only discussing the trans person’s tragic childhood and the events leading up to their transition.

Visible Bodies: Spike Photo: Wolfgang

Sensationalizing gender-confirming surgery and hormone therapy, using incorrect gender pronouns, emphasizing before-and-after pictures, birth names and genitalia are all common media practices. A less reductive and more nuanced narrative showing trans people as people with careers, partners, children, hobbies and interests outside of their own gender identities and transitions are rare.

Additionally, there is almost no mainstream media coverage of gender-variant and genderqueer people. According to Liat Wexler, founder of Genderqueer San Diego, “Virtually no mainstream media discusses people whose genders are fluid, are genderqueer and do not fall in one of the two recognized binary genders (man or woman), or those who have no gender (neutrois or agender.)” One of the unique aspects of Visible Bodies is its broad representation of gender expressions and identities.

Visible Bodies: Evan Photo: Wolfgang

All are welcome to the artist reception Saturday, May 11 6:30-8:30 p.m. Art of Pride is a curated gallery in the San Diego LGBT Pride building located at 3620 30th Street.

The Agency - 1983 / ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

If there was a patron saint of contemporary LGBT art a contender for that title would surely be Robert Mapplethorpe. Mapplethorpe sought, found and held onto fame in the 1980s thanks in part to his gorgeously lit photographs of flowers and then his gorgeously lit photographs of naked men in all manner of sexual situations.

A Mapplethorpe image that you might recall is an early self-portrait. In it, the young Mapplethorpe is facing away from the camera; he is bent over looking back at the viewer, his mane of brown curls dipping below his shoulder; coyly protruding from his behind is a bullwhip with a long tassel. The photograph was and remains in your face, bold and provocative.

Another notorious Mapplethorpe image is Man in a Polyester Suit. The image is indeed of a man wearing a lighter colored polyester suit. The photo is cropped tightly around the man’s hip and torso region. The man’s fly is open. The rest is history. I am sure you’ve seen it.

Mapplethorpe died of AIDS related complications in 1989 with a reputation for being scandalous and calculating. However his work and his persona have been gathering a certain luster over the years, most recently in Just Kids, a wonderful memoir by his close friend, fellow artist Patti Davis.

The complete Robert Mapplethorpe story has yet to be told, even now 25 years after his untimely death. Like many complicated people the sum total of his contributions to art and to the gay experience will be revealed slowly through time as more books are written and more stories told. One such story will unfold here in San Diego this weekend when 36 rare Polaroid photographs go on display at the White Box Contemporary.

The Agency - 1983 / ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE

The exhibition titled The Agency opens May 3, at 5 p.m. with a wine reception and fundraiser for Mama’s Kitchen.

It’s unlikely you’ve seen these Polaroid’s before because they’ve been under a bed for 30 years; then again maybe you have! Here’s their story of origin: in 1983 Robert Mapplethorpe approached Alfredo Santiago, then president of the model agency Models Incorporated asking for work. It was an early attempt on Mapplethorpe’s part to break into the fashion industry.

Santiago told him to go away but Mapplethorpe persisted, finally convincing Santiago to give him a shot. According to Santiago, the results were artistic and unlike any other fashion photography ever created so much so that the photographs were exhibited at a New York gallery.

Santiago eventually moved to San Diego and the Polaroid’s came with him, ending up secreted away in a box for 30 years – until now.

The Agency opens to the public on May 4 and runs until June 15.

whiteboxcontemporary.com

Elly au Verso, 2012 by Cayce Zavaglia

Call me gay, but I have always liked the idea of sewing. I made a short film once. It was a mini coming of age story called Buttons and Thread that relied on a kid’s fascination with a sewing basket and all its shiny contents.

Last year I was caught up in quilting, amazed at how complex pieces of tapestry could emerge from scraps of fabric. I am a big fan of Project Runway and I am so glad Patricia will be participating in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week because I personally loved her horse hair cape!

Recently I even tried learning how to knit. My patience ran out though as soon as the hamster sized blanket I was creating starting seizing up on my beginners needles. The whole knotty mess is in a bag somewhere in the closet.

Never mind that. What I am eager to tell you about is a wonderful-looking exhibition that just opened at Scott White Contemporary Art in La Jolla. It is called String Theory and it is a dynamic all-female group exhibition showcasing exquisite fiber works by Devorah Sperber, Kumi Yamashita and Cayce Zavaglia. The intricate exhibition explores contemporary photorealistic works created using textiles traditionally associated with craft and it’s worth checking out.

After Van Gogh (Self Portrait), 2008 by Devorah Sperber

The three artists are all working around the same idea, but their work could not be more different. Sperber juxtaposes an organized stack of colored spools of thread (hundreds of them!) with a clear acrylic viewing sphere through which an image appears. That image is a camera-obscura phenomenon whereby the upside-down image created by the organized colored spools are made right and small and easily read in the glass. I am not quite sure what this is supposed to say, but it is an interesting sculpture to engage and works well with the rest of the work.

If I did not have the patience to make a hamster blanket then I would surely not survive in Kumi Yamashita or Cayce Zavaglia’s worlds.

Yamashita creates photo realistic portraits with a matrix of thread wrapped around galvanized steel nails on a wooden board. From afar the faces look etch-a-sketch perfect but close up each piece is simply a zigzag of string, not unlike the kind of things children make at school. Meanwhile, Zavaglia’s portraits are hand-embroidered portraits that are uncannily life-like, in a Lucien Freud kind of way.

On one side of the Belgian linen is a very realistic face, while on the other there is a more abstracted version of the same face, an inner vision if you like, behind-the-scenes evidence of the extraordinarily hard work done to create the front.

If this all sounds super complicated, like quantum physics or string theory then you’ll have to go see for yourself. You have until June 1 to figure it out.

Do you ever feel that your life is completely tied to technology? I suspect you do because it is discussed everywhere these days, all the time. No doubt our collective worry began with the wheel, and then the car and then television but it seems to have amped up recently. The observation has become so commonplace that we typically laugh it off as though being tied to electric-digital-online everything is an unquestionable new order to the world. After all, it’s not like we can unplug from the grid just like that.

I know I couldn’t.

I panic if I misplace my phone and get all anxious when its battery life sinks below 10 percent and I am out without my charger. Periodically, I become so aware of the hours wasted online and on certain sites in particular that I clean house. I log on to each of them (not that many!) one by one and without looking at any photos or emails I promptly delete the accounts; delete, delete, delete. A few months down the road however, I am back online; create, create, create. Meeting people via technology is so much easier.

Of course this illustration is just scratching the surface. The broader and deeper implications of such a tech-driven existence are worth thinking about. If it is a subject that interests you or if you would simply like to inject a fresh point of view about the creep of technology into your life and maybe into your gay life in particular then maybe this will be of interest.

We Are Not Robots is a talk by Richard Louv happening at the San Diego Museum of Man Saturday, April 20 from 6-8 p.m. The subject is Reconnecting with Our Humanity and Louv will expand upon his approach to a happy and healthier society through the natural world around us; a theme he has explored in his books which include Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.

What’s the art link you might be wondering? Well, the presentation is a partnership between the Museum of Man and local literary arts organization Write Out Loud. It’s part of Write Out Loud’s The Big Read project which was recently launched with a focus on the explosive and controversial themes in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451.

All is not doom and gloom however as Louv will explain a heartening vision of the future in which our lives are as immersed in nature as they are in technology. So, let’s close Facebook for an hour or so, log off the man4man sites, power down our smart phones and head over to the museum in Balboa Park where I hear they have flowers and trees!

White Box at Liberty Station is San Diego’s freshest performance space and it has truly come alive with thirteen evenings of live arts that began April 5 and continues on until April 21.

Live Arts Fest was created and curated by San Diego Dance Theater artistic director Jean Isaacs and the newly formed White Box Collective, a group of local emerging choreographers including Blythe Barton, Anne Gehman, Kerry Greenwood, Maria Juan, Zaquia Mahler Salinas and Minaqua McPherson. So far, the first annual Live Arts Fest is living up to its promise offering all types of live art including dance, puppetry, theater, music, light installations and more.

Check out the Web site to see what event appeals to you. In the meantime here are a couple of events to consider this week:

Righteous Exploits by Margaret Noble and Justin Hudnall is the 100-year-long true story of a family rising out of and returning to poverty over the course of three generations. Dust Bowl-era activist heroine Helen Hosmer fought against the exploitation of agrarian workers in the face of persecution by McCarthy’s FBI, but her own family’s dissolution undermined the very ideals she championed. Told through a combination of live audio/visual multimedia and performance art, Margaret Noble pulls audiences through a time warp of cultural mishaps that reveal just how dirty the good fight can get when morality competes with survival, and civic duty undermines family.

LGBT community favorite Michael Mizerany and friends will premiere a brand new work, At Long Last…Love! as well as his award-winning solo Tin Soldier (“heart breaking and beautiful,” Kris Eitland, San Diego Story) and audience favorite Tethered. In addition the evening features performances by Stephanie Harvey, Andrew Holmes and Bradley R. Lundberg.

The Door is Open: An Intergenerational Dance Project by Kira Corser is a joy-filled 30-minute documentary that covers a year of working collaboratively with Jean Isaacs’ San Diego Dance Theater with a tango performance by Jim and Jo-Ellen Larue. For the last four years, Jo-Ellen and Jim have been studying Argentine Tango under the tutelage of Colette Hebert. Jim, now 80 years old, and his wife, Jo-Ellen, will perform a “Milonga,” a playful and fast-beat dance which preceded the better known Argentine Tango. They will dance Francisco Canaro’s Milonga Brava.

sandiegodancetheater.org/whitebox

Margaret Noble

White Box at Liberty Station is San Diego’s freshest performance space and it has truly come alive with thirteen evenings of live arts that began April 5 and continues on until April 21.

Live Arts Fest was created and curated by San Diego Dance Theater artistic director Jean Isaacs and the newly formed White Box Collective, a group of local emerging choreographers including Blythe Barton, Anne Gehman, Kerry Greenwood, Maria Juan, Zaquia Mahler Salinas and Minaqua McPherson. So far, the first annual Live Arts Fest is living up to its promise offering all types of live art including dance, puppetry, theater, music, light installations and more.

Check out the Web site to see what event appeals to you. In the meantime here are a couple of events to consider this week:

Justin Hudnall

Righteous Exploits by Margaret Noble and Justin Hudnall is the 100-year-long true story of a family rising out of and returning to poverty over the course of three generations. Dust Bowl-era activist heroine Helen Hosmer fought against the exploitation of agrarian workers in the face of persecution by McCarthy’s FBI, but her own family’s dissolution undermined the very ideals she championed. Told through a combination of live audio/visual multimedia and performance art, Margaret Noble pulls audiences through a time warp of cultural mishaps that reveal just how dirty the good fight can get when morality competes with survival, and civic duty undermines family.

LGBT community favorite Michael Mizerany and friends will premiere a brand new work, At Long Last…Love! as well as his award-winning solo Tin Soldier (“heart breaking and beautiful,” Kris Eitland, San Diego Story) and audience favorite Tethered. In addition the evening features performances by Stephanie Harvey, Andrew Holmes and Bradley R. Lundberg.

The Door is Open: An Intergenerational Dance Project by Kira Corser is a joy-filled 30-minute documentary that covers a year of working collaboratively with Jean Isaacs’ San Diego Dance Theater with a tango performance by Jim and Jo-Ellen Larue. For the last four years, Jo-Ellen and Jim have been studying Argentine Tango under the tutelage of Colette Hebert. Jim, now 80 years old, and his wife, Jo-Ellen, will perform a “Milonga,” a playful and fast-beat dance which preceded the better known Argentine Tango. They will dance Francisco Canaro’s Milonga Brava.

sandiegodancetheater.org/whitebox

Kevin Greeland

Local artist and teacher Kevin Greeland has been working on a large project for quite some time. I know this because he has periodically asked me to make some test prints of a self-portrait painted with a tea bag. Yes, a tea bag. The first attempts were a bit muddy, but the final three “drawings” were just right. The portraits are nice and simple, but not necessarily true. The bearded faces are considerably more severe than the real Kevin Greeland who is a genial guy and ever smiling. But the tea bag effect is pleasing; it’s a brush stroke somewhere between bold and watery.

These large portraits (along with many smaller leaflet-size replications) are just one element of Fragments from the Garden, Greeland’s intricate installation that fills the Art Department Galley and class space on Ray Street. Like many of you I have done Ray Street a number of times through the years and I’ve enjoyed several exhibitions of student work at the Art Department, one of the larger and more permanent spaces on the narrow lane in the heart of North Park. Never before, however, have I experienced an exhibition that has made me experience the space with a fresh set of eyes. This one did.

There are two reasons for this. First, Greeland somehow got permission to paint over the generic off-white walls with a royal shade of purple. This bold gesture is striking. It makes the expansive room cozy, it draws you in and it primes viewers for an intimate experience of Greeland’s Garden world.

Fragments from the Garden

The second reason why the Art Department space came alive for me on the opening night of the show was because of an unexpected performance taking place inside the large storefront window right next to the entrance. Music filled the exhibition space but the two women taking part in the performance remained silent except for their shuffling and moving and other improvisational gestures. I arrived just as shoes were being moved and thrown, assembled and reassembled on the gallery floor. It was weird and grabbed my lazy attention as soon as I entered. Performance art does that. It sneaks up on you in improbable places. Whether you like it (or understand it) or not, it is always arresting and so was this.

From there you enter Greeland’s unearthed garden of delights.

Fragments from the Garden closes with Ray at Night April 13 (6-10 p.m.) and I urge you to stop by. The performers will be back, as well as the music and the purple walls will still be there. So too will Greeland, possible wearing a bow tie. He’ll have a twinkle in his eye and will happily explain his process in his rhythmic Southern lilt. But don’t rush in and out. This is a small exhibition with many details and set pieces all of which are worth savoring. Greeland has imagined, excavated and presented an array of interesting fragments, from small gophers popping out of sand to a pile of small skulls to an intricate shrine dedicated to the face and fluids of a number of handsome men.

I’ll leave you on that note because I am sure it captured your attention. I hope to see you there.

Kelly Revak and Cesar Chavez

It’s rare that an art event in the LGBT community is the toast of the town but that was clearly the case last Friday night at the opening night reception of the Queer Artist’s Project exhibition at the Lambda Archives (SDLA).

“It’s the most exciting art event I’ve been to in a long time,” Julie Warren told me when I bumped into her upon my arrival. “It’s great to see all this lesbian and gay art in one place.” Warren was standing dead center of the bright, light art space just inside the archive office’s entrance. Over by the door a portrait of Harvey Milk represented Warren’s own contribution to the show. She was there to join in the celebration with her longtime partner, recently retired state Sen. Christine Kehoe. Kehoe’s professional belongings were recently donated to SDLA for preservation and future display.

Inside the exhibition

It was dark when I arrived and the charming courtyard that runs the length of the building behind Diversionary Theatre was bustling with activity. Arty types were milling and chatting, votive candles were glowing beneath the palms and at the far end of the walkway a large projection performance of some kind seemed to be in progress.

Inside, archive volunteer and Queer Artist’s Project curator Cesar Chavez and Lambda Archive archivist Kelly Revak were standing off from the crowd surveying the turnout. I asked them how the night had turned out and they were both clearly delighted. This event was SDLA gallery’s second opening. “The support is amazing,” Revak said. “Plus it’s great to see art historians and history buffs and LGBT students and people from the community all together in one space.” Chavez agreed, reminding me that this small exhibition was just the start of their work with the Queer Artist’s Project. “The collection will evolve,” he told me “and local artists are welcome to contribute to it. They just have to contact us.”

San Diego Lambda Archives was founded in 1987 and they have kept busy collecting, preserving and making local LGBT documents, art and ephemera available to scholars and other interested parties from then on. This has happened at Pride every summer and then in their cramped space on the second floor of the building where they are now. But after many years of planning and dreaming the non-profit moved to a larger more suitable ground floor space in 2012.

Sami Peterson

Frank Nobletti, who served as Archive’s board president during those years was part of the journey. I asked him what the move has meant. “Oh it was so long in the planning and quite a struggle. But we made it. The biggest difference now is for the volunteers. They can come and organize the material without being on top of one another. Now there is a comfortable space to work in.” Nobletti noted that he knew the archive would need to grow because of the aging LGBT population and the flood of material that would come. Looking pleased with our city’s forward planning Nobletti continued, “Representatives from other archives have come to visit and they envy our space.”

Sami Peterson was continuing her performance piece in the courtyard as I was leaving. An audience had accumulated up an outside staircase close to a podium where the performance artist stood before a large screen that projected video of the audience looking back at itself. It was interesting and then frightening when I got close enough to have a massive version of my own face up on the screen.

On my way out I chatted to a volunteer for the event. Zeke Medine told me that he was one of Frank Nobletti’s students. He was taking a class in sexuality at SDSU and Professor Nobletti had offered extra credit to those students who signed up to volunteer. Medine was happy for the extra credit but also delighted to be at the event because he is straight and wanted an opportunity to experience local gay culture.

He did not go to bars and clubs or hang out in Hillcrest so this was a first impression of our community. He had many questions. The San Diego Lambda Archives is clearly an ideal forum for him and others to find many different answers.

Lambda Archives of San Diego (LASD) is a wonderful nonprofit tucked away behind Diversionary Theatre in University Heights. Their mission is to collect, preserve and teach the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the San Diego and Northern Baja California region.

"The Last Ram" by Tim Grummon

San Diego is fortunate to have an organization so dedicated to safeguarding local LGBT history that could easily slip into the mists of time, one memory at a time. The community is lucky to have them and LASD is lucky to have (i.e. has worked hard to acquire) an amazing new space that has climate-controlled storage areas, a lending library, digitized material and an art gallery.

That gallery will be jam-packed Friday night for the opening reception of its second exhibition: Queer Artists Project. The Archive’s Queer Artists Project has been resurrected by Cesar Chavez, an art history major at the University of San Diego who has been volunteering at the Archives since fall 2012. Chavez is also the curator of this new exhibition.

The idea for the project originally came from former Lambda Archives’ president, Bruce Kamerling, whose work will be on display for the inaugural exhibition. Susan Richards began volunteering for the Archives before Kamerling died in 1995, and officially founded the project under her stead more than 10 years ago.

“We are excited for this first exhibit by the Queer Artists Project to celebrate our local LGBT art culture,” said Kelly Revak, lead archivist at Lambda Archives. “The works displayed are diverse examples of the historical artwork housed at Lambda Archives as well as outside pieces representing the continued and vibrant arts scene in San Diego. It is encouraging to see Bruce Kamerling and Susan Richards’ goal of maintaining a record of the life and work of artists within the local LGBT community continued. The work of artists is an important part of our community’s history; one that Lambda Archives is dedicated to preserving and celebrating.”

Highlights from the community pieces exhibited include work by Carl Schmidt, Vickie Leon, John Keasler, and Julie Warren. I am flattered and honored to also have a piece of work included in the show. Artwork in the show that comes from the archive includes work by Robert Miles Parker, Bruce Kamerling, Muriel Fisher and Lisa Kanemoto, as well as many others who will be identified on opening night.

“These people were very serious about what they were doing in their community. They were the forbearers to what we have now. They were activists in the very beginning, putting themselves out there, and I think it’s important for us to recognize and acknowledge that,” said Cesar Chavez, Lambda Archives volunteer and curator of the Queer Artists Project exhibit.

I am so happy to be part of this event. I am looking forward to the show, and I hope I will see you there. The reception will last from 7-9 p.m. with light refreshments and a live performance art piece by local artist Sami Peterson. Entry is free. If you miss this exciting event then you have until June 15 to catch the show.

lambdaarchives.us

Cine Gay: Sleepless Knights (Spain/Germany, 82 min., 2012, Spanish w/ English subtitles)

The San Diego Latino Film Festival begins this weekend. As it has for the past seven years it will be continuing its mission to help correct the often distorted images seen on television and in the movies by revealing LGBT lives through international film in the 8th outing of their Cine Gay Showcase.

Challenging the historical exclusion of underrepresented communities in the media, the festival takes advantage of the opportunity of this showcase to highlight experiences of gay life in different corners of the world underlying the universal experience as well as the unique expressions of the Latino LGBT community.

The festival runs for ten days (March 7-17) with Cine Gay Showcase fare scheduled throughout. Several feature films will be screened and there will be a program of shorts on the closing weekend.

Cine Gay: Todo mundo tiene a alguien menos yo (Mexico, 90 min., 2012, Spanish w/ English subtitles)

The films being presented this year hail from Cuba, Spain, Chile and the U.S. and English subtitles will accompany most (but check in advance) movies. Themes addressed in the diverse assortment of films offered this year are your usual run of the mill storylines; situations that I am sure most of us can identify with: transsexual divas, love triangles, porn ambitions, political unrest and sheepherding in rural Mexico.

It all sounds fabulous to me and a welcome relief from the same old Hollywood chic flix and action heroes. Viva Cine Gay!

sdlatinofilm.com/

Torrey Pines Retreat by Dick Greene

What do Gary Dyak, Dick Greene and Robert Treat have in common? A lot as it happens! They are all gay; they are all artists and each is included in the prestigious Cannon Gallery of Art Biennial. In fact they are among 72 artists whose work was selected from more than 1,200 images submitted this year.

All three artists are very engaged in the local LGBT arts scene. Dick Greene in particular is well-known for facilitating AIDS Art Alive some years ago. I was fortunate to have him participate in my own museum project last summer. At the time he spoke of a new project involving drawing on large close-up photographs of cracked concrete and sidewalks. Lo and behold these are the images represented in the show and they look wonderful.

In 14 years, the Cannon Art Gallery Juried Exhibitions have become recognized as one of San Diego County’s most significant showcases for both emerging and mid-career artists who live, work or have a studio in San Diego County.

Rainy Sunrise at Nippon Shrine by Dick Greene

Jurors represent Southern California’s most prestigious art institutions and the exhibitions are lively, sumptuous and elegant. This year’s jurors for the Biennial were Scott Canty, director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and Chantel Paul, assistant curator of the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) in Balboa Park, San Diego.

Sage Brush Valley by Dick Greene

The exhibitions will be up until March 9.

American Schoolgirl

Rob Lucas is a local artist, photographer and entrepreneur. He is the owner and creative force behind Modern Aperture, a local photo agency that has been churning out some pretty fab glam rock photos of late. Color, emotion and a soupçon of kick-ass attitude seem to be part of the Lucas calling card.

Like many artists, especially those whose work is more commercially oriented Lucas devotes some of his time tending to personal projects. Artists are often born observes, their creative work serving a role trying to explain or intervene in some of our more disturbing social ills. That is quite clearly the case with American Schoolgirl a brand new series of images that Lucas will be exhibiting at Discovery, an evening of visual and performing arts being organized by San Diego RAW Artists.

American Schoolgirl is a set of eleven images that will be showcased during a 4-hour event at Block No.16 Union and Spirits, 344 7th Ave. in San Diego. These brand new photographs are under lock and key until opening night but lucky LGBT readers get a sneak peak at one of them here in this column. It looks like American Schoolgirl is going to pack a punch!

If you haven’t heard of them yet, RAW: Natural Born Artists is an independent arts organization designed for and run by artists. It’s a community spanning more than 60 cities in the U.S. and Australia that is driven by a mission to provide emerging, independent artists with the tools, resources and exposure that newer artists need to keep pushing forward. Based on their Web site it looks like they are unstoppable!

Many of you will have seen Lucas’ photos in print and online. But you won’t get the chance to see his prints up close and in person that often. Here is an excellent chance to do so. I hope you can make it!

rawartists.org/modernaperture

Poster design: Manny Pantoja

I often comment that there is not enough bold and vibrant gay art in San Diego to cover in this column on a weekly basis. I appreciate that there are annual events like the Art of Pride and smaller shows in a variety of local businesses from month to month. But it would be nice to have a regular supply of experimental, radical and engaging art that is for, by and about the broad diversity of queer life.

If you agree and you are an artist then you might want to consider putting a project idea together and applying to participate in one of two interesting events that have application/registration deadlines coming up.

The Creative Catalyst Fund program (CCF) is a grant for local artists organized by The San Diego Foundation. It was launched last year and it aims to support up to ten community-oriented projects that are artist driven, affiliating each artist with one of up to 25 participating non-profit agencies.

The non-profits involved range in focus from writing and photography to dance and music; they range in size from smaller agencies to the Museum of Contemporary Arts. The CCF program was a great success in 2012 and the funds available are considerable ($10,000-$20,000).

So if you are a painter or a choreographer or a poet at any stage in your career get busy and put a letter of intent together by the 26th of this month.

Have you ever heard of or attended the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? It is perhaps the most famous annual event that is all about the small and the experimental in the visual and the performing arts. It has become so established that nowadays significant arts acts and events are launched there.

Taking a leaf from the Edinburgh playbook some local arts movers and shakers have organized the inaugural San Diego International Fringe Festival. It will happen in early July in a mile radius in downtown San Diego and it looks like it will be a great opportunity for a whole lot of local artists to do whatever they want.

This is not an application-based event. Rather, it is a registration process so it seems to me anything and everything can participate and get some publicity. There are some up front administrative costs but at the same time if you have a show or performance that you would like to put together, you can charge what you like at the door and keep the profit. Whatever the case it is a great opportunity to get some visibility for what you do.

Check out both Web sites and see if your great gay art idea can find a home at either one of these local events. If so please make sure to let me know so that I can shine a spotlight on you by writing all about it!

sdfoundation.org/GrantsScholarships/ForNonprofits/

sdfringe.org/

Mel Ramos

What could be better than a cookie? Not much, right? Well, to my lesbian friends and my more outrageous gay brothers I offer you this:

The Palm Springs Fine Art Fair begins next week and it aims to enchant fairgoers on its Valentine’s opening night preview with an art installation inspired by the work of Pop Art pioneer Mel Ramos.

According to the show’s organizers regional artist Lisa Provenza-Bebar (in conjunction with Cathedral City based Share Kitchen) has envisioned Cookie, Be My Valentine as part sculpture, part performance and 100 percent edible. The installation features a six foot diameter vanilla sugar cookie on an easel, emblazoned with a replica of Ramos’ 2012 porcelain painting Cookie, rendered in edible icing upon a layer of smooth fondant. A live model in a seductive frosting costume – reminiscent of Ramos’ prototypical pinup painting subjects – will ascend a ladder nine feet to break off cookie pieces to serve and delight passersby.

How’s that for a cookie!

Leisa Austin, owner of Imago Galleries, who represents Ramos’ work, comments, “What better way to celebrate the feast of St. Valentine than for an art-hungry crowd to devour a life-size rendition of a work titled Cookie by famed Pop icon Mel Ramos – recreated in a medium none other than cookie dough? I can’t think of a more unique fashion to kick-off an art fair. But then again, Palm Springs is a special place.”

Rick Friedman, president of the Hamptons Expo Group, the fair’s owner, playfully muses on this unparalleled art fair experience, “We’re making history, combining the clever sexual innuendos of Ramos’ work with Valentine’s Day opening excitement for a truly interactive audience experience.”

The installation punctuates an entire slate of visual treats gracing the Valentine’s Day opening preview party, including a featured exhibition of work by Ramos, an installation by artist Shana Mabari, and a life-like 1950s café installation by artist Rachel Lee Hovnanian in which waitresses serve up mud pies and chit chat with guests. The first 500 attendees will receive a rose in recognition of the holiday date.

So, why not take your honey on a romantic road trip out to the desert this Valentine’s Day and look at and then nibble on some art. What could be sweeter?

Enjoy free day passes for the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair courtesy of San Diego LGBT Weekly

http://lgbtweekly.com/?p=33700

Strange Beauty, World #7, 2005

Around about this time every year the major museums in town begin to wind down their larger exhibitions in preparation for a mid-season replacement or an even bigger banner summer show. One such exhibition that is soon departing is Strange Beauty at the Museum of Photographic Arts. It will be coming down Feb. 3 so you only have this weekend to check it out. And I encourage you to!

Strange Beauty brings together three bodies of work by the Dutch image maker Ruud van Empel. I have been aware of this artist’s vivid work for several years. I am a fan of color, so the lush photographs that make up the title series have always caught my eye. The photographs of a hyper-bright Eden-like environment incorporate children, often black children with stoic, large-eyed gazes. The nicely laid out exhibition incorporates a set of videos in which van Empel discusses his work so I was surprised to learn that all his work is assembled in Photoshop. Not just a few adjustments, but each and every image is assembled in pieces like a jigsaw puzzle.

This technique of image manipulation becomes clear when you are face to face with the large prints. They are impressive. So too are the images in van Empel’s other two sets of work, both earlier work and more subtle. A particularly charming set of manipulated photographs involves a number of small keepsakes belonging to his mother assembled in a simple tableaux.

Strange Beauty, Souvenir #2, 2008

I had hoped to cover van Empel in more detail, including an interview, but the crush of holiday events prevented this from happening. If it had of gone forward my first question for the artist would have been a personal one: “Are you gay?”

It doesn’t really matter one way or the other because the images are great regardless. Yet the work demonstrates such a bright, camp sensibility that it makes me wonder.

You should check the images out for yourself before this Strange Beauty disappears!

You might have noticed that artists and writers are beginning to look back and reflect upon the 1980s and that era that has come to be known as the “AIDS crisis”? I am thinking about Just Kids by Patti Smith, a memoir that chronicles her early years in New York and her pivotal friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe. I am also thinking about a couple of films that came out last year: How to Survive a Plague and United in Anger: A History of ACT UP.

We are now two plus decades on from that generation-destroying/defining time and those artists who are still around seem ready to reflect upon their experience from a vantage point less steeped in urgency and heightened emotion. Back then the art being produced was big and loud and angry; it was designed to grab attention – for good reason. Back then the books being written were biographies and memoirs written by men such as Paul Monette, men in their thirties, lives cut short.

The work being produced now is calmer and more clear-eyed. It seems driven by a desire to historicize the era accurately and to acknowledge those swept up in the upheaval.

Survivors, a small exhibition of photographic portraits on display at the San Diego Pride Gallery does just that. The exhibition is a collection of portraits of San Diegans who were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS early on and who are still living here in the community. The exhibition aims to remind us that HIV/AIDS is still relevant but it does so by profiling a diverse set of individuals who were swept up from the start.

On view until the end of January.

If you are an artist who would like to exhibit your work at the Pride Gallery contact John at jcksdca@gmail.com

Arts

BY ANDREW PRINTER

Call Me Kuchu

I am certain most of you know about the wonderful Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) in Balboa Park. Not every city has a space designed to collect and present the finest examples of photographic art, spanning the history of photography from the 19th century to the present day. San Diego does and it is an inspiring place to spend a couple of hours!

Few may realize, however, that MOPA also houses a film theater or that the museum is perhaps one of the few in town with a social justice component to its mandate.

That key component of MOPA’s mission comes to the fore with the Human Rights Watch Film Festival taking place at MOPA Jan. 24-28. The five day program will showcase films aimed at exposing injustices all over the world. This year’s program includes a film about Iraqi women basketball players and another about journalism on the increasingly treacherous Mexican beat. The festival opens, however, with Call Me Kuchu, a somber yet life-affirming documentary highlighting Uganda’s ongoing fight for LGBT rights.

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival is the foremost showcase for films with a distinctive human rights theme and creates a forum for courageous individuals on both sides of the lens to empower audiences with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a difference. I had the opportunity to view an advance copy of Call Me Kuchu and this point is made clear in the life, work and fate of one of the film’s central protagonist’s Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato.

Kato’s death in 2011 was widely reported around the world. It came amidst calls by some in the Ugandan government to penalize homosexuality with the death penalty, a step that put the African country in the spotlight. Call Me Kuchu documents Kato and his fellow activists’ brave, clear-eyed focus following them as they push back against the increasingly hostile discrimination and celebrate their lives in full.

Decades on from our own gay revolution Call Me Kuchu is a sober reminder of what it was to stand up for ones rights even as a majority of your fellow citizens are calling for your death.

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival opening night screening includes a pre-screening reception and a discussion following the film.

It’s no secret to me but you might be surprised to know how many artists live and work in obscurity and with a great deal of financial insecurity. Throughout history many individuals who are driven to make art do so not as a hobby but rather as an obsessive need to solve an essential, existential or aesthetic riddle.

Artists are observers, thinkers, makers and they do this important culture-making work on behalf of us all. Like actors and athletes most artists won’t rise to the top. Most won’t strike it rich. Most won’t get famous. In some cases the artist might not event exhibit their work, in fact they might even recoil at the very idea. They will sculpt or paint, take pictures or make things with a great deal of satisfaction and for the sake of whatever audience they might find during their lifetime.

With this in mind I want to shine a spotlight on two very worthy enterprises that you might consider during this year.

San Diego LGBT Weekly does not serve the San Francisco community but I am confident many of us have close connections with that city. Therefore, you might consider supporting Visual Aid or telling an artist friend who lives in the Bay Area who is dealing with an illness and struggling to make ends meet about Visual Aid’s programs.

All too often, when an artist becomes ill, he or she has a tough time physically, emotionally and financially and creative production is neglected. Visual Aid provides free art supplies, grants, career resources and community to artists who are in need and dealing with financial hardship. With up to 150,000 visitors a year, cutting edge exhibitions at Visual Aid Gallery and community venues the goal of Visual Aid is to stimulate dialogue about illness and art and sustain a creative legacy.

The second enterprise I want to spotlight speaks to legacy directly. It is the Queer Artist Project at our very own Lambda Archives. The project was initiated by Susan Richards and Bruce Kanerling back in the 1990s.

It has been dormant for a while but it is being revitalized by the nonprofit and spearheaded by archive volunteer and art history student Cesar Chavez. I stopped by the Archive’s the other day and was impressed by their amazing new space (right behind Diversionary Theatre). There is a mini-museum, a reference library and of course masses of historical materiel on tape, paper and in digital form.

San Diego is lucky to have such an impressive repository of its LGBTQ history. You should check it out if you are interested in our local gay heritage and perhaps think about supporting them by becoming a member.

In particular though I’d like to suggest that if you are an artist who identifies as LGBT or queer or if you have been holding on to the work of a local gay artist who has passed away then please contact the Lambda Archives and look into having that important evidence of our cultural footprint preserved for the sake of future generations.

Oiseau de Paradis (Bird of Paradise) 14

I find The LGBT Center to be one of the more enigmatic organizations in our community. I pass it all the time and am impressed by how large and handsome the building is but I rarely go inside. Even though I can’t think of any reason why The Center exists for me I presume it is a place of importance for others. Yet, once in a while I will slip into the lobby with a handful of fliers hoping to get permission to put one on their bulletin board. I always leave without an answer, hoping for the best. Frankly, I am afraid of The Center. It feels ominous. I feel scrutinized by the front desk volunteers as though I don’t have a legitimate reason to be there. I try to hurry out quickly just in case someone with authority sees me.

This is clearly my issue (although I find I am not alone). But it is a nice segue into this week’s column because I recently learned that an art group going by the name of 50 and Better Together meets at The Center every Wednesday from 1:30-4:30 p.m. I was thrilled to know that individual threads of creativity are able to flourish in this place that strikes me as off-putting and impenetrable! 50 and Better Together is a free group for senior artists, it is not a class but rather a place where participants share their knowledge about their medium of choice, give support and learn from each other.

If you would like to learn more about this artist’s group then circle Aug. 25 in your calendar. Saturday, from 3-5 p.m., 50 and Better Together presents Ageless Artists a group show where you can enjoy wine and light snacks, meet the artists, see their work and maybe even win a masterpiece of your own! Admission is free, but you must be 21+.

Margaret Noble

Goodness, it’s almost too hot to talk about art, write about art or read about art. But art happens anyway; so here’s a potpourri of things to consider for the coming week, sorted into the categories of gay, gayer and gayest.

Gay: I think we can all agree that City Heights is home to quite a few LGBT folks. After all, the Azalea Park neighborhood association won best float for a million Pride parades in a row, once upon a time. Therefore, if City Heights is where you call home then you might be interested in a show that just went up at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s downtown location. The exhibition is called Margaret Noble: 44th and Landis. It is a psycho-geographical sound installation by sound artist Margaret Noble that charts a path through City Heights, where the artist grew up. The show combines visual traces of the neighborhood’s early Victorian years and motifs drawn from 1980s urban pop culture all in the form of an ephemeral sculptural environment comprising hundreds of cut paper forms. Sounds fab to me!

Gayer: TwainFest 2012 will be happening Saturday, Aug. 18. TwainFest is a free, one-day festival that celebrates the writing of Mark Twain and his contemporaries. Musicians will perform popular tunes from the mid-19th century and professional actors taking on the roles of Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville and gay icon Walt Whitman will perform scenes throughout the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park – on the grassy central plaza and in the historic buildings of the park. Everyone from the age of 4 to 94 can participate in a variety of unique “hands-on” games such as Overland Express Office (write a letter that will be picked up by horse and rider and receive a written reply in less than an hour!) or Frog Launch which of course means to propel a bean-bag frog with a wooden catapult.

At its heart, TwainFest is about the allure of literature and reading as a source of insight, empathy and joy and a project of Write Out Loud, a unique theater company in San Diego that performs literature aloud, all year, throughout the county.

Gayest: Leather Pride is looking for items for their upcoming silent auction. The goal of the auction is to garner some exposure for local artists and raise money for Leather Pride’s general fund. Over the years Leather Pride has supported individuals and organizations ranging from Being Alive and the Tom of Finland Foundation to the Stonewall Citizens Patrol and Special Delivery. Leather Pride takes place the weekend of Aug. 24-26. Contact info@ROMPSD.com for more details about drop off.

Diary of a Victorian Dandy: 17:00 hours by Yinka Shonibare, MBE

I first came across the work of Yinka Shonibare, MBE when I was at grad school. My photography was all about staging naked guys in regular houses in Normal Heights in order to comment on the historical trajectory of the LGBT community. I looked around to see who else was doing anything similarly staged. One Google click led to another and Shonibare’s images entered my orbit: No nudity I am afraid, but eye-catching and provocative nonetheless. I use Shonibare’s photographs to this day in my Intro to Photography classes to disrupt commonplace and often incorrect ideas about race, identity and history.

As you may know, I have been visiting the San Diego Museum of Art on a weekly basis these past two months. Midway through July I was delighted to find a tiny gallery right next to my quilt project transformed into a video installation by Shonibare, titled Imagined as the Truth. It is up until Sept. 23.

The power and whimsy inherent in Yinka Shonibare’s work from the past two decades are as nuanced as the complex topics he investigates, namely those of colonialism and its lasting impacts. An argument with a professor at Goldsmiths College in the 1980s forced the artist to defend whether or not he should be making “authentic” African art, and the experience encouraged him to continue investigating the very notion of historical authenticity. This investigation has taken the form of videos, paintings, photographs and, most notably, sculptures. Shonibare’s hybridized works are, in a way, a reflection of the artist’s own identity as a British-born, Nigerian artist but, more than anything, they focus on the important practice of investigating and subsequently revisioning history. The works make several references to actual events and historical figures, at once displaying the artist’s own knowledge of art and cultural history, and pointing out art’s complicity in constructing specific historical narratives.

This installation of works by Shonibare offers a striking counterpoint to the museum’s temporary exhibition of 15th century tapestries, The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries, on view in the lower galleries. The latter features stunning textiles that served as legitimations of colonial ambitions during the Age of Discovery. Contrasting Shonibare’s works with the Pastrana tapestries allows the museum to use art as the means to instigate dialogue about the legacy of colonialism and the importance of historical investigation.