Tag: museums

Emojis, memes and emotion in Oceanside.

Much of social media is geared toward eliciting an emotional response. Much of art serves the same purpose. An exhibition of art in Oceanside fuses the simple emojis and memes of social media with framed artistic creation.

Neon Afterlife is the title of the exhibition. It can be freely viewed in the Oceanside Museum of Art’s annex gallery inside The Seabird Ocean Resort & Spa, a short walk from the beach and Oceanside Pier.

Pieces by Southern California artists Magz Yang, Jon Savage and Evyn Hewett utilize the “language” of Gen Z and today’s digital pop culture–an increasingly illiterate culture saturated with adrenaline fueled gaming and provocative short videos.

These works of art, like many of the images on one’s phone, might arrest shortened attention spans. They produce an emotional response by using simplistic symbols and bright colors. It’s as if the small screens people endlessly scroll have been splashed onto the gallery walls.

I do love the creativity. And I smiled when I noticed fun is made of the pretentiousness of much social media.

Does an emoji or meme suffice for life’s complexity?

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Rotary Club of Coronado celebrates 100 years.

The Coronado Historical Association museum has a new exhibit. It celebrates the Rotary Club of Coronado’s 100 year anniversary in 2026.

With historical photographs and artifacts, A Century of Service: 100 Years of the Rotary Club of Coronado covers the history of the club, from its founding in 1926 by 21 members to the present day. More importantly, it details how club members have improved the local community, and have worked to help people all around the world.

I was stunned to learn about the sheer amount of charitable work these Rotarians have done!

The Rotary Club of Coronado has worked to train community members in emergency preparedness. During COVID they created a Neighbor to Neighbor program to help keep people informed and connected. They support the Coronado Hospital Foundation. They offer scholarships, mentorship and leadership opportunities to local youth. They support the Rotary Youth Exchange, Model United Nations, Music Scholarship Competitions, Speech Contests, Athlete Awards and more!

Helping people around the world, the Rotary Club of Coronado fundraises to eradicate polio. They support grants for organizations like Tanzania Hospital and Orphanage, Project Mercy Baja, and the Pan American Institute school in Tijuana, Mexico. They support Limbs of Freedom which provide prosthetics in Mexico. They also support Thousand Smiles, providing cleft lip and other care in Mexico, too.

So much good work!

Go check out the exhibit and prepare to be impressed!

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Unique printmaking art exhibit in Oceanside!

The subject matter for art is infinite, and sometimes it seems like the different paths for creating art are beyond count. That is certainly the case in a current exhibition at the Oceanside Museum of Art. Matrix multiplied: hybrid approaches to printmaking demonstrates that amazing art can be produced by utilizing multiple printmaking techniques.

Eighteen artists are featured in the exhibition. Many of their pieces incorporate different techniques, ranging from traditional handmade printing methods to digital technology. They are truly unique!

No particular theme is depicted among the pieces. You’ll see abstracts, portraits, landscapes . . . art books, hangings, sculptures . . . all produced in ways you might not have imagined. The exhibition is a celebration of artistic skill and creativity!

Go check it out through August 2, 2026!

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Exhibit celebrates Irving Gill’s architecture in Oceanside.

The Oceanside Museum of Art occupies a building that was designed by renowned architect Irving J. Gill. They soon will be expanding into an adjacent building also designed by Gill. So it’s appropriate museum visitors can now enjoy an exhibition titled Modern Simplicity: The Architecture of Irving J. Gill in Oceanside.

Irving Gill is a name you might recognize. His architectural work can be found all around San Diego. He’s considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. Twelve of his buildings throughout Southern California are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (In nearly thirteen years of blogging, I’ve photographed much of his work. To find those past blog posts, click here.)

As the exhibition webpage explains: The City of Oceanside is home to several notable examples of Gill’s later work, including two landmark buildings that define the east-west axis of the Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) campus: the former 1934 City Hall and the original [1929] Fire Station #1 and police station.

In Oceanside he also designed the Americanization School (1931), the Nevada Street Kindergarten (1931), the Blade Tribune building (1936), and several others. The exhibition documents his buildings with fascinating information and historical drawings and photographs.

The exhibition explains how Irving was inspired by Southern California’s climate and stripped architecture of unnecessary ornament and focused on pure geometric form.

People might not realize it, but many buildings and houses around San Diego were greatly influenced by the vision of one man: Irving J. Gill. In Oceanside–and now at the museum exhibition–that inspired vision comes to life.

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Oceanside Museum of Art expansion sneak peek!

This Sunday, March 1, 2026, the public will have a rare opportunity at the Oceanside Museum of Art. During a free Open House, between noon and 4 pm, the public will enjoy a sneak peek at the museum’s planned expansion into historic Fire Station Number One!

Here’s the event webpage with details.

There will also be art workshops, refreshments, and a presentation concerning architect Irving Gill, who designed the 1929/1930 fire station (also called Oceanside Engine House and Police Station), and the original 1934 City Hall and Library buildings.

(One of the museum’s current exhibitions concerns Irving Gill’s many contributions to architecture in Oceanside. I’ll be blogging about that soon.)

Today I was shown a model of the museum with its future expansion. The model, located near the museum’s front counter, is in my first and last photograph. One can see how the Oceanside’s old fire station and police station, adjacent to the existing museum, will become a substantial addition!

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Farm to Craft exhibit opens at the Mingei.

A surprising new exhibit opened yesterday at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. Farm to Craft: Grains in Global Folk Art is now on display in the museum’s first floor Entry Level, where admission is free to all visitors.

The beautiful handmade crafts from around the world are a treat for the eyes. These artistic works come from farms–from grown material like straw, rice, wheat or corn.

Crafts include dolls and toys. Some of the creations are made to be worn. Others were designed to be useful farming tools or containers. Excessive plant material that might otherwise be discarded is made useful!

I took a few photographs.

These exquisite crafts from the museum’s collection will be on view through January 10, 2027.

Perhaps, after viewing the exhibit, you’ll be inspired to fold your own corn husk creation–such as those roses made by street performers. Here’s a short video on how to craft a simple, easy corn husk flower!

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Free resident days at Gaslamp Museum!

Today was the very first free resident day at the Gaslamp Museum!

On the second Thursday of each month, San Diego residents, active military and seniors now receive free admission to the museum. The Gaslamp Museum is located at 410 Island Avenue in the historic Davis-Horton House.

I last visited the house nine years ago and took some interior photos with an inferior camera. To see those dark photographs, click here. You can also read more about the museum and the house’s rich history.

Today I took a few more inside photos. Visitors can see various rooms as they might have appeared in the 19th century.

If you love history–in particular the history of early San Diego–you should visit yourself!

Perhaps take a peek inside on free residents day!

Amelia Earhart at San Diego Air & Space Museum.

Amelia Earhart was an aviation pioneer best known for her disappearance over the South Pacific while trying to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. But some might not know that she became a popular American hero by setting numerous flight records.

Visitors to the San Diego Air & Space Museum will find several displays that recall how she accomplished historic world’s firsts, including the first female solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, the first female solo flight across the United States, and the first solo flight from Hawaii to the United States mainland.

Her portrait can be found in the museum’s Hall of Fame Hallway. Amelia was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1967. This Hall of Fame webpage describes her many successes, including setting multiple speed records.

Visitors can listen to an animatronic Amelia Earhart talking about her life, and view a reproduction of a Lockheed Vega 5B, the type of aircraft she flew while setting many world records. The airplane in the museum was created for the Hollywood film Amelia.

There are also artifacts that show how she was a celebrity in her time, a leader in the fight for women’s rights, promoter of commercial aviation, and a founder of the Ninety-Nines, an International Organization of Women Pilots.

The San Diego Air & Space Museum is a must visit for everybody. It’s crammed full of cool exhibits, representing the dawn of flight right up to present-day space exploration.

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Double Bill art exhibition in La Jolla!

Lovers of art in San Diego are in for a treat. Head down to the Wisteria Cottage Gallery in La Jolla and you can admire the work of two celebrated local artists who taught at UC San Diego.

Double Bill: The Art of Manny Farber and Patricia Patterson contains numerous fine works by this husband and wife team who made their home in Leucadia.

Paintings large and small, beautiful sketches, historical photographs, and books the pair published are all on display.

Both artists liked to create images of simple, familiar things. Family life and home are frequent subjects. The images are friendly and warm. If I could reach into two dimensions, I’d happily take the depicted scenes and objects into my hands and make them my own.

You’ll notice when you visit the gallery that Patricia often paints people and moments in life. Manny often creates collage-like images of ordinary objects. To viewers who love living, they can all make a powerful connection.

Here’s the exhibition webpage.

Double Bill: The Art of Manny Farber and Patricia Patterson will be open free to the public through February 1, 2026.

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3D printing rocks as art in La Jolla!

A rather unusual exhibition of art can now be viewed in La Jolla at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. Yes, those shelves in the above photo are full of 3D printed “rocks!”

They’re actually a kind of lightweight plastic material, but they do resemble black volcanic rocks. Visitors to the Athenaeum’s Joseph Clayes III Gallery can watch a rock being printed and handle a specimen and consider the deeper meaning of Nolan Oswald Dennis: Demonstrations (i).

As the exhibition webpage explains, this collection of art, selected by The Athenaeum and INSITE from many entries, is informed by the study of geological and planetary systems—and situated within African and diasporic relations to the land, cosmos, and anti-colonial political structures.

A further description in the gallery includes: This artwork explores the political and spiritual history of the land in South Africa as a proxy for an after-history of the planet as a discontinuous but interrelated whole, imagining that we can use the digital shadow of a simulated rock (the thing without itself) to hold the immaterial social, spiritual and political relations which are also part of the geo-physics of the planet.

I’m afraid I’m not terribly sophisticated, so those explanations are a little beyond me. It struck me the exhibition is about something that is universal: the enormous complexity of essence and connection. That’s probably too simple.

Visit this very unique exhibition, turn over a simulated rock, and arrive at your own particular conclusion!

Nolan Oswald Dennis: Demonstrations (i) can be experienced through January 17, 2026.

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