Luckily San Diegans don't have to drive all the way up to LA to experience one of the impressive Pacific Standard Time exhibitions happening at over 60 cultural insitutions throughout Southern California. If you have not read about all the excitement surrounding these exhibitions then let me shed some light. This fall the Getty Foundation launched a major initiative to document and present artwork created in Southern California between 1945 and 1980. As you know from history, this was a very dynamic time period, post-WWII, civil rights movements and the feminist revolution, all of which translated into artwork loaded with meaning and a hotbed of innovation. San Diego celebrates this era with two major exhibitions, San Diego's Craft Revolution at the Mingei International Museum and Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface.

If you are into recycling and have always wondered what to do with your old beer cans, then you are going to love the chair sculpture by Douglas Deeds in San Diego's Craft Revolution made of over 50 metal beer cans welded together, when beer cans were made of steel. This exhibition curated by Dave Hampton is loaded with beautifully crafted objects from chairs to ceramic vessels, jewelry, sculpture, doors and clothing. Featuring over 60 artists including James Hubbell, Arline Fisch, Jackson Wooley, Martha Longenecker and Kay Whitcomb you will be amazed at this outpouring of creativity that was happening in San Diego from the post-war period through the 1970s. The exhibition is on view through April 25, 2012.

On the other end of the spectrum you will find Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface on view in both of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego's locations in La Jolla and Downtown. In contrast to the Craft Revolution, this exhibit features artwork that is more minimalist and perceptual in nature focusing on a very specific genre of Light and Space art. In the 1960s and '70s a small group of artists began to use light as their medium creating light installations and sculptures that reflected and refracted light altering viewers traditional percecption of light. I was mesmerized by Doug Wheeler's light enviornment and James Turrell's Wedgework series that evoked a sense of spiritual wonder and calmness within me that you don't experience often in daily life. Don't miss the chance to see this excellent collection of Light and Space artists, on view through January 22, 2012.  

 

© James Turrell. Photo by Philipp Scholz Rittermann.