• Home
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Digital Archive
  • Contact
    • Letter to the Editor
  • Find us
Friday, December 13, 2019
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
San Diego Uptown News
  • A&E
    • Art
    • Photography
    • Film
    • Dance
    • Music
    • Books
    • Theater
  • News & Features
    • News
    • Feature
    • Politics
      • Elected Official Reports
        • Chris Ward
        • Mara Elliott
        • Summer Stephan
        • Susan Davis
        • Toni G. Atkins
    • Community Updates
      • Hillcrest Town Council update
      • SD Zoo News
  • Food & Drink
    • Uptown Food Briefs
    • Restaurant Reviews
    • Bars & Happy Hours
    • Uptown Brews
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Expert Advice
      • Sponsored links
  • Lifestyle
    • Health & Fitness
    • History
      • PastMatters
    • Homes & Garden
      • HouseCalls
    • Travel
    • Fashion
    • Parenting
    • Pets
  • Business
    • Best Of Uptown
    • Business Profiles
    • Finance
    • Real Estate
  • Neighborhoods
    • Adams Avenue
    • Balboa Park
    • Bankers Hill
    • Downtown
    • Golden Hill
    • Hillcrest
    • Kensington
    • Mission Hills
    • North Park
    • Normal Heights
    • Old Town
    • South Park
    • Talmadge
    • University Heights
  • Calendar
San Diego Uptown News
  • A&E
    • Art
    • Photography
    • Film
    • Dance
    • Music
    • Books
    • Theater
  • News & Features
    • News
    • Feature
    • Politics
      • Elected Official Reports
        • Chris Ward
        • Mara Elliott
        • Summer Stephan
        • Susan Davis
        • Toni G. Atkins
    • Community Updates
      • Hillcrest Town Council update
      • SD Zoo News
  • Food & Drink
    • Uptown Food Briefs
    • Restaurant Reviews
    • Bars & Happy Hours
    • Uptown Brews
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Expert Advice
      • Sponsored links
  • Lifestyle
    • Health & Fitness
    • History
      • PastMatters
    • Homes & Garden
      • HouseCalls
    • Travel
    • Fashion
    • Parenting
    • Pets
  • Business
    • Best Of Uptown
    • Business Profiles
    • Finance
    • Real Estate
  • Neighborhoods
    • Adams Avenue
    • Balboa Park
    • Bankers Hill
    • Downtown
    • Golden Hill
    • Hillcrest
    • Kensington
    • Mission Hills
    • North Park
    • Normal Heights
    • Old Town
    • South Park
    • Talmadge
    • University Heights
  • Calendar
No Result
View All Result
San Diego Uptown News
No Result
View All Result
Home Arts & Entertainment Art

SDAI ‘Forging Territories’ explores marginalized art

October 4, 2019
in Art, Arts & Entertainment, Featured, Top Story
0
SDAI ‘Forging Territories’ explores marginalized art
0
SHARES
22
VIEWS

By ALBERT FULCHER | Gay San Diego

Curated by Rubén Esparza, founder and director of the Queer Biennial international art fair based in Los Angeles, “Forging Territories: Queer Afro and Latinx Contemporary Art” at the San Diego Art Institute (SDAI) in Balboa Park is an unprecedented exhibit featuring 20 established contemporary artists. This exhibit, utilizing artists’ talents through painting, drawing, photography, film and performance art reflects their ideas of sense of identity, current politics, history, social justice and more. On display through Nov. 3 at SDAI, this exhibit creates dialogue of struggles faced by African American, Black and Latinx artists today.

“We’re a mainstream arts institution that serves as a launching pad for artists to reach the national and international stage, so it is essential that we open the gate to marginalized artists to allow thousands of residents and visitors to Balboa Park the opportunity to see this important talent,” said Jacqueline Silverman, executive director of SDAI.

San Diego Art Institute Director of Development Caleb Rainey said this exhibition is important on several levels as one of the first, if not the first, that brings together bodies of queer Black and Latinx contemporary art within the same exhibition.

“I think nationally we are seeing and have seen for decades Black and Latinx people bearing the brunt of a combination of racism, homophobia and transphobia,” Rainey said. “In the art world, LGBTQ white artists have been traditionally given the spotlight in a way that is unimaginable for Black and Latinx artists. They are simply not shown, even in group shows at a rate that is comparable to their time, their numbers.”

Rainey said for a major institution and a major cultural park to anchor one of its major exhibition sites with LGBTQ artists of color is significant and inviting a level of visibility, not only to its visitors and patrons, but in terms of art psychology to collectors, funders, and curators to see a body of contemporary art by this population of artists.

“This exhibition is the first major LGBTQ showing of LGBTQ art in San Diego that is not a pop up, but a major exhibition,” Rainey said. “Until now, Black and Latinx LGBTQ people in San Diego have never seen themselves on the walls of a major exhibition event. That level of invisibility in both mainstream pop culture and fine art, the kind of damage it does to be invisible is incalculable. For us to be able to bridge that massive gap in terms of authentic representation that is by and about people in the community that we are working with brings queer people in San Diego a meaningful experience and opportunity. In addition to that, it provides insight to the straight, white LGBTQ people and to many of the issues that are so important for the community as a whole.”

Rainey said from the time you enter the gallery, plan to be immersed in the perspective of Black and Latinx LGBTQ artists and the communities that they come from.

“It is a wonderful experience of really having what is so often marginalized to be completely at the center and really walk away with a better understanding about intersectionality and what that looks like,” Rainey said. “It isn’t just an LGBTQ exhibit. It is very much a Latinx exhibit and an African American/Black exhibit. Those esthetics are extremely present with issue from police brutality, faith, traditions and immigration all woven throughout the exhibition just as much as sexuality and identity.”

Rainey said as the top contemporary regional art center housed in Balboa Park and the Balboa Park audience, SDAI has a unique opportunity to basks in artists in a meaningful way that helps provide a more robust art exhibition for artists from their birth background.

“We really have an unprecedented cultural equity that ensures artists and curators and our backgrounds are proportionally represented exhibitions,” Rainey said. “In this exhibit alone and through our cultural equity platform, we were able to provide over $11,000 in quality framing to a variety of artists in our show. Artists, especially marginalized artists, can create the art but don’t have access to high quality framing and presentation. It’s a different beast all together. We are helping bridge that gap. The artists get to keep the quality framing and it increases the value of the work that the artists can charge, and they get to keep all of that. It is important that they are being equitably supported. We are really proud of that. We are hoping that communities of color and LGBTQ communities can ultimately know that SDAI can be worked on as an artistic home that is committed to people, committed to representation and committed to art and innovation in an inclusive way.”

One of the artists on display, dana washington is displaying a photographic portrait series and a video installation. She is currently a student at UC San Diego working toward her master’s in fine arts. She said she draws her inspiration from daily life.

“Everything that I create starts with me and then kind of goes outward,” washington said. “I’m kind of always questioning and confronting things that deal with identity, gender, specifically religion and overall issues with society with certain groups of people. I just try to confront those things and have a conversation about them through images.”

Around 2016, washington was contacted by Sara Trujillo-Porter, former San Diego Art Institute deputy director, and she was putting together an all-female exhibition called “About Face.” She wanted to display a video piece that washington created called “Under Bone.” She contacted washington again about “Forging Territories.” She said that she was encouraged by Esparza’s enthusiasm about the exhibition.

“I like that [the exhibition] includes different generations of artists,” washington said. “I think it is pretty equal as far as representation of races and genders and those that are nonbinary. I think it is a great conversation about loss, death, making negative images more positive. I think that conversation is necessary. A lot of the pieces in the exhibition touch on historical things which I think is interesting and amazing. There is a lot there and a lot to digest.”

For this exhibit, washington is displaying a series called “Awa” that kind of looks like oil painting, but it is photography.

— Albert Fulcher is the editor of Gay San Diego. He can be reached at albert@sdcnn.com.

Related Posts

  • SD Museum of Art opens new exhibitSD Museum of Art opens new exhibit
  • Multi-media arts program captures, shares the stories of San Diego’s Vietnamese-American communityMulti-media arts program captures, shares the stories of San Diego’s Vietnamese-American community
  • North Park lot gets splash of colorNorth Park lot gets splash of color
  • Acclaimed Uptown artists ready for ArtWalk in Little ItalyAcclaimed Uptown artists ready for ArtWalk in Little Italy
  • New library climateNew library climate
  • Blending color and contrastBlending color and contrast
SDCNN
Next Post
Local independent grocer Barons Market thrives in North Park

Local independent grocer Barons Market thrives in North Park

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow us on Instagram!

  • Today   s Uptown News  Top stories  Truax House redevelopment  Short-term rentals growing  GI Film Fest and the Mission Hills Heritage Roaring    20s Home Tour
  • Swipe for some happiness  Did you catch the story about asylum seeker Constantin Bakala being stuck in immigration detention for 21 months in our August issue  Here he is celebrating his release and being reunited with his family
  • Only a couple more days to try the  adcgelato ingredient-driven menu made in collaboration with  specialtyproduce  To find out more about the gelatos  read the latest edition of Uptown News
  • Definitely check out our recap of the Arab Film Festival which focuses on the first Yemeni film submitted to the Oscars in decades  sdarabfilmfest
  • Time to pick up your free copy  We have     Arab Film Fest recap     lifelong friends who built a double bass together    Theater review of They Promised her the Moon    The fight for a SD AIDS memorial  And more  But you   ll have to pick up your own copy to read that
  • Highlights from the  bankershill Art   Craft Beer Festival last month  Were you there          Link in bio for this story and more       Also  be on the lookout for our next issue coming out this Friday              sduptownnews  uptownsandiego  craftbeer  hyperlocalnews
  • Hey Uptowners  A brand new issue of  sd uptownnews is out     be sure to read about the  bankershill Art   Craft Beer fest  little black dresses  restaurant reviews and more             link in bio    sduptownnews  uptownsandiego  hyperlocalnews
  • Artist Carol Lindemulder  a  missionhills native     documents the beauty of the San Diego region through her keen eye and bold use of color     writes  sandiegohistorycenter CEO Bill Lawrence  Link in bio for the full story and info on where to see her exhibit                sduptownnews  sandiegohistorycenter  localartist  uptownsandiego
  • Don   t miss the latest issue of  sd uptownnews  Read about new vendors at the  hillcrestfarmersmkt  a new play about Beethoven at  sandiegorepertorytheatre  a local artist and more   Link in bio               sduptownnews  sduptown  uptownsandiego  hillcrestfarmersmarket  northparksandiego  southparksandiego  hyperlocalnews

Please follow & like us :)

Facebook
Twitter
Follow
LinkedIn
Instagram
SOCIALICON

© 2019 San Diego Uptown News All rights reserved. San Diego Community News Network (SDCNN).

Navigate our site

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact

Follow us

No Result
View All Result
  • A&E
    • Art
    • Photography
    • Music
    • Books
    • Dance
    • Film
    • Theater
  • News & Features
    • News
    • Politics
      • Elected Official Reports
    • Feature
  • Food & Drink
    • Bars & Happy Hours
    • Uptown Food Briefs
    • Suds in the city
    • Uptown Brews
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Business
    • Finance
    • Real Estate
    • Expert Advice
      • Sponsored Links
  • Lifestyle
    • Health & Fitness
    • Fashion
    • Pets
    • Travel
    • History
  • Neighborhoods
    • Adams Avenue
    • Bankers Hill
    • Balboa Park
    • Old Town
    • Kensington
    • University Heights
    • Normal Heights
    • South Park
    • Mission Hills
    • Community Updates
      • Hillcrest Town Council update
      • HouseCalls
      • SD Zoo News
  • Best Of Uptown
  • Calendar
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertising
  • Archive

© 2019 San Diego Uptown News All rights reserved. San Diego Community News Network (SDCNN).

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In