Dear Colleagues,
Last few days of our Fine Art Faculty and Staff Exhibition.
Join us for a closing reception and gallery walk-through with faculty artists on Wednesday, March 5, 4:30 – 6:30 pm. FA-103.
Refreshments. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.
AFT 1931 is proud to co-sponsor this closing celebration for the exhibition featuring faculty and staff artworks. We recognize
the creative labor of our instructors, and we will highlight the additional work and challenges of our adjunct professors.
You can also visit during our regular gallery hours: M-Th, 12 – 5 pm. (See below for full announcement flyer and info)
Alessandra Moctezuma MFA
Gallery Director/Professor of Fine Art, Museum Studies
San Diego Mesa College
San Diego Mesa College on Instagram:
@sdmesacollege_gallery
San Diego Mesa College Gallery website.
Alessandra Moctezuma Instagram:
@almagratia
Fine Art Faculty and Staff Exhibition
Exhibit on view February 10 – March 6, 2025
Closing Reception and Gallery Walk-Through:
Wednesday, March 5, 4:30 – 6:30 pm
Art Gallery, FA 103
FREE and OPEN to the public.
Image Credit: Designed by Jenny Armer, @Mesa College Art Gallery
Can’t join for the events?
Visit us during our regular gallery hours:
Monday through Thursday, 12-5 pm.
If you have any questions contact our
Gallery Director, Alessandra Moctezuma amoctezu@sdccd.edu
For additional information, visit our San Diego Mesa College Gallery website.
or call (619) 388-2829 during business hours.
San Diego Mesa College,
Fine Arts Building, Art Gallery, FA103
7250 Mesa College Dr. SD 92111
Closest entrance is through Marlesta/Genesee
Participating Artists: Trevor Amery, Jenny Armer, Brian Benfer, Nathan Betschart, Kraig Cavanaugh, Patricio Chavez, Christopher Ferreria, Misty Hawkins, Gosia Herc, Lisa Hutton, Wendell Kling, Chris Lahti, Georgia K. Laris, Alessandra Moctezuma, Amy Paul, Jacqueline Ramirez, Robyko, Chelsea Ruwe, Juan Carlos Toth, Sandra Wascher.
Our first exhibition of 2025 showcases recent works by the talented faculty and staff of the San Diego Mesa College Fine Art department. The artwork on display highlights the creativity and dedication of instructors and staff, who find the time to pursue their studio practice. The exhibit includes an array of traditional and contemporary media, such as painting, photography, installation, sculpture, ceramics, digital art, and more. Join us for our closing reception on Wednesday, March 5, 4:30 – 6:30 pm. There will be a Gallery Walk-Through and a conversation with faculty artist. This event is co-sponsored by our union, AFT 1931.
Many members of our faculty teach studio art at institutions throughout the region; they are freeway flyers, schlepping art materials and supplies from Southwestern College to Cal State San Marcos. Our faculty filled out a questionnaire so that we could all learn a little bit more about their lives. Besides devoting themselves to teaching and mentoring students, they might spend weekends and evenings creating their own work, while some of them own arts related businesses. Though there is a romantic notion that artists spend their days in a large studio filled with light, the reality is that there are few affordable spaces in our city. Many faculty mentioned working at home, using their kitchen table, living room, or in their garage. It was also interesting to hear about their mentors and teachers and about accomplishments of former students. Here is a link to responses to our questionnaire.
Below, are some excerpts explaining faculty’s recent creative endeavors.
Kraig Cavanaugh. I’ve created works dealing with flowers and contrasting monocular vs. binocular vision. Painting is a two-dimensional endeavor to fool-the-eyes into believing the image is three-dimensional, I am making paintings that are three-dimensional but also try to look two-dimensional if one eye is closed.
Christopher Ferreria. Fusing the hyper-ornamentation of Baroque art and queer leather culture, ‘Via Crucis (In your tight embrace, I come undone)’ are figurative abstractions that embrace pain as the sophistication of pleasure. Loosely inspired by the visions and torture of holy figures in Catholic lore, the work includes aesthetic references to the transformative color and hallucinogenic imagery of stained-glass windows.
Jacqueline Ramirez
I got serious about photography when the punk music scene became popular. I spent many nights going to shows, taking pictures and becoming inspired by punk’s philosophy of individualism and rejection of traditional aesthetic norms. These photographs are among my favorites. Although I wasn’t yet technically proficient, I realized that sincere creative expression can sometimes be superior to flawless technique.
Misty Hawkins
Bloom, is part of a series exploring self-image using light and shadow to mark the face and body in a way that feels like both a mask and a reveal. There is a tension between a public persona and a private truer self. This is a way to nurture my Self and resist the outside world’s projections or assumptions about my identity.
Patricio Chavez
From the Maya Lak’ech Ala K’in, Tú Eres Mi Otro you/You Are My Other Me became popular during the Chicano Movement, it was popularized by playwright Luis Valdez. Many of the current social problems stem from the blatant disregard for others. Thinking about Mirrors and Windows in photography prompted these pieces using actual mirrors and materials that have history and meaning for me.
robyko
The Alchemy Project (TAP) is a series of nineteen action statements that serve as titles and concepts for rituals. robyko is investigating, analyzing, documenting, and archiving their process of inventing a poetic science of flesh and bone to create “alchemy.” TAP has a vast archive of irrational experiments: performances, installations, videos, photos, sculptures, paintings, and drawings.
Though faculty and staff work closely together, their individual interests vary and the artwork in the exhibition represents a gamut of topics, techniques, and approaches to materials. These are just a few examples of the exciting and complex works on view at the exhibition. Hope that you can visit.
Gallery Hours: M, T, W, TH 12 – 5 p.m. (Or by appointment.) Closed Fridays, Weekends & Holidays. For additional information, please visit: https://www.sdmesa.edu/art-gallery or call (619) 388-2829.
COLLEGE MAP: Gallery is by Student Services building.
During regular gallery hours pay for parking in Lot 1.
Fine Arts Building is located by the Marlesta/Genessee entrance to the campus.
