If there ever was a season for a cornucopia overflowing with artistic bounty, it’s autumn. And this season in San Diego, the visual arts landscape is definitely brimming with offerings from art organizations big and small. Here are 10 of the most anticipated shows opening in San Diego this fall.
Space 4 Art: “The Giving Tree”
Jill Dawsey, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, has a brief curatorial residency at Space 4 Art this fall, where she has gathered the works of 14 artists from the San Diego-Tijuana region. The works “celebrate the intelligence and generosity of trees, while exploring themes of reciprocity, regeneration, interconnectedness and environmental vulnerability.” Space 4 Art Executive Director Jennifer de Poyen said: “When we asked Jill to be part of this year’s gallery residency at Art Produce, we asked her to give free rein to her imagination. The result is a deeply personal and conceptually rich show from one of our most exciting curators.” Through Sept. 26, with a closing reception and talk on Sept. 26 from noon to 3 p.m. Space 4 Art at Art Produce Gallery, 3139 University Ave., San Diego. Free. sdspace4art.org
Oceanside Museum of Art: “Rupinder Kaloti: The Gathering”
In artist Rupinder Kaloti’s view of immigrant life, everything is vivid and large — and that’s by design. “This vibrant, large-scale exhibition reimagines the immigrant experience through a lens of joy, intention and spiritual inheritance,” organizers say. “Rather than focusing on immigrant struggle, ‘The Gathering’ portrays what emerges after — an expansive, vivid world shaped by resilience, ritual and ancestral connection.” The San Jose artist’s “work is rooted in the esoteric belief that souls choose their families, and she depicts this choice as an act of cosmic intention throughout the series.” Kaloti uses hand-cut wood panels instead of canvas, making her paintings look like architectural details or altars. Her color palette is vivid, inspired by colors from saris and phulkaris. Kaloti was previously seen at OMA as part of the 2024 juried exhibition, “More Disruption: Representational Art in Flux.” Sept. 26 to Feb. 28. Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. $15 adult; $10 seniors 65 and up; free for members, youth 17 and under, college students with I.D., and active military and dependents with I.D. 760-435-3720. oma-online.org
18th annual La Jolla Art & Wine Festival
The La Jolla Art & Wine Festival, now in its 18th year, returns to the streets of La Jolla Oct. 10 and 11. The two-day festival will showcase art, food, drinks and entertainment along Girard Avenue between Prospect Street and Torrey Pines Road. More than 170 artists from the United States and Mexico are expected to participate in the juried festival, featuring everything from painting and sculpture to photography and glasswork. Oct. 10 and 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Along Girard Avenue in La Jolla. Admission is free, but tickets are necessary for the beer and wine garden. ljawf.com
Mingei International Museum: “Painted Prayers: The Japanese Folk Art Tradition of Ema”
This fall, the Mingei will present the first extensive ema exhibition by a museum in the United States. Ema are small, wooden house-shaped plaques offered as prayers in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. They often depict images of deities, animals or objects. “For centuries,” the museum says, “worshippers have inscribed these ema with impassioned prayers and hung them up on wooden stands outside shrine and temple halls, hoping that the gods will read them and grant their wishes before the end of the year, when the plaques are ritually burned.” Oct. 17 to April 4. Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego. Free to $15 (various discounts available). 619-239-0003, mingei.org
Quint Gallery: Sasha Koozel Reibstein
Boston-born mixed-media artist Sasha Koozel Reibstein now calls San Diego home, and this fall, her work can be seen at Quint Gallery. Reibstein’s work has been featured in more than 80 national and international exhibitions all over the world, from Germany to Denmark, Hungary to China. Locally, her work’s been at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Mingei International Museum and the San Diego International Airport. In her own words, Reibstein says of her work: “My practice is fundamentally rooted in an embrace of the unknown and reflection on transformation, using alchemic forms and surfaces to emphasize the shared materiality of our bodies, the earth and cosmos. These works shape-shift, oscillating between abstraction, flora, fauna and mineral. This has the effect of compressing time, with elements frozen in mid-transformation.” Oct. 17 to Nov. 25, with an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 17. Quint Gallery, 7222 Girard Ave., La Jolla. Free. 858-454-3409. quintgallery.com
San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery: “A-dress: Power and Belief”
In a new exhibit that opens Oct. 5, Mexican American artist Irma Sofia Poeter reexamines the dress, away from the traditional concept of being a garment and instead “considers the dress as a sculptural language, a second skin where personal and collective narratives meet.” The exhibit “frames the dress as a site where personal expression meets structures of power. Through both artisanal and industrial fabrics, the works demonstrate how garments can both enforce and resist norms, how they signal belonging or mark exclusion. And in doing so, the exhibition considers belief, spiritual, cultural and political as something worn into the world. Ultimately, it asks how dress becomes a quiet yet forceful way of navigating power.” Through Oct. 29, with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. Oct. 7 and an artist talk from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21. San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery, 7250 Mesa College Drive, FA-103, San Diego. Free. sdmesa.edu/about-mesa/galleries-and-attractions
Copley Library at University of San Diego: “13 Moons (Pocket Calendar)”
The galleries at USD are going to be very busy venues this fall with four exhibitions planned during the season. Perhaps the most notable is a mixed-media installation of newly acquired work by artist Marie Watt, a Portland, Ore.,-based Indigenous sculptor and printmaker. The installation, called “13 Moons (Pocket Calendar),” features “13 suspended, cloud-like sculptures made from thousands of tin jingles.” The work, the university says, “honors the Haudenosaunee calendar of 13 monthly lunar cycles and references the 13 plates on a turtle’s shell.” Watt, who holds a master’s degree in painting and printmaking from Yale University, recently completed a piece commissioned for the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Through December. Copley Library, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego. Free. sandiego.edu/galleries
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego: “Visiones Nocturnas: Queer Nightlife in Contemporary Art”
This fall, MCASD “explores the intersection of queer nightlife and contemporary art through works that explore physicality of these spaces — dance clubs, dive bars, backyards and bathhouses — as critical sites of queer collectivity, transcendence and resilience.” The exhibition’s title is based on “Visiones Nocturnas” (night visions), an expansive photographic body of work by Andres Payan Estrada, who in August was named the executive director of El Paso’s Rubin Center. In his photographic research, which spanned a decade, Payan Estrada examined queer nightlife along the U.S.-Mexico border. The exhibit has been shown from Texas to Tijuana but this fall makes its first appearance inside a museum, specifically at MCASD. Besides photographs, the exhibition will also include paintings, sculptures, videos and more by other artists, including Laura Aguilar, Vani Aguilar, Juan Arango Palacios, Amina Cruz, Martine Gutierrez, Jesús Hilario-Reyes, Xandra Ibarra, Teresa Margolles, Xelestial Moreno-Luz, Guadalupe Rosales, Joey Terrill and Isa Ybarra. Opens Sept. 19 and runs through Jan. 10. Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. $25, general; $20, San Diego and Tijuana residents; $15, students, educators and those ages 55 and over. mcasd.org
Museum of Us: “Kumeyaay Comics by the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project”
The Museum of Us has partnered with the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project for its new immersive exhibit, “Kumeyaay Comics by the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project.” Now on view, the exhibition is inspired by the graphic novels “Our Past, Present, and Future” and “Beyond Gaming.” They were written by Kumeyaay scholars and historians Ethan Banegas, Michael Connolly Miskwish, Lorraine Orosco and Stanley Rodriguez, with illustrations by John Swogger. “These comics are about setting the record straight and telling our own stories. When so much of our history has been told by people from outside of our community, vital perspectives are inevitably left out. My hope is that we can reach non-Native people and challenge the erasure of our communities and the master narrative of California’s history. The goal is truth telling, reconciliation, and healing,” said Ethan Banegas, project director of the Kumeyaay Visual Storytelling Project. Now on view. Museum of Us, 1350 El Prado, Balboa Park. $16.95 to $19.95. museumofus.org
The Studio Door: “Likhang Sining: Contemporary Voices, Timeless Roots”
Ten local Filipino artists take center stage this fall at The Studio Door in Hillcrest, where artist Xyryl Clark will be curating “Likhang Sining,” which means “creating of art” in Tagalog. “The exhibition brings contemporary perspectives to Filipino heritage through works ranging from painting to ceramics along with mixed media,” the gallery says. “At its heart are the stories that connect where the artists come from with who they are becoming.” In addition to Clark, the roster of artists includes Joshua Orozco, Missy Galang, Gracai Navarro, Jacel Bulatao, Bella Bowman, Jamie Leynes, Jonalyn San Diego, Lauren Reed and Alyssa N. Nov. 13 to Dec. 23, with an opening reception Nov. 14.The Studio Door, 3867 Fourth Ave., San Diego. Free. thestudiodoor.com
