I’ve said this before and I’ll probably say it again, San Diego is a large city with a promising but polarized art scene. On one end of the spectrum we have the large museums in La Jolla, downtown and Balboa Park. These are great places to see larger than life paintings and sculptures or impressive retrospectives of living and dead artists already inducted into the canon of “masters.”
On the other end of the spectrum we have vibrant art walks in North Park, Little Italy and Liberty Station. In addition to some cafes and restaurants and a handful of independent galleries this is where many local artists hope to sell their work so that they can pay their rent and continue to live in America’s Finest City. But San Diego-based artists know that while their fellow San Diegans are eager to stroll through charming neighborhoods, sip wine, nibble nuts and look at the art, they are less eager to buy it. Therefore, young, emerging artists often eventually flee this city for Los Angeles or New York or transition from professional artist to artist/“fill in the blank” other job. This means that small, serious galleries hoping to support the local economy and contribute to San Diego’s cultural life open and close, come and go (e.g., This week we learned that the once ground-breaking Sushi gallery and performance space has closed because of lack of local support.)
This brings me to two new spaces in town that I encourage you to put on your radar and support by attending openings and, if possible, making discerning purchases so that the gallery and the artists it represents can stick around for a while and thus maintain the cultural potential San Diego always seems to be on the brink of.
Thumbprint Gallery is called Thumbprint Gallery because it is small. I drove past it twice before spotting it in an older wood building at 2637 University Ave. in North Park. For now, they are only open for their opening events and on Saturday and Sunday, 12-3 p.m. However, they are squeezing a lot of exhibitions and activities into their small thumbprint of accessibility.
Next up is pre Comic Con Pop Apocalypse, 8 p.m. -midnight on Friday, July 1. Check it and them out at main.thumbprintgallerysd.com.
Double Break is a brand new gallery and store opened this month by two recent UCSD MFA graduates. Located on Fifth Avenue in Bankers Hill, Double Break is a clean white space ready for interesting work by artists working in various mediums. It also has a range of merchandise, particularly contemporary ’zines and art books.
Look out for their Comic Con exhibition later in July. In the meantime Double Break hosts its second reception Friday, July 1, 6-10 p.m. Gravity and Trajectory//Reading Screening presents an evening with Micki Davis and Scott Lyne, the artists behind volumes two and three of Gravity and Trajectory books.
Davis will offer a reading from her volume Ramble on the Upslope, Ramble on the Downslope and Lyne will present a film of his choice, a loose companion to his volume Stopover in a Quiet Town.
