The San Diego Museum of Art’s Summer Salon series continues on Thursday Aug. 4 with another crop of artists responding to this year’s theme: What Does a City Need?
In addition to an art-making activity involving Asian art and a reading by internationally-renowned artist, curator and author Rubén Ortiz Torres there will be a performance by My Barbarian, a Los Angeles based collaborative group whose interdisciplinary projects conflate fantasy and satire to explore cross-cultural mishaps and historical misadventures.
Between 7:50 and 8:45 p.m. My Barbarian will present a version of The Broke People’s Baroque Theater, which they originally performed in New York City. The performance “evokes an excess of theatrical styles, from Baroque spectacle to camp drag, presenting the absurdities of the American financial crisis as a performance of wastefulness, trashiness and class warfare.” As with much of My Barbarian’s work, this performance will incorporate text, musical numbers and masked interactions in the context of an encounter between an imagined theater company and its audience.
Admission to the museum ranges from free to $12 depending on discounts applicable to you. Once inside you are free to enjoy all salon activities that evening. My Barbarian’s performance will take place in Gallery 18.
Lucid Dreams
You can continue your art-enjoying activities into Friday by stopping by the Noel-Baza Gallery in Little Italy late in the day on Aug. 5 for the Lucid Dreams exhibition. Curated by San Diego designer Mark Murphy this vivid survey of imagery is worth a visit. Each artist was invited to express a fluid stream of visual metaphors, abstract symbols and expressions influenced and/or void of the bombardment of worldly events. A “Narrative Artist Panel” takes place at the gallery on Aug. 5 from 7-10 p.m.
La Jolla showcases the best
Finally, the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library’s 20th Annual Juried Exhibition opens on Aug. 6 and will be on view in the Main Gallery and the Rotunda Gallery until Sept. 3. Judged by Kathryn Kanjo, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and Joseph Bellows, owner of the Joseph Bellows Gallery, this is one of the oldest and most notable events for local artists with only 20 out of 900 submissions accepted. An opening reception takes place at the Athenaeum in La Jolla on Friday, Aug. 5 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
