“The $105-million overhaul of MCASD, including the new Jacobs Hall, feels more connected to the topography. “It’s a delicate balance in capturing the art and architecture for each space,” says Bazzari of her approach. “Do I highlight the architecture and emphasize the artwork? Will the ocean views be the focal point, or how does the architecture connect with the landscape?”

Maha Bazzari

“I experience art within the space, sit with it, and then digest it.” That’s not the technical part, but it’s absolutely the starting point for Maha Bazzari, an architectural photographer who splits her time between San Diego and Palm Springs. The trained architectural designer and fine artist is an accidental photographer. She started by shooting her own work, then friends, and then global architecture firm Gensler came knocking.

Most recently, she was tapped by MCASD La Jolla to chronicle the quiet minimalism of the $105-million overhaul by Selldorf Architects. The photographer came often: mid-morning as the marine layer lifted. Golden hour. During a rainstorm. “I know every nook, in every light,” she says, perched on a concrete bench in the museum shop.

When she’s not traveling (Berlin, most recently) she frequents local architectural gems from the Salk Institute to Bell Pavilion. Her work has been featured in Dwell, WSJ Magazine and National Geographic. “Expressive images require an understanding of the artist’s concepts. And being selective.” Bazzari often collaborates with local artist Yomar Augusto, and there’s a fluency that develops between them. “To capture Yomar’s work is to follow the flow of lines and strong colors.”

“Bazzari maximized the rare stormy day to capture this dramatic image of architect Annabelle Selldorf and MCASD director Kathryn Kanjo. “With the use of strobe lighting and image bracketing I was able to uncover the rainy views, bring them to the foreground, and show the expansive lines of the architecture.”

Maha Bazzari

“Bazzari maximized the rare stormy day to capture this dramatic image of architect Annabelle Selldorf and MCASD director Kathryn Kanjo. “With the use of strobe lighting and image bracketing I was able to uncover the rainy views, bring them to the foreground, and show the expansive lines of the architecture.”

Maha Bazzari

“The size of the exhibit space dictates the photography style. For the smaller exhibitions, the art must be at the right scale to the architecture so they complement each other. For larger gallery spaces, I don’t want the art to get lost or capture too much information.” 

Maha Bazzari

“My love for the visual arts goes beyond a still image. I dabble in painting and explore different materials. This is a detail of Gravitational Attraction. I used acrylic paint, graphite, spray paint, and iron filings that were manipulated by the use of magnets to create this shape. Concept: The force of attraction is inescapable, especially the connections between people and their souls through interaction, sharing of ideas, stories, and experiences.”

Maha Bazzari

Macro-micro is a common theme throughout Bazzari’s photos, as shown with these two shots of a piece by San Diego artist Melissa Walters. Of All Things was a site-specific installation made of 2,600 paper tetrahedrons. “The amount of detail that went into this piece is mind-boggling,” Bazzari says. “I had to consider the physical space in relation to the theoretical Omniverse that contains it.”

Maha Bazzari

“I photographed this beautifully dramatic artwork for Yomar’s solo show at Point Loma Nazarene University. Although the mural was the main piece in the exhibition, the pieces came together through the narration of graphics throughout the gallery space.”

Maha Bazzari

For this mural, commissioned by San Diego Made Factory, Bazzari added scale with pedestrians and trolley tracks. “I wanted to underscore the urban setting of the East Village.”

Maha Bazzari

This abstract and colorful geometric calligraphy painting was commissioned for a residence in Mission Hills. “We wanted to highlight the colorful streaks and textures by enhancing the contrast, especially on the dark canvas.”

Maha Bazzari

This light fabrication is by Tecture in collaboration with Gensler San Diego. “I captured the curvilinear sculptural elements made from independent layers of milled extruded PVC with suspended lighting in between.”

Maha Bazzari

“This historic preservation of a mid-century modern house in San Diego [by architect Kristi Byers] is one of those projects that I photograph and admire all the work and consideration that went into it.”

Maha Bazzari

“We arrived before sunrise to make sure we captured the best light on the small chapel at Point Loma Nazarene University. It took us five hours to photograph the saturated colors, clean lines, and thoughtful materials.” The Lyle and Grace Prescott Memorial Prayer Chapel is a collaboration between architects Carrier Johnson and Tecture.

Maha Bazzari

On The Salk Institute by Louis Kahn: “I can spend all day capturing this monumental architecture with its details, observing the light moving across all the surfaces.”

Maha Bazzari

There are many approaches to shooting a door, especially this one designed and built by Tecture for a San Diego beachfront home. “It is a large pivot door with four operable windows, and a wheel operated gear system. So, we played around. Opening, closing and passing through it.”

Maha Bazzari

A symphony of concrete was required to show off the muscularity of this chair designed and fabricated by Tecture. “We connected this piece to its surroundings—the concrete chair to the concrete floor and walls. Aligning textures and materials was the goal.”

Maha Bazzari

The post Documenting the Quiet Minimalism of MCASD appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Melody Moulton runs a small shop filled with esoterica in the front of her South Park art gallery, Trash Lamb

Madeline Yang

Ones to See

The most recent mural to go up in national landmark Chicano Park pays tribute to a major cultural institution of Chicano life: the car club, and the lowriders who created rolling works of art. The five-story mural is dedicated to Brown Image, the shop in Barrio Logan where many clubs workshopped their cars. According to artist Henry Rodriguez, he funded the mural and sketched it out using photos from his family album.

The painting—which uses lowrider-art techniques like airbrushing and gold flakes—took 10 months to complete and involved over a dozen local artists, including well- known muralists Victor Ochoa and Roberto Posas. The artwork features dozens of faces Barrio locals will recognize and completely covers one of the massive pillars holding up the 5 Freeway that straddles the Chicano Park playground. Murals are a huge part of the Chicano artistic expression, but Rodriguez says few, if any, have depicted the iconic car clubs. “It’s art as education,” he says.

The binational art scene is alive and well, thanks in large part to San Ysidro’s Casa Familiar. The organization recently ran a paid apprenticeship for 17 emerging artists in the San Diego-Tijuana region, which resulted in an exhibition called New Native Narratives (Nuevas Narrativas Nativas) at The Front: Arte & Cultura. Ones to watch include Natalia Ventura, whose Arropada is almost like an embroidered veil or a map to a continuous, somewhat convoluted journey; Evan Lopez, who uses 32 ceramic letters made from Tijuana River Valley sediment in She Gives Us Water to display natural links between San Diego and Tijuana; Adrián Del Riego, whose sculpture of an antenna with plants evokes both the shared flora and radio waves of the border region; and Casiel Sanchez, a visual artist and one of San Diego Magazine’s designers.

Created during the pandemic, Melody Moulton’s Trash Lamb Gallery in South Park is a leap of faith into the realm of quirk and oddballism. She’s struck a chord and seems to be nourishing a section of San Diego’s bohemian soul. Trucker hats get a cheeky graphic update and eccentric posters pack a visual punch. But Trash Lamb isn’t just another source of radical low-brow tchotchkes. Moulton, a visual artist herself, is a talented curator with an eye for the interesting. She curates shows at the shop at least twice a month, featuring work from local and national artists.

Cornado’s Kendall Becerra won the highest award in the country for high school musical theater

Broadway San Diego

Ones to Watch

Local playwright Christian St. Croix grew up as a working-class kid and only ever expected writing to be a hobby. As a result, his plays feature brightly written, honest-job characters from Black and LGBTQ communities, set in situations where compassion and grace undergird their every move. “I like to give the working class and everyday queer joes—we exist—a sense of magic and possibility,” he says.

Hailed by American Theatre Magazine as a playwright to watch, he recently debuted plays in Seattle, and his work was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Conference. Locally, his award-winning play Monsters of the American Cinema (which debuted at the San Diego Fringe festival in 2019) will be staged in the upcoming season of the recently reopened Diversionary Theatre.

It’s no secret San Diego is a secret theater hotbed. Playwrights and actors come here to cut their teeth before venturing to NYC and nationally renown stages like La Jolla Playhouse encourage a strong crop of homegrown young actors. Every year, the Broadway San Diego Awards recognizes the top high school thespians, then sends them to the National High School Musical Theatre Awards (The Jimmys) in New York. This year, they sent Kendall Becerra from Coronado School of the Arts and Ryan Sweeney from Canyon Crest Academy. Performing on a Broadway stage, Becerra took “Best Performance”—the highest award in the country for high school musical theater.

Lizz Huerta

Courtesy of Lizz Huerta

Ones to Read

Earlier this year Lizz Huerta, a San Diego native with roots in Mexico and Puerto Rico, released her eagerly awaited YA novel, The Lost Dreamer. It’s a story of Mezo-America, female seers, and life among indigenous peoples. Huerta has been on a wide-ranging book tour where the audience is largely comprised of young Latinas.

“Representation is so important when you are trying to figure out who you are,” she says. “And there are very few models that speak to pre-[colonial] contact culture. I would have loved a book like this growing up.”

Formerly known as The Grove, The Book Catapult is giving South Park some percolating literary cred by luring notable authors for its reading series—like the aforementioned Ms. Huerta, as well as national best-selling author, L.A. Times columnist, and San Diegan Jean Guerrero.

Co-owners Jennifer Powell and Seth Marko revamped the shop and envisioned what Powell calls “a third space” where books one might not usually find come together with people to build a sense of curiosity and community.

They’re featuring a long-running mini-exhibit of graphic art, curated by Marko, the latest of which is a charming mural by local graphic artist Sara Gharemani.

Digital Gym

Ones to Experience

Movie theaters have taken a huge hit, especially indie film houses. One of the last standing in San Diego, North Park’s Media Arts Center, closed its doors during the pandemic. But the biggest arrival in downtown culture—UCSD Extension’s Park & Market—gave them a new home. Now called Digital Gym, the 58-person screening room must be heard to be appreciated. It has well-balanced surround sound, employing 5.1 Dolby, and a sensitive range that allows sounds like footfalls on grass and breathing to round out the viewing experience.

Earlier this year, it hosted a Sundance Film Festival showing. Exhibitions director Moises Esparza is actively curating the most noteworthy new films from Latin America and Europe. What was once the East County Performance Center in El Cajon is now The Magnolia—its manifestation after an extensive $8 million renovation.

The 1,200-seat venue has improved sightlines, more legroom, better seats, VIP lounge, bars, and all-new modern stage lighting and sound. Live Nation is booking, so the venue will have pull. The debut season includes modern icons (Marcus Mumford, Andrew Bird with Iron & Wine), a strong Hispanic lineup (Mexican pop star Yuridia, Cafe Tacuba), heritage rockers (Pat Benetar), TV stars (Countess Luann), comedy (Kathleen Madigan), and something called Wardruna (a dirge-laden, melodic Norse language prog folk band born out of black metal—yes, you read that correctly).

The crew from Dice Roller Radio records a podcast episode at Imperial Co-Lab in Sherman Heights.

Madeline Yang

Ones to Hear

Every American is now given a podcast at birth, but that doesn’t stop us from loving them. Like Dice Roller Radio, a fun-as-hell pod hosted by a crew of San Diego and South Bay creatives focused on street art culture—recorded at Downtown’s iconic cocktail den, El Dorado. With over 65 episodes, the show spotlights local musicians, artists, and fashion designers, and now a monthly live show called Memoirs Mondays with live performances.

They also host parties, clothing drops, and other recording events at Imperial Co-Lab in Sherman Heights, an all-in-one coffee shop-boutique-salon-taco-joint-gallery-event-and-co-working space that’s owned by the same folks as Por Vida just down the road in Barrio Logan. Recent features include pop art-inspired fashion line Makeout Club, as well as dance, hip-hop, and electronic artist RyRy.

Multi-hyphenate musician Jesus Gonzalez has an ear for the eclectic and an eye for the beautiful. For his latest project, Tour of Enchantment, he created site-specific soundscapes (looping beats, poetry, naturalist lyrics) at various locations across San Diego like Villa Montezuma, Jacumba Hot Springs, and the Fleet Science Center. Gonzalez says he wants to show people, especially locals, what he thinks are the “hidden gems” of the region. So if you’re’ at one of these spots, take a moment and listen. It’s one of the city’s more creative musicians translating your current experience into a soundtrack.

IYKYK: It’s an apt acronym for the mauve behemoth of a building now called Pink Haus. Sounding like an offbeat German hostel, it’s actually an unpretentious, underground venue that has become the codeword for local music cool. Modest music happenings grew through word-of-mouth and a bit of social media sleuthing (one has to DM them for the address). Hidden in a backyard shed, the tiny concert hall is equal parts Andy Warhol’s Factory (silver-lined walls) and college dorm (comfy couches and all-ages). Three years after curator Gonzalo Meza decided to form this little art commune, it’s furtively become the hub for a rotating roster of emerging artists and musicians. Several bands are on Pink Haus’ own record label, Egg Records. Next underground thing is September 3. Happy sleuthing.

The post San Diego’s Movers & Shakers in the Art World appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

What You’re Missing Right Now at Art San Diego

This cool painting is from Adriana Budich Contemporary Art in Buenos Aires.

I’m not sure I would call Art SD a “fair.” You walk into this beautiful space, the Balboa Park Activity Center (2145 Park Blvd.), and the atmosphere just hits you. It feels magical, inspiring, and, yes, expensive. Not like the fairs I go to. Nearly 100 local fine art galleries are there representing, as well as institutions from Tijuana, Miami, Chicago, Japan, and beyond! I suggest starting on the periphery and taking a lap, then wandering the interior as systematically as possible.

You’ll find all kinds of contemporary art to view and purchase, including some high-design furniture (“livable works of art”), jewelry from local designer Charles Koll, works by the beloved Ingrid Croce, as well as pieces from the San Diego Mesa College Art Department, and photographs of the Beatles and other music icons on display from Morrison Hotel Gallery.

This year’s theme is [ COLLIDE ], intended to highlight the collisions of different worlds—art and film, for example, or the collaboration between two nationalities.

Art SD takes place November 7-10, 2013. Click here for a schedule of art talks and special events.

Scroll down for a small sneak peek of the awesome range of art styles and genres.

What You’re Missing Right Now at Art San Diego

The central lounge was designed by NewSchool of Architecture and Design & ECOR. Watch their video here.

What You’re Missing Right Now at Art San Diego

Artist Shinichi Sugimoto’s work comes direct from Kyoto, Japan!

What You’re Missing Right Now at Art San Diego

Mowing the Lawn is a multimedia installation and performance. Artist Avery Lawrence played a video of himself dressed up and mowing a lawn, as well as drinking lemonade, and he did the exact same thing for us, live. So meta.

What You’re Missing Right Now at Art San Diego

Steven Lombardi collected broken surfboards and reused them for Last Wave.

What You’re Missing Right Now at Art San Diego

That Which We Cannot Hold, by Margaret Noble, is a series of “illuminated hanging paper sculptures which explore the fragility and futility of human interference with natural processes.” (This piece is really huge in person.)

The post What You’re Missing Right Now at Art San Diego appeared first on San Diego Magazine.