San Diegans have an opportunity to see...

San Diegans have an opportunity to see a survey exhibition of works by nearly 100 resident San Diego artists.

Many are emerging figures, such as Brent Riggs; others such as Richard Allen Morris are veterans in the community; a few, such as Kim MacConnel, have international reputations.

The theme of the show is “Art Furniture,” which may be unlike any furniture you have encountered until now. And it’s on view at anunusual site, the U.S. Grant Hotel at the C Street entrance.

Imagine a skinny stepladder that leans against a wall. Artist Thomas Driscoll calls it “Rack.” It might simply be a conversation piece. But it could also be used for hanging neckties.

Or imagine a screen door decorated with barbed wire, one of the favorite materials of artist Margaret Honda. That should discourage unwanted, and maybe even wanted, visitors.

Raul Guerrero’s “Lamp to Make Love By” is one of the more utilitarian objects on view. The artist has decorated it with all the appropriate body parts, some in conjunction, to remind the forgetful.

Other examples of useful art furniture are Bob Niedringhaus’s “Bow-Tie” cabinet, Norman Ridenour’s “Helical Table” in koa wood, David Baird’s sculptural lamps, Stuart Flaxman’s handsome “Pool Table,” and Steven Emrick’s jewelry box.

Some works would simply be handsome sculptural additions to anyone’s environment--Christopher Lee’s small mixed-media table, Roy David Rogers’ “Chair Descending a Staircase, Homage to Duchamp,” Kotaro Nakamura’s stylized table, Reesey Shaw’s encaustic “Sky Table,” David Fobes’ “Polluted Water Tables (Lamp),” Ernest Silva’s “Painter’s Table,” and Kevin Thomas Farrell’s sensational tables made of common building materials such as concrete piers and heating vents.

You may see these works in a professionally designed installation by San Diego architect Tom Grondona at the U.S. Grant Hotel daily (except Saturday and Sunday) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Nov. 21, when they will be auctioned to benefit Installation and the artists themselves. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

The Mandeville Gallery on the UC San Diego campus is exhibiting 14 works (out of a total of 64) left to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art by television producer Barry Lowen, who died last year.

It has become a major campus attraction.

“Students are coming here in droves,” gallery director Gerry McAllister said. “There’s a greater response from them than for most of our other exhibitions.”

Lowen began collecting modestly about 15 years ago with Roy Liechtenstein prints and works by Los Angeles artists but developed into a serious collector during the following years, initially with the advice of art dealer Michael Walls, who was then located on Melrose Avenue.

Lowen collected intensely and competitively, constantly refining his holdings over the years. At one time he acquired many fine photo-realist works but then recycled (or sold) them for new interests.

It is arguable that in the process he lost works of lasting beauty and interest, for example, an outstanding painting by San Francisco Bay area photo-realist Robert Bechtle.

On the other hand, the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art gained from Lowen’s practice of deacquisition. It possesses Jake Berthot’s very beautiful “Brown Horse, Silver Dragons” (currently on view), which it would not have without Lowen’s largess. Ironically, it is equal to if not stronger than most of the works now at the Mandeville Gallery. And it is here permanently as part of San Diego’s visual arts heritage.

The Barry Lowen Collection, for all its importance to the La Jolla museum, has a fashionable edge to it. More than half the artists included are represented by single works. Only four--Brice Marden, David Salle, Julian Schnabel and Joel Shapiro--have representation in some depth.

Lowen’s predilection was for selecting what he perceived as superb examples by artists receiving favorable critical attention. But viewers may question that practice and the consistency of quality in the collection. Many of the works, by the way, were not available for the exhibition at UCSD.

Nevertheless, there are works at the Mandeville Gallery whose strength and beauty sing out--Neil Jenny’s reductive but expressive painting “Friend or Foe,” Brice Marden’s small “Drawing for Sarah,” Malcolm Morley’s sybaritic “A Tropical Swimming Hole (Florida),” John Ahearn’s painted sculptural portrait “Jose” and Terry Winter’s large dark painting “Ricochet.”

What UCSD’s students may be responding to is the freshness of Lowen’s taste. It was still developing. His absence from the Los Angeles art-collecting community is deeply felt.

The exhibition continues through Dec. 14.

Hanson Galleries of La Jolla (1227 Prospect St.) is exhibiting a very rare suite of 105 hand-colored, signed etchings of Old Testament stories by Russian artist Marc Chagall, who died last year. The works, spanning a creative period of two decades, range from merely illustrative to deeply expressive works of art. It is exceptional to see them all together, an opportunity not to be missed by those interested in the works of Chagall.

The exhibition continues through Nov. 28.

The Founders’ Gallery at the University of San Diego is exhibiting “abstract-realist” figurative sculptures in terra cotta by T.J. Dixon.

Their haunting verisimilitude will appeal to the general viewer but the artist herself emphasizes their formal qualities.

The exhibition continues through Nov. 24.