Show Offers Energy, Not Substance

In 1987, local artist Ruben Seja traveled to Kyoto, Japan, to paint a mural. He also visited Yokohama, one of San Diego’s sister cities, and began making contacts with the art community there. A series of exchanges ensued, the largest of which was staged this year and is now on view at the COVA Gallery in the Grove shopping center.

The “San Diego Tijuana Yokohama Art Exchange” contains works by more than 100 local artists as well as 20 others based in Tijuana. A slightly larger version of the show appeared earlier this fall in Japan, at the Yokohama Citizens’ Gallery, in celebration of the 35th anniversary of sister city status between San Diego and Yokohama. The current exhibition will travel to the Centro Cultural Tijuana in late January.

Such shows serve a worthy purpose, but they don’t necessarily make for a provocative viewing experience. A handful of works here are deeply interesting and visually rich, but the bulk of the selection feels thin, trite, clicheed--typical failings of works by artists young in their careers or who travel a less demanding circuit than that of more evolved, idea-heavy contemporary artists. Rehashes of Op Art appear here, as do clumsy versions of Expressionism, saccharine attempts at decoration and a bounty of mediocre illustration. While the show may be representative of some local art, it certainly doesn’t indicate the wealth of visions that have emerged from this area.

What the show does suggest, to its credit, is energy, a kind of grass-roots energy that no art community can live without. If the organizers and participants in the show tend to have a modest grasp of complex aesthetic and social issues, they nevertheless have unlimited commitment. This show was coordinated in just six months. More than 300 local artists applied and more than 1,800 slides were reviewed by a nine-person selection committee and independent curator. The number of unfamiliar names represented here is testament to how valuable such shows are in giving artists visibility, in this case, internationally.

Japanese supporters of the exhibition printed a well-illustrated catalogue of the Yokohama show, another bonus for those artists who have not received much recognition or validation for their work. Next fall, 150 works by 50 Japanese artists will be sent here (to a local site yet to be determined) and to the Centro Cultural Tijuana. The personal exchanges and cross-cultural dialogues that emerge from this project are really what make it important in the lives of those involved.

For those who visit the show, there are several refreshing inclusions. Jeff Irwin’s black-and-white earthenware sculpture called “Lost Woods” depicts a man’s shoulders and neck, supporting a head in the shape of a birdhouse. Images on the surface show a bird trying to enter the birdhouse, but its entry hole has been nailed shut. Elsewhere, trees have been cut, and a shovel, whose wooden handle still sprouts a twig, suggests the perverse relationship between the tools of destruction and the works of nature that are destroyed.

Han Nguyen’s photograph, “Interior,” has a remarkably animate feeling despite being a staged representation of small sculpted objects. The spare domestic interior feels charged with life and spirit. It is humble and elegant at once.

Sharon Novak’s fetish-like “Triple Goddess” makes a compelling companion (despite their separation in the installation) to Santjes Oomen’s “Warrior Woman.” Both works hark back to an earlier understanding of female integrity and strength; both make a case for that understanding to be fundamental once again.

Another provocative pair is Paul Holden’s “Black Crude” teapot, with a gas nozzle spout dripping blood, and Mario Uribe’s “Kurdish Madonna.” The controversial notion of blood for oil gets a stirring reprise in both works.

Other highlights include Stephen Curry’s luminous painting of floating acorn squash; Silvia Galindo’s lithe, lyrical drawing, “Revolutions Donkeys”; Gwendolyn Gomez’s erotic pictographic map; Gerald Bustamante’s clever cardboard collage titled “Mojave Desert Drought,” and Robert Feeley’s steel and concrete sculpture, “Water Skin.”

“Maquiladora,” Jim Wilstermann’s astute miniature environment in metal and stone, summarizes the problematic, dual nature of maquiladoras , factories located in Mexico but owned by corporations in other nations. On one side of the structure is a slick granite facade, the corporate headquarters, the public face. On the other is the corrugated tin shack, the workers’ entrance. With Japan’s substantial involvement in the maquiladora industry, Wilstermann’s work injects a sharp note of relevance to this exchange exhibition, one not pursued elsewhere in a show more diplomatic in character than dynamic.

* COVA at the Grove, California 94 at College Avenue. Through Jan. 3. 6-9 p.m. Friday, noon-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

ART NOTES

The city of San Diego’s City Stores have created a new opportunity for locals to pour their money into parking meters. But this time, they will get something (other than parking) in return--the meters themselves. Seventeen local artists, including Mario Lara, Larry Dumlao and Rosemary Boost, have been commissioned by the city to “re-create the parking meter into a symbol of fun and fancy.” The results will be on view and available for purchase at the San Diego City Store in the Mission Valley Center through Dec. 24. Proceeds from the sale will be split between the artists and the store, which channels funds into numerous city programs. A reception for the artists will be held from 7-9 p.m. Friday at the Mission Valley store. . . .

Carlsbad’s annual temporary public art exhibition has been canceled for 1993 due to budget cuts. Instead, the city will host a rotating exhibition of outdoor artworks by regional artists that will begin early next year and continue for most of the year. Artists interested in displaying their works should contact the Carlsbad Arts Office (434-2920) for an entry form. The deadline is Jan. 8.