Esoteric Survey

Mayan Hall (1968) at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, California is on the chopping block.  The planetarium (1967), along with almost every other original building on the campus are all slated to be demolished as part of the college's Facilities Master Plan . The plan has been nominated for an Onion in The San Diego Architecture Foundation's annual Orchids & Onions .    The project started in 1961 with local architect George Foster heading the design. Foster was born in National City and was the Sweetwater High School District architect. He also designed the High School I went to.  Source: Chula Vista Star News Source: Chula Vista Star News George Foster is the suit on the right. Source: Chula Vista Star News Foster designed the school in a "Modern Mayan" style to pay  homage to California's pre-European history. 1963 Site Plan. Construction of this phase was completed in 1964. Source: Chula Vista Star News Source:  2018 Facilities Master Plan The P...

  Børge Mogensen chairs and a floor lamp

Leslie Kerr in the Sixties at the Landing Leslie Kerr was a prominent figure in the California avant-garde art scene of the 50s and 60s; he had a solo show at Los Angeles’s Ferus Gallery in 1958, then moved up to San Francisco, where, between 1960 and 1966, he had five solo shows at the Dilexi Gallery; in 1962, he was included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s seminal exhibition Fifty California Artists. In 1964, Kerr moved to New York, where he had solo shows at Odyssia Gallery and Bianchini Gallery, was in a group show at Green Gallery, and was included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s annual exhibition of 1967.  Kerr built bright, sharp-edged paintings that reference the illustration art and advertising popular during his youth as a way to, in the words of curator Laura Whitcomb, “suggest that modern iconography had replaced systems of religiosity.” Kerr employed a remarkable precision in creating paintings that feature forms that are sometimes perfectly recogn...

Don Shoemaker and some other smalls. Ruth Asawa stamps Get yours here .

In addition to curating the Doyle Lane exhibition, Ricky has new work on display at David Kordansky Gallery .  Ricky Swallow transforms familiar objects and materials into bronze sculptures that challenge ordinary perceptions of space, mass, and color. This new group of works includes forms––among them several apparent readymades––that have accompanied the artist, whether literally or figuratively, for extended periods of time, fostering increased intimacy and a pointed, personally resonant surrealism. The entire piece is cast bronze. You really have to spend some time with this piece to appreciate the artistry and skill. The exhibition ends on August 29th

  Rude Osolnik Jack Boyd

I made it to see Weed Pots, an exhibition of ceramic vessels by Doyle Lane at  David Kordansky Gallery   . The exhibition was curated by artist Ricky Swallow. There are nearly 60 weed pots in a variety of glazes and forms. Below is a series of his orange-red glazes. They really shows the results of his experimentation and what a talent he was.  I was really into a couple of brown pots that have an awesome textural application. The exhibition made the New York Times.  Read it here .  One of the ones I lent to the exhibition made the print edition. It was the first one I owned and it came from Reform Gallery in 2005.  Another great orange one!