February is Museum Month in San Diego, which means half-off admission at 40 museums throughout the county. Pick up a museum pass at any Macy's in San Diego county, Temecula or Imperial Valley to get the reduced price. Here's a list of the exhibits that will be on display at some of the San Diego museums during February.
San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA)––Balboa Park
• "Dreams and Diversions" displays 250 years of Japanese Woodblock Prints.
• "Howard Hodgkin: Time and Place" highlights artwork by one of Britain's renowned painters of the later 20th century.
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD)
Downtown Location:
• "Home Bodies: Selections From the Collection" includes 23 works in a variety of media that either make reference to the human body or domestic images.
• "Jennifer Steinkamp: Madame Curie" is a digital art piece based on the artist's research into atomic energy and explosion. The seven-channel projection displays moving flowers and flowering trees on three walls. Flowers rendered realistically for the work include marsh marigolds, may flower, chestnut blooms, and hop plants, among others drawn from a list of over 40 plants mentioned in Marie Curie’s biography.
Seminal video artist Joan Jonas shows a five-channel video installation in "The Shape, The Scent, The Feel of Things." The work is an artistic consideration of the Hopi snake dance, a ritual which strongly affected Jonas during visits to Arizona in the 1960s.
La Jolla Location:
Opening February 5th is "Mexico: Expected/Unexpected" presenting over 100 artworks showcasing the key figures of the Mexican contemporary art scene.
Lux Art Institute–Encinitas
• Sculptor Alison Saar is the resident artist for February. Her work is draws on African and Haitian folklore, themes of fertility, contemporary African American culture, Catholicism, mythology, and voodoo.
Museum of Man––Balboa Park
• "Strange Bones: Curiosities of the Human Skeleton" explores the complexities surrounding the human skeleton, highlighting the body's adaptable foundation.
• "Counter Cultures: The Secret Lives of Games" allows guests to become human game pieces as they learn about historical games and how they evolved into the ones played today.
• "Race: Are We So Different?" Opening Feb. 12, this is the first natural exhibit to look at race from a biological, cultural, and historical points of view. The exhibit will take a special look at the role race has played in San Diego.
Children's Museum––Downtown
• "Animal Art" What kid doesn't secretly want to be a cool animal; seriously, what adult doesn't think animals are amazing? The art on exhibit explores what humans find intriguing about the animal kingdom.
Mingei––Balboa Park
• "Between East and West" is a collection of Romanian folk art treasures.
• "Zandra Rhodes: A Lifelong Affair with Textiles" is a retrospective of the cutting edge works and textile designs of local fashion designer Zandra Rhodes. Rhodes's couture items will be juxtaposed with textiles and objects to highlight the impact of textile design on culture.
• "In Their Own Words: Classic and Contemporary Native American Art" has classic Native American art placed next to contemporary California artists such as Robert Freeman, Billy Soza Warsoldier, and Catherine Nelson-Rodriguez.
• "Streetwise: Masters of 60's Photography" features the documentary photography of such legendary artists as Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Jerry Berndt, Ruth-Marion Baruch, Garry Winogrand, and Bruce Davidson, all of whom were influenced by street photographer Robert Frank.
• "Inside Out: Selection from the Permanent Collection" places historical works alongside contemporary pieces to show the how photography has changed in the last 170 years.
• "Imagine That! Photographing an Invisible World" features the work of photographers attempting to capture unknown realms and phenomena invisible to the eye.
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center––Balboa Park
• "Earth Exposed" is full of natural disasters: erupting geysers, crumbling mountains, and big waves. With 30 exhibits guests, can go up against the power of nature.
