Visual art
Kelly Akashi: "Formations" opens this week at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla. Akashi is a Los Angeles-based artist who works with a variety of materials like brass castings, blown glass, ropes and wax. Object motifs include onions, her own hands, branches and portals. These object and material throughlines weave harmoniously across the multi-room exhibit, which is grounded conceptually in time, memory and inheritance.
Akashi's father spent two years in forced internment as a child during World War II, in an Japanese American concentration camp in Poston, Ariz. For Akashi, visiting Poston was a crucial intersection of connecting her artistic practice with her family's history and with time. "In geological time it was yesterday, or less than a second ago. So maybe by going there, I can learn something," she said. Read more in my feature here.
Also opening at MCASD is a collection-based showcase of work by Eleanor Antim and My Barbarian on the bottom floor of the museum. 50 years ago, Solana Beach-based conceptual artist Eleanor Antin completed "100 Boots," a series of postcards depicting 100 rubber boots arranged in various San Diego locations and as they traveled to an exhibit in New York.
In 2013, the collective My Barbarian produced a series of performance-based works, including a video about the maternal influence on the artistic process. Antim herself appears in the video.
Details: Opens Sept. 21 during Free Third Thursday (10 a.m. to 8 p.m.). On view through Feb. 18, 2024. MCASD, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla. $0-$25.
More visual art
Deena Altman: "Female Rising" opens at OMA, and is a continuation of a series shown last year at Art on 30th in North Park. In a set of eight pieces, Altman considers eight stages in a woman's life, starting in toddlerhood and stretching to elderly adulthood. Her style is considered "surreal realism," basically a mixture of realistic elements (in this case, the subject — the woman) alongside surreal or conceptual elements (here, backdrops and actions). A great example: "The Lioness at Nine (Endangered)."
Details: On view Sept. 23 through Feb. 4, 2024. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, with extended hours until 8 p.m. on Friday. Oceanside Museum of Art, 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside. $0-$10.
Music, Craft, Heritage and more
A Kumeyaay New Year - Autumnal Equinox celebration will showcase some bird singing, ewaa (the traditional rounded shelters) thatching, gourd painting, acorn processing, pashook game and more.
The open-house event is held at the Kumeyaay Village, built by students in 2022 on the Cuyamaca Community College campus. It's hosted by Kumeyaay Community College, which is a program that offers a Kumeyaay tribal education taught by elders. It's affiliated with and located near Cuyamaca Community College.
Details: 5-7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22. Kumeyaay Village, Cuyamaca Community College, 900 Rancho San Diego Pkwy., El Cajon. Free.
Music and Literature
"Autumn Valentine" is a 1994 chamber opera by American composer Ricky Ian Gordon that brings the short stories and poetry of Dorothy Parker to a musical second life — stitched together by Gordon to be a unified story of a failing marriage. Bodhi Tree Concerts' chamber orchestra will perform with soprano Angelina Réaux and baritone Michael Sokol. Gordon will be on-hand for a pre-show talk beginning at 7 p.m.
Details: 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23. UC San Diego Park & Market, 1100 Market St., downtown. $30-$40.
Music
"Nishi La Tremenda: Opera Deconstructed" is a free concert-slash-experience from opera singer and vocal artist Anishka Lee-Skorepa. Lee-Skorepa will break down opera into the basics — the voice, the music and dynamic storytelling — to connect opera to our contemporary lives, particularly in the border region.
Details: 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22. First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, 298 West Arbor Dr., Hillcrest. Free (RSVP recommended).
The Adams Avenue Street Fair returns to Normal Heights with two days, seven outdoor stages and around 75 performances. Bands on Saturday include Lucy's Fur Coat, The Creepy Creeps, We The Commas, Shelbi Bennett, Ash Easton, The Mothmen. On Sunday, catch Puente, Well Well Well, Gaby Aparicio, Montalban Quintet, Sara Petit, Euphoria Brass Band and Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Orchestra — and many more.
The street will also be packed with rides, beer gardens, food and vendors. New this year is an exhibition space for the cannabis industry called "Cannabis Row," at the Adams Ave. Theater, which requires advanced purchase of a $5 ticket.
Details: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23-24. Adams Ave. between Bancroft St. and Wilson Ave., Normal Heights.
Theater
"Doubt: A Parable" is John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in a Catholic school, where a priest is accused of inappropriate actions. Among a talented cast at New Village Arts is the powerful Kym Pappas as Sister Aloysius Beauvier — also starring AJ Knox, Sherrell M. Tyler, Juliana Scheding, Li-Anne Rowswell and Kimberly King. Kristianne Kurner directs.
Details: On stage Sept. 22 through Oct. 22. Low-cost previews are Sept. 22-29. $30-$55.
Broadway's "The Book of Mormon" is in town through Sunday. It's a 2011 musical by the creators of "South Park," Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with "Frozen" songwriter Robert Lopez. It's a comedy musical, following Mormon missionaries during their time in a village in Uganda. The musical boasts nine Tony wins and one Grammy.
Details: Remaining showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown. $40+.
More weekend arts events we're covering:
The inaugural Oceanside Zine Fair will make space for the growing zine movement in Oceanside this weekend, with dozens of zinemakers, artists, musicians and vendors descending upon The Hill Street Country Club — all celebrating an accessible, enduring and analog form of art, archiving and community. I spoke with Dinah Poellnitz, cofounder and artistic director of The Hill Street Country Club, and zinemaker Brookes Reeder about the fair, the history of zines and their importance in Oceanside.
Live music picks
Friday: Miya Folick and Babebee at House of Blues Voodoo Room; Public Memory, Estrella del Sol and Hexa at Whistle Stop; Sweeping Promises and Head Cut at Casbah; Dave Koz at Humphrey's; Range Life and Phantom Planet at Soda Bar; Iya Terra, Arise Roots and more at The Sound.
Saturday: Adams Avenue Street Fair; CRSSD Fall Festival at various locations; Croce plays Croce at Humphreys; The Wonder Years at The Observatory North Park; Goth Babe and Arcy Drive at The Sound; Generationals at Quartyard; OTR and Bipolar Sunshine at Soda Bar.
Sunday: Adams Avenue Street Fair; Gayle Skidmore and Whiskey & Burlap at Casbah; Hot Moms Club, Sorry Girls and Julianna Zachariou at Soda Bar; Goth Babe and Arcy Drive (second night) at The Sound.
For more arts events, to submit your own, or to sign up for the weekly KPBS/Arts Newsletter, visit the KPBS/Arts Calendar.
