Fata Morgana New Works by Raul Guerrero and Yvonne Venegas

pening Reception: Sat. Aug. 26, 20066:30pm - 9:30pm

San Diego, CA August 4, 2006 -- The San Diego Visual Art'ss Network and SanDiegoArtist.com are establishing the San Diego Art Prize which will be given annually to three established and three emerging artists who have exhibited outstanding achievement in the field of Visual Arts.

Raul Guerrero, Chorizo Combo: 2004, Oil on Linen, 30's8221; x 40's8221;

The Prize recipients will receive a cash grant and an exhibition at the L Street Gallery in the Downtown Omni Hotel. Each exhibition will pair an established artist with an emerging artist. The final exhibition will run from June 2007 - September 2007 and will feature work by all recognized recipients of the SD ART PRIZE.

The first exhibition, Fata Morgana: Recent Works by Raul Guerrero and Yvonne Venegas, will open on August 26 with an opening reception from 6:30pm - 9:30pm at the L Street Gallery and will be on view through November 31, 2006. The second and third exhibition dates to be announced.

Raul Guerrero has been an important presence on the Southern California art scene-particularly in the San Diego/Tijuana region-- for more than thirty years. Making paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and videotapes, he has forged an expansive, ever-evolving vision-one that combines technical innovation with symbolic power. Although his style ranges from early conceptually based abstraction to recent narrative realism, Guerrero'ss self-described search for the poetry of life is a constant in all of this work. Traveling and reading voraciously, Guerrero continually engages the histories of culture in the United States, Latin America, and Europe, culling images and ideas for his art. Written by Toby Kamps, 1998, Assistant Curator Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

Yvonne Venegas, Layla: 2006, C Print, 20's8221; x 24's8221;

His latest body of work, Problems and Marvelous Secrets of the Indies, which has been fifteen years in the making, is a history of the American continent presented in three parts: Black Hills of Dakota, Latin America and Southern California. In describing the series, Guerrero imagines two travelers chronicling their respective journeys as they move through time and geography within the continent. The first traveler is coming from the Eastern seaboard and traveling west, encountering defining moments in the evolving history of the United States, eventually arriving in Southern California. The second traveler leaves Peru, treks thru South America, Central America, Mexico, eventually arriving in Southern California. In California, the travelors become witnesses of the hybrid culture from which they sprang, an infrastructure made up of Anglo-American, Indigenous and Latino influences. As one, they experience the strange surreal cultural phenomenon that is Southern California with its dive bars, take-out food culture, its highly industrialized consumer society and of course Hollywood, the ultimate surreal dream machine.

Yvonne Venegas approaches photography as a method of social observation and self-exploration. Inherently about class her images encapsulate the distinct social structure of Tijuana, in relation to Mexico and the USA. Venegas grew up in Tijuana, Mexico, studied in San Diego, Ca. and Mexico City before spending a year at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. In New York she assisted photographers as Dana Lixenberg, Juergen Teller and Bruce Weber. Her work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, SPIN, Details and also in Zoom and Luna Cornea, from Mexico among others. She has exhibited her work in Tijuana, Mexico City, New York, California, Madrid, Valencia and Quebec, and is currently exhibiting with the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2002 she won 1st prize in the Mexico City Photo Bienal. In 2004 the Alberta DuPont Foundation awarded her a personal grant in recognition of excellence in the area of art. She is currently studying Visual Arts / Media focus at University of California San Diego.

The SD ART PRIZE is dedicated to the idea that the visual arts are a necessary and rewarding ingredient of any world-class city and a building block of the lifestyle of its residents. Conceived to promote and encourage dialogue, reflection and social interaction about San Diego'ss artistic and cultural life, this annual award honors artistic expression. The 2006-2007 SD ART PRIZE, a cash prize, will spotlight three established San Diego artists and three emerging artists whose outstanding achievements in the field of Visual Arts merit the recognition and prize.

The L Street Fine Art Gallery is located at 628 L Street across from the Omni Hotel, Downtown

Fata Morgana New Works by Raul Guerrero and Yvonne Venegas

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Fata Morgana New Works by Raul Guerrero and Yvonne Venegas

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