By Justin Duyao
February 25, 2023
This month, the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego (ICA San Diego) announced a new event series called C You Saturday! Beginning on March 18 from 4pm to 8pm, C You Saturday! is intended to offer something for everyone, bringing together contemporary art exhibitions, performances, family-friendly activities, artist conversations, music, and more to provide an opportunity for the San Diego art community to come together and spend time around art.
“There’s a gap between contemporary art and individuals in our community,” said ICA San Diego Curator Jordan Karney Chaim. “C You Saturday! consolidates ICA’s mission to be a more community-focused art space. Instead of offering a series of events over the course of a month between our two locations, we wanted to create a recurring, dependable event that would enable all kinds of people to gather at the same time. Our hope is that this will help knit our community together.”
As an organization, ICA San Diego seeks to bring together contemporary art, education, and community by presenting exhibitions and programs for everyone. At the heart of this goal is accessibility.
“That’s why we’re always free and open to the public,” said Chaim. “We want to encourage people to make art a part of their daily life. By having a regular event, we’re offering something people can put on their calendars and come to depend on.”
While C You Saturday! introduces an opportunity for casual and professional art lovers alike to come together, meet new people and enjoy some of the most exciting contemporary art being produced in the area, the event is also intended to be a family event. The organization’s hope is for C You Saturday! to give kids an opportunity to grow up going to art museums, so they feel they are safe places for them to continue to explore once they’re older.
“This is an incredible way to bring creative thinking and activities for the whole family together through fun and innovative programs,” said ICA San Diego Executive Director Andrew Utt.
In the coming months, visitors can expect to enjoy programming based on ICA San Diego’s collaboration with Art of Elan, a pioneering, San Diego-based classical music organization.
“That partnership is one of many exciting collaborations and projects that will be featured in upcoming C You Saturday! events,” said Chaim. “Throughout our 2022-2023 season, each of ICA’s artists in residence is working closely with Art of Elan to develop musical experiences that are inspired by themes in the artists’ work.”
About the ICA San Diego
ICA San Diego is a platform for experimental art and learning with a mission to question everything. Founded in 2021 from the merger of the San Diego Art Institute and Lux Art Institute, the ICA is built on over 100 years of combined experience. Our programming is cutting edge yet accessible; daring and thoughtful; challenging and inviting. Our exhibitions, installations, commissions, classes, and workshops reflect ICA San Diego’s commitment to engage the issues of the moment and provide a space for the community to come together and consider the world in which we live. We welcome everyone to gather, learn, question, and experience the new. ICA San Diego is always free and open to the public. ICA San Diego / Central is located at 1439 El Prado in Balboa Park, and ICA San Diego / North is located at 1550 S. El Camino Real in Encinitas.
Find additional information about upcoming ICA San Diego exhibitions below:
ICA San Diego / North
Regional Artist, Narsiso Martínez, Rethinking Essential (March 4, 2023 – June 4, 2023)
- Narsiso Martinez, Rethinking Essential, opens March 4, 2023 at ICA San Diego / North. Martínez (b. 1977, Oaxaca, lives and works in Long Beach) creates drawings, paintings, and multi-media installations that celebrate the vital and often invisible labor performed by farmworkers in the United States. This exhibition is a collaboration between the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), and the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego (ICA San Diego). This presentation has been made possible through the generous support of the California Arts Council, Buttgenbach Foundation, and Charlie James Gallery. More information and press release here.
Artist-in-Residence, Edra Soto, Graft (March 4, 2023 – August 6, 2023)
- For her exhibition, Graft at ICA San Diego, artist Edra Soto (b. 1971, Puerto Rico; lives and works in Chicago, IL) continues to create the site-specific installations that have defined this project since 2012. Using a range of materials from aluminum and PVC, to concrete and wood, Soto generates a sculptural language to express her experience navigating the Puerto Rican diaspora. At ICA San Diego, Soto will reconfigure a series of works, altering colors, surface textures, and the photographic components to create a new installation. Prompted by ICA San Diego’s season-long investigation of consumption in all forms, Soto’s San Diego presentation considers her Grafts as alternative cultural symbols for Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican identity both on the island and in the tourist trade. More information and press release here.
ICA San Diego / Central
The De La Torre Brothers, Post-Columbian Futurism (March 18 – August 20, 2023)
- In Post-Columbian Futurism, one of their largest and most ambitious projects to date, brothers Jamex and Einar De La Torre (b. 1960 & 1963, Guadalajara; live and work in San Diego/Baja California) transform ICA San Diego’s Central campus into the site of an epic battle for the future of humankind. Through a fusion of Mexican, American, and Indigenous cultural iconographies, the De La Torre brothers engage with our seasonal theme, Limitless Growth, Limited World, by relaying a cautionary tale about the dangers of overconsumption in all its forms. Post-Columbian Futurism includes newly commissioned work, and will fill over 6,000 square feet of exhibition space. More information and press release here.
