The Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, or MCASD as it is also known, has been completely renovated, and I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the museum itself, and the collection. Fran and I took a group of 30 women for a docent led visit of their current exhibit (closes January 29), Alexis Smit, The American Dream. What a wonderful day!
We had two docents, so each group got a little different perspective on the exhibit. Zack led our group. He was enthusiastic, young and very knowledgable. Alexis Smith was born in the 1940's, attended UC Irvine, and has been creating interesting art for years. Much of her work is collages, and many of the items in the collages are repurposed. Alexis scrutinizes the myth of the American Dream through themes of self invention and reinvention. She uses literary references and historical references in many of her pieces.
This was her first retrospective in 30 years. She has also done some large installations in California. One is right in our backyard. It's called Snake Path, part of the Stuart Collection at UCSD,
The permanent collection of the museum has 4700 works created after 1950, in a variety of media and genres. They collect promising emerging artists, many from California and San Diego/Tijuana region. One of the greatest strengths of the collection are minimalism and Pop Art of the 1960's and 1970's, a period I particularly like.
Be sure to include a visit to this contemporary museum on your next visit to La Jolla. It was such an enjoyable experience. We topped it off with lunch at Duke's, just a few blocks away. We had a beautiful ocean view on sunny, 70 degree day in January! What could be better? Picture shown is of Snake Path, a public installation.
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