The show runs from Saturday, December 12, 2009 to Sunday, January 24, 2010, at Art Produce Gallery in North Park.
Opening reception is Saturday, December 12, 2009, from 6 to 9pm.
In this show, constructed like a natural history museum exhibition, Guieu is at the same time the designer, the curator and the artist. And through it, she recalls her formative adolescent years spent in the Sahara with her father and with her family, finding fossils and sleeping under the stars.
The show is a two-room installation, comprised of a series of drawings scattered within a mural and a large cloud of text, period photos from the Sahara, family artifacts, and selected short videos.
Michele Guieu is a San Diego Art Prize 2009 nominee. The show was made possible by collaboration between Patricia Frischer from the San Diego Visual Art Networks (SDVAN), and Lynn Susholtz, director of the Art Produce Gallery .
In 2009 Art Produce Gallery has been honored with an Orchid award in the category of Public Art by the San Diego Architectural Foundation.
Michele describes ?Lucy, Darwin and Me? as very autobiographical . She says, ?I was raised in a family where I always heard about evolution, species and continental drift. It is a natural part of my life. I find it interesting that the country where I live today is profoundly divided about the notion of evolution.
?I started to really consider working specifically for a space with the mural for the San Diego Art Prize show at Noel Baza Fine Art last February. I continued on the same path at the SDAI with my solo show ?C?est la Vie?, in June 2009.
?For this show I worked with the specifics of both rooms in the gallery. I use the long wall in the first room for the mural. In the second room, smaller and more intimate, I show the photos of my father and family in Africa circa 1975 and a series of artifacts found in the desert or belonging to my father.?
About the opening festivities, Michele Guieu says: "I believe in bringing energies together, and for that reason, I was very interested in including the music I was listening to and the tales and stories I read when I was a teenager, living in Senegal. I want to share some of this very rich culture by inviting other artists to participate in the event.
"I am thrilled that Leslie Ryan and Deborah Forster accepted the proposition to organize a panel discussion on the occasion of the show. It brings a scientific perspective on evolution to the show and offers the occasion to reflect together on a subject which touches our everyday life.
The gallery events happening around this show are the result of a desire to make the community participate and to open the dialogue. Art Produce is definitely community oriented and this important goal suits very well what I am looking for with my work.
Michele adds: ?I am interested in making ephemeral elements, like murals in a gallery. It makes the work less sacred. In this show I wanted to mix different techniques (photo, video, drawing, painting), to create a museum-like ambiance. The first room is inviting from the outside; the second room is more intimate.?
GALLERY EVENTS, December 12, 2009:
2:00pm -3:00pm -- Marian Williams tells African tales for children.
Noon- 4:00pm --Art Produce is hosting a fair trade market of African art and imports to benefit Women?s Empowerment STAR Center.
7:00-8:00pm -- Alfusainey Suso plays the traditional West African kora.
GALLERY EVENT, January 9, 2010:
6:30-8:00pm. - A casual conversation with the artist, Michele Guieu.
GALLERY EVENT, January 16, 2010:
6:30-8:00pm - Panel Discussion, "Darwin's Weeds ? with Leslie Ryan, landscape architect, AEREA, a San Diego landscape architecture firm, and Deborah Forster, Dept. of Cognitive Science, UC San Diego.
ALL THE EVENTS ARE FREE--
Bio of Michele Guieu:
http://www.micheleguieu.com
Originally from Marseille, France, Michele Guieu lives and makes art in San Diego. Her many travels, years living in Senegal, a father geologist and a mother biologist, and a continued interest in world and political events, has only been matched by her insatiable curiosity and unbridled passion for art. It has made for a body of work un-characteristically pure, filtered, and highly astute in its ability to transform a visual vocabulary into essential language that reflects our personal and collective hardships and joys. Michele worked as a graphic designer with the political group Grapus and obtained a Masters Degree in Visual Communication from the ENSAD in Paris.
She has exhibited in numerous venues, including the Museum of the California Center for the Arts, Noel Baza Fine Art, William D. Cannon Art Gallery (Biennial), Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA 4), Cabrillo Gallery (Cabrillo College, Aptos), OT Gallery (Tustin), J. Wayne Stark Collection (Texas A&M), Galerie Deprez-Bellorget (Paris).
Michele Guieu is a San Diego Art Prize 2009 nominee.
Art Produce Gallery
3139 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92104
phone (619) 584 4448
Michele Guieu
contact(at)micheleguieu.com
phone (858) 490 0568
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