Upcoming Exhibitions

Joseph Clayes III Gallery

Sylvia Fernández: Habitando, I Don't Belong Here, We Belong Everywhere 

On view October 17, 2026–January 9, 2027 

Opening Reception: Friday, October 16, 5:30 PM–7:30 PM

Artist Talk: Friday, October 16, 5:30 p.m. 

Please join us for an artist talk with Sylvia Fernández at 5:30pm. An opening reception will take place after the artist talk. 

In Habitando, I Don’t Belong Here, We Belong Everywhere artist Sylvia Fernández (b. 1978, Lima, Peru) navigates the complexity of finding home everywhere and nowhere at once. Using Spanglish as a structural tool, and the flowing nature of water and air as frameworks for thinking about transformation, migration, and belonging, Fernández materializes the feeling of moving between places while searching for a sense of home. 

For this exhibition of new work, Fernández expands beyond personal experiences into collective awareness. Central to this shift are the Archivo de Sentires (Archive of Feelings), assembled from seven questions posed to women of different ages living around the globe, and the Archivo de Sombras (Archive of Shadows), a collection of photographs of each woman’s sun-cast shadow. The responses gathered in Archivo de Sentires have been translated into paintings, with a palette that draws on every color named in the archive. The shadows from the Archivo de Sombras appear as silhouettes, at times merging with the artist’s own body, marking presence and absence. 

Fernández’s adopted home of San Diego is linked by the Pacific Ocean to Lima, where she was born. San Diego’s dry terrain, waterways, shifting light, and native flora and fauna enter the paintings as fragments, reimagined into new landscapes. Birds following the Pacific Flyway, from Alaska to Patagonia, appear as symbols, moving and belonging everywhere.  

The exhibition design further reflects Fernández’s interest in fluidity of place and identity. Two-sided paintings hover and swirl in the gallery, inviting viewers to navigate works as they become portals for transformation and expansion.  

Catherine and Robert Palmer Gallery

Apertura

On view October 24, 2026–January 2, 2027

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 24, 5–8 PM

Athenaeum Art Center, 1955 Julian Avenue, San Diego, CA 92113

Organized by San Diego Poet Laureate Paola Capó-García and Artist Victor De La Fuente

APERTURA is a collection of 14 video works produced by a group of multi-generational San Diego/Tijuana-based artists. This exhibition is the culmination of a four-day workshop led in May of 2026 by San Diego Poet Laureate Paola Capó-García and artist Víctor De La Fuente. Eight participants came together as writers to reinterpret their lines through the lens as short films. To round out the exhibition, six other local artists were invited to contribute their own interpretations of poems via video. APERTURA, which means opening, calls for a more expansive way of experiencing poetry. We invite you to dwell in the intersection of poetics and film and to celebrate the different ways poetry can converge with visual art to tell the story of a city.

Participating Artists:

DG Cunanan

Zeinabu irene Davis & Marc Arthur Chery

Cassandra Dhillon

Elyse Farwell

Marinthia Gutiérrez Velazco

Susan Hill

Lev Kalman

Dharma-Julia Leon Valdez

Jason Magabo Perez

Savannah Meraz

Alison O’Daniel

Teem Osborn

Sarita Tánori 

Michael Trigilio