reNEWing Hope Art Auction

Artwork Description

Handmade Jewelry Set with Bag, 2018
Cotton rope, colored dye
Necklace: 13″ neck-drop
Bracelet: 4.5″ x 4.5″ x 2.5″

Part of Tanya Aguiñiga’s art practice are “wearables,” – a fashion-forward collection of handmade accessories and apparel. This featured jewelry set is made of natural cotton rope partially dipped in colored dye. The necklace comes with a light gray tint, matching the rope bracelet that features accents of chartreuse. This one-of-a-kind set is inspired by the artist’s collection, “Dipped, Dyed and Leafed.” All wearables are designed and crafted in Aguiñiga’s studio in Los Angeles.

About Tanya Aguiñiga

Tanya Aguiñiga (b. 1978, Tijuana, Mexico) is a Los Angeles-based artist/designer who uses craft to generate dialogue and community. Her first commission at The New Children’s Museum, Texture Forest, was created for the opening exhibition, childsplay, in 2008.  Tikitiko is the result of her  2019 artist residency, during which she engaged the public in community workshops for the Mass Creativity program. Aguiñiga’s recent museum exhibitions include the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. and the Museum of Arts and Design, New York. Aguiñiga received an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design.

www.tanyaaguiniga.com
Instagram: @tanyaaguiniga

Artwork Description

I Love You More Than My Own Skin, 2018
Graphite on paper
24″ x 18” (Unframed)

I Love You More Than My Own Skin is Regan Russell’s photo-realistic drawing, in which art history meets pop culture. In his typical style of positioning celebrities in imaginary and humorous settings, Russell illustrates two iconic female artists – Frida Kahlo and Beyoncé, paying homage to each other. He imagines Kahlo painting Beyoncé in her “jungle studio,” and the potential power of having both women, with big personalities, in the same room.

This artwork is still available for purchase. For inquiries, please contact Lilli-Mari Andresen at LAndresen@thinkplaycreate.org.

About Regan Russell

Regan Russell (b. 1984, Honolulu, Hawaii) is a San Diego-based artist and illustrator whose work focuses on pop culture, identity and celebrity. As The New Children’s Museum’s current Innovators LAB artist-in-residence, he is designing art projects that explore color and visual communication during COVID-19. Russell has exhibited works in a solo show at the Little Dame Shop and in group shows, including the San Diego Central Public Library’s Art Gallery and Thumbprint Gallery in La Jolla. Russell studied Visual Art at University of California, San Diego.

www.reganrussell.com
Instagram: @reganrussell

Artwork Description

Sow the Seed, 2020
Latex paint on hand-dyed fabric and hand-set brass rivets
54″ x 24″

Sow the Seed is Wes Sam-Bruce’s response to our current shared experience of living in the unknown. For Sam-Bruce, this piece is a reminder, a spell and a mantra to patiently collaborate with the mysterious process of seeds.

“Quarantine can feel like a cage, the abyss, and/or maybe it can feel like a chrysalis, or a greenhouse. I‘ve been living into this idea and planting seeds in this strange time, both literally and metaphorically…may you make space in this liminal ground to plant seeds as a practice of presence, and as an anticipation of future fruits to harvest on the other side of all this.” – Wes Sam-Bruce

About Wes Sam-Bruce

Wes Sam-Bruce (b. 1985, Arnold, California) is an artist, educator, illustrator, photographer and poet with strong connections to San Diego. He was commissioned by The New Children’s Museum to create The Wonder Sound as part of his two-year artist residency for the Mass Creativity program in 2016. Sam-Bruce’s artwork sparks our innate wonder, leaving us exposed to the marvelous feeling of being surprised. Since opening The Wonder Sound, he has engaged children and families in museums across the U.S. by creating art workshops and site-specific installations, including The Denver Children’s Museum, MASS MOCA and Peabody Essex Museum. Sam-Bruce attended Point Loma Nazarene University and currently lives with his wife and best friend, Emi, in New York.

www.livethecuriouslife.com 
Instagram: @wes_sam_bruce

Artwork Description

Cora’s Rain House, 1995
Gouache, pen, pencil on watercolor paper
20″ x 30″ (Unframed)

Cora’s Rain House represents the original installation by Ernie Silva at The New Children’s Museum’s former warehouse facility, Children’s Museum of San Diego/Museo de los Niños in 1994. In 2008, Silva created a second installation, The Rain House, for the opening exhibition, childsplay. For Silva, it was significant that there were two Rain Houses: one in San Diego and one in Tijuana. Children could send artwork to each other across the border, like “a bird in San Diego singing beautifully to a bird in Tijuana.” Silva said birds are “animals that we see as beautiful and that seem to be totally free.” The bird “is a metaphor for the freedom that individuals have when they are creative, and they speak.”

This artwork is still available for purchase. For inquiries, please contact Lilli-Mari Andresen at LAndresen@thinkplaycreate.org.

About Ernest Silva

Ernest Silva (1948-2014) was a painter and educator who has been a part of The New Children’s Museum’s history since the early 1990s. His first commission, Cora’s Rain House, inspired by his late wife, evoked childhood memories of a rainy day spent indoors. Silva’s second version, The Rain House, was created for the Museum’s opening exhibition childsplay in 2008, and continues to welcome thousands of children and families through its child-sized, keyhole door.

Silva received his MFA from the Tyler School of Art. He was a Professor of Visual Arts at the University of San Diego, California. After Silva’s passing in 2014, his family left The Rain House to the children of the San Diego region.

In Memoriam

Artwork Description

WW, 2017
Oil on canvas36″ x 43″ x 1.75″

WW comes from a series of paintings by Eva Struble entitled Cover Crop. These works were based on images of small and educational farms around San Diego. This collection of works was a way for the artist to connect to farmlands she values, explore new environments in the city where she resides, and experiment with color and form in her studio. Struble created this body of work over previous paintings, playing with textures and forms that were like “constructive roadblocks” in making the new piece. Struble finds interest in creating paintings around an obstacle, and in making WW, used existing layers to add to a confusion of depth in the image.

About Eva Struble

Eva Struble (b. 1981, Elsmere, Kentucky) is a San Diego and New York-based artist. Her recent commission at The New Children’s Museum is an 81-foot long mural on the back of the building called Ocotillo Sunset. Struble’s exhibit of painted prints,  Emblema, was shown at the UVA’s School of Architecture in 2015, and her project,  Produce, was displayed in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in 2014. Her work has been shown at the Cleveland MOCA, the Angles Gallery in Santa Monica and the Vincent Price Art Museum in Los Angeles, and has received praise in publications, Art In America and The Village Voice. Struble received an MFA in painting from Yale University. She currently teaches Painting and Printmaking at San Diego State University.

www.evastruble.com 
Instagram: @evastruble 

Artwork Description

Ocean Beach, 2018
Oil on Canvas
72″ x 22″ x 1.5″

Ocean Beach is part of Perry Vásquez’s oil-painting series, Under the Perfect Sun, focusing on images of burning palm trees painted against empty blue skies.  For Vásquez, the palm tree is a default emblem of the California myth that has been continuously projected through film, television and advertising.  He considers them beacons of Southern California’s landscape under the impact of wildfires and climate change.

“I am compelled by the intoxicating mix of beauty and tragedy in this subject matter.” – Perry Vásquez

About Perry Vásquez

Perry Vásquez (b. 1959, Los Angeles) is an interdisciplinary artist, composer and educator. He was commissioned by The New Children’s Museum in 2009 to create Animal Aktion – an interactive gallery and video performance piece for the exhibition, Animal Art. He is well known for his interventions on the U.S./Mexico border, including his project series, Keep on Crossin’. Vásquez has exhibited works at the Athenaeum Art and Music Library in La Jolla, the San Diego International Airport, and A Ship in the Woods Music Festival. He has recently started work on a mini-rock opera called The Beatrice Suite. Vásquez received an MFA in Visual Art/Painting from the University of California, San Diego and is currently the Professor of Art at Southwestern College.

www.perryvasquez.com  
Instagram: @this_is_not_a_pope 

Artwork Description

I Know What I Saw #5, 2014
Acrylic on canvas
24″ x 36″

Matthew Bradley’s painting, I Know What I Saw #5, is part of his ongoing series inspired by unexplained aerial phenomena. Derived from photographs and video stills of urban and rural scenes with flying objects, Bradley’s work removes any clues about the authenticity of the images.

“Like eyes in the sky, UFOs seem to be looking back at us through the photos and videos that document them. Even the obvious fakes and hoaxes contain the hypnotic aura of the supernatural. We’re not quite sure what we’re looking at, but the possibilities are intoxicating. The eyes of the unexplainable are trained on us as we ponder – are we being watched or are we being watched over?” – Matthew Bradley

About Matthew Bradley

Matthew Bradley (b. 1975, Poplar Bluff, MO) utilizes various media and materials to explore notions of myth, belief and identity. As The New Children’s Museum Exhibitions Coordinator in 2009-2017, Bradley worked with over 40 artists to design and create interactive art installations. In 2017, he contributed an original painting titled, I Know What I Saw – museum display, a 20-foot-long mural in the Museum’s terrace garden. In this painting series, Bradley illustrates flying objects hovering silently above hazy landscapes. He says, “The objects in these paintings return our gaze, leaving more questions than answers.” Bradley currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is a Production Designer at Meow Wolf. His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad. Bradley received an MFA from The School of Visual Arts in New York and a BFA from the University of Arkansas.

www.matthewbradleyart.com
Instagram: @gentlemanjim75

Artwork Description

Color Dance, 2016
Mixed media on canvas
24” x 48”

Color Dance is Brisk One’s play on color and letters. Each “exploded” marking on the canvas is a different layer of Abstracted Graffiti, which captures the fluidity of a dance or the movement of wind. The bold colors are a combination of markers, acrylic brushstrokes and spray paint. Color Dance is the result of 30 years of traditional graffiti pushed into extreme abstraction.

About Brisk One

Brisk One (b. 1976, San Diego, CA) is a San Diego-based graffiti artist and designer who has been painting walls and canvases for over 30 years. Specializing in abstract graffiti letter forms, both his canvas and mural work is a combination of traditional wild-style graffiti and loose abstract paint gestures. Brisk One has contributed to several live art installations for community events at The New Children’s Museum and has displayed paintings at Studio by the Bay in Seaport Village. His work has been exhibited worldwide in art shows and festivals throughout Europe, Asia, Hawaii, North America and Canada.

www.briskone.com
Instagram: @briskone

Artwork Description

Carrot Mobile, 2019
Porcelain and upholstery nails
3.5″ x 5.5″ x 3″

Carrot Mobile is Irène de Watteville’s intricate porcelain sculpture and re-imagined toy. Often creating ceramics that are playful and humorous, de Watteville fabricated this piece that “one can rev up” as part of her table installation titled Ludicrous Food, with Beliz Iristay, at the Athenaeum Music and Art Library in 2019. De Watteville’s rabbits are a familiar persona in her artwork along with elements of food – an important aspect of her life and a nod to her French culture. Carrot Mobile is part of a limited collection of glazed porcelain sculptures with upholstery nails that act as hub caps for the wheels.

“Each one features a rabbit with a different attitude. This one might be a bit pretentious.”  – Irène de Watteville

About Irène de Watteville

Irène de Watteville (b. 1946, Colmar, France) is a French artist who currently lives and works in San Diego. Introduced to ceramics in 1978 by Erik Gronborg, de Watteville connects it to childhood memories in France where she was surrounded by European decorative arts. Her sense of aesthetics has been influenced by French decorative arts, to which she adds a discreet dose of absurdity. De Watteville has exhibited works locally and internationally and is involved in several arts organizations. She has served on the board of the Tile Heritage Foundation since 1998 and is one of the founders of the Synergy Arts Foundation. She is also an active supporter of The New Children’s Museum and has generously contributed to art installations, including tikitiko and Clay Studio. Irène de Watteville graduated from the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts where she studied printmaking and painting.

www.irenedewatteville.weebly.com

Artwork Description

1967 bread-truck: air-filter, 2013
Motor oil and brake dust on paper
Edition 3 of 67
26″ x 20″

Noé Olivas’ print series was inspired during the overhaul of a 1967 Chevrolet bread-truck. Founded in 2011, Untitled space, also known as Domingo Project, became an arts-based research, practice and project space. Olivas utilized materials such as gaskets, air filters, brake pads and motor oil to make a series of prints. The collection functioned as a form of documentation and a way to raise funds for the project. The series of 67 represents the year the bread-truck was fabricated.

About Noé Olivas

Noé Olivas (b. 1987, San Diego, CA unceded territory Kumeyaay) is an artist-gallerist-organizer and co-founder of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart. As the inaugural professor for the Social and Environmental Arts Practice at Prescott College, he is teaching a course on art and healing. In 2014, Olivas was awarded a Creative Catalyst grant by The San Diego Foundation and partnered with The New Children’s Museum to create the mobile art installation and “rolling social sculpture,” Low and Slow. Olivas received his MFA from the University of Southern California and BA in Visual Arts from the University of San Diego. He lives and works in South Central, Los Angeles, the unceded territory of the Tongva people.

www.noeolivas.com
Instagram: @calmatetupedo

Artwork Description

Guava Ottoman, 2020
Marine vinyl, wood, foam
17″ x 21″ x 21″

Artist Marisol Rendón works with the magical possibilities of everyday objects and asks us to rethink our relationships with them through fantastic, new opportunities. In her art installation for The New Children’s Museum, Wobbleland, an avocado wedge can be ridden as a teeter totter and giant tomato slices become a stackable puzzle. The featured guava ottoman was created especially for the reNEWing Hope art auction and conveys Rendón’s interest in creating work for toddlers that stimulates the fluid and creative ways that they observe and define objects.

About Marisol Rendón

Marisol Rendón (b. 1974, Manizales, Colombia) is an artist, designer and educator who works with sculpture and drawing as tools to explore her questions about our relationship to the world around us. In 2013, Rendón was commissioned by The New Children’s Museum to create a toddler installation, Wobbleland, for the exhibition, Feast: The Art of Playing with Your Food. For more than a decade, Rendón  and her husband, Ingram Ober, have collaborated on projects in public art, museum exhibitions and social/civic events. As an individual artist, Rendón has exhibited work throughout the U.S. as well as France, Switzerland, Colombia and the United Kingdom. She is currently the Associate Professor of Art at Southwestern College and serves on The New Children’s Museum’s Board of Directors. Rendón received her MFA from Claremont Graduate University.

www.marisolrendon.com

Artwork Description

Summer and Winter, 625 Road, Telluride, CO, USA, 2018 and 2019
Archival inkjet print mounted to Dibond
1 of 4
34″ x 44″ 

Artist and photographer Philipp Scholz Rittermann has long wondered what it might look like if one could hold day and night, summer and winter, the presence and subsequent absence of something in a single gaze. Dwelling on this led to this body of work, which plays at the intersection of human sight, the passage of time and memory. Rittermann explains, “In this instance, an image made in summer was projected back onto the same spot in the landscape the following winter, and re-photographed. The resulting image is a record of that intervention in the landscape, not a photoshop mashup.”

About Philipp Scholz Rittermann

Philipp Scholz Rittermann (b. 1955, Lima, Perú) is a San Diego-based artist and photographer who spent his early years in Germany. In the mid-70s, he co-founded a photography gallery and taught photography, then emigrated to the United States in 1982. For over a decade, Rittermann has been commissioned by The New Children’s Museum to capture dozens of art installations including the cover image for the Museum’s first catalog, published in 2019. His photographs are included in more than 100 public, private and corporate collections, from The Museum of Modern Art, New York to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris. A mid-career survey of Rittermann’s work was held at the Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego (MoPA) and Emperor’s River was presented at Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD).

www.rittermann.com