Are you free from 5-7pm tonight in San Diego? Because both branches of the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla and downtown are– read more about the monthly MCASD open house on the MCASD website.

If you like artist Julie Mehretu’s work in MCASD’s Automatic Cities show (closing at the end of January), you’ll love this terrific write-up of her work in the studio with good pictures and excellent video the artist at work.

I’ve noted before that the San Diego News Network has developed a solid art & culture reporting practice for San Diego. This week’s review of the “Automatic Cities” show at MCASD La Jolla establishes them further as a thoughtful critical voice on what’s happening in San Diego art.

SDNN contributor Larry Herzog is a Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in City Planning at San Diego State University and brings a provocative twist to the “art” review by probing at the deeper issues raised in the show from a broader-tham-the-art-world perspective. Nice editorial choice and great article, check it out:

“Automatic Cities: The Architectural Imaginary in Contemporary Art” is a dazzling display of fantastic urban scenes and forms culled from deep in the psyches of 13 invited artists and one artist collective. On view through January 31 in La Jolla at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the exhibition indirectly forces us to face up to the reality of our failed American urban environment.

At a time when city building has screeched to a halt in the midst of a raging recession, visitors to MCA may pause to consider the visual condition of southern California.

Bleak images come to mind: monotonous American suburbs, spread across the great bulldozed flatlands, curving subdivisions neatly lined with bloated McMansions, pastel shaded, stucco condominium complexes dotted with “for sale” signs, and strip malls anchored by mega stores and chain outlets. Endless and repetitive blots of mind-numbing sameness bounding from region to region, like an infectious disease….

Read it all: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-12-10/things-to-do/automatic-cities-at-mcasd-prompts-question-is-the-american-cityscape-insane#ixzz0ZOWpbvn3

MCASD Open House: Free Third Thursday Evening
Thursday, 11/19/09 > 5-7 PM > La Jolla and Downtown
On the third Thursday of every month from 5 to 7 pm, visitors receive FREE admission to the Museum, plus free themed Gallery Guide-led tours beginning at 5 and 6 pm.

Also tonight at MCASD La Jolla:

UCSD/MCASD Russell Lecture Featuring Matthew Ritchie
Thursday, 11/19/09 > 7 PM > La Jolla
This year’s Russell Lecturer is renowned and influential artist Matthew Ritchie, who engages vast bodies of knowledge with a multiplicity of media and approaches.

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One of several excellent art events and openings in San Diego this weekend happens this Saturday afternoon, November 14 , 2 PM at MCASD La Jolla when artist Ann Lislegaard discusses her work in the current Automatic Cities show at MCASD La Jolla.

Currently featured in the exhibition Automatic Cities, artist Ann Lislegaard will discuss her work on view. Exploring the relationship between architecture and language, Lislegaard’s installations are often based on literary sources.

Her most recent body of work, including Crystal World (after J.G. Ballard), translates science fiction novels into three-dimensional video animations. Concerned with the notion of time, space, and place, Lislegaard employs sound and light in architectural constructions to reflect on how we orient ourselves in and otherwise perceive the physical and the psychological environments we inhabit.

Members: Free / General: Free with Museum admission

Read more about Saturday’s event on the excellent MCASD website.