Sculpture gardens are a natural fit for San Diego, considering our weather, and we’ve got several standouts. One is in Escondido’s Kit Carson Park, where Niki de Saint Phalle’s pieces playfully explore California’s roots (mythic, historic, and cultural). The San Diego Museum of Art’s Balboa Park sculpture garden, though small, includes important pieces by Moore, Miró, Calder, and other 20th Century artists. And going on a treasure hunt to find all the pieces in the Stuart Collection at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is the coolest way I know to experience the campus.
Now another world-class installation is gracing the San Diego landscape — at least for the next 12 months. “Waterfront Steel: The Tidelands Sculpture Exhibition” consists of 13 monumental steel sculptures by French-born, Manhattan-based Bernar Venet, considered by some to be one of the world’s most important living sculptors. Scott White, Venet’s West Coast dealer, organized the exhibition in collaboration with the Port of San Diego. Venet’s works have been exhibited in major cities in the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa.
For a complete listing of the works, see Robert L. Pincus’s insightful review in the Union-Tribune. The Scott White Contemporary Art gallery in Little Italy has also mounted an exhibition running now through January 3 that includes more sculptures, as well as pastel on paper drawings.
