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Go on, Hugh Davies, I dare you. Go ahead and select a few dozen San Diegans for inclusion in a show of "emerging" local artists at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. I dare you not to offend a lot more artists than you honor.
Now that La Jolla museum director Davies has released the names of the artists to be featured in "A San Diego Exhibition: Forty-two Emerging Artists" March 23 through April 28, the cries of outrage are audible. Already, there are charges of sexism: 30 men and 12 women are on the list.
Davies-who made the choices along with curators Burnett Miller and Lynda Forsha-insisted that no appeasements will be made and that no "quota system" of age, gender or ethnic background was applied. It's a purely aesthetic matter, he said, based on these criteria: Every artist chosen had to be "under-recognized," never benefiting from a one-person show or inclusion in a group exhibit at the La Jolla or San Diego art museums. Davies called these "loose guidelines," however.
For the record, the 12 female artists are Beth Accomando, Sara-Jo Berman, Merryl Cicourel, Suda House, Margaret Honda, Nancy Kay, Babette Mangolte, Ellen Salk, Joyan Saunders, Deborah Small, Gillian Theobald and Carol Vidstrand. The men include Wick Alexander, Carlos Anzaldua, David Avalos, Richard Baker, Kenneth Capps, Philip-Dimitri Galas, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Raul Guerrero, Mario Lara, Fred Lonidier, Mark-Elliott...