Art Exhibit Press Release
For Immediate Release:
San Diego, CA — Space 4 Art is proud to announce a dynamic series of cutting-edge exhibitions, public programs, and community-engaged events to San Diego throughout 2026— an initiative that will at once spotlight and strengthen the city’s vibrant, experimental yet chronically underfunded arts community. Funded through a $200,000 Arts Ecosystem Grant from the Prebys Foundation, this ambitious arts programming will feature collaborations between Space 4 Art and other regional cultural groups, grounded by an exciting year-long residency at Art Produce, a community-based organization in North Park that has worked alongside Space 4 Art for more than 15 years to support artists, build community, and produce high-quality arts programming for the broader community. It will also provide paid opportunities for artists to showcase their work and offer free workshops to the broader community.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to produce this essential and incredibly diverse arts programming, and we couldn’t have found a happier home base for our exhibitions and related events than Art Produce,” said Jennifer de Poyen, executive director of Space 4 Art. “We are honored and humbled by the trust the Prebys Foundation has placed in our organization with this generous grant, and we are frankly ecstatic to be welcomed into the beautiful space that Lynn and her team have cultivated at Art Produce. We look forward to a year of creative experimentation, collaboration, and dynamic possibilities.”
For more than two decades, both Art Produce founder Lynn Susholtz and Space 4 Art founders Bob Leathers and Cheryl Nickel have helped lead the charge for community-based art practices that uplift artists, strengthen neighborhoods, educate youth, and create the kinds of creative capital and infrastructure necessary for an arts community to thrive. Prebys’ Arts Ecosystem grant program seeks to build resilience within— and grow —San Diego’s fragile cultural ecosystem.
Integrated into a once blighted commercial district, Art Produce Gallery has operated in a North Park storefront as an experimental space creating and sustaining public culture for more than 25 years. Due to gentrification, Space 4 Art has operated its East Village artist hub without dedicated gallery and performance spaces since 2017. In a year-long collaboration made possible by Prebys’ Arts Ecosystem grant, Space 4 Art will expand, develop, and diversify the cultural programming in both the Gallery and Garden at Art Produce.
With Susholtz stepping back from day-to-day operations to return to her studio practice, and Art Produce in a period of transition, a formal, year-long collaboration between Space 4 Art and Art Produce is the perfect next step for both organizations.
“The partnership with S4A comes at the perfect time, just as we are planning to sunset the Art Produce nonprofit organization and to bring other cultural and educational organizations to the space, said Art Produce founder Lynn Susholtz. “I am thrilled to welcome Space 4 Art, Katie Ruiz, and her curatorial team, and I’m beyond excited for the upcoming programs and events this year!”
The Space 4 Art @ Art Produce residency gets under way next month with the inaugural exhibition Non-Objective Lessons, which opens January 17th from 4–7 PM at Art Produce Gallery and runs through February 12, 2026. Curated by artist and curator Katie Ruiz, the exhibition marks the first in a series of seven Space 4 Art-produced exhibitions that will spotlight the bold, innovative spirit of San Diego’s contemporary art scene.
Non-Objective Lessons: Explorations in San Diego Abstraction celebrates the region’s long-standing tradition of abstraction, experimentation, and boundary-pushing artistic inquiry. Drawing inspiration from influential figures such as John Baldessari, Robert Irwin and Bob Matheny, the exhibition brings together artists who continue San Diego’s legacy of conceptual play, non-objective exploration, and material rebellion. Through assemblage, minimalism, and unexpected interventions, the featured works examine the tension between structure and improvisation, and the joyful misbehavior that defines much of the city’s avant-garde. The exhibition features works by a mix of artists affiliated with Space 4 Art and Art Produce, as well as other local practitioners who engage in abstract and non-objective art-making. This exhibit features artists: Melissa Walter, Xavier Dionne, Joey Thurston, Kaori Fukuyama, Jonny Hoolko, Jennifer de Poyen, May-ling Martinez, Lynn Susholtz, Andrew Alcasid, Meghan Augustine, Elijah Rubottom, Brennan Hubbell, Thomas DeMello, Michael James Armstrong
“San Diego has always been a place where abstraction moves freely,” noted curator Katie Ruiz. “There’s a wildness here, a willingness to experiment, to break rules, to question form itself. This exhibition reflects the unique artistic energy that has shaped the region for decades.”
The year-long programming partnership between Space 4 Art and Art Produce aims to expand support for local artists, deepen community engagement, and strengthen the city’s creative ecosystem through exhibitions, workshops, artist talks, and cross-organizational collaboration. The Prebys grant aims to help solve structural problems such as the lack of affordable arts spaces in which community-based groups like Space 4 Art can produce accessible arts programming. The Space 4 Art @ initiative provides a synergistic means for activation at Art Produce, which remains fiercely committed to building on decades of creative experimentation and community-building in North Park.
Exhibition Details:
Title: Non-Objective Lessons
Curator: Katie Ruiz
Opening Reception: January 17, 2025 | 4–7 PM
Gallery Hours January 17-February 12, 2026 Fridays 12-6pm Saturdays 12-6pm
Location: Art Produce Gallery, 3139 University Ave., San Diego
Presented by: Space 4 Art in partnership with Art Produce
Supported by: The Prebys Foundation Arts Ecosystem Grant
For press inquiries, interviews, or additional information, please contact: Katie Ruiz katie@sdspace4art.org