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 community.
This exhibition celebrates that spirit of exploration. San Diego’s abstract artists have often worked in modes that resist easy categorization: raw assemblages constructed from found materials; restrained, minimalist compositions that hum with quiet intensity; conceptual gestures that question the very act of making. Their work is as diverse and unconventional as the city itself.
Curated by Katie Ruiz. Artists include: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
Curatorial Statement:
San Diego has long been a place where abstraction refuses to sit still. Here, far from the entrenched traditions of East Coast art centers, artists have embraced experimentation as a way of life pushing form, material, and concept beyond expectation. When I first arrived in San Diego after four years immersed in New York’s rigorous art world, I was startled in the best way by the sheer wildness of the work being made here. There was a freedom, a willingness to disrupt, an insistence on exploring the edges of what art could be.
This exhibition celebrates that spirit of exploration. San Diego’s abstract artists have often worked in modes that resist easy categorization: raw assemblages constructed from found materials; restrained, minimalist compositions that hum with quiet intensity; conceptual gestures that question the very act of making. Their work is as diverse and unconventional as the city itself.
The legacy of figures like the legendary San Diego-born experimenter John Baldessari whose irreverent intelligence helped shape generations of artists around the world is felt throughout the region. His influence echoes in the playful conceptualism and boundary-breaking approaches seen in studios across the city. Likewise, pioneers such as Robert Irwin, with his luminous investigations of color and form, and Bob Matheny, known for his inventive and often mischievous approach to materials and meaning, have left lasting imprints on San Diego’s creative landscape.
This exhibition brings together artists who continue that lineage of risk-taking. They are united not by a single visual style but by a shared commitment to exploration to step outside the expected, to embrace the unconventional, and to honor the deep artistic curiosity that defines this region.
San Diego abstraction is, at its core, a conversation between discipline and improvisation, between structure and spontaneity. It is a reminder that art can be both wild and precise, both conceptually rigorous and joyfully free. The works gathered here invite viewers to experience that tension, that openness, and that ever-evolving spirit.
Presented by: Space 4 Art in partnership with Art Produce
Supported by: The Prebys Foundation Arts Ecosystem Grant