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October 25, 2025–January 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, October 24, 5:30–8 PM
The Athenaeum and INSITE are pleased to present Nolan Oswald Dennis: Demonstrations (i). This year 315 artists entered about 900 works for consideration. Informed by the study of geological and planetary systems—and situated within African and diasporic relations to the land, cosmos, and anti-colonial political structures—Dennis’s work is on view in the Joseph Clayes III Gallery.
Also, a selection of artists’ books from the Athenaeum’s Erika & Fred Torri Artists’ Books Collection will be showcased in the Max & Melissa Elliott North Reading Room. At the Athenaeum Art Center, the Athenaeum Faculty & Staff Exhibition will be on display in the Catherine and Robert Palmer Gallery.
The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library has earned a reputation as one of the outstanding art galleries and art collectors in San Diego. The Athenaeum’s art exhibition program, begun in the 1920s, has grown tremendously in both scope and recognition, particularly in the past 20 years.
Exhibitions are presented in three gallery spaces: the Joseph Clayes III Gallery, the Carolyn Yorston-Wellcome Rotunda Gallery, and the Max & Melissa Elliott North Reading Room. Approximately four exhibitions per year are presented in each. Exhibitions in the Joseph Clayes III Gallery focus on nationally and internationally recognized artists. The Rotunda Gallery emphasizes community partnerships or emerging regional artists. Art in both galleries are related to the Athenaeum’s other focuses, namely books or music. Works have included limited edition artists' books, drawing, painting, site-specific installations, photography, sculpture, collage, mixed media, architecture, and calligraphy.
The Max & Melissa Elliott North Reading Room, opened during the library’s expansion in 2007, is devoted to showcasing the Athenaeum’s Erika and Fred Torri Artists’ Books Collection.
The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library’s art exhibitions are on view during library hours, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. There is no charge for admission. Opening receptions and artists' walk-throughs are also free of charge.
The Carolyn Yorston-Wellcome Rotunda Gallery features annual collaborations with the San Diego State University Art Council and Children’s Hospital. Other community projects have included a fundraising exhibition for the Pacific Rim Parks Project.
The Athenaeum’s Annual Juried Exhibition is among the most prestigious in the San Diego area and the most sought-after by entering artists.
Exhibitions have given deserved recognition to San Diego artists including Joyce Cutler-Shaw, Patricia Patterson, Manny Farber, Italo Scanga, Zandra Rhodes, Russell Forester, Ernest Silva, Faiya Fredman, Jean Lowe, Viviana Lombrozo, Becky Cohen, Nina Katchadourian, Ethel Greene, Robin Bright, Raul Guerrero, Ellen Phillips, James Hubble, Jo Ann Tanzer, Christine Oatman, Roberto Salas, Marie Najera, Kim MacConnel, Teddy Cruz, Adam Belt, Jim Lee, Jay Johnson, David Adey, Ellen Salk, Gail Roberts, Sondra Sherman, and Philipp Scholz Rittermann. Artists from across the United States and around the world have included Harry Sternberg, Mauro Staccioli, Marcos Ramirez (ERRE), Nathan Gluck, William Wegman, Faith Ringgold, Ming Mur-Ray, Rolf Händler, David Teeple, and Peter Dreher.
Joseph Clayes III Gallery
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Nolan Oswald Dennis: Demonstrations (i)
Presented with INSITE
Exhibition Dates: October 25, 2025–January 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, October 24, 5:30–8 PM
Conversation with Nolan Oswald Dennis and critic KJ Abudu: Friday, October 24, 5:30–6:15 PM
INSITE is pleased to announce Nolan Oswald Dennis: Demonstrations (i), opening at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, California, this October. Nolan Oswald Dennis (b. 1988, Lusaka, Zambia) is an artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Informed by the study of geological and planetary systems—and situated within African and diasporic relations to the land, cosmos, and anti-colonial political structures—Dennis’s work approaches the world as it is while mapping possibilities for transforming it. Demonstrations (i) marks the West Coast premiere of Isivivane, an ongoing project by Dennis that replicates rock specimens from geology museums and university departments in South Africa and parts of the world where the work has been shown. Originally commissioned for INSITE Commonplaces in Johannesburg in 2021, this project has since traveled to the Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, Netherlands; the Swiss Institute in New York; and Gasworks in London.
Isivivane is a Zulu word which translates to a "pile of stones,” similar to a cairn, which marks a spiritually or historically significant site. Isivivane also means to make an individual contribution to a collective future. Manufactured daily by a 3D-printer on site, the new rocks become part of what the artist calls a Black Earth Library. This is an effort that has arisen from discussions with geologists and geology museum curators concerning restitution and repatriation of culturally significant objects. In asking the host institution to create digital and physical copies of more or less significant rocks, stones, and other small geological objects, Dennis suggests a geo-social system not built by a single person, but by many over time. Isivivane will be accompanied by related sculptures and drawings, and displays of rocks and minerals selected by the artist from local collections.
Demonstrations (i) opens to the public at the Athenaeum with a reception on Friday, October 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The closing of the exhibition on January 17 will be celebrated with the presentation of INSITE Journal__08: Reverse Forward and All at Once. The publication comprises documentation and essays related to the INSITE Commonplaces project curated by Gabi Ngcobo in Johannesburg, with commissioned work by participating artists Nyakallo Maleke and Nolan Oswald Dennis. Further public program announcements to follow.
About Nolan Oswald Dennis
Nolan Oswald Dennis is an artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. They hold a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and a master’s degree in art, culture, and technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Their work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam, Netherlands; Swiss Institute in New York; Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town; and Gasworks in London. They have been featured in group exhibitions at FRONT Triennial (Cleveland), Lagos Biennial, Liverpool Biennial, MACBA (Barcelona), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, and Young Congo Biennale, among others. They are a member of the artist groups NTU and Index Literacy Program, research associate with the VIAD Research Centre at the University of Johannesburg, and a member of the Edouard Glissant Art Fund Scientific Committee.
About INSITE
Since 1992, INSITE has produced more than 250 artists’ projects conceived for specific sites and political-social contexts across San Diego and Tijuana, as well as in Mexico City. INSITE Commonplaces is a curatorial platform established in 2021 for producing work with artists and communities commissioned locally in different regions of the world. In addition to Johannesburg (Reverse Forward and All at Once), these long-term projects have taken place in Lima, Peru (Common Thread), and presently, the transnational region encompassing San Diego County and Baja California, Mexico (The Sedimentary Effect).
Photography ©2025 Philipp Scholz Rittermann.
The exhibition can be viewed in the Joseph Clayes III Gallery at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall Street, La Jolla, CA 92037) during open hours, Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Appointments are not required.
Max & Melissa Elliott
North Reading Room
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Selections from the Athenaeum’s Erika & Fred Torri Artists’ Books Collection
Exhibition Dates: October 25, 2025–January 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, October 24, 5:30–8 PM
A selection of artists’ books on the environment in the Athenaeum’s Erika & Fred Torri Artists’ Books Collection will be showcased in the Max & Melissa Elliott North Reading Room.
About the Athenaeum’s Erika & Fred Torri Artists’ Books Collection
The Athenaeum’s artists’ books collection was initiated in 1991 when Joan & Irwin Jacobs Executive Director Emeritus Erika Torri received a generous donation from life member Hope Shipley with the advice “to use it for her dreams.” Artists’ books have been Torri’s passion for many years prior and it seemed a natural fit for the Athenaeum. She purchased Harry Sternberg’s limited edition A Life in Woodcuts, published by Brighton Press, and thus the collection was launched. The mission of the collection was established with a focus on regional artists and presses and on artists who emphasized art and/or music in their works. The collection has grown enormously through purchases, sponsored acquisitions, and generous donations—now numbering close to 2,200 books—and so has its reputation. It is sought out by artists, researchers and collectors and can be viewed by making an appointment with library staff.
The exhibition can be viewed in the Max & Melissa Elliott North Reading Room at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library (1008 Wall Street, La Jolla, CA 92037) during open hours, Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Appointments are not required.
Catherine & Robert Palmer Gallery
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Athenaeum Faculty & Staff Exhibition
Exhibition Dates/Fechas de exposición: December 6, 2025–January 3, 2026/6 de diciembre de 2025–3 de enero de 2026
Opening Reception/Recepción de apertura: Saturday, December 13, 5–8 PM/sábado, 13 de diciembre, de 5 a 8 PM
We are pleased to announce our Faculty & Staff Exhibition in the Palmer Gallery at the Athenaeum Art Center. The heart of the Athenaeum’s School of the Arts is our faculty, whose knowledge and expertise embrace all aspects of fine art. In this exhibition of our teaching artists’ current work, viewers will enjoy the broad range of mediums and techniques that characterize our faculty’s versatility, from painting to book arts, printmaking, ceramics, illustration, painting, and beyond. Their dedication to lifelong learning and exploration continues to inspire students who take classes in both our Logan Heights and La Jolla studios. The Faculty Exhibition reflects the Athenaeum’s ongoing commitment to fine arts education and its role as a vibrant cultural hub in San Diego’s art community.
In addition to faculty, members of the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library staff who are artists are also presenting their work, reflecting the shared creativity and passion for the arts that infuse every part of our organization.
Nos complace anunciar nuestra Exposición de Profesores y Personal en la Galería Palmer del Centro de Arte Athenaeum. El corazón de la Escuela de Artes del Athenaeum reside en nuestro profesorado, cuyo conocimiento y experiencia abarcan todos los aspectos de las bellas artes. En esta exposición de la obra actual de nuestros artistas docentes, el público podrá apreciar la amplia gama de medios y técnicas que caracterizan su versatilidad, desde la pintura hasta el arte del libro, el grabado, la cerámica, la ilustración y mucho más. Su dedicación al aprendizaje permanente y a la exploración sigue inspirando a los estudiantes que asisten a clases en nuestros estudios de Logan Heights y La Jolla. La Exposición de Profesores refleja el compromiso continuo del Athenaeum con la educación en bellas artes y su papel como un vibrante centro cultural en la comunidad artística de San Diego.
Además del profesorado, miembros del personal de la Biblioteca de Música y Artes del Athenaeum que son artistas también presentan su obra, reflejando la creatividad y la pasión compartidas por las artes que impregnan cada aspecto de nuestra organización.
The exhibition can be viewed in the Catherine and Robert Palmer Gallery at the Athenaeum Art Center (1955 Julian Avenue, San Diego, CA 92113) during open gallery hours, Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and every second Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m., during the Barrio Art Crawl, and by appointment.
La exposición se puede ver en la Galería Catherine y Robert Palmer en el Centro de Arte Athenaeum (1955 Julian Avenue, San Diego, CA 92113) durante el horario de atención de la galería, de martes a sábado, de 11 a. m. a 4 p. m., y cada segundo sábado de 5 a 8 p.m., durante el Barrio Art Crawl, y con cita previa.