The Art of Photography Show 2007
The Art of Photography Show 2007, an international exhibition of photographic art, takes place April 14-May 28 at the Lyceum Theatre Gallery in Horton Plaza. The opening reception gala will be on Saturday, April 14, from 6-9 pm, and is free to the public. Approximately 20,000 people are expected to view the show during the six-week run. From more than 9800 entries submitted by artists representing 37 countries, 103 pieces will be exhibited — the largest number of entries for any juried competition in San Diego history. The show was judged by Tim Wride, curator and head of the department of photographs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. An estimated 1,000 people from around the world are expected to attend the opening reception gala and awards ceremony, including most of the exhibiting artists. Cash awards will be presented to the top 15 artists chosen by Wride. A free 76-page show catalog will be available to those in attendance at the opening reception gala. The Lyceum Theatre Gallery is open and free to the public seven days a week. Gallery hours are 10am-5pm Monday through Friday, and noon to 5pm on the weekends. (www.artofphotographyshow.com)

Trees Reborn
If you live in Encinitas, you’ve probably driven by those large tree trunks on the corner of Manchester Avenue and El Camino Real. The corner lot is where Alexandre Safonov works his sculpting magic, transforming felled trees into, as he puts it, whatever exists inside them. Born in Russia, Safonov moved to San Diego in 1996, where the warm climate allows him to work outside in his shed. One of his recent creations, The Phoenix, a towering carving of a warrior horse, will be on display this season at the Del Mar Racetrack. "A man in Cuyamaca told me he had some wood I could use," he explains. "I saw this humongous tree that had been burned by the fires three years ago. He asked me what I saw in it and I said a horse. I said I’d call it The Phoenix, like the bird that is reborn from the ashes. The horse represents the spirit of what happened to this 400-year-old tree. But it’s also the spirit of the people who lost their homes in the fires. They’re rebuilding their lives now, like a phoenix rising." Safonov says that people have wept at the horse, without even knowing its meaning. "It’s strange. I tell people to come see it, because it’s something very special." Safonov will be on hand at the San Diego County Fair, sculpting a large tree trunk into "the music that exists inside it." Currently, he is finishing up a sculpture of Jesus for a church in Nebraska. His works have graced galleries, public centers, and private homes around the world. (www.sashasart.com) — Ryan Thomas

Visiting The Holy Land
Beginning June 10, the San Diego Museum of Man will present a much-anticipated, once-in-a-lifetime exhibition, Journey to the Copper Age: Archaeology in the Holy Land. This exhibit will feature 6,000-year-old objects from the Israel Museum along with photography by Kenneth Garrett, one of the National Geographic Society’s most prominent photographers. The exhibit was designed to coincide with the neighboring Natural History Museum’s Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit this summer. Journey to the Copper Age: Archaeology in the Holy Land is based on a National Geographic expedition led by Thomas Levy, PhD, archaeologist with the University of California, San Diego, who assembled a group of international scientists from Jordan, Israel, Europe, and the U.S. to follow an ancient trade route across the deserts to an ore site in Jordan and a smelting site in Israel. Visitors to the exhibit will view artifacts that capture the first documented human settlement and the beginnings of social complexity and organization, as well as the first dramatic increase in human population in the Holy Land (an area today known as Jordan and Israel), which occurred during the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4500 - 3600 B.C.E.), where widespread human settlement emerged in the region. (619/239-2001, www.museumofman.org) — Jane Shiomi

Art And Action
Scripps Performing Arts will celebrate the opening of their second location in Carmel Valley with an event on Sunday, June 3. Guests will enjoy a fashion show, performances by the Scripps Performing Arts Company, and food from Del Mar restaurants. Over the years, Scripps Performing Arts has raised over $17,000 for the Scripps Miramar Library Center, and $35,000 for Rady Children’s Hospital, and now their efforts are focused on Isabella’s Giraffe Club at the UCSD Medical Center’s Infant Special Care Center. Isabella, the daughter of Scripps Performing Arts artistic director Angela Amoroso and her husband, Drew Skinner, was born premature at only 26 weeks gestation, weighing under two pounds. After Isabella spent two days in the Infant Special Care Center, Amoroso and Skinner, with the same philanthropic principles that they instill in their students, birthed Isabella’s Giraffe Club for UCSD. The goal of the fundraising event is to purchase a GE state-of-the art incubator, coincidentally called The Giraffe, so more babies can thrive and survive. (858/586-7834, www.superkidslive.com) — Jane Shiomi

A Lovely Lineup
There is plenty of activity at California Center for the Arts, Escondido (CCAE) these days. Hiroshima, the East-meets-West music group, performs at CCAE on Friday, May 18. This popular ensemble first came onto the scene in the late 1970s, and has continued to refine its signature mix of Japanese, funky pop, urban, and jazz music. Hiroshima maintains a one-world philosophy. Our own San Diego Symphony performs in the CCAE concert hall on Thursday, May 24. Maestro Jahja Ling conducts, and violinist Leila Josefowcz performs the music of Beethoven. The renewed and highly energized San Diego Symphony continues to shine brightly. Another local favorite, CCAE artist-in-residence Angel Romero, teams with five-time Grammy Award-nominee David Benoit, to perform concertos for jazz piano and guitar by Claude Bolling, known to many as "the French Gershwin." The much-admired Bolling is celebrated for his crossover collaborations with classical musicians. The Bolling Concertos: Angel Romero in Concert with David Benoit will grace the concert hall at CCAE on Sunday, June 3. (800/988-4253, www.artcenter.org) — Darlene G. Davies

Culture Calendar

May

Thru 5/5: CODES
San Diego-based artist Jim Machacek will present, in the Athenaeum’s Main Gallery, an exhibition of new work including etchings, collages, and artist’s books that tell their own stories. (858/454-5872, www.ljathenaeum.org)

Thru 5/6: Fine Art Photographs By Peter Fay And Art Myers
The Ordover Gallery in Solana Beach presents color nature photographs from Fay’s Solitude series, and Myer’s imagery encompassing years of photographing children afflicted with HIV. (858/720-1121, www.ordoverproject.com)

Thru 5/6: Hold Please
The Old Globe presents Hold Please, by San Diego native Annie Weisman and directed by Globe favorite Kirsten Brandt, in the Cassius Carter Centre Stage. (619/23-GLOBE, www.theoldglobe.org)

Thru 5/13: Brian Ulrich: Copia
On view at MCASD’s La Jolla location, the exhibition features the Chicago-based artist’s large-scale photographs documenting the shopping habits of Americans. (858/454-3541, www.mcasd.org)

Thru 5/13: Enchanted April
Lamb’s Players Theatre presents the San Diego premiere of Enchanted April by Matthew Barber, adapted from the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim. (619/437-0600, www.lambsplayers.org)

Thru 5/27: Young Art 2007: Exploring Color
The San Diego Museum of Art will once again showcase what today’s brightest and most talented students are creating. (619/232-7931, www.sdmart.org)

Thru 5/27: Two Trains Running
The Old Globe. (619/23-GLOBE, www.theoldglobe.org)

Thru 5/28: The Art Of Photography Show
An international exhibition of photographic art at the Lyceum Theatre Galley in Horton Plaza. (858/793-0900, www.artofphotographyshow.com)

Thru 6/2: FUSE
Artwork By Tim McCormick, Josh Clay, Josh Taylor, Aaron McKinney, Neil Simon Poyuzina, Joey Remmers, Isaac Pierro, Zoso, BigToe & James Naccarato. A receptionwill be held on May 12 from 5-8pm. Distinction Artist Studios and Gallery. (760/781-5779, www.distinctionart.com)

Thru 6/10: Eva Zeisel:
Extraordinary Designer At 100 Mingei International Museum. (619/239-0003, www.mingei.org)

Thru 7/31: The Alps
Producer Greg MacGillivray and director Stephen Judson present a film that celebrates the majestic Alpine locale and the culture and lifestyle of the people living among its craggy slopes. On IMAX at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. (619/238-1233, www.rhfleet.org)

Thru 8/5: Eighth Annual San Diego Jewish Music Festival
Headlining this year’s music festival are Israeli bassist/composer Avishai Cohen; tenor Michael Philip Davis; the Israel Contemporary String Quartet; the distinguished American pianist Jeffrey Siegel; and the Israeli ensemble, SheshBesh. (858/362-1348, www.lfjcc.org/sdjmf)

5/1-20: La Bakair
Common Ground Theatre presents a musical that tells the rags-to-riches story of the legendary Josephine Baker. Lyceum Theatre. (619/263-7911)

5/4-26: May Magic
San Diego Watercolor Society presents unique visions in a juried show of approximately 90 water media paintings by award-winning Southern Californians. An opening reception takes place on May 4 from 5-8pm. (619/876-4550, www.sdws.org)

5/4-6/9: Alex Webb: Istanbul: City Of A Hundred Names
Joseph Bellows Gallery presents the gallery’s second exhibition of photographs by Alex Webb. An opening reception with the artist will take place on May 4 from 6-8pm. (858/456-5620, www.josephbellows.com)

5/5-31: Contemporary Expressions
The Ordover Gallery at the San Diego Natural History Museum will feature fine-art photography by contemporary San Diego photographers. (858/720-1121, www.ordovergallery.com)

5/7-8: The Piano Lesson
Cygnet Theatre, in collaboration with the San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre, presents a staged reading of The Piano Lesson by the late playwright August Wilson. Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenburg, artistic director, Moxie Theatre. (619/337-1525, ext. 3#, www.cygnettheatre.com)

5/10: Spring Expressions
Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild presents an artist reception and spring exhibition at the The Rancho Santa Fe Art Gallery. (858/759-3545, www.ranchosantafeartguild.org)

5/17: Harry Connick, Jr.
My New Orleans Tour at Viejas Concerts at Bayside. (619/220-TIXS, www.ticketmaster.com)

5/19-7/29: Waking Dreams: The Art Of The Pre-Raphaelites From The Delaware Art Museum
Drawn from the Delaware Art Museum, the works featured represent some of the most iconic images of the period. San Diego Museum of Art. (619/232-7931, www.sdmart.org)

5/20: Anthony Wilson
Brazilian jazz guitarists Anthony Wilson and Chico Pinheiro make a stop at the Athenaeum’s School of the Arts studio on their CD release tour. (858/454-5872, www.ljathenaeum.org)

5/24: Hai-Ye Ni, Cello And Hong Lin, Piano
Hai-Ye Ni is one of the most accomplished cellists in the U.S., having won the Naumberg International Cello Competition, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the International Paulo Cello Competition. Ni will perform with Juilliard faculty member, Hong Lin, who first began practicing on the Athenaeum’s piano. The Athenaeum awarded him a scholarship for his year at the Manhattan School of Music and two years at Julliard. (858/454-5872, www.ljathenaeum.org)

5/25: Common Sense
The Belly Up. (858/481-8140, www.bellyup.com)

5/25-7/8: Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Lamb’s Players Theatre’s first major musical hit comes for the first time to the resident stage in Coronado. Directed by Robert Smyth. (619/437-0600, www.lambsplayers.org)

June

6/3: Morrissey With Kristeen Young
Viejas Concerts at Bayside. (619/220-TIXS, www.ticketmaster.com)

6/5: Manu Chao
Radio Bemba Sound System at Viejas Concerts at Bayside. (619/220-TIXS, www.ticketmaster.com)

6/10: Keith Urban With The Wreckers
ipayOne Center. (619/220-TIXS, www.ticketmaster.com)

6/23-24: La Jolla Festival Of The Arts
In its 21st year, the festival is one of the top-rated art shows in California, and hosts over 190 artists from around the country. Proceeds benefit programs for San Diegans with disabilities. UCSD East Campus parking lots. (858/456-1268, www.lajollaartfestival.org)

7/12: Summer Light
Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild presents an artist reception and spring exhibition. Enjoy refreshments and entertainment. 5-8pm at the The Rancho Santa Fe Art Gallery. (858/759-3545, www.ranchosantafeartguild.org)