QuintGallery.com

Nudie playing cards and pole-twisting dancers doused in blacklight paint? It’s all in a night’s work for New York artist Ryan McGinness.

The international art darling just wrapped up an action-packed month in Los Angeles, where he painted two major murals and pimped his impressive body of work at seven locations—including a pop-up strip club at the Standard. Now it’s on to San Diego, where he’ll leave his semipermanent mark on the 130-by-30 back wall of La Jolla’s Hotel Parisi this summer.

It’s a massive coup for Murals of La Jolla, a project that’s putting up wall art all over town (no word yet on the exact duration, but the outdoor works will be on display for at least a couple of years). McGinness’ huge triptych, an eye-popping horizontal collage of simplistic, Picasso-esque female figures in fluorescent colors against a velvety black background, belongs to the artist’s ongoing Women series.

No more backstreet art dealing for Mark Quint. For seven years, San Diego’s boldface gallerist and party thrower kept his HQ hidden in a La Jolla alley. This March, Quint Contemporary Art (quintgallery.com) debuts grand new digs a few blocks on busy Girard Avenue.

“We could not ask for better exposure,” says gallery director Ben Strauss-Malcolm. “Everyone has to drive down this road.”

A two-year search for a main-drag storefront led to the space next to iconic coffee shop Harry’s. Formerly Jane’s Fabrique, in business for 46 years until the owner passed away last April, the address is near La Jolla’s posh design district. It also nearly doubles Quint’s square footage, from 1,600 to just under 3,000, which will include an exhibition area, a private showroom and offices with 15-foot ceilings. Did we mention off-street parking?

Quint, who recently celebrate 30 years and was honored by California Center for the Arts’ 2009 exhibit QUINT, first set up shop in La Jolla in ’81. He relocated regularly, including stints Downtown and Miramar, where he hosted epic soirées for collectors and culturati.

Mark Quint stands in Quint Contemporary Art, one of the few San Diego galleries that helped launch the city’s art scene. The painting behind him is a San Diego artist Kim MacConnel. Opposite: Frequent trips to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego keep Quint abreast of new trends and talent, both locally and nationally. Shown is the museum’s La Jolla location, featuring Nancy Rubin’s Pleasure Point sculpture.

Mark Quint anticipated a short stay when he returned to his hometown of San Diego 30 years ago to try his hand at owning and operating a contemporary art space. “I figured I’d eventually move to New York or Los Angeles to be more immersed in the art world,” he says. “I knew there wasn’t a whole lot going on gallery-wise in San Diego.” So, at a time when merely a handful of exhibition spaces existed in the city, Quint founded his eponymous gallery, now located in La Jolla, showing the works of local artist friends he made during his schooling at the San Francisco Art Institute. Recognition quickly ensued for Quint’s fresh mix of emerging talent and, shortly after, for his efforts to make both national and international artists’ work more accessible to the city—a mission that prompted Quint to develop, along with local collector Michael Krichman, a program that invites artists from around the world to live, work and exhibit in San Diego. “I like to think I’m an artist’s dealer,” he says. “I really listen to the artists about what they want and who they recommend. I think that’s partly why I’ve been so fortunate in my work.”

We at SPECIMEN were pleasantly surprised, actually overwhelmed, by the large turnout for our pop-up store last month at Scanga’s old studio in Bay Park. In response, we have decided to do it again! Same location but with different objects. This time we have a theme: “Deals on Wheels.” We will be highlighting objects having to do with transportation and mobile fun, such as artist skate decks and children’s vintage vehicles (scooters, tricycles, and race cars.) Artist skate decks by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Ryan McGinness and others will be included. The “Deals on Wheels” sale will take place on Saturday, October 23rd from 9:00am to 5:00pm and on Sunday, October 24th from 11:00am to 5:00pm at 4130 Napier Street.

After Mark Quint’s foray into the Museum Store business with a successful collaboration between himself and Jean Lowe at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido last summer, and a retail experience called Specimen at Lux Art Institute in collaboration with Adam Belt, a follow-up online store to this latter experience is now open.

You can browse and buy unique collectibles at www.thisspecimen.com or just CLICK HERE to go to the store website.

SPECIMEN now open for business!

Maximum minimalism: Icelandic artist Gudmundsson’s striking works at Quint, his first solo exhibition, are striking

By Robert L. Pincus, UNION-TRIBUNE ART CRITIC / BOOKS EDITOR

“I am trying to work within the field of tension that exists between nothing and something.”

— Kristjan Gudmundsson

Perhaps you have never asked yourself: Is there a sophisticated art scene in Iceland? And it would be understandable if you didn’t think there was, since its population is small and it’s remote from art centers like New York or Berlin.

The answer, though, is yes — and, in fact, Kristjan Gudmundsson, a leading Icelandic artist, has exhibited in Berlin, among other places. But it’s unlikely he would have exhibited in San Diego, if not for the interest that Mark Quint has taken in some of the work being made there.