Past Exhibitions
2025
“Celebrating 20 Years of Front Porch Gallery: Holding Space, Making Space” is temporary installation to invite visitors into the broader story of Front Porch Gallery to learn about how we’re connected to Front Porch and what we've built together over the past two decades. Attendees are invited to help us shape the future by adding your thoughts, memories, and dreams directly to the gallery walls, by survey or in person.
Front Porch Gallery starts the celebration of its 20th anniversary with the opening of the “Save the Ocean 5” Art & Poetry Exhibit. The show, will explore urgent environmental themes, climate change, expressions of beauty and the rejuvenation of the spirit that can be found in nature. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
"Tiny Creative Habits" is part of Gallery Takeover, an annual collaborative project. Throughout the year, Ruth’s Table and Creative Spark work with many community partners to implement meaningful, arts-based experiences that culminate in a community-led exhibit. This interactive program serves as a platform for every participant, regardless of age or ability, to create, share, and connect through art.
While not part of our formal exhibition series, Embracing Our Values, showcased the diverse talents and perspectives of Front Porch staff, offering a vibrant, personal look at what makes the company a unique and dynamic place to work. Employees from Front Porch—the senior living organization behind Front Porch Gallery— were invited to create art reflecting the values that guide their work: Connection, Collaboration, Inspiring Creativity, Building Trust, Leading Responsibly, and Embracing Change.
2024
2024
"Journey of Life Through Vision and Verse” is an art and poetry exhibit that delves into the profound power of storytelling as a means to preserve, understand, and celebrate our diverse personal and cultural narrative. Through the intertwining of visual and literary arts, this exhibit aims to illuminate the rich tapestry of human experience, transcending the boundaries of language, geography, and age.
“Mentors: Collaboration and Inspiration” is an art and poetry exhibition celebrating the enriching dynamics of intergenerational co-mentorship, creative influence, and inspiration. The motivation behind this exhibit is to bring together diverse creative individuals, fostering an exciting energy that propels innovative projects. Through collaborative brainstorming, artists and poets are inspired, encouraged, and introduced to new ways of thinking and creating.
“Finding Your Senses” serves as a catalyst for introspection, empathy, and appreciation of the diverse ways in which humans perceive and experience the world. By fostering a deeper understanding of the mutable nature of sensory perception, the exhibit encourages visitors to embrace differences, cultivate empathy, and celebrate the richness of human experience. The exhibit prompts reflection on how alterations in sensory perception can profoundly affect individuals and communal understanding.
“Unveiling Creativity: Art as Conversation” explores art as an ongoing process of creation, from when an artist first gathers moments of inspiration for a new piece to the time when a viewer responds to the artwork. When viewers respond to art, they co-create a new conversation and that experience is art in and of itself.
“Save the Ocean 4” is a a visual odyssey into the enchanting world of our ocean environment at this regional art show. Featuring top artists from Southern California, the exhibition spans diverse mediums, including photography, fiber arts, paintings, mosaic, assemblage, and collage. Five local poets will also weave ocean-inspired tales during the reception.
2023
Photography unlocks the expanse and diversity of our planet in Front Porch Gallery’s latest exhibit: “Wide Angle World”. Images captured with wide-angle lenses take visitors on a visual journey through vast landscapes, architectural marvels and immersive environments. Join us and explore the wonder inherent in our world.
Experience the innovative work of prolific artist Cheryl Tall as we welcome her to Front Porch Gallery. “Never Land” is an inventive exhibition that features Tall’s sculpture, paintings, and artist books, which use metaphor and myth to create surrealistic worlds. Using imaginative techniques, Tall’s work explores a range of topics including social and environmental issues, relationships, nostalgia, inherited histories, and our search for meaning and place. Visit Front Porch Gallery to experience Tall’s work, including her unique pinch coil clay technique.
Experience artistry and craft melded together as we welcome “Neu Glas” to Front Porch Gallery. This unique exhibition by the Art Glass Association of Southern California merges creative expression with tremendous technique. Multiple displays include prismatic wonders and experimental works of kiln-formed vessels, sculpture, figurative work and abstract creations. You won’t believe your eyes.
Experience timeless techniques and fresh ideas as the Front Porch Gallery celebrates the time-honored art of bookmaking with “San Diego Book Arts”. This unique exhibit by invited artists features stories as sculptural works, altered books, printmaking and surface design, letterpress printing and bookbinding. When you join us, you will see why the art of bookmaking has no limits.
What’s Your Message to the World? See answers to this question as expressed through unique works by international artists as they connect their universal messages of love, peace, hope and joy along with environmental and deeply personal messages. Front Porch Gallery presents “Lift the Sky”, a global art project that answers this evocative question through an installation of hanging three-part panels consisting of “messages” created in fiber art, paintings, mixed media, collage, and photography.
Watch a video tour on YouTube!
2022
The desire to create meaning is a life-long impulse that brings new purpose as we age. Featuring the work of Front Porch senior living community residents, “Creating Meaning” is a reflection of each artist’s unique life journey as it unfolds in a myriad of mediums, including fiber art, painting, and mixed media. This year, we welcome submissions created through the Gallery’s “Kitchen Table Art Project,” an online forum that creates a virtual community of artists. Works include art journaling, photo paint-overs, book arts and more.
Weaving is regarded as one of the world’s oldest surviving crafts. Enjoy a treasury of textiles as Front Porch Gallery celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Palomar Handweavers and Spinners Guild and pays tribute to its founder Bill Rafnel.
Get an up-close look at centuries old weaving, spinning and bobbin lace techniques as well as newly created work by the group’s members. New and antique tabletop and floor looms will also be on display.
Experience a unique collection of paintings, mixed media, photography, fiber arts, sculpture and more at Front Porch Gallery's annual Juried Exhibition. Rich in cultural diversity, this unique collection features artwork created by vibrant, locally and nationally known artistic voices. This year we are honored to welcome mixed media painter Donna Watson as our exhibit curator and juror.
The desire to express oneself is a life-long impulse that brings new purpose. “Our Healing Journey: Expressive Arts Therapy” features the work of cancer patients and caregivers, who express their unique journey of pain and grief in a myriad of multi-dimensional mediums including embellished shoes, torsos, mixed media artwork and book arts. Visit Front Porch Gallery and experience these inspired creative expressions born from the material of our lives.
Exhibit Slideshow
Virtual Tour
Celebrate "Renewal" this spring at Front Porch Gallery, where creative minds from Oceanside Museum of Artist's Alliance explore the theme of "transformation" as part of an exciting juried exhibition. Enjoy a journey of wonder, imagination and new beginnings through a broad range of mediums, including painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media.
Front Porch Gallery invites you to experience “Second Act”, an eclectic collection of works by artists who found their calling later in life. From those who had long careers in other professions to those returning to a passion from youth - the creative expressions in their work are as unique and varied as the stories that brought them to it. Through a wide range of mediums, including painting, photography, sculpture and mixed media, the exhibit takes the viewer on a journey of creative self-discovery. Will you have a second act? Come and be inspired!
2021
Our live stories provide a source through which we create meaning. Woven together they become a diverse and multilayered chorus full of joy, struggle and hope. Front Porch Gallery, in partnership with Women's Woven Voices, a global women's empowerment project, invites us on an exploration of women's life stories, woven into the fabric of a simple "story cloth" and then stitched together to form a powerful tapestry. A Culmination Of A Year's Work by Front Porch residents, staff, family, friends and community. The exhibit is an Inspiring Testament To The Power Of Survival, Storytelling, Connection And Collaboration.
Watch on YouTube: Women's Woven Voices: Maggie's Story
The fascination with fire seems ingrained in our DNA. We are drawn to its shapeshifting power: its ability to create and transform even as it destroys. The work featured in “Molten: Art Under Fire” explores this process in mediums as varied as glass, ceramic, encaustic, enamel, wood burning, metal and resin. Experience the work of these artists who play in this vibrant space where chemistry meets imagination.
Experience a unique collection of paintings, mixed media, photography, fiber arts, sculpture and more at the Front Porch Gallery’s annual Juried Exhibition. Rich in cultural diversity, this unique collection features artwork created by some of the most vibrant, locally and nationally known artistic voices. This year we are honored to welcome Sergio Gomez, MFA, artist, coach and creative entrepreneur, as our exhibit curator and juror.
Explore the immersive world of “Tesa Michaels in Avant-Garde”. Integrating precious and semi-precious stones into painting, sculpture, and home décor, Michaels creates a mesmerizing mixed media landscape full of depth and texture. Recipient of multiple American Art Awards, Michaels’ combination of exceptional technique and innovative vision invites us on a grand journey both as majestic and yet as intimate as our own dreams.
Discover a tapestry of expressions at Front Porch Gallery's juried exhibit that explores artistic expressions of contemporary art quilts. “Here and Now / Now and Then” celebrates the awe-inspiring works created by members of Studio Art Quilts Associates (SAQA) from Southern California and Southern Nevada. This unique exhibit features striking pieces that shape ordinary objects into extraordinary human reflections and showcase the artists' interpretation of the theme literally, spiritually, or metaphorically.
Juried by Dr. Sandra Sider, editor for Art Quilt, curator for the Texas Quilt Museum and teacher for Parsons School of Design in New York.
2020
Creating Meaning, Art Created By Residents of Front Porch Communities How do we create meaning in uncertain times? How do we reinvent connection while staying physically apart? Featuring the work of Front Porch retirement community residents, Creating Meaning, takes us on a tour through the process of virtual collaboration and creation. Witness a community-wide quilt project, and various individual expressions of “creativity under quarantine,” all designed by residents in independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing residences. Come join us on this journey of meaning and hope!
VIDEO: The Collaborative Quilt Project: Out of Many, One
Figuratively - How did they make that? Pushing the boundaries of what is traditionally know as the fiber arts, California Fibers’ artists ask the viewer to consider the methods behind their creations. Using a wide range of creative expressions - from weaving and embroidery to sculpture, felting and mixed media - these evocative works, both tactile and conceptual, will inspire curiosity and wonder. The imagination and superb craftmanship of these artworks will astound!
Front Porch Gallery invites you to experience our annual Juried Exhibit featuring some of the most vibrant and original artistic voices locally and from across the country. Rich in cultural diversity, this unique collection offers a sampling of works in an array of media, including paintings, mixed media, photography, fiber arts, sculpture and more. This year we are honored to have Maria Mingalone, executive director of Oceanside Museum of Art, as our exhibit curator and juror.
In Good Company & Doggos - Front Porch Gallery invites you to enjoy this uplifting and inspiring pop-up exhibition. These works will light you up! Special thanks go to Wendy Morris from Sophie’s Gallery for helping make this exhibition happen on short notice due to fluctuating scheduling during COVID-19.
Images: Panda by ChaeMin Geum and Doggos by Mark Rimland
Perspective Earth: People, Places and Parallels - Extraordinary moments emerge from everyday life in this latest offering from the Front Porch Gallery. Through the medium of black and white imagery, four exceptional photographers delve into an intimate exploration of both the familiar and the unexpected. Covering a range of genres from landscape and urban scenes to street life and portraiture, the viewer is invited on a journey of exploration and meditation into the world we share.
Shades of Black and White - Most of us see the world in color, but what happens when that filter is removed? What is revealed? Established in the mid-1980’s, Women in Creative Photography, a group of professional and fine art photographers in the San Diego area, explore the medium of black and white photography where light and shadow take stage and raw human emotions come into stark focus. Experience the work of these diverse and award-winning photographers as they unearth an extraordinary world of timelessness and poetry that lies just beneath the surface of our everyday lives.
Image: Finding Her Way by Barbara Fletcher
The work of contemporary crafters has long challenged the traditional line between art and craft. Since the 1940’s, Allied Craftsmen of San Diego has contributed to this dialogue between form and function and expanded the conversation around modern aesthetics. Working with a variety of mediums including ceramic, furniture, fiber, glass, jewelry and mixed media, this diverse group of artists brings this discussion to life with complex, cutting edge pieces that blur boundaries and defy convention. Images: left to right Cheryl Tall, Arline Fisch, Kathleen Mitchell, Paul Henry, Beston Barnett