Apparición, Eden, and Finishing Turner in San Diego Surreal at Oceanside Museum of Art, 2019
This curated archive includes catalogs, press clippings, photographs, and a list of past and current projects and series.
It highlights my life as a painter and founder and executive director of Sushi Performance and Visual Art.
Catalog, San Diego Surreal, Oceanside Museum of Art, 2019
Article, San Diego Surreal, American Art Review, 2019
Catalog, Nature Improved, San Diego History Center, Oceanside Museum of Art, 2014
LYNN SCHUETTE SERIES & PROJECT LIST 1976 - PRESENT
2023
2023 & 2019
2021
2018 - 2019
2014 -
2013-2014
2010-11
2006 -09
2003-04
2002-03
2000-02
1997-99
1996
1995-96
1993-94
1990 -91
1987-88
1980-87
1978-80
1976-77
môrniNG
Still Life
Stagnation
Stay Romantic
One Dozen Roses
Stream
The Beauty Project
Mi oeste perdido
In a World Where Butchers Sing Like Angels
The Color of This Life is Water
The Garden Show
My Nature
Burning Churches
Incarnadine
Meridian
Bloodstorm
Visceral Devotion
Constructions with text, & Cutout fragments
Surveys of artists and workers
Waitress Art/Artress Wait
PROJECT in process
PROJECT ongoing
SERIES
SERIES
PROJECT ongoing
PROJECT one year
PROJECT
SERIES
SERIES
PUBLIC PROJECT
SERIES
SERIES
SERIES
SERIES
SERIES
SERIES
SERIES
INSTALLATION
SERIES
PROJECT
PRESS ARCHIVE
2022
2020
2018
1990s
“THEY DARE, AND THEY DESERVE TO BE NURTURED” – ANNE MARIE WELSH
SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE, THE ARTS, SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 1994
Before culture clash and Whoopie Goldberg, and Eric Bogosian played theaters and television, Sushi presented them. Before Guillermo Gomez-Pena became a MacArthur foundation “genius,” Sushi made him artist-in-residence. Before choreographers Bebe Miller and Joe Goode wowed New York, Sushi presented them.
And before Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, John Fleck and Karen Finley became the notorious defundos of the Bush-era National Endowment for the Arts, Sushi produced them all – over and over and over again.
Such artists embodied the performance gallery’s mission, defined fourteen years ago, by founder Lynn Schuette, the self-effacing painter who lived in her eighth avenue performance gallery.
SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE, THE ARTS, SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 1994
Rather than producing just one art form, she supported what she calls “horizontal programming:” the artists shared a value system, whatever their discipline.
The words “gay,” multi-cultural,” “feminist,” lesbian,” “multidisciplinary” are now common in discussion of American arts in the nineties. They made their way into the local media in coverage of Sushi programs.
Because artist such as these are forecasters they raised issues that crested in the turbulent waves now crashing through American culture.
Despite these contributions, Sushi is in trouble, its survival and its continuing programs threatened by the loss last June of its Eighth Avenue performance space and by a forty thousand dollar debt. Until last year the budget was two hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
RATHER THAN PRODUCING JUST ONE ART FORM, SCHUETTE SUPPORTED WHAT SHE CALLS “HORIZONTAL PROGRAMMING:” THE ARTISTS SHARED A VALUE SYSTEM, WHATEVER THEIR DISCIPLINE.
“Artist -run spaces are absolutely primary,” says the LA based performer Rachel Rosenthal and eight time Sushi veteran. “they were the first spaces that were home, long before performance artists were ‘accredited’ by others and before it became fashionable something called ‘new genres’. And I can tell you, there weren’t that many, particularly here in California.”
1980s
SUSHI’S DIRECTOR MAKES IT TO 10,
Anne Marie Welsh, San Diego Union, November 26, 1989
From the beginning, Schuette’s programs have painted a picture of this country’s cultural democracy by featuring works by Latino, African American, Chicano, Asian, gay, feminist, homeless and even white male artists. All this before the city bureaucracy jumped on the multicultural bandwagon.
She doesn’t want, as she puts it, “to grow up to be a slick theatre organization producing entertainment.”
Though Sushi’s budget has grown, and the organization has a strong national reputation, Schuette has made it clear that she’s not interested in becoming a launching pad for mainstream careers. She doesn’t want, as she puts it, “to grow up to be a slick theatre organization producing entertainment.”
Her note in every program for this 10th Anniversary year describes her work best:
“The open-minded spirit and passion of our audience towards new art counteracts the hypocritical hoopla of those who take away our freedom to think, feel, and express ourselves. We all know, art can be transcendent or cloying, riveting or trivial, profound, or boring. All has been presented at Sushi in the attempt to give artists a voice.”
1970s