Jo Ann Callis

Jo Ann Callis is among the photographers represented in "Rebels & Revelers" at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego through May 6. * Titles of early publications on Jo Ann Callis' work often contained similar phrases--"In the Realm of the Senses," "The Puzzles and Pleasures of Voyeurism," "Objects of Reverie"--that are evocative of this photograph.

Living artists are hardly a priority at the J. Paul Getty Museum, so photographer Jo Ann Callis is still a little stunned to be having a show there. And grateful. "I feel so lucky," she says. "I was prepared to be anonymous. I was enjoying life. I was thinking, 'It's OK. I had some moments in the past, and that is enough.' " "Jo Ann Callis: Woman Twirling," as the show is titled, refers to her warm-hued photograph of a woman in a circle skirt spinning around in a blur. Her furious yet solitary movement contrasts with the stillness of a carved wood sculpture of an entwined couple that doubles as the base of a lamp.

Living artists are hardly a priority at the J. Paul Getty Museum, so photographer Jo Ann Callis is still a little stunned to be having a show there. And grateful. "I feel so lucky," she says. "I was prepared to be anonymous. I was enjoying life. I was thinking, 'It's OK. I had some moments in the past, and that is enough.' " "Jo Ann Callis: Woman Twirling," as the show is titled, refers to her warm-hued photograph of a woman in a circle skirt spinning around in a blur. Her furious yet solitary movement contrasts with the stillness of a carved wood sculpture of an entwined couple that doubles as the base of a lamp.

Jo Ann Callis is among the photographers represented in "Rebels & Revelers" at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego through May 6. * Titles of early publications on Jo Ann Callis' work often contained similar phrases--"In the Realm of the Senses," "The Puzzles and Pleasures of Voyeurism," "Objects of Reverie"--that are evocative of this photograph.

If you flipped through Jo Ann Callis' files of negatives and assembled an abbreviated chronology of her photographs, it might look something like this: * "Man in Tie" (1977), a cropped view of a disheveled fellow who seems to be backed into a wall with a spotlight bearing down on his mouth and neck. * "Salt, Pepper and Fire" (1980), a still life presenting a flaming plate of food as an epiphany on a breakfast table.

Jo Ann Callis' photography has always had an unsettling quality akin to finding a parrot in your bathtub or a scoop of ice cream on your plate of hot spaghetti. Whether she sets a dish aflame in a mundane table setting, turns a mouse loose near a batch of sugar doughnuts or lets a red stain seep through a fancy tablecloth, she conjures up a sensuous vision and leaves you alone to ponder its creepiness, its veiled eroticism or its whiff of magic.

Photographer Jo Ann Callis has something new to show these days, and it's as much of a surprise as if she decided to pack it up and move to Soho. She's concocting easel painting-size gelatin photographs that mingle elements of '30s advertisements for luxury goods, black-and-white film stills, store window design, Surrealistic photography of the '20s and the witty part of conceptual art.

Demonic Mnemonics: Photographer Jo Ann Callis moves into new territory with "Mnemonic Pictures," a body of new work that pairs photography with a series of 16 sculptures. Callis has been fabricating objects to be photographed for a while now, and her objects have finally developed to the point that they've established a life independent of the photos--in fact, they've grown to the point that they upstage the photos on view here. Callis has a very strange sculptural sensibility.

"Sexy: Sensual Abstraction in California, 1950s-1990s" is a loosely conceived 12-artist show intended to emphasize art's seductive power. Organized by artists Hilary Baker and Julia Couzens for the Armory Center for the Arts, this hit-and-miss exhibition includes too many works that take their tasks too literally, mistaking sex for sexiness.

The theory that the Pacific Rim is overtaking the Atlantic Seaboard as the premier center of international power has attracted fervent believers among visual-arts aficionados in Los Angeles. It takes imagination to write off New York as an anachronism, but visionary Angelenos who are weary of having their city ignored as an idiot step-child of America's art mecca see California's cultural growth and its proximity to a phenomenally wealthy Japan as the key to a new order.

If you flipped through Jo Ann Callis' files of negatives and assembled an abbreviated chronology of her photographs, it might look something like this: * "Man in Tie" (1977), a cropped view of a disheveled fellow who seems to be backed into a wall with a spotlight bearing down on his mouth and neck. * "Salt, Pepper and Fire" (1980), a still life presenting a flaming plate of food as an epiphany on a breakfast table.

Jo Ann Callis' photography has always had an unsettling quality akin to finding a parrot in your bathtub or a scoop of ice cream on your plate of hot spaghetti. Whether she sets a dish aflame in a mundane table setting, turns a mouse loose near a batch of sugar doughnuts or lets a red stain seep through a fancy tablecloth, she conjures up a sensuous vision and leaves you alone to ponder its creepiness, its veiled eroticism or its whiff of magic.

For the first time in its 13-year existence, the Woman's Building has asked men to curate an exhibition. Ten male collectors, curators and arts administrators each have selected a woman artist whose work is displayed in "Gentlemen's Choice," running through Thursday. "This is definitely different from anything we have done before," said Terry Wolverton, development director of the Woman's Building.

The Community Redevelopment Agency is seeking five qualified individuals to serve on its Arts Advisory Committee, which will play a significant role in planning and implementing the new downtown Art in Public Places Program.