James Hubbell: Architecture of Jubilation turned four branches of the San Diego Public Library into a citywide exhibition devoted to the artist’s organic approach to sculpture and design.
The presentation extended across the Central Library Art Gallery, Scripps Miramar Ranch Library, Mission Valley Library and Otay Mesa-Nestor Library.
An artist embedded in San Diego
Hubbell’s work has long been visible in public spaces around the region, where sculpture, architecture and crafted materials often meet in fluid, nature-inspired forms.
The library exhibition brought that practice indoors while retaining a distributed format across the city.
At the Central Library, visitors could also encounter Opus, a bronze sculpture created in 1970 and held in the City of San Diego Civic Art Collection.
An exhibition expanded through public programmes
The project was accompanied by a screening of James Hubbell: Between Heaven & Earth and talks on his early years in the San Diego art community and his collaborations with architect Sim Bruce Richards.
A stained-glass workshop added a practical component connected with one of the materials associated with Hubbell’s wider practice.
By distributing the exhibition among public libraries rather than concentrating it in a single gallery, Architecture of Jubilation placed Hubbell’s work within everyday civic spaces and made the city itself part of the exhibition’s structure.