The San Luis Obispo Museum of Art is hosting Julie Alpert’s “Strange Magic” art installation, marking her first-ever show in California. The exhibit opened to the public on Nov. 15, transporting people into a colorful space of everyday items, from hand soap and a box fan to windows and flowers.
Pieces of Alpert’s magic permeate the room — suspended from the ceiling, placed on tables and seamlessly filling the gallery. A vibrant mixture of patterns, shapes and designs combine to create Alpert’s vision for “Strange Magic.”
“I’m trying to strike a really careful balance between things being kind of wild and loose and expressive, and then being very tightly controlled and intentional,” Alpert said in a walk-through with museum visitors.
“Every single aspect, every component in here, was hand drawn, hand painted, hand cut and glued. I want to be able to connect to you, even if I don’t ever meet you. I want to connect to you through the sensory, tactile experience.”
Alpert works to implement her personal touch through small details. She makes an effort to turn a normal living space into an elaborate experience for those who visit. Details from her life are seen throughout the room as she carefully adds her style to routine objects.
“In Seattle, a lot of us don’t have air conditioning. Now things are getting a lot hotter, but summers are mostly for box fans, and so that’s why that’s in there,” Alpert said.
Alpert’s work is curated to evoke a sense of nostalgia that many people associate with the experience of being a young child. The atmosphere invites attendees to reminisce on the innocence and childlike wonder of kindergarten or summer camp.
“What drew me to wanting to come tonight was the description of her work as using found objects and household objects, and that cutting and pasting that we do as children,” Dana Fiore, a San Luis Obispo resident and museum visitor said.
“And then when I walked in and saw the butcher paper and the paper mache — I was an elementary school teacher for 30 years — it just took me back to like children’s art in that happy, that best kind of way.”
The feelings exemplified in the exhibit are captured by Alpert’s love for symmetry, bright colors, shadows, textures and looseness in her work. One feature that is constantly repeated throughout the room is an eye with a drooping appearance.
“I started doing that shape in 2020, 2021, when everybody was wearing masks,” Alpert said.
“I feel like the eyes do communicate a lot, but so much happens, so much expression and communication happens under the eyes, and I think that’s why I started adding eyes to everything.”
A detail as small as an eye has allowed Alpert’s personality to shine beyond each material item. Although her exhibit replicated only an everyday room, Alpert works to give mundane life objects a bigger purpose.
To allow something like “Strange Magic” to materialize, Alpert spent months brainstorming the idea, physically making the elements, transporting them to San Luis Obispo and finally arranging the collection within the museum.
“She measured everything you can imagine in that space to make sure that her installation is really accurate,” Emma Saperstein, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art chief curator & director of education said.
“We would meet monthly and talk about the work [and] how it was coming along. We worked together on logistics, but also talked a lot about the ideas in the show so that I could do some writing about it.”
The process behind Alpert’s show goes back to February when she started the large-scale installation. Before completing each installation, she visits the site she will be working with to get a feel and understanding of the space. Alpert proceeds to create blueprint collages, which are displayed on the back wall to guide the rest of her work.
“You come into the space and you kind of go, ‘well, where am I going to stage this sort of set-like piece,’” Alpert said.
“So I just started with those two, the veered windows and everything else just grew out of that. I do the site visit, take a bunch of photos, do a bunch of measurements, go home and I make a blueprint drawing.
The San Luis Obispo Museum of Art’s mission statement, “We enrich our community by using art as a doorway to deeper insight and connection,” aligns with Alpert’s installation. “Strange Magic” helps create an escape for members of the San Luis Obispo community during an unprecedented, stressful season.
“I feel like, not that we look away from hard things, but it is really special to have spaces where you’re looking at something fun and beautiful and joyous and able to reflect on the routines and rituals of your life in a way that’s outside of all the noise,” Saperstein said.
Julie Alpert’s exhibit will be freely available to the public from now through March 3, 2025.
