Check back for our next Artist Talk series!

William D. Cannon Art Gallery
Carlsbad City Library 
1775 Dove Lane

Open Studios is a series of workshops, one for each exhibition, that explores the artists' works, techniques, and vision through a variety of mediums--storytelling, artmaking, discussions, and more.

Check back for our next series of Open Studios!

Printed & Stitched 

July 25 to Dec. 16, 2025

The William D Cannon Art Gallery is thrilled to host "Printed & Stitched", which examines the storied overlap between printmaking and textiles.

This exhibit features 58 original artworks created by members of the California Society of Printmakers and Studio Art Quilt Associates of California & Nevada regions. 

Silent Storytellers

Feb. 7 to June 28, 2025

The William D. Cannon Gallery is honored to present over sixty paintings and drawings by artist Fredric Hope. Through his art, Hope emerges as a lifelong observer and contemporary interpreter of Southern California’s evolving shores, transforming his recollections and relationship with coastal artifacts – shells, stones, tidepools and the shoreline – into visual meditations on time, place and interconnectedness. The artist’s distinctive compositions reveal nature’s surfaces and geometries as visual codes of environmental wisdom, reminding us of our shared past, present, and future.

Fiber in 3D

July 20 to Nov. 30, 2024 

Featuring contemporary dimensional fiber works by over 25 national artists juried by Fiber Art Now. Explore a breadth of unique materials, methods and themes interpreted through fiber and fabric techniques such as installation, weaving, basketry, sculpture, felting, surface design, knitting, wearables, and mixed media.  

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Images of an Era 

The Photography of Baron Wolman 

Jan. 20 – June 1, 2024

Join us at the Cannon Art Gallery to explore how the lens of one artist’s camera captured and help define one of the most important eras in rock and roll history.  

Dual Visions

Featuring artists Sijia Chen & Kelsey Overstreet
Sept. 30 – Dec. 16, 2023

Dual Visions features abstracted works of art created by artists, Sijia Chen and Kelsey Overstreet. Each artist reflects on their own personal narratives using various media to culminate in their final works of art. Each of the works of art showcase their unique use of color, line and pattern to create movement, along with the juxtaposition of organic shapes and textural elements. As a viewer you’re able to hone and look closely at the details of each work, however when you step back and look from a distance, you’re able to take in the whole composition that may take you into your own reflective journey. 

"Brightness Wailing" by Kelsey Overstreet (left) and "Ridgeline" by Sijia Chen (right) 

Breaking Glass Boundaries 

Showcasing New Adventures in the Art of Glass

June 24 – Sept. 2, 2023

Cups, windows and bottles are the familiar presence of glass in our lives. Yet, glass is so much more. Curated by Barrio Glassworks owner Mary Devlin, Breaking Glass Boundaries captures the magic of glassblowing and sculpture, offering a fusion where complex material is reimagined as swimming sea creatures, teardrops and even dramatic sentries. Experience this vivid expression of versatility, creativity, intricacy and the beauty of glass in many new and unexpected forms.

Barrio Glassworks, founded in 2020, is a public glassblowing studio and retail gallery located in the historic Barrio community at 3060 Roosevelt Street. Stop by for a unique experience with an open viewing section for the public, allowing an up-close look at the mesmerizing art of glassblowing. For information, visit www.barrioglassworks.com.

A Colorful Dream

April 15 – May 27, 2023

A Colorful Dream is a family-friendly, interactive exhibition by contemporary fine art photographer Adrien Broom. The exhibit features a suite of photographs, some of them large in scale, detailing a young girl’s journey as she discovers a series of monochromatic fantasy worlds exploring the rich hues and associations that we have with every color in the spectrum. Over three years in her studio, Broom constructed eight individual sets composed of objects evoking the essence of each respective color. She then photographed a young girl exploring and traveling through each world, passing through small portals that lead her on a journey through a red world, then orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and lastly a rainbow encompassing all the colors. Encountering creatures, characters, and vivid landscapes, Broom’s protagonist finds worlds lush, joyful, and even sometimes startling.

Media credit: A Program of ExhibitsUSA, a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance and The national Endowment for the Arts.

Contemporary Perspectives in Fiber Arts  

Jan. 7 – March 18, 2023

Featuring selections from California Fibers. California Fibers was founded in 1970 and supports the artistic growth and professional advancement of contemporary Southern California fiber artists. The imagination and superb craftsmanship of these artists place them in the highest echelon in their fields. The group has an extensive exhibition history in the USA and abroad. Many of its members are well-represented in museums and private collections and are recipients of prestigious awards from around the world. Their creative expression includes weaving, basketry, sculpture, quilting, embroidery, felting, surface design, knitting, crochet, wearables and mixed media.

Image credit: Sandy Abrams, Wheatfield, 2022

Artists Showcase: The Chair

Sept. 10 – Dec. 3, 2022

The Chair is an exhibition of one-of-a-kind chairs. “The chair represents the most sacred meeting of form and function; it’s a piece synonymous with support, the reliable foundation of our everyday lives. And yet the simple chair is in perpetual reinvention mode: it is the unending challenge for the artist and designer.” For this special exhibition, the selected works will range from fully functional examples to pieces of pure art and sculpture.

Artists: Erin Behling, John Cederquist, David Fobes, Paul Henry, Roy Jenuine, Nina Karavasiles, Seth Keller, Adam John Manley, Wendy Maruyama, DeLoss McGraw, Christopher Polentz, Lee Puffer, Cheryl Tall, James Watts, and Gabriel Weise.  

Artists Together: Today and Tomorrow

Showcasing the talents of MiraCosta College faculty and students
June 4 – Aug. 13, 2022

As Cultural Arts in Carlsbad is committed to fostering the next generation of artists, the Cannon Art Gallery is highlighting the Art Faculty of MiraCosta College for their incredible mentorship to students. Featuring the work of faculty and selected students, this exhibition contains a wide spectrum of media, including painting, printmaking, photography, installation, furniture and ceramics. From bright abstracts to painted sculptures, the exhibition is certain to have something to stimulate everyone’s interest and satisfy their spirit.

Reimagined: The Artist's Book

Feb. 26 - May 14, 2022

Frida Kahlo’s Garden

Sept. 1 – Oct. 20, 2021

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) is considered one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. The garden at Casa Azul (or Blue House), Kahlo’s lifelong home in Coyoacán, Mexico City, was a creative refuge and a source of inspiration for the artist and her husband, Diego Rivera (1886–1957). The garden, which was filled with native plants, housed Kahlo and Rivera’s collection of pre-Hispanic artifacts and folk art displayed on a four-tiered pyramid inspired by the Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan. This exhibition offers insights into the ways in which the garden at Casa Azul, the diversity of plant life in Mexico, and the rich cultural history of the country nourished the creativity of one of the world’s great artists. Funded by National Endowment of the Humanities and traveled by ExhibitsUSA.

Material Pulses: Seven Viewpoints

April 6 – May 20, 2021

Material Pulses: Seven Viewpoints, an exhibition focused on the art of quilt-making, presents 17 works by seven fiber artists: Mary Lou Alexander, Claire Benn, Elizabeth Brandt, Christine Mauersberger, Denise L Roberts, Jayne Willoughby, and Barb Wills. Curated by internationally renowned artist and teacher Nancy Crow, Material Pulses contributes to the dialogue of contemporary textile arts featuring quilts, mixed media, and installation work, all exploring color, pattern and size through traditional and experimental quilt-making applications. The exhibition is organized by Mid-America Arts Alliance and ExhibitsUSA. 

Edges Frayed

March 1, 2020 – August 8, 2020
Reception: Saturday, February 29, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

This exhibition brings together three Southern California artists: Bhavna Mehta, Michelle Montjoy, and Irma Sofia Poeter, in a material-rich conversation about construction and connection. Using fine stitching and cutting, fraying fabrics and abstract shapes, text, color, texture, volume and shadow, their work weaves a narrative that seeks to clarify and extend the hidden layers of identity and understanding.

Image: Top – Michelle Montjoy, Middle – Irma Sofia Poeter, Bottom – Bhavna Mehta

2020 Invitational

December 15, 2019 – February 8, 2020
Reception: Saturday, December 14, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

More than 500 artists have appeared in the Cannon Art Gallery Juried Biennial exhibitions. In the alternative years, we present the Invitational, an exhibition in which the work of artists from the preceding Biennial is showcased. This year we are presenting work from local artists Sue DeWulf, Juan Flores, Alison Haley Paul, Annalise Neil and Vicki Walsh.

Image: XOXO, 2018, Alison Haley Paul