Issue 02 · MCASD · 2026
Giants of San Diego
Six San Diego artists connected to MCASD's presentation of Giants: Art from the Dean Collection. Photographed within the spaces where their practices take shape, the series holds the life surrounding the work alongside the portraits themselves.
Photography by Jessica Ballerstein · Commissioned by MCASD · San Diego
Generations of family photographs. A beach snapshot from the 1960s. The first house her family bought. Images that became evidence of belonging.
Stephen Williams
Children rarely make what adults expect. They surprise us. Sometimes they become the teacher.
“I don't do the fake shit.”
Music playing. Incense burning. The studio was already a world of its own. The photographs simply had to notice it.
Digital first. Wood by hand. Planned, then assembled through touch.
Portraits of her father. Portraits of dogs she has loved. The studio held family alongside the work.
She sculpts people she loves from memory, giving remembrance a body and a place to remain.
There are giants everywhere.
Many of San Diego's artists remain unknown even to those who have lived beside their work for years. Witnessing begins with closer attention, followed by the simple act of telling someone else where to look.