James Hubbel
James Hubbell exhibition: Autumn. November 25, 2017 through January 7, 2018. A one-person show that features the work of this iconic San Diego County artist.
On exhibit is Hubbell paintings, current assemblage and sculptural pieces, and stained glass. The paintings are plein air watercolors from Hubbell’s past that document his many hiking and camping trips into the Sierra Nevada.
James Hubbell is a major figure in the art and architecture world. Hubbell, a sculptor, painter, poet, stained glass artist, designer and builder has created many large pieces of public art in San Diego County and around the world. Hubbell studied design and painting at Whitney Art School in New Haven, Connecticut until being drafted into the army and serving in Korea. Returning home, he chose to study painting and sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. In 1958 he married Anne Stewart, a teacher, and moved to Santa Ysabel, in the mountains of San Diego County near Julian. It is here the couple designed and built their home and studio with help from family and friends. They named it llanLael, a Hebrew name which to them symbolized the joining together of spirit and matter in wholeness.
With the building of additional studio buildings and the artistically famous ‘Boy’s House’, an adjunct dwelling that they built for their own four growing sons, Ilan-Lael grew into what is now known as the Hubbell compound, the place from which James Hubbell has made his art for over 40 years.
The original Hubbell house and studio have been rebuilt in recent years since burning in the Cedar wildfire of 2003. After the fire, the home was designated as an historical site by San Diego County. James and Anne Hubbell host a fundraiser, the Ilan-Lael Foundation Open House there every year on Father’s Day.
Hubbell has designed hundreds of commissions: windows, doors, sculpture, architectural details, fountains and gardens. When building, James Hubbell works in stained glass, forged iron, wood, cement and other materials. He has designed and built restaurants, homes, chapels, schools and parks. He is best known for the Chapel at Sea Ranch, in Northern California and for the Doors of Abu Dhabi, now in the United Arab Emirates. Current Hubbell projects include three new buildings that comprise the Ilan-Lael Foundation Art Center at the Hubbell compound in Santa Ysabel, an art installation for a San Diego Gas and Electric office building, and a baptismal font for St. James Catholic Church in Solana Beach.
For many years Hubbell has led design / build classes with students, with some of these classes leading to the construction of parks around the Pacific Rim. There are now seven Pacific Rim Parks including The Pearl of the Pacific on Shelter Island in San Diego Bay. The most recently completed park was built in Taiwan with the help of twenty-four architectural students from around the world. James Hubbell sees the parks as a way to open up dialogue about evolving Pacific culture and community.
James Hubbell’s work has become known through videos and publications in the United States and from abroad. He is the subject of two KPBS public television documentaries: The Art and Vision of James Hubbell and Eye of the Beholder. In the past few years he has been honored with several one person exhibits at the Oceanside Museum of Art and solo exhibits at the Mingei International Museum and the San Diego Museum of Art. Hubbell was also featured and with an exhibit, The Architecture of Jubilation at the Shusev Central Museum of Architecture in Moscow, Russia.
