ENCINITAS, CA — (April 6, 2010) — Lux Art Institute, San Diego’s first LEED-certified interactive art destination, will launch J & K Souvenir Inc., a pop-up shop installation by two of San Diego’s most recognized artists Jean Lowe and Kim MacConnel, at its upcoming 21-and-over Lux@Night event on April 21, 7-9 p.m.. J & K Souvenir Inc. is the latest in a series of retail installations commissioned by Lux.

The new retail experience created by Lowe and MacConnel is a finely edited collection of distinctive, hand-crafted goods, many of which will commemorate one’s visit to the museum, be inspired by the museum’s unique surrounding physical environment and illustrate the tension between the mass-produced and the aggressively handmade object. J & K Souvenir Inc. will replace SPECIMEN, Lux’s first store project by art dealer Mark Quint and artist Adam Belt that opened in late November 2009 and is scheduled to close on April 10.

“J & K Souvenir Inc., Lux’s newest retail installation, has been thoughtfully conceived and created to provide a one-of-a-kind experience for our museum guests,” said Lux Director Reesey Shaw. “The pieces inside the store will be made by two of the craftiest artists in town and will no doubt bring smiles to many. How refreshing to have this bit of whimsy spice up our lives!”

Featuring items such as coastal flower bouquets fabricated from beach trash, small terra cotta figurines of endangered local animals and birds, commemorative vessels and ceramic plates and select “Hulga’s of San Diego” jewelry, the store will be filled with original artist-made reproductions. J & K Souvenir Inc. will also display and sell ”Delft” bowls and plates, clown kits, doorstops, Universal Method of English books and placemats, stickers and more. Compared to Lowe and MacConnel’s regular work, the items will be inexpensive, ranging in price from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.

“We had a desire to do a different kind of museum store, playing off the idea of 99 Cent Store-pop culture and museum store-high culture and collapsing the difference,” said Lowe, whose three-foot tall papier-mache Animal Tales valise is part of Lux’s acclaimed educational outreach program, The Valise Project. “For Kim and myself, this is an opportunity to break from normal studio practice and goof around a little. Hopefully the store will be both playful and earnest.”

Expected to run through July 2010, the J & K Souvenir Inc. store project will be open to the public during Lux’s regular open hours – Thursday and Friday, 1 to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. – as well as during special events, such as Lux@Night and Free Saturday.

About Jean Lowe

Jean Lowe earned her B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley and her M.F.A. at the University of California, San Diego. A lecturer at UC San Diego from 1992 to 2008, Lowe has shown in more then fifty exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally and is represented by Quint Contemporary art in La Jolla, Calif.; Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Santa Monica, Calif.; and McKenzie Fine Arts in New York. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including two WESTAF/NEA Regional Fellowships and the CalArts/Alpert Ucross Residency Prize.

Select solo exhibitions include Yes, Yes, Yes!, McKenzie Fine Art, New York, 2010; Love for Sale, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif. and Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla, Calif., 2008 to 2009; The Loneliness Clinic, Dust Gallery, Las Vegas, 2007; The Course of the Empire, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Mo., 2003; and The Evolutionary Cul de Sac, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 2000. Lowe has taken part in many group exhibitions such as Multiple Vantage Points: Southern California Women Artists, 1980-2006, Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, 2007; National Pysche, The Lab, San Francisco, 2006; Conversational Lag, Volume Gallery, New York, 2005; Officina America, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy, 2002; and In Memory of Pleasure, Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wis., 1997.

About Kim MacConnel

Kim MacConnel received his B.A. in 1969 and M.F.A in 1972 from the University of California, San Diego. He has taught at UC San Diego in the Visual Arts Department in various capacities between 1976 and 1980, and permanently since 1987. Represented by the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York since 1975, MacConnel is one of the founders of the oft-called “Pattern and Decoration” movement. His work has been exhibited in the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial Exhibition in 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1985; The Museum of Modern Art’s An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, 1984; The Venice Biennale, 1984; and is represented in the National Gallery of Art, in the Morton G. Neumann Family Collection.

Solo exhibitions of his work include Discombobulated: Kim MacConnel and Brian Dick, L Street Fine Art, San Diego, 2009; Woman with Mirror, Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla, Calif. and Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, Calif., 2007; Parrot Talk: A Retrospective of Works by Kim MacConnel, Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2003; Homage to Tung Feng: Photographs from China, Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, 2001; and Zoo Story (collaboration with Jean Lowe), University Art Gallery, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, Calif., 1999. He has been featured in group exhibitions such as Quint: Three Decades of Contemporary Art, California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido, Calif., 2009; Show Down, Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla, Calif., 2008; Southern Exposure, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 2005; The Armory Show, New York, 2004; and Tijuana Tripelo, Instituto de Cultural de Baja California, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, 2003.

About Lux Art Institute

Lux Art Institute, located in Encinitas, Calif., is redefining the museum experience with the region’s only artist-in-residence program that invites artists to live and work on site, while producing a commissioned work of art – start to finish. This one-of-a-kind institution welcomes visitors to not only “see art,” but also to “see art happen.”

Throughout each year, Lux hosts several significant regional, national and international artists who participate in its residency program. Visitors from across the country are able to participate in exclusive liaison-led tours, providing intimate access to the artist-in-residence, the artist’s exhibition and the museum’s permanent collection of indoor and outdoor art. Lux also offers a wide range of innovative programming for all ages.

The recipient of the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s top design award, the Grand Orchid, and the first art museum in California awarded LEED certification for new construction, Lux is located alongside one of Southern California’s few remaining coastal wetlands. The five-acre site also overlooks the San Elijo Lagoon and is surrounded by a wildlife preserve that stretches to the Pacific Ocean.

Through its Phase II Capital Campaign, Lux plans to add more than 25,000 square feet of galleries and classrooms. Once completed, the new building will also feature a hilltop plaza and a series of gardens climbing between the galleries and the Artist Pavilion.

Lux Art Institute is located at 1550 South El Camino Real in Encinitas, Calif. Hours are Thursday and Friday, 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and cost is $10 for two visits. For more information about donations, memberships, volunteer opportunities and more, visit http://www.luxartinstitute.org or call 760-436-6611.