On View

Foster + Partners: Architecture of Light and Space

Through August 10, 2025

See architectural models and designs by Foster + Partners, the global design team led by Lord Norman Foster, one of the most esteemed international architects of our time and recipient of the prestigious Pritzker Prize for Architecture. This exhibition showcases the team’s award-winning designs and innovations in sustainability, while demonstrating that rejuvenated spaces can respectfully incorporate the past and also integrate natural lighting and optimal views of the surrounding sky and landscape.

On View at MOPA@SDMA

Women in Focus

Through July 13, 2025

Discover the impact of women in photography. This survey of the history of photography demonstrates the pivotal role women have played in the medium since its invention in the 1830s. See 100 works, ranging from a daguerreotype from 1848 by Eliza Balch to more modern works that have broken boundaries across genres.

MOPA@SDMA remains a pay-what-you-wish museum open Thursdays through Sundays 11:00 a.m.– 5:00 p.m. in Balboa Park inside the Casa de Balboa building across from the Lily Pond.

On View

Ruud van Empel: Theatre

Through July 27, 2025

Free Gallery

Enjoy large-scale dreamlike landscapes by renowned photographer Ruud van Empel in his first solo show at the Museum. The eight fantastical landscapes on view invite viewers to perceive the world with fascination and even disbelief as they ponder photography’s relationship to truth.

On View

For the People: Modern Printmaking in Mexico

Through August 10, 2025

Explore the central role printmaking has played in the development of the visual arts in modern Mexico, from early devotional engravings of the 1600s to the satirical lithographs of José Guadalupe Posada around 1900. This intimate exhibition shares 18 works by the Taller de Gráfica Popular, an artists’ collective with shared goals of promoting social justice and combating the global rise of fascism through art. See artwork by Rufino Tamayo, Leopoldo Méndez, Elizabeth Catlett, and more.

On View

american minimal

March 8–June 1, 2025

Both a tribute and an introduction to Minimalism in the US, american minimal showcases work by a passing generation of Minimalist greats as well as contemporary artists continuing the art movement. The exhibition also includes photographs by Arnold Newman of Minimalist pioneers across genres. Explore nuances in monochrome, the beautiful square, color and line, forms in space, balance in black, capturing the culture, sound and concrete poetry, and california light and space.

MOPA is now MOPA@SDMA

As of July 1, 2023, the Museum of Photographic Arts and The San Diego Museum of Art have merged to become one unified institution. The Museum of Photographic Arts is now the Museum of Photographic Arts at The San Diego Museum of Art (MOPA@SDMA).

MOPA@SDMA remains a pay-what-you-wish museum open Thursdays through Sundays 11:00 a.m.– 5:00 p.m. in Balboa Park inside the Casa de Balboa building across from the Lily Pond.