There are art exhibitions, and then there are exhibitions that feel like uncovering something that was never meant to stay hidden. Brothers in Arts: James Hubbell and Bert Hubbell at the Oceanside Museum of Art is firmly the latter.
A Tale of Two Brothers Who Chose Art Over Everything
James and Bert Hubbell were born in the 1930s, came of age in the shadow of World War II, and each made a radical decision to give their lives over to art. For them, it was a moral and spiritual response to a world that felt unstable and uncertain.
The paths they took couldn’t have been more different. James planted himself in Southern California, eventually building his own home and studios in Santa Ysabel, weaving together visual art, poetry, and philosophy inspired by the desert, Mexico, and the Pacific.
Bert, meanwhile, spent more than 50 years near Mt. Fuji in Japan, deeply shaped by Shinto and Animist traditions, as well as Native American art. He described himself as a “primitive artist” and produced an estimated 28,000 fantastical ceramic earth figures across his lifetime – never selling a single one.
Letters Across the Pacific
Despite the distance, the brothers stayed connected through written correspondence – letters that wrestled with big questions about art, humanity, and what it means to create in a broken world. You get the sense that these two were each other’s most important intellectual companions, even from opposite ends of the earth.
The exhibition’s final chapter is especially moving. Near the end of his life in 2024, James encouraged his grandsons to visit their great-uncle during a trip to Japan, only for them to find his home empty and Bert gravely ill in hospital.
Their last reunion happened over a video call. Neither could speak – they simply smiled and waved at each other one final time before passing away within weeks of each other.
What You’ll Find at OMA
Curated by James’ son Brennan Hubbell, the show brings together James’ watercolors, stained glass, sculpture, and poetry alongside Bert’s ceramic figures. Letters, journals, photographs, and sketches give the whole thing an intimate, deeply human feel.
It’s one of those exhibitions where the work and the story behind it are completely inseparable – and both are worth the drive up to Oceanside.
See you there!
Brothers in Arts is the kind of show that stays with you well after you’ve left the gallery – don’t sleep on making the trip to Oceanside this spring.
📆 On view: Saturday, April 11 – Sunday, September 6 | Exhibition Celebration: Saturday, May 2
📍 704 Pier View Way, Oceanside
🎟️ Get your tickets here
ℹ️ More info here
See you there, San Diego!