Creating a space to ‘Gossip’ with local artists
Seven local, female artists redefine gossip as the empowering act of sharing personal stories with their community
Written by Sam Barney-Gibbs, Edited by Lauren J. Mapp
Amber Schnitzius works in health insurance. She calls it her “boring job,” but it supports her creative side hustle as a ceramic artist.
Much like her knack for crunching numbers, Schnitzius was obsessed with fine-tuning her pottery skills. She said she wanted to make the same thing over and over again, almost as if they were machine-made.
“I wanted to get to a point where you couldn't tell a human made it,” Schnitzius said. “I wanted to be so precise.”
But, after years of selling and showing off this functional pottery — things like mugs, bowls and cups — she noticed people weren’t resonating with it. She yearned for that connection, and at the same time, her craft started feeling more like work than making art.
Schnitzius noticed that people gravitated to the random, wonky, test products in her studio that looked more human-made and imperfect.
One day, many years after beginning her ceramic journey in high school, Schnitzius sat down to make a coil pot: a vessel she hadn’t attempted since college. The style — made by stacking and smoothing coils of clay — dates back to the Early Neolithic era, when artists lacked modern equipment. But to Schnitzius, it hadn’t been precise or functional enough to devote energy.
Trying it again years later, she felt differently.
“It's slowing me down. It's more intuitive. I'm getting more into my hands, out of my head,” Schnitzius said, explaining her feelings behind the experience.
She said this was her catalyst to create more organic, ornamental and sculptural art.
Schnitzius hadn’t made any pottery since 2024, but she designated a dark, quiet corner of her apartment to create meaningful art when her first group exhibition opportunity arose.
Vases she made, along with the multidisciplinary work of six other local, female artists, are featured in Gossip, an art exhibition running through April 26 at Union Hall Gallery in Golden Hill.
More than 100 friends, family and San Diego art lovers convened in the sunset-lit studio for the opening reception Saturday night.
Schnitzius met the curator for Gossip, Scarlett Baily, when they both worked at Liberty Station. Baily was painting a mural on the building Schnitzius made pottery in, and they quickly became close friends. Later, Baily introduced the idea of a self-produced gallery show to Schnitzius, as they empathized with the struggle of finding gallery space in San Diego.
Friends, family and art-lovers gather to celebrate art by seven local, female artists in the Gossip exhibition. Three of the artists who participated in the Gossip art exhibition line up while answering questions at Union Hall Gallery on Saturday, April 4, 2026. From left to right, Baily Ludwick, Alexa Cayúque and Amber Schnitzius. Sam Barney-Gibbs/Daylight San Diego
Schnitzius told Daylight that Los Angeles tends to offer more exhibition opportunities, whereas the few in San Diego often come with strict thematic constrictions.
Baily said the concept behind Gossip was to liberate her and her artistic friends from rules on themes and flashy show ideas. She said people tend to think of gossip as “talking smack,” but she feels it’s actually about being honest in sharing personal stories with others.
The seven participating artists included multidisciplinary and sculpture artist Alexa Cayúque, oil painter Baily Ludwick, poet Iyari Arteaga, photographers Sarai Elguezabal and Stefania Hernandez, Schnitzius and Baily.
“It was all inclusive,” Baily said. “Whatever you feel like you need to vent about or get off your chest, or if there's art that you've been too scared to show, now is your time.”
Though Baily is a participating artist in the exhibition and also the curator, she said she felt more like a producer. She didn’t select any of the art and didn’t know what pieces would be included until a week before the exhibition opening, giving the artists full liberty to show what they wished.
Curator and participating artist Scarlett Baily speaks to a gallery full of people with the participating artists at Union Hall Gallery, including in front of her piece her piece, “When Time Becomes Naked,” (left), on Saturday, April 4, 2026. Sam Barney-Gibbs/Daylight San Diego
“There's so much freedom in just being part of the show that has a theme around gossip,” Schnitzius said. “The theory behind that is being unmasked as a woman in a safe space with other women and expressing yourself in no defined terms.”
The women met primarily as artists, Baily said, but their conversations shifted slowly from talking about art to sharing vulnerable personal experiences, including relationship issues, troubling family dynamics, health problems and professional curve balls.
She said the group’s art was the outlet to understand their tough times, and their conversations started to shape all their creative work.
“It was almost like my canvases turned into that same friend that I was talking to,” Baily said. “(We were) gossiping and looking for answers or looking for insight to help understand the troubles of being human.”
Elguezabal said her work documents her journey through cancer, especially the ways her mind and body were healing once in remission.
She completed the project in 2025, but something kept her from showing it.
“I didn't even show it to any of my family,” Elguezabal said. “It was so precious, and I martyred it so much, and within time, I was able to open up.”
She said the exhibition’s theme helped her feel comfortable, calm and emotionally raw.
Arteaga said she related to this feeling — being ritually present and observant through continuous writing is a core part of her process.
“For me, writing poetry is almost like a somatic release of uncovering what I may house in my own body and emotions — what I may be going through,” she said.
One of Baily’s contributions to the exhibition features “The Masks Series,” a triad of colorful oil paintings sharing the emotional embodiment of the ways she coped through a turbulent adolescence by displaying emotions that hid her true feelings.
This was opening night guest Li Bauer’s favorite part of the exhibition. They have met Baily only in passing, but said her friendly energy inspired them to take a break from constant studying and try to combat burnout.
“You can feel so much emotion from a picture that's supposed to reveal that it's hiding an emotion,” Bauer said.
If more art shows were free and open to the public, they said art events would be much more enticing.
Baily hopes to do just that by continuing to provide spaces where artists can freely express narratives not often shared in popular media, like the concept behind Gossip.
“San Diego is hungry for more art,” Baily said. “This is hopefully the first of many shows…I’m already cooking up my next idea.”
The gallery is open to the public Thursday through Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., and guided visits can be booked online. Events will also be hosted among the art, including a drink and draw on April 11, a poetry workshop on April 12, a sound bath on April 18, music and refreshments on April 19, and a closing jam session on April 26.
