Phoebe Brunner, “Silver Threads,” oil on canvas, 30 x 54.”
Sullivan Goss Gallery presents new work by acclaimed local artist Phoebe Brunner in her second solo exhibition for the gallery, titled “Breathe.” The show opens April 5, with a 1st Thursday reception from 5-8 p.m.
The gallery describes Brunner’s latest body of vibrant work as “connecting to the earth around us as it regenerates from a long lack of rain. Poppies explode, scattering their seeds to the wind for the next season of flowers. Roads lead through winding hills verdant with fresh grass. Clouds settle in to canyons to coat the hills with moisture. While her views are primarily imaginative, we are drawn to them by sense of memory for a place we have visited or more accurately, the familiarity of worlds we have wandered in our dreams. This remarkable group of paintings reminds us to take a collective breath. Spring is coming, bringing regeneration and a continuation of nature’s endless cycle.”
Phoebe Brunner, “Rain, Happy Hour,” oil on canvas, 30 x 22.”
Brunner earned a BFA from UCSB and trained at Otis Art Institute, Chouinard Art Institute and the University of Guadalajara. She has been exhibiting in the Santa Barbara area for 40 years and brings a local’s knowledge of the terrain together with a visionary artist’s sense of interpretation.
Beach Shack by Kevin Gleason. Image courtesy SCAPE.
Enjoy beautiful art and support a good cause at “Visions of the Gaviota Coast,” the Sixth Annual SCAPE Art Benefit for Gaviota Coast Conservancy and Naples Coalition. Held at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara Resort and Spa (8301 Hollister Ave., Goleta), the art sale goes from Friday, March 30 at 2 p.m. through Saturday, March 31 at 5 p.m. The two-day exhibit features a reception on Friday (5-8 p.m.) with live music, silent auction, appetizers and wine with donation.
More than 150 Southern California Artists Painting for the Environment (SCAPE) artists and fine art photographer Reeve Woolpert will participate in this benefit art exhibition showcasing the stunning Gaviota Coast. Painter and exhibit juror Richard Schloss has many years of collaboration with the renowned Oak Group artists. The funds raised will assist Gaviota Coast Conservancy and the Naples Coalition in continuing their successful efforts to protect this majestic 72 miles of open coastline, providing a pristine habitat for over 1,400 species, including the endangered snowy plover. Forty percent of all art sales will benefit the two nonprofit organizations.
Gaviota Coast Conservancy and Naples Coalition have recently achieved big victories towards the protection and preservation of the Gaviota Coast. Ritz-Carlton Bacara Resort and Spa is hosting the event, and donating an overnight stay and spa treatment for the raffle (no need to be present to win). “We consider it an honor to call the Gaviota Coast our home,” says Shashi Poudyal, general manager. “Bacara will continue to partner with the Gaviota Coast Conservancy to be a great steward of this land.”
Free parking is provided (follow the signs), or you can valet park.
Paintings in the Wildling Museum show The River’s Journey: One Year, Six Artists, 92 Miles include work by (clockwise from top left): Holli Harmon, Pamela Zwehl-Burke, Nicole Strasburg, Nina Warner, Connie Connally and Libby Smith.
SIX LOCAL ARTISTS have pooled their talents around one very big idea—our communal connection to and responsibility for our water resources—uniting their unique points of view in a new exhibit, The River’s Journey: One Year, Six Artists, 92 Miles, on view at the Wildling Museum of Art & Nature through July 9.
Initially joining together to experiment with the lesser-known medium of gouache (an opaque watercolor paint), the group— which includes Connie Connally, Holli Harmon, Libby Smith, Nicole Strasburg, Nina Warner and Pamela Zwehl-Burke—is united in a quest to use their art to inform the public about how the Santa Ynez River and the watershed functions and our individual responsibility to protect its viability.
Rose Compass artists (L-R): Nicole Strasburg, Connie Connally, Libby Smith, Holli Harmon, Pamela Zwehl-Burke and Nina Warner. After the exhibition ends in July, it will travel later in 2018 to Santa Barbara City Hall and Sullivan Goss Gallery. Photo by Monica Wiesblott.
“Originally, I was just enthralled with the medium of gouache,” says Strasburg, who saw the potential through the work of artist Thomas Paquette, who had a wilderness-themed show at the Wildling and also has some paintings in The River’s Journey. As Strasburg dug deeper into the subject matter of the watershed, “it became about so much more than painting the landscape.…I just keep reading and researching and discovering new connections.”
The group, now known as Rose Compass (named for the flower-shaped figure on a map and “like the compass rose, our work reflects our individual points of view”), is very dedicated to the project. “The three devoted plein air artists have gone out every single Monday for the past two years to paint the water in the area,” says Strasburg.
Libby Smith, Measuring Stick, Alder Creek.
They routinely post their musings and progress on the project on the website (rose-compass.com) and are working to secure additional venues to showcase the breadth and depth of their work on The River’s Journey, which visually brings to the forefront questions of stewardship, preservation and conservation.
“Art starts the conversation while providing education and information that can change behavior and expectations at a pivotal moment in our new paradigm of water resource management,” says their collective artist statement. “When artists, scientists and water managers work together, we create a powerful and compelling message that moves the community to make better ecological and civic choices. Awareness, conservation, stewardship and collaboration will all be key to the new paradigm of protecting this resource and ensuring the longevity and viability of our entire community.”
Wildling Museum of Art & Nature is located at 1511-B Mission Dr., Solvang. For more information, call 805/688-1082 or visit wildlingmuseum.org.
“The delineated characteristics of Jo Merit’s paintings and the fine craftmanship of Douglas Dafoe’s geometric wood wall sculptures drive the title of the show,” writes Ziegler. “Complementing their precise line work, we have Katarzyna Kociomyk’s lush boats at rest on the water and Charlie Patton’s large and small expressive paintings.”
Join the artists for the reception on Friday, March 16, from 5-8 p.m. The artists will speak about their work at 6 p.m.
The show remains on view through May 13.
—Leslie Dinaberg
Charlie Patton, “Misty Copeland Two Slippers,” oil on canvas.
Jo Merit, “At The Dark End Of The Street,” acrylic on canvas.
Katarzyna Kociomyk, “Cast In Bronze,” oil on canvas.
Douglas Dafoe, “untitled,” wood with copper paint.
“We are a world in flux. In this consistent state of change, finding a path to calm is almost impossible. It takes effort to keeping ourselves upright and moving forward, while this drift and unknowingness takes all our energy. We all feel now as if in constant motion both physically and emotionally. For Marian Crostic, finding that peace comes at the waters edge,” states event organizer Crista Dix.
Tidal Impressions #1 by Marian Crostic.
Crostic’s series is an abstract vision of the waters edge, the organic connection between liquid and solid. This high contrast work belies its softness, with striking emphasis on the graphic and non-linear patterns in nature.
Marian Crostic made the career change from the fashion world to photography over a decade ago. Turning her creativity from fabrics towards imagery, this group of photographs fundamentally started taking shape and vision on her morning walks along Venice Beach. Meditative in nature the series is about importance of seeing ones own environment with a present, reflective and introspective eye.
Come from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday March 16for an informal talk with Crostic about this beautiful work.
For more information about Sea Change, wall space creative and Marian Crostic or to see a portfolio of works please contact wall space gallery at 805/232-5428 or gallery@wallspacecreative.com.
Heroes photo, courtesy Santa Barbara Summer Solstice.
The 2018 Summer Solstice Parade & Festival theme is HEROES, which is certainly an apt choice for our community right now.
The organizers state, “we are so grateful and beyond moved by our local heroes and all of the beauty that has been shown by hundreds of emergency professionals and firefighters who have come to Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties to fight the Thomas Fire that has wreaked havoc on our area. Now with the recent mudslides in Montecito we are again finding heroes everywhere: in our neighbors, our community businesses and growing within ourselves.”
The theme was selected from more than 100 suggestions.
Organizers are now accepting artwork submissions for the 2018 Poster & T-shirt Contest. The deadline for submissions is Thursday, February 15, at 5 p.m.
The artist selected will win a $500 prize.
Submit up to three images (jpeg format, 72 dpi) by email, with titles, to soladmin@solsticeparade.com.
Don’t forget to include your name, address and phone number, as well as the email headline “2018 Poster & T-shirt Contest.”
Works are encouraged to support the Solstice 2018 theme: “Heroes,” though all artwork submitted will be considered.
The 2018 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) offers 200+ films representing 58 countries, 45 World premieres, and 53 U.S. premieres, along with tributes with the year’s top talent, panel discussions, and free community education and outreach programs.
Below is the list of world premiere features at the 2018 SBIFF.
For the complete list of films, synopses, and other special events please visit sbiff.org and download the SBIFF app for the latest updates and schedule changes.
Large crowds flocked to the 5×5 exhibition in 2014, photo courtesy Westmont College.
An update from Westmont College : Small works of art from several hundred artists from around the country will be auctioned during “5X5: Celebrating Westmont College’s 80th Anniversary” at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. The online auction will begin Thursday, Jan. 11, at westmontmuseum.org and last until Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. However, due to the destruction in the local community from mudslides, an opening reception will be delayed until Thursday, Jan. 18, from 4-6 p.m. The opening reception, which includes coffee and cake, is free and open to the public. This is the largest fundraiser of the year for the museum.
Several hundred small works of art from artists from around the country will be auctioned during “5X5: Celebrating Westmont College’s 80th Anniversary” at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art from Jan. 11-26.
The online auction kicks off with an opening reception on Thursday, Jan. 11, from 4-6 p.m., and bidding will continue until Jan. 26 at 5 p.m. The opening reception, which includes refreshments, is free and open to the public.(Event delayed due to flooding) All proceeds from the event will go towards the museum.Artists were invited to create a unique work of art on a five-inch square piece of paper which they received and returned to the museum by mail.
The exhibition features renowned artists Christo, Charles Arnoldi and Chris Raschka along with local luminaries Tony Askew, Mary Heebner, Penelope Gottlieb, Dane Goodman, Richard Aber and author T.C. Boyle.
In the past, the auction has raised upwards of $20,000 for the museum.
“We have been looking forward to bringing the 5×5 exhibition back and Westmont’s 80th Anniversary is the perfect way to celebrate,” says Judy Larson, R. Anthony Askew professor of art history and museum director. “It’s a great opportunity to support the museum’s programs, meet new artists and connect with old friends.”
For more information, visit westmontmuseum.org or contact the museum at 805/565-6162. Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art is located at 955 La Paz Rd. It is free and is open to the public Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed Sundays and college holidays.
Image: Chiura Obata, Grand Canyon, May 15, 1940, Watercolor on silk, Amber and Richard Sakai Collection, courtesy UCSB ADA&A Museum.
UCSB Art Design & Architecture Museum has three terrific winter exhibits opening this month. Chiura Obata: An American Modern is on view Jan. 13-April 29 and features the work of Chiura Obata, one of the most significant Japanese American artists of the last century. Also on view during that same time period is Jane Gottlieb Photographs France, featuring thevibrantly colored, energetic cibachrome vision of Jane Gottlieb, a local artist whose work has been exhibited widely and featured in Santa Barbara Seasons.
Also opening on Jan. 13 and on view through April 1 is art by the late Keith Puccinelli, whose renowned work has been featured in Santa Barbara Seasons and whorecently passed away.
The opening reception for all shows takes place on Jan. 12, from 5:30–7:30 p.m. at UCSB Art Design & Architecture Museum, 552 University Rd., UCSB.
About Chiura Obata
Born in Okayama, Japan, and working primarily in California, Obata emigrated to the U.S. in 1903 and embarked on a seven-decade career that saw not only the growth of an international American art but also xenophobic laws and the mass incarceration of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. Obata emerged as a leading figure in Northern California’s art scene, serving as an influential art professor at the University of California Berkeley for 22 years, and as a founding director of art schools at the Tanforan Assembly Center in California and the Topaz Relocation Center in Utah during the Japanese American Internment (1942–45).
Chiura Obata: An American Modern surveys Obata’s rich and varied oeuvre, featuring more than 150 superb works of art, many of which have never been on public display. Drawing from private and public collections, the retrospective showcases representative works from every decade of Obata’s career and presents them under thematic groupings in a loosely chronological order.
The many smaller, never-shown works in this retrospective illustrate Obata’s tireless pursuit of better techniques and devoted appreciation of the detail of everyday life.
“With a prodigious and expansive oeuvre, Obata’s seemingly effortless mastery of, and productive engagement with, diverse techniques, styles, and traditions defy the seemingly incompatible categorizations of what we have come to define as ‘American/European’ and ‘Japanese/Asian’ art,” says Professor ShiPu Wang, curator of the exhibition. “Obata’s faith in the power of art, his devotion to preserving the myriad grandeur of what he called ‘Great Nature,’ and his compelling personal story as an immigrant and an American all make Obata and his art as relevant to our contemporary moment as ever.”
Jane Gottlieb, Brancusi Head, 2017, photo-based art, archival dye sublimation print on aluminum, 40 x 60 in.
About Jane Gottlieb
Jane Gottlieb is a photographer living in Southern California, where she was born and raised. In her early 20s she made her first trip by herself as a young professional to Paris. The images she took then, and in many subsequent trips, have been a touchstone of her life’s work. She has returned to them again and again in the last decades, changing them progressively to meet her vision of France as the technology available to her has advanced.
Gottlieb’s vision of France is not like anyone else’s. It is riotous in color, hyper-vibrant in energy, and deeply Californian, shot through with a purely Mexican palette. When she discovered the possibility of hand painting cibachrome prints she had the tools to change the world to match her vision. Printing from her library of color slides, she could brighten them up and give them a new exciting life. The possibility of saturated, unrealistic color was released from Pandora’s box, not to cause trouble but to irritate the eye like a grain of sand in an oyster, producing pearls of perception.
The exhibition includes 20 works by Gottlieb, which survey both the development of her techniques and the specific motifs she has concentrated on in France. The photographs range in date from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s, and the prints from the early 1980s to the present. In addition, the exhibition includes, by way of contrast, late 19th-century photographs and postcards, which express the typical way photographers and visitors have viewed France, and highlight the originality of Gottlieb’s images.
With the cibachromes and then her digital prints, the power of Gottlieb’s vision has been widely recognized. Her work has been exhibited internationally and locally, from Basel, Lisbon, London, Paris, Rome, and Milan, to New York City and Denver, and in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Gottlieb’s work resonates across a broad range of viewers and interests.
Keith Puccinelli, Chesire Cat, 1998, ink on paper, 6 x 4 in.
About Keith Puccinelli
To announce the extraordinary gift of works and an archive by Keith Puccinelli as well as the recent establishment of The Frances Garvin and Keith Julius Puccinelli Endowed Fund, the AD&A Museum is mounting a celebratory exhibition. Featuring Keith Puccinelli’s work and selections from the couple’s personal collection, this exhibition is a modest installation in anticipation of a larger, forthcoming presentation of this incredible donation. Including a selection of Keith Puccinelli’s drawings, sculptures, sketchbooks, graphic designs and art by local and international folk artists, this installation underscores how this couple, recently deceased, lived an inspired, creative life.
Admission to UCSB Art, Design & Architecture is always free. The Museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays and open to the public from noon-5 p.m. daily, except Thursdays, when it is open from noon to 8 p.m.
Tuesday, November 28 is designated as #GivingTuesday, when those who are able are urged to make donations to support local nonprofits. Now entering its sixth year, #GivingTuesday is a global day of giving—as a counterpoint to Black Friday and Cyber Monday buying—that celebrates and supports giving and philanthropy and is fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.
Here’s something to consider when you make those donations: not only is art good for the soul, it’s good for the wallet.
Did you know that Santa Barbara County’s nonprofit arts and cultural organizations comprise a $200 million industry? According to a recent national study—Arts & Economic Prosperity 5, conducted by Americans for the Arts—which collected data from 250 regional partners, including Santa Barbara County, this number supports the equivalent of 5,857 local jobs and generates approximately generates $20 million in local and state tax revenue.
As Randy Cohen, Vice President of Americans for the Arts stated, in a recent presentation at the Santa Barbara County Arts Symposium, “When you invest in the arts you are not investing in a frill, you are investing in a healthier Santa Barbara.”
“Art is not the cherry on top of the split, it’s one of the bananas,” said Keynote Speaker and Mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu, sharing how the arts revitalized New Orleans post-Katrina.
According to the Americans for the Arts study section on Santa Barbara County:
Nonprofit arts and cultural event attendees spend an average of $28.25 per person (excluding the cost of admission).
Event-related spending by arts and cultural audiences totaled $72.3 million (excluding the cost of admission).
And if those numbers don’t grab you, there are some heartfelt stats that support the arts. According to another Americans for the Arts survey by Ipsos Public Affairs, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that the arts improve the quality of our personal lives and our communities.
63% believe the arts “lift me up beyond everyday experiences.”
73% say the arts are a “positive experience in a troubled world.”
64% feel “pure pleasure to experience and participate in the arts.”
67% percent believe “the arts unify our communities regardless of age, race and ethnicity.”
62% agree that the arts “help me understand other cultures better”
For more information about the Giving Tuesday initiative and to search participating nonprofits in the Santa Barbara area, visit www.givingtuesday.org.
Large crowds flocked to the 5×5 exhibition in 2014, photo courtesy Westmont College.
According to the Americans for the Arts study section on Santa Barbara County: