Archive for the ‘SG EXHIBITIONS’ Category

What I Said / What I Meant to Say

Art Ltd magazine published a “Spotlight on Santa Barbara” feature this month to tell the story of various developments in the art scene of Santa Barbara. I recommend reading it if you want a good sense of what’s cooking up here.

It also seems worth taking a moment to correct myself.

Here’s what I (apparently) said, “[the gallery is not interested in deciding what’s good or bad based on whether the work is representational or abstract.” I (apparently) went on, “This rejection of the idea that the narrative of art in American inevitably leads to the triumph of abstraction dates to a very specific moment, which is when Alfred Barr acquired Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World for the Museum of Modern Art in 1948. Art historically speaking, that decision is our point of departure, so naturally, this Andrew Wyeth show is important to us, because it represents what we are all about.” For the record, the painting was purchased in 1949. While we’re correcting misunderstandings, I am not, in fact, the curator, though I am quite proud of the show.

What I meant to say is that the gallery does not stake out a particular position between abstraction and representation. We believe that rich results can be had from either approach. In some sense, the Andrew Wyeth exhibition embodies the idea, since it was Alfred Barr’s private acquisition of Christina’s World that upended the midcentury thought that representational art was on its way out. That’s what I should have said.

A big thank you to Art Ltd and to the writer, Charles Donelan, for their efforts to focus a little attention on the 805.

 

Art in the Adobes

augustgaymural

It was a joyously busy week. The last post concerned the Ken Price opening. This one concerns Art in the Adobes - a festival in Monterey (town motto: We Have a Two Festival per Weekend Minimum).  Sullivan Goss had two shows up for the festival, “Collecting Moonlight: the Night Paintings of Lockwood de Forest (1850-1932)” at the Museum of Monterey and “Moods of Monterey: Rediscovered Artist Lockwood de Forest” in the Casa Guitierrez.

I thought that you might enjoy these two pictures. One is of a trés swanky bathroom at La Mirada (the second facility of the Monterey Museum of Art) and the other is an installation shot of the de Forest exhibition at the Casa Guitierrez. Enjoy!

montereylamiradabathroommontereydeforestinstallation

 

It has NOT been a year…

arttype1(Okay, it HAS been a year - or, at all events, ALMOST a year, which is just a year plus or minus some quibbling.)

Bless me reader, for I have sinned.  It has been almost a year since my last digression.

I was mortified to learn that there are people who FOLLOW my blog.  They were mild-mannered in their complaints, but I took their concerns to heart.  I urged them to consider that there HAD been updates (Did they visit this page or this one?   This page has been updated since October of 2010.), but dumb excuses fell on deaf years.

SO.  A new update.  This picture was taken just two days ago.  I am the arty-looking type in the black suit standing close to a friend of mine at the opening of my new LA’s RISEN exhibition.

I have so much to add, but I’ll need material for next June.  Until then, keep the faith.  Keep the lights on.  Keep on truckin’.  And, if you don’t wanna, keep it to yourself.

 

I (Heart) Geometry, Too…

geometricabstraction3So, I’ve been working pretty hard on the Geometric Abstraction show that just opened at the gallery.  It’s been a passion of mine for some time now.

It could be:

  • my early (and absurd) love of Legos
  • the particular symptom set of my mild OCD
  • my fetish for the style and optimism of midcentury art, architecture, and design
  • my background in computer-aided graphic design

but for some reason, I have always loved geometric abstraction.

Still, I didn’t quite expect HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of Santa Barbarans to respond the same way.  I received dozens of e-mails and even two tweets about the success of the exhibition.

I will post exhibition photos as they become available. Special thanks to Ken Bortolazzo, Nancy Gifford, Zack Paul, and John Moses for their help in making the show such a resounding success.

 

Just Measure It In Column Inches

The most recent edition of SCENE in the Santa Barbara News Press contains a review of THE LAST NEW CENTURY exhibition written by Josef Woodard. I like Joe. He is a good writer, a good musician, and a tireless promoter and provocateur of music and art in my little community. Even so, his new review left several good-sized welts.

I quote from the man himself:

…the show is a conceptually lubed marshaling of available resources.

Cooper’s paintings here delve into tourist-exotic schtick, with fussy postcard views of a Bangkok temple and the Taj Mahal.

The Mission appears stately, iconic, SMUG and sunwashed.

Okay, all of us are wondering how a building can adopt an attitude of smugness. That bit seems… spicy for the sake of being spicy. The jab at Cooper’s Orientalist paintings is a bit more fair, but it also seems fair to mention that global tourism for the upper middle class was an invention of the period (1880-1920), which would seem to merit inclusion. From today’s perspective, they might be a little schmaltzy, but isn’t a little historical perspective in order? The conceptually lubed marshaling of available resources comment was smart and perceptive; it just stung.

I am very pleased that my show was serious enough to merit a serious review. Thanks Joe.