Ritz-Carlton Bacara SB Announces First Artist-in-Residence

The Ritz-Carlton Bacara Santa Barbara announced its first Artist-in-Residence, Benjamin Anderson, who had overseen the photography exhibit of Jean-Michel Cousteau at the Bacara in November 2023. Impressed with his work, they offered him this new position. He will be curating new art shows monthly in the hotel’s main lobby area.

Anderson has been a Santa Barbara-based fine art artist for 22 years, most known for his swimmers and objects in aqueous settings over the past 12 years. He studied at the Scuola Leonardo da Vinci in Florence via SB City College study abroad and received his BFA from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University. His main medium is large-scale oil-on-linen, mounted on panel. His art is shown in NYC, San Francisco, Venice, and Los Angeles. His commercial work has appeared in Elle Décor, as well as in the Target/Converse All-Stars ad campaign. His work has also been the subject of a presentation on London’s Channel 4 TV. 

I attended the opening of his first curated exhibit at the Bacara on Saturday, January 13, to coincide with the SB International Film Festival Kirk Douglas Award Gala. The exhibition, a nod to the movie industry, is on view through February 16th.

He selected Santa Barbara artist-photographers for the opening group show, Matt McGrath, Nick Presniakov (Montecito), Ted Rhodes,and Jean Ziesenhenne. 

Anderson and I talked about this new position at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara and how he was selected for it. He shared, “I work on the largest canvas I can and use a palette knife – makes it more sculptural. [The] water focus is based on its reflected quality as an abstract element in nature. It inspires me how things change and distort underwater and immersing yourself beyond physical beauty with your soul into it. The two works I have in this exhibit are – Bacara Eve done at evening hours at the Bacara swimming pool, and Cannonballer 44, which is the 44th cannonball painting I’ve done, inspired by both my boys jumping in a pool finding who could make the biggest splash. When they hit the water, they became abstract with colors distorted. These are 4’x6’. I’ve painted works 6’x18’, I like large-scale work because I feel it allows the viewer to connect with it physically, and dive in.”

McGrath showed me his work titled, Phantom of the Opening, a color photograph of the Arlington Theatre Marquee, and said, “It’s on my primary medium of analog film photography image. This work is a double exposure of flowers in a dark room and overlaid on the Arlington Theatre at twilight during the 2022 SBIFF. This is made on expired 1993 Kodak ISO 200 film, using a Canon AE1 camera with a 35mm lens.”McGrath has been featured in several publications, including Pamplemousse Magazine and La Periodique. 

Presniakov exhibited works from his Darth Vader holiday in Santa Barbara series officially titled, Dark Holiday; a whimsical view of the dark lord lounging on the beach and doing touristy things. He shared with me that the series was launched a while back, during the period of flagging interest in Star Wars and prior to the new series. It was featured on Trend Hunter and tweeted by Pepsi and peeps worldwide. His client work includes Hoka and Patagonia, and his artistic work has been featured in Condé Nast, WIRED, and more.

Rhodes is a photographer/musician/activist who previously worked in Hollywood as a Key Grip. His works on exhibit here clearly show the view of a Unit Still photo on set, with vignettes of scenes from daily life that yet possess a cinematic quality. For the past ten years, he has been one of the official photographers for the Santa Barbara Blues Society. Ziesenhenne is a local fine art photographer who also runs the Santa Barbara Film Co-op. She uses double exposures on film to express the interconnections between nature and the human experience. 

Guests seen at the exhibit were Leigh-Anne Anderson, Sean Anderson, Brittany Presniakov, Whitt Hollis, and Geoffrey Slaff, and Dale Zurawski Slaff of Montecito.  

411: www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/sbarz-the-ritz-carlton-bacara-santa-barbara
www.benjaminanderson.com