Tag archives: art

No Nudes and Good Nudes
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   July 19, 2022

In 1913, a show of “Modern Art” was held at the 69th Regimental Armory in New York City. One of the most controversial exhibits was by French artist, Marcel Duchamp, and was entitled Nude Descending a Staircase. To many viewers, this piece was quite shocking. In view of the title, you might think that the […]

Abstract Art at Mid-Century
By Lynda Millner   |   July 12, 2022

Larry J. Feinberg, Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Director of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, invited various folks to Going Global: Abstract Art at Mid-Century – the latest exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA). It features 35 works from the Museum’s permanent collection. It runs the gamut […]

In Pursuit of Beauty Exhibit Opens 
By Montecito Journal   |   June 7, 2022

The Santa Barbara Tennis Club’s art gallery, 2nd Fridays, will show Marianna Victoria Mashek’s exhibit In Pursuit of Beauty for the summer. 2nd Fridays features new local artists on the second Friday of every month, and showcases uplifting art and people to enrich and broaden the general and SBTC community. Mashek is a Santa Barbara […]

Clay Studio
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 2, 2022

Clay Studio Founder and Executive Director Patrick Hall credits working with clay for a dramatic shift in his life from an ADHD-addled kid who couldn’t focus, to one who runs a studio that serves as an artistic home and more to many members of our community.  “I couldn’t concentrate to even read a paragraph or […]

Mission Possible: I Madonnari Returns
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 31, 2022

Art intended to be much more ephemeral makes its heralded return this Memorial Day weekend as the I Madonnari Festival Street Painting event resumes its annual three-day takeover of the plaza in front of the Santa Barbara Mission after two years as a virtual event. It’s also the first festival since the retirement of Kathy […]

A Dip into Joy: Chidlaw’s ‘Pool Show’ at Sullivan Goss
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 31, 2022

Veteran Santa Barbara painter Patricia Chidlaw’s upcoming exhibition at Sullivan Goss isn’t her first solo show at the gallery during the pandemic. Elsewhere, Paradise was on display at the downtown space in mid-summer 2020, most of the pieces containing her usually sparsely populated scenes that favor urban and suburban landscapes, architectural spaces with a history […]

Media Arts & Tech Grad Shows on Display May 27 & June 2
By Joanne A Calitri and Zach Rosen   |   May 31, 2022

Dancing lights, clay formations, and wiggling dresses – just some of the many wonders being worked on at UCSB’s Media Arts & Technology Program (MAT). Attention techies x media artists (and just anyone curious): It is time for the annual MAT Grad shows featuring the latest inventions from their hardworking graduate students.  We recently attended […]

Painting the Stage
By Richard Mineards   |   May 31, 2022

Ensemble Theatre Company staged its tour-de-force one-man show Vincent at the New Vic, originally presented by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in March to sold-out audiences as it mounted its highly acclaimed Vincent Van Gogh exhibition. The play paints a thoughtful, imaginary scenario about one of the most famous names in the art world […]

Bobbi Bennett Back at Allora
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   May 24, 2022

Local artist, photographer, and art dealer Bobbi Bennett is once again partnering with Coast Village Road’s Allora by Laura owner Laura Dinning for a trunk show and reception. The installation includes Bennett’s fashion-editioned, deconstructed surfboards. Both vintage and new surfboards from top name brands including Rip Curl, Dennis Williams, Rockin Fig, and Channel Islands will […]

Members’ Art Exhibition
By Lynda Millner   |   May 24, 2022

The Santa Barbara Club and Art Foundation of Santa Barbara puts on a fun evening once a year. The walls of the Club are transformed with paintings of their members’ own art collections or personal work. In the program is a ballot for voting for Best Composition, Most Original, Most Creative, Best Use of Color, […]

Helena Mason Art Gallery Opens
By Joanne A Calitri   |   May 17, 2022

I was invited to attend the May 6th opening of the Helena Mason Art Gallery. The address – 48 Helena Avenue – brought me back to a 2005 world where, in that exact location, magic happened by underground artists and scientists, who spun their current creations late on Wednesday nights. If you know… you know. […]

Jazz Trio & Orchestra: Roberts’ Outrageous Range
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 17, 2022

Jazz is about a lot of things, not the least of which is the ability to improvise in connection with both the music and the other instrumentalists. That’s a Marcus Roberts Trio specialty, as the long-term partnership featuring pianist Roberts, drummer Jason Marsalis, and bassist Rodney Jordan share equally in shaping performances via changes in […]

The Sleuths Return
By Lynda Millner   |   May 10, 2022

After several years, Mystery in Masterpieces returned to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA). The event sold out in two days. President of the SBMA Women’s Board Julie Blair said this: “Excitement is in the air as Mystery in Masterpieces returns, bringing us together to celebrate a stunning exhibit of art from the Museum’s […]

DeVine Direction at Ensemble 
By Richard Mineards   |   May 3, 2022

Ensemble Theatre Company has a new head honcho. Following a national search, the New Vic-based organization has appointed Scott DeVine, who brings 20 years of theater management experience to the role, as its managing director. “Scott has skillfully managed complex artistic organizations and been responsible for ensuring theaters he has served have maintained a sound […]

Finding Focus and Fun on the ‘Fringe’
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 26, 2022

The pandemic pushed Westmont’s Fringe Festival into the virtual world in 2021 after forcing the festival to furlough completely the year before. So the 2022 version of the entirely student-created fest, which takes place all over the Christian college’s Montecito campus this weekend, April 21-24, is a brand new experience for all except seniors. Maybe […]

Painting Paradise
By Lynda Millner   |   April 26, 2022

Paradise Revisited is what artist Sandy Ostrau feels for Santa Barbara. There is a show of her works at the Thomas Reynolds Gallery from now until the end of May. The gallery is celebrating its one-year anniversary and is located a few doors away from the Arlington Theatre ticket booth, in the artsy part of […]

Tessmer Talks de Forest
By Richard Mineards   |   April 19, 2022

Social gridlock reigned in the courtyard of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum when Jeremy Tessmer, gallery director of Sullivan Goss, spoke on the life and works of Lockwood de Forest, 50 of whose paintings are currently being displayed through May 12. De Forest, who died in our Eden by the Beach in 1932, was not […]

The Illustrious Artworks of Michael Drury
By Zach Rosen   |   April 7, 2022

In his upcoming exhibit, Far and Near, at the Santa Barbara Fine Art Gallery, Michael Drury explores the illustrious landscapes of California, Nevada, and Ireland, immersing the viewer in these locations with his distinctive style of plein air painting. While this exhibit captures vistas far and near, Drury got his start in painting more near […]

The Essence of Paradise: Paradise Revisited Exhibit Opens April 2 with Artist Sandy Ostrau
By Joanne A Calitri   |   March 31, 2022

April 2 is the opening of an exhibit titled Paradise Revisited, by artist Sandy Ostrau, at the Thomas Reynolds Gallery on State Street downtown Santa Barbara. Ostrau, an abstract artist of 40 years and exhibiting for 15 years, graduated UCSB in 1982 with a Liberal Studies Degree comprised of art history, sociology, and economics. She […]

Home, Life, Loss
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 29, 2022

Home Within, the audio-visual collaborative performance piece from Syrian composer-clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad, was originally conceived of as an emotions-into-art response to the loss and longing of the Syrian conflict that has claimed more than 100,000 lives and sent about one-third of the Syrian people into exile. It grew out […]