Tag archives: exhibit
Family, friends and art lovers all packed into the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art to celebrate the 14 graduating art majors who presented their capstone projects in Reencounter on April 9. The exhibition, featuring a class of artists ready to make their mark on the world, will remain open through May 9. Near the museum […]
What happens when ocean mist meets mountain light? When a brush meets canvas, and local talent meets natural wonders? Where the Mountains Meet the Sea, a new exhibition of landscape paintings by 12 predominately Santa Barbara-based artists, is soon to be on view from January 22 through March 29, 2026. This absolutely ‘must see’ display, […]
Someone unwisely humblebrags about their artistic skills and you take the bait. When they obligingly doodle a horse on the back of an envelope, it looks like a spider scrawled with the wrong hand by a tilt-a-whirl drunk wearing a blindfold. You nod and fail to sound convincing, which you later regret. “Wow. Now that […]
If you live in Santa Barbara or the surrounding area, you’re likely no stranger to the thunderous boom that follows late-night rocket launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base. While the noise can be jarring, watching those rockets streak into the night sky is undeniably thrilling. If you’re like me, those launches have probably sparked your […]
Marianna Victoria Mashek is a Santa Barbara native, a Santa Barbara High School Don, and studied Studio Art at UCSB. She later studied Arts Administration at Antioch University, worked for the Santa Barbara Arts Council and Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, and Santa Barbara City College. If you detect a theme you’re not mistaken – […]
A coup for the Elverhøj Museum is its upcoming major exhibit of works by 98 years young artist Roland Petersen [b.1926, Denmark]. The exhibit, titled The Visual Feast, is on view from October 26 through January 5. The critically-lauded Petersen has been painting for five decades, and continues to create, producing art in his Bay […]
Beloved local restaurant/living room Via Vai lost its Upper Village lease following a three-decade run. As the longtime crew tearily bade their homestead farewell, artist Carlos Pillado moved about the twilit rooms in a cloud of memory, carefully removing his art from the walls. “The day that I took down my paintings, I cried. That […]
Duncan Simcoe, a Southern California artist and former chair of the College of Architecture, Visual Arts and Design at California Baptist University in Riverside, offers his signature limited-palette paintings on dark construction-grade tar paper in Night Visions: The Black Drawings of Duncan Simcoe, 2014-2024 from Aug. 29 to Nov. 9 in the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum […]
Society Invites was invited by Natalie Olivas Sanchez, owner of the Helena Mason Art Gallery, to meet with their newest artist, Luca Barberini (b. 1981, Ravenna, Italy) and view his works before he returned to Italy. His exhibition, titled Inner Landscapes, is on view through October. It was fab to reconnect with Sanchez; its #beenaminute, […]
Lotusland is holding its annual fundraising duo of an art exhibition and gala. Good news art lovers, the exhibition and art works for sale are online through July 20. If you are attending the sold out Lotusland Celebrates: The Way of the Lotus gala this Saturday, you can select and purchase artwork along the garden […]
Experience 45 of the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art’s recent acquisitions at a stunning summer show. The exhibition features works by three dozen artists, including Americans Richard Artschwager, Laddie John Dill, and Louisiana Bendolph of the Gee’s Bend quilters, contemporary Chinese artist Yue Minjun, and numerous local artists. New Acquisitions: Selections from the Modern and […]
Sullivan Goss’ new exhibition celebrates mid-Spring with a splash of color and a bit of buoyancy, turning the downtown gallery into a Wonderland with both new works by the gallery’s regularly represented artists and pieces from four artists who have never shown there before. The latter group includes Roland Petersen, the Danish-born painter whose works […]
A New Yorker, iconoclast, and pioneering expressionist painter and printmaker, Cecily Barth Firestein’s “career” as an artist paralleled – and was subordinate to – what she would surely have described as her first calling of wife and mother. Therein lies a story. Firestein’s large format wonders will be on display in the Funk Zone’s communal […]
There is something very exciting happening at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum! Of course, there are always exciting things going on at SBMM, however this is something very special to be enjoyed (and loved!) by the entire family. Having opened on Wednesday, February 8th, the Maritime Museum’s new exhibit, ICE BEAR, puts on display a […]
Hopi Katsina dolls, carved and colorfully decorated wooden figures, are more than just beautiful works of art: They represent Katsinam spirits believed to bring blessings of good health, growth and fertility. A unique exhibition, celebrating the resurgence of a traditional carving method, features dozens of the Katsina (or “Kachina” to non-Hopi people) dolls and is […]
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 […]
Paris Chong, Gallery Manager and Curator of the prestigious Leica Gallery Los Angeles since 2013, curated an exhibition dedicated to a select group of accomplished and diverse Leica photographers, titled, Faces of Leica L.A. on view at the Ren Gallery [the Leica Annex] in the L.A. Arts District through November 30. I was invited and […]
I attended the opening of an exhibition at the Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) titled New Landscapes Part I, which is on view through December 8. The artists exhibiting are Whitney Bedford, Diedrick Brackens, Manuel López, Cruz Ortiz, Jonathan Ryan,and Jonas Wood. The exhibition was conceived and curated by Atkinson Gallery Director […]
The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art’s most popular exhibition and fundraiser returns to Montecito on Nov. 30 to Dec. 15, offering viewers an opportunity to see and bid on more than 675, small five-inch-square works by regional, national, and international artists. The museum hosts a free, public opening reception on Thursday, Nov. 30, from 4 […]
It’s two for the price of one at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art with a duo of new exhibitions. Shape, Ground, Shadow: The Photographs of Ellsworth Kelly, as well as Flowers on a River: The Art of Chinese Flower-and-Bird Painting 1368-1911, Masterworks from the Tianjin Museum and the Changzhou Museum, have just opened. Shape […]



