Obsolescence: The Sculpture of Ed & Nancy Kienholz

A lecture given by James Glisson, Curator of Contemporary Art, held in conjunction with the exhibition “Scenes from a Marriage: Ed & Nancy Kienholz” (Jan. 29 – May 21, 2023)

John Yau and Joan Tanner in Conversation

Artist Joan Tanner joins acclaimed poet and art critic, John Yau, Professor of Critical Studies at Rutgers University, for a conversation. Tanner is currently the subject of a solo SBMA exhibition, "Out of Joint: Joan Tanner" (through May 14). Yau has edited the "Brooklyn Rail" and "Hyperallergic Weekend," and has authored some 50 books of poetry. Having been a voice in the art world since 1975 when he began writing art criticism, he is among the most well-known critics of contemporary art writing today. Yau and Tanner reflect on how to stay out of joint, that is how to avoid cliché and stilted ways of writing and artmaking.

Reading and Conversation – “Blue Skies” by T.C. Boyle

Returning to the Museum in what has become a much-anticipated and highly animated annual event, T.C. Boyle, Santa Barbara's prolific and perennial favorite, reads from his latest novel, "Blue Skies."

Called by fellow author Annie Proulx, “Brilliantly imaginative...in a terrifying way," "Blue Skies" follows in the tradition of Boyle's finest novels, combining high-octane plotting with mordant wit and shrewd social commentary. Described as "an eco-thriller with teeth," this tragicomic and prescient novel captures the absurdity and "inexpressible sadness at the heart of everything.” When once rare epic natural disasters happen every week what is left to do but drink?

Book signing to follow.

Artist Talk: Gabriela Ruiz

Artist Talk: Gabriela Ruiz
Thursday, September 7 @ 4:30pm

LOCATION: 721 Cliff Drive: Santa Barbara, CA - 93109
Santa Barbara City College
Humanities Building: (ROOM 111) - East Campus
Room 111 - Auditorium Room

Searching for Dioskourides, A Master Gem-Carver

Art Matters Lecture with Kenneth Lapatin, Ph.D.
Curator of Antiquities, J. Paul Getty Museum

This talk examines exquisite engraved cameos and intaglios cut by the gem-carver of the Roman emperor Augustus and addresses the vexed problem of distinguishing ancient originals from modern forgeries.

The Power to Be: A Lecture by Anthony Sonnenberg

Artist Anthony Sonnenberg will explore expressions of power through decoration within various cultures. Opposing a denigrative association with the merely frivolous, decoration throughout history has performed a meaningful task of constructing and emanating power. Personal, social, and political power dynamics are expressed through decorative decadence and excess, be it, the over-embellished palace, the ecstatic candelabra, or the glamorous dress.

The artist’s work will be featured in the SBMA exhibition WARES! Extraordinary Ceramics and the Ordinary Home from June 18 through September 17, 2023.

Mary Craig Auditorium
Free SBMA Members, Students, and UCSB Faculty
$5 Non-Members

Gift to an American City: The Past, Future, and Present of the Clyfford Still Museum

Art Matters Lecture with Joyce Tsai
Director, Clyfford Still Museum

The American Abstract Expressionist artist, Clyfford Still, held on to 93% of everything he ever made and willed this extraordinary corpus, not to an existing art museum or gallery, to an unnamed American city. In so doing, he invests his art with civic potential. Joyce Tsai, director of the Clyfford Still Museum will illuminate the ways her institution seeks to fulfill that ambition.

Generous support for Art Matters is provided by the SBMA Women’s Board.

Inside Stories/Outside Tales: Inwardly Defiant: Yunte Huang and Celine Shimizu

Celebrated author, Guggenheim Fellow and UCSB professor Yunte Huang reads from his latest book, Daughter of the Dragon, an in-depth exploration of Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American film star who both encouraged and defied the Hollywood industry’s efforts to categorize her. Huang is interviewed by Celine Parreñas Shimizu, film scholar, filmmaker, and Dean of the Division of the Arts, and Distinguished Professor of Film and Media at UC Santa Cruz. She is formerly Professor and Director of the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University and Professor of Asian American, Feminist, and Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara.

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