Part I (March 22 – July 5, 2020): Works on Paper
Preston Morton Gallery

Part II (May 10 – August 30, 2020): Painting & Sculpture
Davidson Gallery

This two-part exhibition highlights recent acquisitions to SBMA’s permanent collection of contemporary art. Featuring over 40 artworks in a variety of media, including painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, and sculpture, the majority of the objects are on view at SBMA for the first time. These include painted works on paper by emerging artists acquired through the recently established Basil Alkazzi Acquisition Fund, as well as significant pieces by internationally recognized artists such as Sterling Ruby, Andrea Bowers, and Nigel Cooke. Tying these artworks together is a distinct sense of individuality, innovative use of materials, and playful ambiguity between traditional artistic genres.

The exhibition is comprised of works from artists in various stages of their careers, ranging from the emerging to the well-established. Artists include: Scott Anderson, Edgar Arceneaux, Elizabeth Bonaventura, Andrea Bowers, Bruce Conner, Nigel Cooke, Miles Coolidge, Petra Cortright, Noah Davis, Wim Delvoye, Jacci Den Hartog, Daniel Douke, Jim Drain, Vernon Fisher, Helen Frankenthaler, Peter Halley, Frederick Hammersley, Zach Harris, Naotaka Hiro, Mustafa Hulusi, Nathan Huff, Jim Isermann, Raffi Kalenderian, Tom Knechtel, Emma Kohlmann, Hew Locke, Eamon Ore-Giron, Carl Ostendarp, Cheryl Pope, Nathlie Provosty, Sterling Ruby, Aaron Siskind, Jeni Spota C., Donald Sultan, Stephanie Washburn, and Jane Wilbraham.

This exhibition is curated by Julie Joyce, Senior Curator, ArtCenter College of Design (and former Curator of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art) with assistance from Rachel Heidenry, Curatorial Assistant, Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Image: Nathlie Provosty, "Council, Untitled (16-38)" (detail), 2016. Watercolor on paper, diptych. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds provided by The Basil Alkazzi Acquisition Fund, 2018.10.2a,b. © Nathlie Provosty.

The Preston Morton Collection, which forms the core of American art at SBMA, was gifted in 1961 upon the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Museum’s founding. In so doing, Preston Morton ensured that SBMA could boast one of the most comprehensive overviews of American art from the 18th to the mid-20th century among mid-sized institutions. The timing of the gift was significant, representing a corrective to the European bias of midcentury canonical modernism and a proud reassertion of home-grown American art.

This selection of small format paintings is a reminder of the breadth of the Museum’s holdings in this area. Oil and brush conjure the illusion of near and far persuasively, from the close perspective of still life, to the life-size proportions of bust portraiture, to sublime expanses of land and sky. Whether within hand’s reach or at an immeasurable distance, both types of visual experience are captured within the confines of a canvas no more than 15 inches in diameter.

Artists represented include William Merritt Chase, Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Thomas Eakins, Walter Gay, George Inness, George Luks, Jervis McEntee, John Frederick Peto, Levi Wells Prentice, Edward Henry Potthast.

Image: William Merritt Chase, "Children on the Beach" (detail), 1894. Oil on board. SBMA, Bequest of Margaret Mallory.

Join us on Sunday March 22nd from 11:30-2:30 for a fun day of Buddhist activities. 

CANCELLED - Telescope Tuesday at Camino Real Marketplace

A literary salon will be the venue for the next Women’s Literary Festival.  This intimate evening will  give  an up close and personal touch to the  conversation with the author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. 

Turn your love of cooking and cannabis into an art form and learn how to make delicious cannabis-infused edibles and meals. Tickets are $35 and include instruction on techniques such as proper, consistent dosing and decarboxylation. You will also receive a free dairy-free ice cream sample to take home and three recipes for mouth-watering cannabis cuisine you make yourself. Learn more at sespe.org/events.

Find out what the founders of Poison Free Malibu have done to provide alternative methods to rodenticides.

Watch "Fantastic Fungi" film at home on March 26.

Join us for a Special Flight featuring five wines (or more) from our 2011 vintage!

On this episode of Solutions News, we interview Jon Aimonetti, Executive Director of Fairview Urban Gardens in Goleta, California. The new nonprofit director left the corporate world of banking in when an opportunity to lead and inspire with the farm opened up in 2019. Fairview Gardens, founded in 1895, provides education to students and community members of all levels. Jon’s financial background has given him a different perspective and he is using his entrepreneurial spirit to revitalize the farm. The main goal of the sustainable farm is to create a future generation that can source healthy, wholesome food with a pleasant connection to the natural world.

Solutions News with Rinaldo Brutoco is a weekly radio show and podcast produced by Kristy Jansen and the World Business Academy. Guided by the motto that there are more solutions in the world than problems, Solutions News seeks to educate, inform and inspire its audience.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit solutionsnews.org/listen

Catch local favorites, the Left Hand Lions, in the Barrel Room tonight at Carr.

HARVEY opens March 27 at Matilija Auditorium. Produced by Ojai Performing Arts Theater.