Exhibition: A.BOD.E by Cara Lasell Bonewitz

Exhibition: A.BOD.E by Cara Lasell Bonewitz

May 14 – June 25, 2022

The Architectural Foundation Gallery

Opening Reception May 13, 2022, 5-7 p.m.

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition of A·BOD·E, a solo-exhibition of recent paintings and papier-mâché sculptures by Ojai-based artist Cara Lasell Bonewitz. An opening reception with the artist will be held at the Architectural Foundation Gallery on Friday, May 13, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Cara Lasell Bonewitz received her MFA from the Glasgow School of Art and her BA in Studio Art and History from Yale University.

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara office and gallery are based in the historic Acheson House at the corner of Garden and East Victoria Streets in Santa Barbara. Gallery hours are Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and by appointment.

Images shown:

Fourth Morning

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (unidentified drug shelf)

Oh My Goshi

Local Treasures Opening: September 18

Local Treasures Festive Opening with Music... and Covid safety precautions
Saturday, September 18, 1-4 pm.

September 18, 2021 Saturday, 1-4
The Architectural Foundation Gallery

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to present Local Treasures, an exhibition of artworks by thirty artists who have exhibited at the Architectural Foundation Gallery during the past seven years. The exhibition runs from Saturday, September 18th through November 12th, 2021. The public is invited to drop by on the opening day, September 18th from 1-4 (masks and social distancing required).

In the Foundation’s garden, the group Glendessary Jam will be providing music for the event.  

Local Treasures

Local Treasures

September 18 – November 12, 2021
The Architectural Foundation Gallery

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to present Local Treasures, an exhibition of artworks by thirty artists who have exhibited at the Architectural Foundation Gallery during the past seven years. The exhibition runs from Saturday, September 18th through November 12th, 2021. The public is invited to drop by on the opening day, September 18th from 1-4 (masks and social distancing required); and for the gala Closing Reception with the Artists, Friday, November 12, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Local Treasures honors the extraordinary quality, diversity, and vitality of the artists whose work has recently graced the walls of the Architectural Foundation Gallery. Initiated during the 1990s, the Gallery exhibited watercolor paintings by local architects of Santa Barbara buildings. Later, the Gallery committee expanded its mission to present exhibitions of contemporary art, architecture, and design.  Throughout the pandemic, following all COVID-19 protocols, the Gallery has maintained its schedule of exhibitions with the support of dedicated volunteers.  

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara has been dedicated to expanding our community’s appreciation of the built environment since 1983. The AFSB Gallery is located in the historic Acheson House at the corner of Garden and East Victoria Streets in Santa Barbara. Regular gallery hours are Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 pm and weekdays by appointment.

The exhibition will be installed in a celebratory salon style (works of different sizes and media will hang next to and above each another), creating dynamic groupings on the Gallery’s walls.  Two-dimensional work including an abstract print by Tony Askew, a collage by Dug Uyesaka, and plein air paintings by Libby Smith and Nina Ward will be complemented by several reliefs—a surreal box construction by Michael Long and a geometric structure in styrene by Marilyn Helsenrott-Hochhauser.  A weaving by Minga Opazo and a screen print by Claudia Borfiga will join photographs by Sara Yerkes, Jeffrey Sippress, Pat McGinnis and Matt Straka, as well as a sewn paper composition by architect Cass Ensberg and a hard-edge, environmental painting by Cynthia Martin.  Two husband/wife duos—printmakers Siu and Don Zimmerman and painters Judy and Warner Nienow will also be featured.

Impossible Objects: Screen Prints by Ed Lister

MM Rainbow by Ed Lister

Impossible Objects: Screen Prints by Ed Lister March 13 – May 8, 2021 Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery

The AFSB Art Gallery at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of Impossible Objects, an exhibition of vibrant, abstract silkscreen prints, or serigraphs, by Ed Lister.  

Ed Lister, known in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara as a skilled scenic artist, created this series of “impossible objects” in the early 1970s while teaching printmaking at the Chelsea School of Art in London.  After teaching art for twelve years, Lister moved to California.  Starting in the mid-70s he worked for ten years as the lead scenic artist for the Center Theatre Group at the Taper and Ahmanson Theaters in Los Angeles. Subsequently, he painted backdrops and installations as wide as 400 feet for TV, movies, and destination resorts, hotels, and casinos.  

More recently Lister was commissioned to paint a 60 feet-wide mural encircling the Bisno Schall Clock Gallery of the Santa Barbara Courthouse that depicts our perception of time and various ways of recording it (http://www.bisnoschallgallery.com).  Although he loved working on such a large scale, Lister now paints more modest-sized images concerned with iridescent and reflective seascapes and skies. 

Created fifty years ago, these striking, hand-pulled prints play with our contemporary sensibilities and logical brains in their resemblances to imaginative digital images. Of all the printing techniques, Lister most relished executing screened images with areas of pure color put down in a clean and direct manner.  In this series, he created improbable, mind-bending objects that cannot exist other than on a flat surface.  Intrigued by their bold colors and shapes, our eyes are lured in, then our assumptions of reality are challenged.

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara has been dedicated to expanding our community’s appreciation of the built environment since 1983. The AFSB Gallery is located in the historic Acheson House at the corner of Garden and East Victoria Streets in Santa Barbara. Regular gallery hours are Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 pm and weekdays by appointment.

Story Time: Ellwood Station

Last chance of the year to see Patrick McGinnis' Exhibition!

Saturday, December 19, from 1 – 4 PM at the AFSB Art Gallery

Hear him tell stories about the locations of his photo series like this one about …

Ellwood Station

http://www.patmcginnisart.com/

 Over the past several years, I noticed old industrial structures off the right side of the southbound 101 freeway. It was fenced off and shrouded by trees, obviously non-operational. No one at the end of Ellwood Station Road seemed to have contact or know much about the fenced off structures. Though I knew it would prove a challenge to photograph, I was intrigued all the same.


     A few years later, driving the same route on the 101 South, I glanced over and was delighted to see that many of the trees were gone! Making a split-second decision, I exited the freeway and circled back to the end of the road. This time, there was someone on the property. Much to my delight, this person turned out to be the owner! We discussed the structures and his plans to demolish them and clear the site in preparation for future projects. He graciously granted me access to the property and permission to photograph the facilities until they were gone.

     Ellwood Station was a large concrete plant owned by Vulcan Materials. Located on the rail line, it provided large quantities of concrete for much of the Santa Barbara and Goleta area construction projects. The “Ellwood Station Series” photography project took several months. But eventually, the structures were torn down, vanishing one by one, cut apart by large metal shears. Reduced to pieces of scrap steel, they were loaded onto large trucks and taken to a recycling facility in Los Angeles.

     The once fenced-off site along the railroad line was cleaned up and made ready for the next project, yet to be determined. Ellwood station no more than a memory is now preserved through my photographs, presented to you in this exhibition, “Historic Preservation Series.”

Historic Preservation Series by Patrick McGinnis

Vanishing Behemoths of Industry Star in Bold New Photographs by Patrick McGinnis

November 7 – December 19, 2020
Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery

Detail of Sloss Iron Works #45, 16×16

patmcginnisart.com

patmcginnisart.com

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce Historic Preservation Series, an exhibition of industrial photographs by Pat McGinnis. Visitors are invited to view the exhibition on Saturdays, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm, November 7 through December 19. The artist will be present on November 7 & December 19. (Self-screening, masks, and social distancing are required.)

Following a career in engineering, Patrick McGinnis turned to creating semi-abstract, biomorphic sculptures in marble, bronze, and metal, inspired by natural forms. Then, during a family trip across the country, he visited a rusty old factory, the Sloss Iron Works in Birmingham, Alabama, and his interest in photography was piqued. Attracted by the dramatic interplay of light on the tall, solid forms of these massive, industrial structures—vanishing monuments to America’s once vibrant iron and steel industry—McGinnis felt compelled to photograph them.

Most blast furnaces built in the United States are now dormant or on their way to demolition and becoming scrap metal—only a few, like the Sloss Iron Works, survive as historical landmarks. Energized by studying the photographs of Bernd & Hilla Becker and paintings by Charles Sheeler, McGinnis discovered new subjects closer at hand, notably the large Vulcan plant at Ellwood Station in Goleta, which he was able to photograph just before it was torn down. He has also made photographs of an obsolete, wood-waste burning electric power plant, Soledad Renewable Energy, whose future is uncertain.

McGinnis’s transition into making art is a continuation of being a design engineer in the nuclear, aerospace and semiconductor industries and his own business, Prime Technology. Aesthetics played a vital role throughout that work, whether creating an aerospace component or an analytical instrument. He is currently a member of Santa Barbara Art Association, Abstract Art Collective, Gallery 10 West (board member), and the LA Art Association. He has exhibited his work at 10 West Gallery, Elverhoj Museum of Art & History, Gallery 113 (Santa Barbara), Gallery 825 (LA), Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, and San Luis Obispo Museum of Art.

ART TALK with MINGA OPAZO: Siempre Más / Always More

JOIN US AS WE HOST THIS CREATIVE ART TALK!

JOIn zoom talk here

Join us for this unique opportunity to listen to Minga Opazo discuss her work with Curator Yessica Torres.  Together, they will present Minga’s current solo exhibition at the AFSB Gallery as well as past collaborations, and offer a peek at new, joint projects. Friday, October 2, 2020, at 5:00 PM.

Join us on Zoom!

Minga Opazo is a fourth-generation textile crafter.  She examines the relationship between climate change, contemporary textile production, and Chilean textile history through weavings, sculpture, and installations to expose the unsustainable and dehumanizing practices of the international textile industry. Born and raised in Chile, she arrived in California at the age of sixteen. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a major in Art Practice, she moved to LA and had solo exhibitions at DAB Art Gallery and the Carnegie Museum of Art (Oxnard, CA). She was awarded Artist Residencies at the Banff Art Center (Canada), ACRE (Wisconsin), and the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (Maine). She recently earned her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts.

Yessíca Torres co-opened H Gallery + Studios in Ventura, CA in 2013 where she presented a progressive, contemporary program. In 2014, with the realization that art exposure need not be limited by physical location, Yessíca independently established the Dab Art Company.  Dab Art embraces the unceasing evolution of contemporary art by featuring experimental artists, highlighting innovative techniques and utilizing technological advances.

Dab Art’s long-standing partnership with the online art sales platform ARTSY has proved to be an invaluable resource, garnering views into the tens of thousands. With buyers from 130+ countries, 2.2 million+ visitors each month, and an average transaction distance of more than 3,000 miles, ARTSY provides the connections needed to grow the collector base.  ARTSY also partners with Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, and Simon Lee galleries.

Minga Opazo - Headshot
Artist: Minga Opazo
Yessica Torres - Headshot
Curator: Yessíca Torres

Siempre Más / Always More – Finally Back!

Minga Opazo’s Provocative Take on Textiles Today

September 19 – October 31, 2020
Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery

Untitled, recycle clothing weave, 22”x29”, 2020

Siempre más, recycled clothing, 30”x4”, 2019

Mejor que sobre que falte, recycled clothing, 10”x18”, 2020

After postponing Minga Opazo’s exhibition, Siempre Más / Always More, in July due to COVID-19 , we are now thrilled to announce that this vibrant exhibition of colorful, textile works will finally open on September 19 through October 31. Visitors are invited to view the exhibition on Saturdays, 1:00 to 4:00 pm and by appointment. The artist will be present on September 19 & October 24. (Self-screening, masks, and social distancing are required.) A live, online Conversation with Minga Opazo and Yessica Torres of Dab Art Gallery (LA) will take place on Friday, October 2 at 5:00 pm. *details to be announced*

In Siempre Más / Always More, Opazo explores the relationship of textiles to climate change, contemporary industrial textile production, and Chilean textile history. A fourth-generation craftsperson from Chile, Opazo exposes the unsustainable and dehumanizing practices of international textile production through large-scale weavings and installations made of found and recycled textiles.

For centuries, textiles for clothing in Chile were created by human hands using natural materials. These craft traditions shaped Chilean culture, providing work, artistic expression, and a sense of identity to local communities. With the invention of polyester, Lycra, and nylon, and the dictatorial regime of Augusto Pinochet (from 1973 to 1990), Chile’s doors opened to the free market; mass-produced garments flooded in. Natural dyes and hand looms were replaced by artificial dyes, machines, and dehumanizing assembly lines. Opazo’s series, Mejor Que Sobre Que Falte (Better Too Much Than Too Little), refers to the resulting glut of discarded, chemically infused garments, which cannot be absorbed back into the natural world and are now being buried under Chilean soil.

Siempre Más / Always More includes wall sculptures, installations, and a new, site-specific weaving outdoors on the 2nd story porch railing of the Architectural Foundation, facing Victoria Street. This temporary installation highlights the fact that while the colors of used clothing will fade, the clothing will never completely disintegrate. Opazo comments, “We live in an era of excess, we consume and throw away. We don’t see the massive amount of overproduction in our everyday life, it’s invisible to us, tucked away.”

Minga Opazo received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (2020) and her BA from University of California Berkeley (2015). She maintains a weaving studio in Ventura and another in Joshua Tree for large scale installations. She was Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Art Center (Canada), the Acre Residency (Wisconsin) and the Haystack Mountain School (Maine), had solo shows at Dab Art Gallery (LA), the CAM Studio Gallery (Oxnard), and large public installations at the HUD Gallery and the Museum of Ventura County.

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara has been enhancing our community’s appreciation of the built environment since 1983. The AFSB Gallery is located in the historic Acheson House at the corner of Garden and East Victoria Streets in Santa Barbara. Regular gallery hours are Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 pm and weekdays by appointment.

Siempre Más / Always More-Postponed

Due to Santa Barbara County’s COVID-19 regulations pertaining to museums, galleries and zoos, the anticipated opening on July 25th of Siempre Más / Always More, an exhibition of textile works by Minga Opazo at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara, is postponed. 

 

Our goal is to welcome visitors in mid-August to view these provocative artworks by Opazo, a fourth-generation craftsperson from Chile who explores the problem of excess clothing made from synthetic fabrics that cannot be absorbed back into the natural world. 

 

Please stay tuned for the new date of Opazo’s Opening,  The exhibition will feature colorful wall sculptures and installations, plus a site-specific weaving on the 2nd story porch railing of the Architectural Foundation, facing Victoria Street!

 

In anticipation of Opazo’s coming show, she will be a guest on Elizabeth Stewart’s Arts Radio Shows from KZSB AM 1290 Santa Barbara broadcasted each Friday at 10 a.m and archived to her website https://elizabethappraisals.com/category/radioshow/for repeated listening.  

 

Minga Opazo received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (2020) and her BA from University of California Berkeley (2015). She maintains a weaving studio in Ventura and another in Joshua Tree for large scale installations. She was Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Art Center (Canada), the Acre Residency (Wisconsin) and the Haystack Mountain School (Maine), had solo shows at Dab Art Gallery (LA), the CAM Studio Gallery (Oxnard), and large public installations at the HUD Gallery and the Museum of Ventura County.

LAST CALL: Meandering the Edges, an installation by Nathan Huff

Please join us on two Saturdays for Meandering the Edges, an installation by Nathan Huff!

June 20 and June 27, from 1- 4 PM.

We will welcome drop-in visitors. Social distancing and face masks will be required. 

Only one person (or family) will be allowed inside the Gallery at one time.  

Nathan Huff will be on hand to answer questions. 

We are so happy to finally share Nathan’s work!