7/12 Artist Talk with Historian Dennis Doordan – GIMME SHELTER by Marcia Rickard

GIMME SHELTER by Marcia Rickard - A Conversation with the Artist and Architectural Historian Dennis Doordan

May 31 – August 9, 2025 at the Architectural Foundation Gallery

Artist Talk: Saturday, March 29th at 2 p.m.

Gallery Hours: Saturdays from 1 – 4 p.m. 

Fault Lines 1925, by Marcia Rickard
The Fragility of Home, by Marcia Rickard

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce A conversation with Marcia Rickard and Architectural Historian Dennis Doordan. The discussion will take place on July 12th at 2 p.m. GIMME SHELTER is an exhibition of paintings and prints by Marcia Rickard that highlight the fragility of “home” in a world fraught by war and natural disasters.

Art is a way to confront what scares and scars us. Local artist Marcia Rickard has created a body of work that addresses the human tragedy caused by the physical destruction of home, be it Aleppo, Ukraine, Gaza, Los Angeles—or Santa Barbara.

GIMME SHELTER includes paintings, drypoint prints, monotypes, paintings, and fabric pieces with images of current events often added as collage elements and photo transfers. Despite the perverse allure of such images (sometimes referred to as “disaster porn”), Rickard asks us not to forget the human lives impacted by such events. Her work reflects the human dimension that loss of shelter—a place of personal safety, a refuge, a home—means, the recognition that in today’s world, this could suddenly be any of us.

“… I am drawn to the horrifying yet mesmerizing daily news photographs of destruction— war, terrorism, environmental degradation, natural disasters—that emphasize the fragility of our world.”

Marcia Rickard is a retired art historian (Professor Emerita from Saint Mary’s College, Indiana) who maintained a consistent artistic practice throughout her thirty-four years of teaching art history courses ranging from European Gothic art to Indonesian textiles. Since moving to Santa Barbara in 2019, she has studied printmaking with Siu Zimmerman.

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.

Current Exhibition – GIMME SHELTER by Marcia Rickard

Upcoming Exhibition - GIMME SHELTER by Marcia Rickard

May 31 – August 9, 2025 at the Architectural Foundation Gallery

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 31st from 2 – 4p.m. 

Artist Talk: Saturday, March 29th at 2 p.m.

Gallery Closed July 5th

Fault Lines 1925, by Marcia Rickard
The Fragility of Home, by Marcia Rickard

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of GIMME SHELTER, an exhibition of paintings and prints by Marcia Rickard that highlight the fragility of “home” in a world fraught by war and natural disasters.

The opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Saturday, May 31st from 2 – 4 p.m. A conversation with Marcia Rickard and Architectural Historian Dennis Doordan will take place on July 12th at 2 pm.

Art is a way to confront what scares and scars us. Local artist Marcia Rickard has created a body of work that addresses the human tragedy caused by the physical destruction of home, be it Aleppo, Ukraine, Gaza, Los Angeles—or Santa Barbara. The title of this exhibition comes from the Rolling Stones song, Gimme Shelter:

Ooh, the fire is sweepin’/ Our very street today / Burns like a red coal carpet…
The floods is threatening / My very life today / Gimme, gimme shelter / Or I’m gonna fade away (Keith Richards and Mick Jagger)

GIMME SHELTER includes paintings, drypoint prints, monotypes, paintings, and fabric pieces with images of current events often added as collage elements and photo transfers. Despite the perverse allure of such images (sometimes referred to as “disaster porn”), Rickard asks us not to forget the human lives impacted by such events. Her work reflects the human dimension that loss of shelter—a place of personal safety, a refuge, a home—means, the recognition that in today’s world, this could suddenly be any of us.

“… I am drawn to the horrifying yet mesmerizing daily news photographs of destruction— war, terrorism, environmental degradation, natural disasters—that emphasize the fragility of our world.”

Marcia Rickard is a retired art historian (Professor Emerita from Saint Mary’s College, Indiana) who maintained a consistent artistic practice throughout her thirty-four years of teaching art history courses ranging from European Gothic art to Indonesian textiles. Since moving to Santa Barbara in 2019, she has studied printmaking with Siu Zimmerman.

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.

Exhibition – ABSTRACT TROMPE L’OEIL by Paige Patterson Wilson

Exhibition Dates: September 20 – November 14, 2019

Opening Reception with the Artist: Friday, September 20, 5-7 pm

Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery


The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of Abstract Trompe L’oeil, an exhibition of oil paintings by Paige Patterson Wilson.  An opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Friday, September 20, from 5:00-7 pm. All are welcome.

Abstract Trompe L’oeil highlights Wilson’s deep interest in the interplay of colored surfaces. Her previous paintings were conventional still life paintings depicting recognizable objects with reflective, transparent surfaces that appear as small abstractions. Creating these paintings led her to the idea of creating purely abstract still life paintings. At first glance, her new work appears to be flat, hard edge, geometric and abstract. Upon closer observation, viewers are drawn in by the illusion of depth.

To create these unusual paintings, Wilson first constructs an abstract “still life”—a three-dimensional composition of opaque, translucent, and transparent papers, and colored gels.  After arranging lighting above to create a kaleidoscope of reflections, she paints the “still life” from direct observation, challenging herself to create the illusion of three dimensions and transparency using only opaque pigments.

Although the paintings are formal compositions, they evoke futuristic cities, outer space, and science fiction settings. Surface flatness and the illusion of depth coexist simultaneously, creating spaces where the interplay and fusion of saturated colors, abstract shapes and imagination magically coexist.

Wilson received her BA in 1979 from San Francisco State University where she studied with Robert Bechtle, a photo-realist painter. She completed her MFA in 1982 at UCSB where she studied with Ciel Bergman and William Dole. She has maintained a studio and residence in Santa Barbara for 40 years and has participated in many group exhibitions and several solo exhibitions. She currently teaches art classes at SBCC School of Extended Learning.

Exhibition – HOLE IN THE WALL by Michael Long

Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery

July 19 – September 12, 2019

Opening Reception: Friday, July 19, 5-7 pm

 

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of Hole in the Wall, an exhibition of assemblage works by Michael Long. A reception will be held at The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Friday, July 19 from 5-7pm. All are welcome.

Hole in the Wall is a capsulized study into unnoticed aspects of the physical world as well as the dark corners of Michael Long’s mind. Blending aspects of real, typically local, architecture with images from his imagination, Long creates unique assemblage boxes that emit a preternatural vibe. He draws from the twin wellsprings of his recurring childhood dreams, nightmares, and memories and his careful observations of actual buildings in Santa Barbara. These small, precisely constructed works are eerie reminders of forgotten spaces – both interior and exterior – surreal architectural fragments that evoke curiosity and a myriad of associations and feelings in viewers.

AFSB Art Gallery – NEW SHOW

Warner Smith exhibit AFSB

OPENING RECEPTION TONIGHT!

Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, March 15, 5-7 pm

INSIDE: Photographs of Decommissioned Prisons in Australia

decommissioned prisons Australia - AFSB

By Brett Leigh Dicks

May 18 – July 12, 2018

Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, May 18, 5-7 pm

INSIDE is an exhibition at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara of compelling, black and white photographs documenting Australian prison facilities that have surpassed their use-by dates.  The Opening Reception with the artist will be held on Friday, May 18 from 5 – 7 pm. All are welcome.

Empty prisons are eerie places where the walls do speak. Etched into the stones is the passing of successive generations of inmates.  Photographer Brett Leigh Dicks demonstrates that every prison has its own history, character, and stories to tell and so too does every cell. But old prisons are not just a reminder of the past, they can also help guide the future.

Brett Leigh Dicks was born in Sydney, Australia and currently resides in Santa Barbara, California. Through fine black and white photography, he investigates the landscape and the tenuous ties it shares with human history. His work has been exhibited in Australia, Europe, and the United States and hung beside photographers as diverse as Ansel Adams, Jeff Bridges, Max Dupain, Lewis Morley, Yoko Ono and Hiroshi Sugimoto.  He is currently a finalist in the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards.

*Facebook Event Here*

Rosemarie Gebhart: Unseen and Unheard: Accidental Musings

Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, March 16, 5-7pm

“Unseen and Unheard: Accidental Musings” evolves from Gebhart’s background in science and art history.  Her organic compositions resonate with sumptuous textures and images, meandering line formations and color transparencies.  Each work on paper is a unique, one-of-a-kind viscosity monotype—a printmaking technique that lends itself to the creation of luminous effects, chaos, and turbulence. Over the last decade, the topography of the Southwest influenced her horizons, undulating lines and explosions of color.

Educated first in the health professions, Gebhart then went on to learn art history and printmaking.  After attending Immaculate Heart College, she earned a BA in Art History at the California State University in Los Angeles, followed by art classes in Santa Barbara and workshops in traditional etching techniques at Crown Point Press in San Francisco.  She makes annual visits to Santa Fe to develop her skills in printmaking and is a Docent at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

FACEBOOK Event Here.

KDA Gallery Opening & Holiday Party

Kids Draw Architecture: Gallery Opening & Holiday Party

December 4, 2017 – January 7, 2018

Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery

Opening reception: Sunday, December 3, 2017 2-4 pm

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to present you the annual Kids Draw Architecture Gallery Opening & Holiday Party.

This year KDA sketched La Cumbre Jr. High school and the Santa Barbara Cemetery.

The exhibition will feature a collection of drawings from KDA’s 2017 program showcasing a representative cross-section of illustrations from all age groups and drawing abilities.

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 by appointment (please contact the Executive Director at 805-965-6307).