Sharpen your pencils and get your calculators ready!
The High School Design Competition will be kicking off this year on Tuesday, March 10th at 7:30 am at the Santa Ynez Union High School or Direct Relief, Santa Barbara.
We look forward to seeing you there!
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of “Haven, an exhibition of 10” x 10” prints created by Santa Barbara Printmakers” who live in and around Santa Barbara and beyond. An opening reception with the artists will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Friday, January 10, from 5:00 – 7:00 pm. All are welcome.
For this unique exhibition, artists were invited to create 10” x 10” prints inspired by the theme “haven” and each artist interpreted the theme in their own personal way. Look for images of the Central Coast, home, places of safety, landscapes, and even abstractions. Made with techniques ranging from intaglio, relief, screen printing, and monoprint, all the prints are unframed and affordable. Proceeds from the exhibition are distributed to the artists and to the Architectural Foundation to support their community programs for all ages.
Santa Barbara artists Claudia Borfiga and Meagan Stirling developed the exhibition concept in collaboration with the Architectural Foundation and were joined by architect/architecture historian Jeremy White in jurying the exhibition.
The Santa Barbara Printmakers (SBP) is a group of artists dedicated to creating and presenting prints made using hand and press printing techniques: etching, dry point, monotype, monoprint, woodblock, collagraph, linocut, clay, lithography, serigraphy, transfer, and digital processes. This volunteer organization presents several exhibitions and newsletters each year through membership dues and the talents, skills, and energy of members. SBP welcomes applications from printmakers throughout California who use hand and press printing techniques. For more information, visit sbprintmakers.com.
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Upstairs at Pierre Lafond
Chaucer’s Bookstore
The Book Den
Paige Patterson Wilson’s current exhibition at the AFSB, Abstract Trompe L’oeil, highlights her deep interest in the interplay of colored surfaces.
The artist will present a related workshop on Saturday, October 26 from 1 – 3 pm. Participants will experience her working process by creating their own box/collage still life and translating it into an abstract painting.
Please bring a small cardboard box. All other materials will be provided.
Meet other local artists and art enthusiasts in your community.
All levels welcome!
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to present you the annual Kids Draw Architecture Gallery Opening & Holiday Party on Saturday, November 24, 2019, from 2 – 4 PM.
This year KDA held their sketch sessions at the Alameda Park Bandstand and Santa Barbara Middle School.
The exhibition will feature a collection of drawings from KDA’s 2019 program showcasing a representative cross-section of illustrations from all age groups and drawing abilities and will be on display until January 4, 2020.
Events like this exemplify how the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara continues their mission of educating the public on the built environment. So please come join us to celebrate and congratulate our current calendar artists and support this vibrant educational program!
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.
Our 2020 Kids Draw Architecture calendars are being assembled, and we’re looking for sponsors for this project!
What happens when you become a sponsor?
**FREE. Limited Space. First come, first served seating.**
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to present a conversation on assemblage art, both past and present. Please save the date and join us in our gallery space for an art talk with Michael Long, Tony Askew and Nathan Vonk.
Michael Long currently has a show up at AFSB titled, “Hole in the Wall”, which focuses on assemblage art, will close September 12th, 2019. His show is made up of 21 assemblage works.
Michael states in his artist statement,
“This current body of work focuses on recreating pieces of recalled dreams by obsessively re-constructing a model of an intangible memory made in a specific, physical place. I recreate these recalled dreams of actual spaces from memory, down to every minute detail.”
Joining Michael in the conversation are Tony Askew and Nathan Vonk. Tony Askew is a local artist and professor emeritus from Westmont College. Nathan Vonk is the owner of Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery.
We are looking forward to seeing you on August 31st as we learn about assemblage art, join in the conversation with Michael, Tony, and Nathan, and enjoy Michael’s very own work on view!
AFSB is proud to present an expanded version of last year’s Lutah Maria Riggs Monologue, written by Terre Ouwehand, in collaboration with Drama Dogs, a theater company.
Saturday, August 10, from 4 – 6 PM
This year is a fundraising event for one of our scholarships aptly named after Lutah Maria Riggs. Every year we partner with the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara to award scholarships to selected Santa Barbara County students which exemplifies how we continue our mission of educating the public on the built environment by supporting students continuing their education in architecture and related fields through our Scholarship Programs.
ART + ACTIVISM: Painting Disaster
Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara Gallery
2:00 PM on Saturday, June 15, 2019
FREE (limited space, please RSVP)
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to present a conversation about how art reflects the ways in which we relate to the world today. This event features Santa Barbara artist and teacher, Cynthia Martin, in dialogue with Torrie Cutbirth, artist and Executive Director of The Arts Fund, and Charles Donelan, Executive Arts Director for the Santa Barbara Independent. Please join us for a provocative discussion on the intersections of realism, abstraction and pressing contemporary issues.