Upcoming Exhibition – Sommer Roman: Portals

Upcoming Exhibition - Sommer Roman: Portals

September 9 – November 4, 2023

The Architectural Foundation Gallery

Opening Reception with the Artist

Friday evening September 8, 2023 from 5-7 p.m.

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, Portals, a solo exhibition of two- and three-dimensional works by Sommer Roman.

An opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Friday evening, September 8th from 5-7 p.m. 

Portals is a solo exhibition that brings together various works from three different threads of Sommer Roman’s larger body of work: new textile-based wall sculptures and “Brain Scan” colored pencil drawings are paired with “Cell Portrait” ink drawings.  This grouping of work sheds light on themes and forms that appear and reappear in Roman’s work repeatedly: namely, the biological cross-section and the circle. 

In bringing these threads of her work together, Roman re-examines and re-envisions them as portals, portals that draw us into places of deep knowing and innate wildness within ourselves.  Through evocative color, organic forms, materiality, and the universal circular form these unique, multifarious configurations invite viewers back to the realm of interconnectedness, playfulness, the wild feminine, and the body as potent sites of knowing and knowledge.

Sommer Roman was born and raised in California and has lived in France and on both East and West Coasts of the US. She received her BA from UC Santa Cruz (2004) and her MFA from UC Santa Barbara (2014).  Roman maintains a multi-disciplinary art practice and exhibits regularly in group and solo exhibitions.  She currently lives on the Central Coast of California with her two children and teaches in the Art Departments at Cuesta College and Cal Poly.

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:

Internal Portal II
8″x8″x3″
Post-consumer clothing, paper clay

Brain Scan A
22″x30″
Colored pencil on paper

Exhibition – A Natural Curiosity by Nadya Brown

Exhibition - A Natural Curiosity by Nadya Brown

June 3 – August 12, 2023

The Architectural Foundation Gallery

Opening Reception with the Artist

Friday evening June 2, 2023 from 5-7 p.m.

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, A Natural Curiosity, a solo exhibition of oil paintings by Nadya Brown.

An opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Friday evening, June 2nd from 5-7 p.m. 

In this series of lush paintings, Nadya Brown creates illusory, imaginary three-dimensional spaces that entice viewers to enter, explore, and examine closely. Through realistic drawing and highly saturated colors, these highly original depictions of decorative objects, flowers, birds, domestic spaces, and landscapes (often combined in a single painting) evoke time, light, and memory in a slightly surreal manner. Brown’s travels in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Mexico, plus living and working in different cultures provided much of the inspiration.

“As subject matter, I often use objects that I own, that I have seen in museums and on my travels or photographs I have taken for specific information. This information is imported and combined in my paintings to create geometrical and aesthetic compositions.”

Brown’s work is both a celebration of nature and of civilization. An example is her large triptych, Simonetta’s Library: A Brief History of Nature, a project completed over a year’s time during the pandemic. Brown states her concerns: “As questions arise about climate change, and consequently drastic changes to our land and marine environment, I focus on nature as subject matter and what it has to offer, and also how it is abused; these are issues that have gradually entered into my work.”

Nadya Brown was born and raised in England. She has since lived in Italy and Spain and now, Santa Barbara, California. After studies in Painting and Printmaking at Goldsmiths College, University of London, she received her MFA from Ohio University. She has exhibited her work extensively in solo and group shows both in the United States and the UK and she has taught at numerous universities and colleges in the U.S.

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:

Simonetta’s Library
48″x72″ Oil on canvas
Triptych

View of the Mountain with Tulips 
20″x30″ Oil on canvas

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 Architectural Design Competition!

2018 Santa Barbara County High School
Architectural Design Competition Winners

  Name School Grade
First Place Vivian Zhan Dunn 12
Second place Sullivan Israel Laguna Blanca 11
Third Place Lucy Cao Laguna Blanca 10
Honorable Mention Blanca Diaz St. Joseph’s 12
Honorable Mention Theo Soderman Dos Pueblos 11

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