In the Making: Contemporary Art at SBMA

July 21, 2024 – March 9, 2025

Relevance is a common word these days for museums as they work to catch up with their audiences and the ever-changing world we live in, and one sure way to stay relevant is to acquire and display work by contemporary artists who are pushing the envelope with their ingenuity. Art keeps transforming. New artists arrive to claim a place. Artists from marginalized backgrounds are being given greater prominence.

Nearly a century ago, Gertrude Stein is reported to have said that “You can be a museum, or you can be modern, but you can’t be both.” If you can admit that a contemporary collection can only ever be “in the making,” then the problem is not so hard. Think of this exhibition as a snapshot of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s efforts to stay contemporary, while also being a museum.

 

 

Santa Barbara Museum of Art

We’re excited to highlight the work of artist Rafael Perea de la Cabada and his captivating piece “Agua Bendita (Holy Water).” This remarkable work, created in 2000, features acrylic and mixed media on canvas, plastic bottles, cloth, and metal and is currently on view in the exhibition “In the Making: Contemporary Art at SBMA.”

In “Agua Bendita (Holy Water),” Perea de la Cabada, addresses the blurring of religious and pop culture symbols in present-day Mexico. The central images include the eagle, the serpent, and the cactus—symbols foundational to Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica empire. Additionally, there is an ambiguous shape that suggests both a Coca-Cola bottle and the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The 71 Coke bottles framing the work reference the number of years the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) held power in Mexico, ending with Vicente Fox Quesada's election to the presidency in 2000. (Fox was formerly the CEO of Coca-Cola Mexico.) This painting-assemblage not only implies the powerful presence of transnational corporations in Mexico but also, through its title, “Holy Water,” refers to the untouchable and unchangeable presence of brands and religious symbols assimilated into the culture.

 

Visit us to experience this unique work and explore the dynamic range of contemporary art.

 

Credit:

Rafael Perea de la Cabada, “Agua Bendita (Holy Water),” 2000. Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, plastic bottles, cloth, and metal. SBMA, Museum purchase with funds provided by the 20th Century Art Acquisition Fund. © Rafael Perea de la Cabada

The Art Full Life of POOCH (Keith Julius Puccinelli)

 

POOCH: The Art Full Life of Keith Julius Puccinelli

Event Date:

Saturday, September 7, 2024 - 12:00pm to Sunday, December 15, 2024 - 5:00pm

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 7, 2024, 4–6pm

AD&A Museum 

 

This exhibition features the work of graphic designer and fine artist Keith Puccinelli, AKA Pooch, alongside selections of work from the folk and contemporary art collection he and his wife, Frances Garvin Puccinelli, built over their 33-artful-years together. Pooch was a long-time Santa Barbara resident who began his artistic career as an award-wining graphic designer with his studio Puccinelli Design (1983-1996). In 1998, after surviving cancer and at the urging of his wife, he began working full-time as a fine artist and became an active and recognized contributor to the Southern California art scene. This exhibition investigates how humor, tragedy, and wit animated Puccinelli’s art and design. Furthermore, the exhibition situates Puccinelli’s career within the constellation of his local and regional contemporaries including Dane Goodman, Hugh Margerum, Hilary Brace, Joan Tanner, Richard Ross, Lily Guild as well as artists like Claes Oldenberg, Philip Guston, Annie Toliver, Wayne Thiebaud, Chip Kidd and many others who influenced his practice more broadly. POOCH celebrates the extraordinary gift of more than 600 original works of art and the full artist's archive including design and documentary materials.

 

Keith Julius Puccinelli (b. United States, 1950-2017) received his Bachelor of Fine Art from San Jose State University in 1973. As a fine artist and self-taught graphic designer, he founded Puccinelli Design in 1983 in downtown Santa Barbara and ran a successful studio until 1995 when he closed the business to pursue other creative interests. For more than 40 years, Pooch has exhibited artworks in numerous solo and group exhibitions at galleries, museums, and contemporary art spaces. His work is included in private and public collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Wilding Museum of Art & Nature, Weatherspoon Museum of Art, and the Art, Design & Architecture Museum. 

 

The exhibition includes drawings, sculptures, sketches, and designs by Keith Puccinelli alongside artworks and objects by:

Todd Anderson, Sandow Birk, Jeff Brouws, Ginny Brush Wendy Burton, Hilary Brace, Nell Campbell Robbie Conal, Bob Debris, Ann Diener Linda Ekstrom, David Gilhooly, Howard Finster, Julia Ford, Colin Fraser Gray Rollin Fortier, Marlin Garien, Dane Goodman Penelope Gottlieb Lily Guild, Philip Guston, Nathan Hayden, Mary Heebner the Huichol people, Patricia Hedrick, Neal Izumi, James Harold Jennings, Susan Jorgensen, Philip Koplin, Dan LeVin Art, Holly Mackay, Hugh Margerum Penny Mast McCall, Wayne McCall, Virginia McCracken, Barbara Parmet Jens Pedersen, Rafael Perea de la Cabada Gail Pine, Fran Puccinelli, Harry Reese& Sandra Liddell Reese, Richard Ross, Alison Saar, Marie Schoeff Judith Scott, Tom Stanley Nicole Strasburg, Joan Tanner, Masami Teraoka, Wayne Thiebaud, Susan Tibbles Richard Tullis, Dug Uyesaka Beatrice Wood, Seyburn Zorthian

 

POOCH: The Art Full Life of Keith Julius Puccinelli is organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum and is curated by Meg Linton The exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Keith and Frances Puccinelli Trust. 

 

Image: Keith Puccinelli, Hot Rod Ambush, 2014. Blacklight ink and pen on paper, diptych. Gift of the Estate of Frances Garvin and Keith Julius Puccinelli. 2018.001.440 (Photo: Wayne McCall) 

 

https://www.museum.ucsb.edu/news/feature/1128

Trienal de Tijuana: 2. Internacional Pictorica

 

 

 

Trienal de Tijuana: 2. Internacional Pictórica

Centro Cultural Tijuana- CECUT 

Julio 2024- Febrero 2025

El Cubo, Salas1,2,3

Sala Martha Palau- Sala Planta Baja

Artist: Rafael Perea de la Cabada

Title: Sol Cuadrado/Square Sun

Technique: Mixed media on canvas

Materials: Acrylic, Rope, Metal Grommets, Wood, Fired Clay

Size: 229.87 cm x 213.36 cm

Year: 2023

 

 

Square Sun

 

We are one and all, always divided. Perpetually crossing the line that first crossed us.

Born with the innate craving to soar high, reenergized again and again by falling. Rebounding and reborn, eagerly, in an endless ladder of cruel, neighborly embraces.

Branded by hopes of discovery, bitten by abandonment and loss, giving more than we can take—our very lives—a heavy price to pay for renewal.

We say and do all that we can think or imagine. Sometimes we understand, but we let invisibility cover us with silence.

We are the ones who left: “Los Héroes Migrantes.” And even if we return, we will always remain here. Bright and immutable. Firm and timeless... like a square sun.

 

(Dedicated to my father who worked in the United States for a long time before he was able to return to our Mexico).

 

Sol Cuadrado

 

Somos uno y todos, siempre divididos. Cruzando perpetuamente la línea, aquella que primero nos cruzó. Nacidos con el anhelo innato de elevarnos alto, revitalizados una y otra vez al caer. Rebotando y renaciendo con entusiasmo en una interminable escalera de abrazos vecinales crueles. Marcados por las esperanzas del descubrimiento, mordidos por el abandono y la pérdida, dando más de lo que podemos tomar: nuestras propias vidas, un precio elevado por la renovación. Decimos y hacemos todo lo que podemos pensar o imaginar. A veces entendemos, pero dejamos que la invisibilidad nos cubra con silencio. Somos los que se fueron: “Los héroes migrantes”. Y aunque regresemos, siempre permaneceremos aquí. Brillantes e inmutables. Firmes y atemporales… como un sol cuadrado.

 

(Dedicado a mi padre que trabajó en los Estados Unidos durante mucho tiempo antes de poder regresar a nuestro México).