EMAIL: ARTS@INDEPENDENT.COM
ARTS DISTRICT GALLERIES ASCENDANT THOMAS REYNOLDS, 10 WEST, AND SULLIVAN GOSS PURSUE A GROWING MARKET a rush to collect art through Santa Barbara galleries and, in many instances, by Santa Barbara artists. Case in point: Maria Rendón’s solo debut show at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, Rain, which opened on Thursday, April 1, is well on its way to an 80 or even a 90 percent sell-through rate, with the largest (and most expensive) works promised to buyers before they hit the gallery walls. Rendón, who was born in Mexico City and holds fine arts degrees SUPERBLOOM: “Poppy” (2021) by Maria Rendón is from the Sullivan Goss exhibit Rain. from Universidad Anáhuac, Art Cenfunny thing happened on the way to ter College of Design, and UCSB, seems to the reopening of downtown Santa have struck a chord with the community with Barbara following the COVID-19 this show, which was inspired, in part, by the crisis. For years, if not decades, Santa Bar- rain that created 2019’s super bloom event. bara artists have lamented the fact that, Several years in the making, these brightly despite a preponderance of distinguished colored and exquisitely layered abstractions fine art collections in the city’s prolifera- radiate a sophisticated sensibility that’s equal tion of lavish domestic spaces, collectors parts cosmopolitan and spiritual, a perfect have — with few exceptions — tended to combination for the present moment. Elsewhere in the downtown arts district purchase their art elsewhere. Now it seems that, along with what has been described anchored by the Arlington Theatre, the as a significant backlog of unfilled orders Granada Theatre, and the Santa Barbara for new furniture, there is something of Museum of Art, two other outstanding COURTESY
A
ETC PRESENTS AN ILIAD 30
THE INDEPENDENT
APRIL 8, 2021
HOMER REDUX: John Tufts performs An Iliad April 15-18 for Ensemble Theatre Company.
INDEPENDENT.COM
galleries are pursuing the rising market for contemporary art. The newest destination on the map, the Thomas Reynolds Gallery at 1331 State Street, arrives by way of San Francisco. Reynolds is an experienced dealer specializing in California artists who inhabit the border between representational and abstract work. He has dressed up the space with vintage desks, a handsome carpet, and several dozen works by artists such as Stevan Shapona, Terry Miura, Sandy Ostrau, Ken Auster, and Francis Livingston. Equipped with a comprehensive knowledge of California realism and an impeccable pedigree of success in the Bay Area, Reynolds fills an important niche in our art ecosystem. Like the great Frank Goss, founder of Sullivan Goss Gallery, Reynolds bears personal knowledge of the history of art in California with wit and grace. He’s sure to be a major resource for those seeking to better understand what forces have shaped our common aesthetic. Down the block and around the corner at 10 West Anapamu Street, Jan Ziegler provides an invaluable service to some of the city’s most accomplished artists by curating the shows at 10 West Gallery. 10 West employs a different business model from that of most other commercial art galleries, in that it meets expenses through a cooperative dues-paying membership, rather than through sales, although sales are, of course, a key aspect of keeping the members and artists happy. Here’s where you will find some of Santa Barbara’s most experienced and ambitious creators displaying their latest work. Lisa Crane, Madeleine Garrett, Pamela Grau, and Pat McGinnis are just some of the artists currently on view, and all of them are working at the height of their considerable powers. As of the pandemic, all of the work that’s on view in the physical space can also be seen on the 10 West website, a
The original “great book” was not, originally, a book at all. Thanks to the brilliant early-20th-century scholarship of Milman Parry and others, Homer’s Iliad, the 2,500-year-old Bronze Age epic poem, is today understood to be a cornerstone example of oral-formulaic composition, a technique that allows performers to rapidly improvise extended poems. How fitting that today we have An Iliad, an approximately 100-minute-long version of the epic poem created by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare and intended for the 21st-century stage. The“An”in the play’s title recognizes the fact that, before it was written down, the poem was perpetually in flux — every original Iliad was “an Iliad.”It was only the advent of literary culture that fixed the text in the specific order that we read it today. For four days, April 15-18, the virtuosic actor John Tufts will deliver five distinct live performances of An Iliad, as directed by Ensemble Theatre Company Artistic Director Jonathan Fox and
L I F E PAGE 30 decision prompted by both the reduced hours necessitated by quarantine and the increasing prevalence of online sales. The gallery has also recently leased a display window on State Street next to Old Navy, so make sure to check that out next time you are prowling the downtown arts district pedestrian mall. —Charles Donelan
POETRY MATTERS
‘Between the First and Second Dose’ by David Starkey
The ache of that long-sought jab in the upper arm has faded, leaving behind the vertigo of hope. Now, an interim alliance between patience and next week, daydreams of hosting friends in a living room with windows shut, and music made by human beings sweating on their guitar strings. Is it time to begin discarding caution? The almost forgotten things of this world hove once more into our ken — the violet glow of the coast at sunset, the scent of jasmine blooming in a neighbor’s yard.
accompanied by the original cello music of the Santa Barbara Symphony’s Jonathan Flaksman. Although Peterson and O’Hare rely on the Robert Fagles translation for sections of the original poem, what makes the play special is the thrilling way they have reimagined the telling of the tale as something contemporary. The anonymous poet/performer carries with him the entire history of human conflict since the Trojan War. He knows about World War I’s trenches and the American armies of the great wars, with their soldiers drawn from every city and state in the country. The interweaving of these histories gives Homer’s timeless truths about self-destructive masculine wrath an inescapable relevance that takes the ancient story to the heart of modern concerns. For tickets and information, visit etcsb.org. —CD