108
ARTS
Fresh Face Portrait paintings by BARET BOISSON possess the whimsical style of American folk art while managing to capture each subject’s true essence. Entirely self-taught, Boisson—who splits her time between Southampton, Santa Barbara, and Paris—only began painting at age 30, but her natural talent was evident from the start. She’s received commissions from notable collectors including Kathy Ireland, Jimmy Fallon, the late Elizabeth Taylor, and Lynda Weinman. Her love of history—Boisson majored in political science at Barnard College—is reflected in her impressive solo exhibition at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, entitled “Inspiring Greatness through Words and Deeds: The Art of Baret Boisson” from June 11 through September 6. The show features the artist’s depictions of civil rights activists (Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks), politicians (Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama), sports figures (Jackie Robinson, Billie Jean King) and entertainers (Ella Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Taylor). Boisson is represented by Christine Minas Fine Art, christine minas.com. L . D . P O R T E R
Top to bottom: Baret Boisson; BILLIE JEAN
KING, CHAMPION, 2009 , acrylic on canvas,
48x60 in.
BARETBOIS S ONART.C O M
FLOW ; Stefan Dobrianov’s RESPECT THE LOCALS ;
leather, wood, and metal;
Arts 77x20 in.
When the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced its 2016 Fellows—175 awardees were culled from nearly 3,000 applications—Hungarian-born interactive media artist GEORGE LEGRADY was on the list. Renowned worldwide for his visually arresting artworks conjoining advanced data processing and cultural content, Legrady is a professor of Interactive Media at UC Santa Barbara, chairs the Media Arts & Technology program, and also heads the university’s Experimental Visualization Lab. Legrady’s notable public projects include Making Visible the Invisible at the Seattle Central Library, where hourly updates of books being checked out were projected on large screens behind the information desk, enabling library patrons to visualize the reading community’s “personality” based on the types of books in circulation. The colorful abstract Kinetic Flow installation at the Vermont/Santa Monica MetroRail Station graphically compares the downward movement of commuters taking the escalator versus the staircase. Legrady is represented in Los Angeles by Edward Cella Art+Architecture, edwardcella.com. L . D . P . G EO R G E LEG R A D Y.C O M
S A N TA B A R B A R A
Perfectly Illogical Bulgarian-born STEFAN DOBRIANOV says he was “going in a circle—a bad one,” and decided the best way to break it was to do something illogical. He never planned to leave his homeland or sell his house to rent in Santa Barbara, but after a windsurfer versus surfer collision at Rincon Point on January 1, 2012, his decision was complete. During his teenage years, Dobrianov drew fonts, posters, and furniture then later brought his ideas to life with the furniture design/manufacturing company he eventually sold. However, he has no formal art training. “Everything is easy, but it takes time,” he says. “Sometimes the hardest part is to start.” What came of his fateful day at Rincon is now a series of distressed and embellished leather surfboard sculptures (from $9,600)—balancing juxtaposed details of masculine/feminine, natural/ man-made, perfect/imperfect—that currently resides downtown at the Jade Now Gallery, 805-845-4558. R A C H E L H O Y T TE D O S O N L I N E .CO M
PHOTOGRAPHS: BARET BOISSON, ISAAC HERNANDEZ; SURFBOARD, HRISTO SHINDOV
Media MIX MASTER
Below, left to right: George Legrady’s KINETIC