ARTS SCENE
LEFT TO RIGHT:
Painter Rose Emanuela
Briccetti; sculptor Tal Avitzur.
subject of a particularly compelling portrait, immediately sensed the endeavor was “a labor of love” for Halper. “I’m a portraitist at heart,” admits Halper. “I really love creating images of people.” • With a thoughtful introduction by Santa Barbara’s poet laureate, Barry Spacks, the book boasts 71 sepia-toned portraits punctuated by 14 still-life photographs as well as carefully chosen quotations by famous artists (Sargent included). –L.D. PORTER BETWEEN SEER AND SEEN betweenseerandseen.com. Available at Chaucer’s Bookstore, 3321 State St., Santa Barbara, 805-682-6787, chaucersbooks.com.
INSIDE A LARGE, BARE-BONES INDUSTRIAL SPACE in Goleta known
O N E S TO WATC H
Conceptual Beauty
as The Can(n)on Art Studios, thecannonstudios.com, married artists Kimberly Hahn and James Van Arsdale create cutting-edge conceptual
art. Designed by the couple to be shared with other artists, the studios have an open-plan arrangement, which means Hahn and Van Arsdale work within steps of each other. Despite their physical proximity, the two make very different art. Hahn’s work is grounded in abstraction, likely the result of “seeing the world softly” as a child for several years due to undiagnosed vision problems. Her vibrantly colored photographs—featuring unidentifiable objects—often appear to be illustrations or paintings. Hahn’s art has an elegant, minimalist beauty steeped in ambiguity, forcing the viewer to constantly question what and how things are seen. Van Arsdale’s work is beautiful yet menacing, a combination of abstraction and symbolism with an underlying current of serious political commentary. His pinwheel drawings, which first appear as delicately renP H OTO G R A P H : D U S T I N WA L K E R
dered snowflakes, in fact depict intricately spinning bombs, land mines, medieval flails, and ninja stars. His pop art-colored installations have featured delicious-looking plastic hand grenade Popsicles, decoratively painted wooden ray guns, and toy soldiers, and he says he’s intrigued by the “beautiful and dangerous, delicious and deadly mixed together.” –L . D. P. Van Arsdale’s installation titled A Special Kind of Hell. RIGHT : The artistic duo. Hahn’s “Object is Null” exhibit opens November 9 at Design Matters, 310-841-6423, designmattersla.com. ABOVE :
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KIMBERLY HAHN kimberly hahn.com. JAMES VAN ARSDALE jamesvanarsdale.com.
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