Tucked away in small industrial complex in Goleta are The Can(n)on Art Studios, a private art studio complex where a powerhouse of young, cutting edge artists hone their skills.
Normally open to outsiders by appointment only, the Can(n)on group is going public next week at the Atkinson Gallery, with its six artists–Elizabeth Folk, Saul Gray-Hildenbrand, Kimberly Hahn, Zacarias Paul, Steven Soria and James Van Arsdale–exhibiting their inventive, singular works in a range of media, including sculpture, painting, installation, printmaking and digital works.
Their work will be on view February 24 – March 23, with an opening reception on Friday, February 24, 5–7 p.m. and an artists panel discussion on Wednesday, March 14, 4:30 p.m.
“These talented, young artists are representative of the broader contemporary art culture, inclusive and pluralistic, often with a conceptual leaning. Gone are the days of when a student had to choose to be a sculptor or a painter or whatever narrowly defining term was given. While it is certainly fine to work, say, in the painting tradition, many artists are choosing to expand that tradition or selecting the appropriate media for their expression, perhaps just for that particular work. The next project might require an altogether different medium(s) and a completely different aesthetic approach,” says Atkinson Gallery director Dane Goodman.
Here’s a little more information about The Can(n)on Art Studio artists:
Elizabeth Folk is a sculpture, installation, performance, and video artist. Many of her works often exist as insertions into public spaces that invite audience interaction or collaboration. Folk’s Just Play! Restaurant, a life-sized restaurant board game, was featured at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Art Forum. You may have seen Glory Spa, her mobile spa vending machine engaging a space in your neighborhood. Folk received her Masters of Fine Art from the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Bachelors of Fine Art from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She teaches for the College of Creative Studies and the Art Department at UCSB, and 4-D and New Genres at SBCC.
Saul Gray-Hildenbrand was born In Petosky, MI. He received his B.F.A. from Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI and studied sculpture at Kingston University, Surbiton, England. Saul works in a variety of media from oil painting to ceramic sculpture. His work is influenced by folk and modern art. Saul’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures are a reaction to the world around him – sometimes mundane, sometimes ironic, and sometimes absurd, with a sprinkling of dark humor and misanthropy. The figures often reside in an ambiguous space, and their expressions come from observations of people in public spaces. The artist is attracted to anonymous figures and open narratives. He is the head-preparator at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum.
Kimberly Hahn was raised in California and Texas. She studied at Central St. Martins College of Art and Design, London, England and the University of Texas, Austin, Texas where she received a B.F.A. Hahn works in many media with a focus on photography. She has been in numerous exhibitions including A Communion of Saints: Santa Barbara and San Antonio, David Shelton Gallery, San Antonio, TX; Eating Apples in Paradise, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA; California Visual Artists, Second City Art Council Gallery, Long Beach, CA; and Revisiting Beauty, Orange County Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Ana, CA.
Zacarias Paul was born in 1974, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Paul’s artwork explores the re-contextualization of the commonplace by revisiting the languages of minimalism through geometric abstraction, deftly traversing various mediums such as painting, printmaking, photography and video. The process, the materials and the spaces created are the substance of his work, where the viewer becomes an ever changing element in the cycle of the creation of it. His work has been exhibited in France; Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; and Santa Barbara, CA. He currently has an exhibition of his work at Sullivan Goss gallery in Santa Barbara.
Steven Soria received an B.F.A. in Sculpture at Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach, CA and has pursued contemporary and tradition techniques utilizing various media including painting, sculpture, installation, and video art. Soria’s work explores the many facets of multi-media installation, and blurs the lines between high and low-tech objects. His work is influenced by family trades: auto body, auto-mechanics and leather crafting. He is a third generation leather-smith. Soria’s work has been shown in galleries throughout the Southern California area, with a concentration in Los Angeles including Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, A&D Museum, Los Angeles, CA, and Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA.
James Van Arsdale A Special Kind of Hell detail 2012, mixed media installation dimensions variable James Van Arsdale A Special Kind of Hell detail 2012 mixed media installation dimensions variable
James Van Arsdale is a mixed-media installation artist, designer, and musician. He received an M.F.A., Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX and a B.F.A., University of Texas Austin, Austin, TX. His artwork has been shown in many solo and group exhibitions including recently Eating Apples In Paradise at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum and Color System, Color Strategy at the University of Texas Dallas, Dallas TX. Recent solo exhibitions include (Safe Inside My) Green Zone at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, and Everything You Hear Is True at Left Coast, Goleta, CA. He was a recipient of the William T. Colville Foundation’s Artist Grant in 2009. From 2006-2010 he performed in the indie-rock band The Coral Sea.
The Atkinson Gallery is located on the second floor of the Humanities building, of Santa Barbara City College, at 721 Cliff Drive. Gallery Hours: Monday–Thursday, 10–7 p.m., Friday–Saturday, 10–4 p.m. For more information call 805/965-0581 x3484 or visit http://gallery.sbcc.edu.
