Since it opened its doors in 1941, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) has consistently been dedicated to collecting—an activity that has contributed to the growth of the permanent collection in significant ways. Art produced on the West Coast is a major part of this endeavor. Left Coast: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art presents an overview of the Museum’s collecting habits in contemporary art over the past five years, focusing most heavily on artists living and working in Southern California. Featuring a variety of media, including painting, photography, works on paper, and sculpture, many of the works in the exhibition are on view for the first time. What ties these works together is the pervasive sense of individuality demonstrated in each, adding weight to the justification of the delineation of this side of the country as not just the West Coast, but also, as it is commonly called, the “Left” Coast.
The exhibition is comprised of over 30 works from artists ranging from regional to international renown—from critically acclaimed artists Jack Goldstein, Kim Jones, Mike Kelley, and Lari Pittman, to established artists Amy Adler, Carlee Fernandez, Lyle Ashton Harris, and Steve Roden, to emerging artists Elad Lassry, Sommer Roman, April Street, and Robert Wechsler, among many others.
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