After a hiatus from the Downtown Organizations’s 1st Thursday last month, I’m back for the last Art Crawl of the year and this is going to be an extra special event. First of all, I am going to focus on many of the venues that have previously been neglected for one reason or another. We will start on the southern-most part of the festivities and will work our way up to a last stop at one of my favorite local artist’s studio near the Arlington theater. This means that we’ll be doing a bit more walking than usual, so make sure to eat before you come and wear comfortable shoes. It also mean that we will stop at fewer places than usual so we have time to take in these new places.

Joining us for at least part of the evening will be a group of revelers from Repeal Day Santa Barbara. Monday December 5th is the anniversary of the day that prohibition was repealed. They have some big festivities planned for the entire weekend and they start the whole shebang off with the Art Crawl.

I’ve posted a map of the tentative itinerary below. Click on the map to see an enlarged version. If you want to join us, make sure to be at Wall Space Gallery before 6pm. We will leave there promptly to make sure we have time to get everywhere.

Finally, the Art Crawl has a new site on Meetup.com. Check it out. I wasn’t familiar with it until recently, but it ends up being a pretty great online site for organizing in person events.

I hope to see you on Thursday!

I hope you all  had a wonderful 4th of July and are ready to hit the street for this month’s 1st Thursday.  There will be no Art Crawl for the next two months, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be out there check out all the art and festivities. I hope to see you out there too.

Reef City by Mark Goerner

This month I’m most excited about a show at Roy by Mark Goerner. Mark is a friend of mine, so I know that shows of his work are rare, but I can also say without bias that he is one of my favorite artists anywhere. Mark’s work tends to have a sci-fi edge that is very unique in Santa Barbara and is exactly the kind of stuff I get weak in the knees over.

Another highlight that I want to focus on briefly here is the gallery that seemed to pop up out of nowhere right before 1st Thursday last month. The Project (740 State Street, Suite 1) is “a collaborative non-profit art gallery owned and operated by nine local artists. The Project will benefit Girls Inc. by donating 20% of all art sales to their organization, Girls Helping Girls [Awesome!]. Featured artists include Donna Ayscough, Liz Brady, Erika Carter, Theresa Carter, Lloyd Dallett, Ashley Dart, Virginia McCracken, Lisa Pedersen and Susan Tibbles.” This place was packed to the gills for the entire evening last month. And I wish them the absolute best in their new venture.

I am also going to make a pointed effort to check out the Forum Lounge at the Contemporary Arts Forum. You never know what you will get when you walk in to one of these events, and that’s part of the fun.  I’ve pasted the information below.

For a full list of activities this Thursday check out the Downtown Organization website.  If you encounter any really great work out there that I should put on my radar for future reference, please leave a comment to this post.

I’ve been hoping for it for a couple of months now, but I think finally we’re going to get some nice warm weather for 1st Thursday this week. We’re going to mix it up a bit this month by stopping at a few places that will be totally new to the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative‘s Art Crawl. I hope you can join me for the night. It should be a blast. All you have to do to join the Art Crawl is show up at 900 State Street in the Walkabout Woods Installation at 5:30 this Thursday. Look for the Art Crawl sign.

Click on the image below to see a larger version of this month’s map.

A Rough Itinerary for the Evening

Here are a few of the things I’m most excited about.

WALKABOUT WOODS
900 State Street
Walkabout Woods is a highly collaborative, interactive art installation made by Fishbon, a local arts collaborative. The project, in its entirety, will resemble a vast abstract enchanted forest and is destined for Burning Man 2011. Come enjoy a small portion of the forest on the patio.

SOJOURNER CAFE
134 East Canon Perdido Street
(805) 965-7922
Kat Devlin won’t be the only draw for this event, the ever popular painter, Chris Potter is teaming up with our long time favorite Kevin Gleason (ask Kevin about our mural), along with a special wine tasting with David from Southern Wine & Spirits. The best place to close out your 1st Thursday evening, open until 11pm.

THE GRANADA THEATRE
1214 State Street
(805) 899-3000
Zombies and Buddhas art exhibition by Jill Littlewood in the McCune Founders Room. “My sons, and their friends, often talk about zombies and surviving zombie attacks. I’ve never heard girls bring this subject up. I began wondering what zombies mean to young men, so I played with the imagery. As I was painting – using colored paper pulp – every once in a while a buddha would appear and give me some relief from the anger and turmoil of zombie faces.” Enjoy Modern Jazz, Latin and Pop from Cut Time, presented by theSanta Barbara Youth Music Academy.

FUZION
1115 State St.
(805) 687-6401
Downstairs at Fuzion Gallery we are hosting Jamie Dufek’s art reception from 7PM-10PM with the show hanging through the month of May, Free drinks for 21+and Guest DJ Chadillac will be playing all night too!

Tonight’s First Thursday is shaping up to be one of the best of the year. Not only because it is November and we finally have some beautiful weather, but this month’s art offerings are exceptional. Besides Pianos on State and the first ever Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative Art Crawl, there are some really exciting exhibits to check out, including the Bang Bang underground show which I’m particularly excited about.  Below are my selected highlights of places to make sure not to miss tonight as you hit the street.

125 E. Carrillo Street
The BANG BANG Underground Art Production is inviting everyone for the one-night event at 125 E. Carrillo Street ( orange door in the back). The event will start at 5pm and last till at least 10pm. The featured artist of the night are Sherry Wetzel, Inga Romualdo Guzyte and the musician Chris Wilson and more… They will have snacks and drinks for the hungry and thirsty ones!

This one is a bit off of the beaten path, but it is well worth it. The last show at this place nearly sold out. If you want first pick you better get there early.

THE SUPPLY ROOM @ PRESIDIO MOTEL
1620 State Street
(805) 963-1355
Featuring local artist Stephanie Dotson. She will be showcasing a collection of recent encaustic paintings layered with ink and resin. Stephanie currently lives and teaches printmaking in Santa Barbara.

CANARY HOTEL
31 West Carrillo Street
(805) 884-0300
Linda Stewart-Oaten, recipient of The Arts Fund’s 2010 Individual Artist Award (IAA) in General Fiction, will premier her winning piece, “Flames”, in a public reading. Also reading will be IAA Honorable Mention winners: Jim Alexander, Catherine Gee, and Fred Nadis.

BROOKS INSTITUTE GALLERY 27
27 East Cota Street
(805) 690-4913
Construction & Reconstruction: this group exhibition features samples of the culminating work of six emerging photographers from the Master of Fine Art Photography program. The selection of works from these groundbreaking artists ranges from the truly novel to reinterpretations of the familiar. The pieces reflect a variety of personal experiences, expressions, concerns and interests. Wine will be provided by Olive House.

SANTA BARBARA CONTEMPORARY ARTS FORUM
653 Paseo Nuevo, 2nd Floor
(805) 966-5373
Forum Lounge: Without Sun. In two showings, 7pm and 8pm, artist Brody Condon will present the live performance Without Sun: Modification (2009). This dance and spoken word piece is based on an edited compilation of “found online performances” of individuals on a psychedelic substance which will be screened before the performance. Condon worked with dancer Linda Austin and actor Russell Edge to re-interpret the erratic movements and verbalizations of people in the throes of revelatory and frightening psychoactive experiences.

It is finally time, Loyal Blog Readers. I have been waiting a long time for this event, and I couldn’t be happier that it is finally here. This Thursday is, of course, First Thursday, but it will also be your chance to preview the Grand Opening show for AG2 Gallery. If you aren’t familiar with this gallery from previous posts, AG2 is the first full time gallery space in Santa Barbara dedicated to new art by emerging artists. This won’t be the first time you’ll have seen this kind of art; it has been found in coffee shops and bars throughout town. And thought, the AG2 Gallery does share some space with a coffee shop, this gallery will be bringing a focus on this kind of art that this town has not yet seen.

If, like me, you are a fan of this kind of art and want to see works emerging artists who are experimenting with new genres of artistic production, this venture will need any kind of support you can afford to give.  Make this one of your high priority stops for First Thursday, and make sure to come back on Saturday for the Grand Opening itself.

I’ll see you there. Details below.

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Andi Garcia has finally landed, well sort of , and opening a constant gallery space at 1101 State Street tucked French Press in Downtown Santa Barbara on the corner of State and

Figueroa .

August 1st Thursday, Aug 5th is the preview of Ag2 Gallery grand opening with art works from Portland , San Francisco, Los Angeles and beyond with a significant representation of the Hive Gallery in Los Angeles .
Highlighted in the global mix are Santa Barbara’s own core favorites Dave Cooley, Nomelove, Andy Proctor , Vanae Rivera and Jimmy Bell.

Ag2 Gallery is delighted to have Sino Tequila introduce themselves to Santa Barbara with their own brand of Super Sino Spicy margaritas as an added treat.

Music to be provided for by DeLaVina acoustic and live art painting by Yuki Miyazaki !!

Viva up all your senses this Fiesta week at Ag2 Gallery this 1st Thursday Aug 5th 5- 8pm and Grand Opening celebration featuring debut of TwentyFour Black Birds Artisan Chocolates , Saturday , Aug 7th 5-8pm

Gallery Hours : Mon through Friday 8am to 7pm
Sat and Sun 8am to 5pm
Art Sales by appointment
Andi Garcia 805.637.2521

Gallery Location :
Ag2 Gallery @French Press
1101 State Street , Santa Barbara , Ca 93101

Gallery Blog :
ARTiFAQZ Blog http://artifaqz.blogspot.com/