Happy Memorial Day, fellow art lovers. I hope you are all out and about, spending time with friends and loved ones.

It is time once again, to get your walking shoes ready for our monthly Art Crawl down State Street. This month’s Crawl will be marked by our first visits to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to see their new photography exhibition by Ori Gersht. Everyone who has seen this exhibition has been raving about it, so I can’t wait to see it for myself. We will also be making our first visit to the Artamo gallery. Somehow I have managed to neglect this great little gallery on Anapamu Street, so this month we’ll rectify that.

Finally, we will also be celebrating the opening of the second round of Art in the Mayor’s Office.  For this round there were 10 photographers who won the chance to show their photos, and we’ll be there to congratulate them… and hopefully convince them to join us for the rest of the evening. The winners in this round were: Patti Gutshall, Nell Campbell, Rodger Dawson, Jimmy Callian, Patricia Franco, Tim Hauf, Edgard Rincon, Kate Connell, Gerry Aspen, and Jack Azar.

[UPDATE]: I forgot about a great show of work by Tom Shultz and Micheal Long at Elsie’s. We’ll be making that our last stop for the evening.

All you have to do to join the Art Crawl is show up on the back steps of City Hall (735 Anacapa Street) at 5:30 SHARP!!! City Hall will close promptly at 6pm, so if you want to get in to see these photographs you have to be on time.

I hope to see you this Thursday… Now get back to your barbecue.

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

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!

Happy Holidays!  Tonight is the night for a particularly festive First Thursday on State Street. The tree is up outside the Arlington, and the lights are out on all the trees that line the street I’ve been so busy preparing for tonight that my monthly recommendations are a bit late, but I hope you will put these stops on your itinerary for the evening.

Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative Art Crawl
After the success of the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative‘s  first ever First Thursday Art Crawl last month, we are going to be making it a monthly event. This month I got local contemporary art super hero, Andi Garcia to curate the crawl. She has put together a truly impressive line up of stops and Art Crawl exclusives that  should create a very special and unique evening. All you have to do to participate in the Art Crawl is show up at Coffee Cat at 5:30 tonight. Look for the lady with the Art Crawl badges. From Coffee Cat Andi will be making stops at many of the places listed below, and other unexpected places.

100 Grand at SULLIVAN GOSS
I’ve spent most of the last week preparing for this show. It is one of my favorite shows of the year and I’m not alone. People have been asking about his show for months already. The idea: 100 works prices at $1000 or less. The 2010 version of the show boasts a roster of 47 contemporary artists all in one room. The show gives the gallery to exhibit work by local contemporary and emerging artist, which is why I get so excited about the show, and why I want to highlight the show on the blog.

SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF ART
Two of the five exhibitions in the series Reframing America…will be on view: An American Century: 20th-Century Master Drawings from the Collection and American Modernism: Selections from the Permanent Collection. A selection of short (under 10 min) films by Stranger Than Fiction artists Erin Cosgrove and Allison Schulnik will be screened continuously in the Mary Craig Auditorium.

Family 1st Thursday: Picture This.
Bring the whole family to enjoy 1st Thursday together in SBMA’s Family Resource Center. Pose for a Polaroid, then play with places and create your own story by inserting yourself as a character in one of the photographs in the exhibition American Modernism. 5:30-7:30pm.

Quire of Voyces
This amazing group returns to Ludington Court to entertain SBMA 1st Thursday visitors. 6:30–7pm.

The 13th annual Brad Nack 100% Reindeer Art Show
Roy, 7 W. Carrillo St, Santa Barbara
Brad Nack‘s annual show of Reindeer paintings is one of this city’s most popular shows of the entire year.  A show so popular that even during the Great Recession it can sell out. This year’s “herd” is apparently quite limited, so if you want to get first pick of these awesome paintings, I suggest you get there early.

‘HOHO’ UNDERGROUND ART SHOW
125 E. Carrillo
The ‘CHICA BOW WOW’ Team is pre-celebrating Christmas with their last Underground Art Show for this year 2010! We are inviting everyone who would like to celebrate with us not only Christmas but also Art, Creativity and Inspiration. The featured artists will be Ulrike Kerber from Viva Design Inc. and also the founder of lovetoread.com, Ulrike will be showing several experimental films. In collaboration with Ulrike Kerber, Inga Guzyte will be showing her new series of skateboard sculptures. Ms. Guzyte’s work is the hottest thing in Santa Barbara’s emerging artist market. Her show just last month sold out. And there is a good chance that this one will as well. The work is unique and beautiful, so this show should be on your “not to be missed” list.

Forum Lounge: Marco Pinter, Gravitational Forces
SANTA BARBARA CONTEMPORARY ARTS FORUM
653 Paseo Nuevo, 2nd Floor 7PM
Gravitational Forces explores technology as a medium for artistic expression by using dance and video to create a multi-sensory experience. This performance represents the emotions and struggles we face as humans through a fusion of dance, video, and generated sound. Dancers Anaya Cullen, Kaita Lepore, and Steven Jasso pull from the audience’s “kinesthetic sympathy” with the aid of Pinter’s direction and technological additions.

Dave Cooley at Elsie’s Tavern
117 West De La Guerra Street
I have been a fan of Dave Cooley’s work for a long time. It is completely unique, imaginative, and meticulously crafted. The more I see of his work, the more I love it. His latest show opens tonight at Elsie’s Tavern. This would make a great final stop once the main event on State Street closes down at 8pm.

I hope to see huge  crowds on State Street tonight taking part in the festivities. If you have any other recommendations to add to this list, please post a comment with the details. Also, if you see anything particularly wonderful and want to share it come back here and post a comment about what you saw. See you out there….

After a couple of days of cold, damp weather the sunny and beautiful Santa Barbara weather has returned just in time for tonight’s First Thursday. There is a ton of great shows and exhibits to check out tonight, including an instillation by Santa Barbara’s own Gerard Minakawa and Bamboo DNA, famous for their bamboo constructions at Coachella and Burning Man. They have recently returned to the States after spending the summer touring Europe and building some amazing structures. I’ve included a video below of Minakawa discussing his creation at Portugal’s BOOM festival.

There are also great shows from blog regulars like Vanae Rivera, the good folks at Fuzion SB, and the Contemporary Arts Forum, amongst others. I hope to see tons of people out there taking advantage of these amazing local art resources.

As always, if I’ve forgotten anything or if you’d like to add a show to this list of highlights please post them in a comment below.

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BAMBOO DNA
Corner of Victoria and State Streets
Gerard Minakawa will be bringing another one of his frightening bamboo bugs to the streets of Santa Barbara! Minakawa and his Bamboo DNA crew create one-of-a-kind bamboo installations worldwide and are pleased to introduce a unique new creature in time for the Halloween season.

Boom Festival 2010 – Day 4 from Boom Festival on Vimeo.

MILK AND HONEY
30 West Anapamu St.
(805) 275-4232
Vanae Rivera’s “New Little Art Show” will debut at Milk and Honey. Vanae is a blog favorite and is sure to bring some of the sexy rockabilly sheik that is why we love her work so much.

FUZION SANTA BARBARA
1115 State Street
(805) 687-6401
Fuzion Gallery will be hosting an art reception for our October art show featuring prestigious Los Angeles based artist Luke Vicious. Event runs from 7PM-10:30PM and will boast beer and wine for those of age.

SANTA BARBARA MUSEUM OF ART
1130 State Street
(805) 963-4364
Three of the five exhibitions in the series Reframing America… will be on view: Stranger Than Fiction: Narrative in Works by Selected Contemporary Artists, Chasing Moby-Dick: Selected Works by Tony de los Reyes and Yosemite: Then and Now. A selection of short (under 10 min) films by Stranger Than Fiction artists Erin Cosgrove and Allison Schulnik will be screened continuously in the Mary Craig Auditorium.
Family 1st Thursday: Kingdom of Nature Paper Sculpture.
Bring the whole family to enjoy 1st Thursday together in SBMA’s Family Resource Center. Re-imagine Aaron Morse’s Kingdom of Nature, featured work in the exhibition Stranger Than Fiction: Narrative in Works by Selected Contemporary Artists, as a 3-D paper sculpture using images from the natural world and from your imagination that explore the thin line between fact and fiction. 5:30-7:30pm.

TACO TASTE OFF
900 State Street on Border’s Patio
Cheer on and vote for your favorite Downtown fish/seafood taco as local celebrity judges taste and critique the finest fish/seafood tacos that Downtown Santa Barbara has to offer. Judging will begin at 5:30pm.

SANTA BARBARA CONTEMPORARY ARTS FORUM
653 Paseo Nuevo, 2nd Floor
(805) 966-5373
Forum Lounge: sonicSENSE: an interactive multimedia art platform created by Barney Haynes and Jennifer Parker as an evolving site for art, culture, new technologies, digital media, collaboration, and participation. SonicSENSE uses the creative diversity of computational media and traditional visual art practices to cultivate space for sharing, questioning and exploring interdisciplinary frameworks, methodologies and experiences. 7pm.

WALL SPACE GALLERY
113 West Ortega Street
(805) 690-4913
Premiering Charles Grogg’s newest series, Ascension. These haunting black and white images are his emotional investigation of what binds us, what tethers us to earth and in the process sets us free. The images themselves are bound with wire, thread and other materials to give a tactile feel to a complicated vision. Charles will be at the gallery from 6-8pm to discuss his vision and ideas about his work.

BROOKS INSTITUTE GALLERY 27
27 East Cota Street
(805) 690-4913
Control | Release: Join us for an exhibition of work by six artists currently completing their MFA degree at Brooks Institute. The first of three group exhibitions, the show represents the diversity of the program and the exploration of photography within the contemporary art world. This collection of work utilizes the medium to discuss the desire for release from the human need to control. Refreshments will be served.

Happy New Year to one and all! It’s time for our first First Thursday of the new decade, and I’ve got a list of highlights to add to your tour tonight.

Artamo Gallery

Artamo is small and easy to miss, but it is Santa Barbara’s leading gallery for international abstract art. Unlike much of Santa Barbara, I am a huge fan of abstract art. Tonight Artamo has put together a group of small works specifically for those of us that do not have large pocketbooks. This might be a great opportunity for fans of abstract art to pick something up for yourself or a loved one, without having to mortgage  away your unborn children–always a plus!

SBMA

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art has extended one of the best shows that they have had there in a long time. If you haven’t seen it yet, make sure to check out “California Calling”, an exhibit that highlights the innovative, and  in-your-face art that has come out of California over the last sixty years, including iconic works by David Park, Sam Francis, and long-time UCSB professor Howard Warshaw.

Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative

The fledgling Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative will be having its second showing of 2-D and 3-D art at Casa de la Guerra. There will be live art making  and music to accompany the exhibit. Make sure and stop by and learn about the big plans that this collaborative has for the new year.

Casa Magazine

Casa Magazine‘s home base on Canon Perdido Street will host an exhibit by Beth Amine entitled Inner Worlds of Possibility: Alive and Visible. Amine will be exhibiting her handmade shrines and leading shrine-making activities. Casa will also have refreshments and tasty provisions for those of you who forgot to eat before hitting the street.

Contemporary Arts Forum

Finally, as mentioned in my last post, Ted Mills will be performing his second installment of The Amazing Animated Jukebox. The Amazing Animated Jukebox Vol. 2 screens videos from Coldplay, Beck, Radiohead, Menomena, N.A.S.A. featuring Kool Keith and Tom Waits, Death Cab for Cutie, Birdy Nam Nam, Lemon Jelly, Royksopp, Azeem, The New Pornographers, and many more. Don’t miss your fix of the latest wave in animated eye candy ranging from old-school 2-D line drawing to computer graphics and those that negotiate the subtle levels in between.

See you on the street!