Bonnie Carroll's Life Bites

Spectacular French Bronzes on View at Metropolitan Museum in Exhibition Spanning Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment

The National Gallery of Art is reopening its American galleries, which display some 150 paintings by virtually every important figure in American painting from the 18thto the early 20th century and will include many of these artists’ greatest masterpieces. Ten of the American galleries, among them the room featuring Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ monumental plaster model of his Memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment, are on public view in time for the nearby focus exhibition, Designing the Lincoln Memorial: Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, which opens in February 2009, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. By late February, all fourteen American galleries will be open.

During a two-year period of ongoing repair, restoration, and renovation, works normally on view in these galleries were either in storage, on loan, or featured in a special installation¯Crosscurrents: American and European Masterpieces from the Permanent Collection¯in the West Building Ground Floor galleries.

Martin Johnson Heade
Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds, 1871
Gift of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
1982.73.1

L.A.’s own David Roussève and his outstanding company return to UCLA with another piece of shattering dance theater, “Saudade,” named for a Portuguese expression of longing, wistfulness and nostalgia. “Saudade” is a mosaic of contemporary post modern and world dance forms, character monologues told from a uniquely southern, African-American perspective atmospheric lighting, video projections and contemporary and traditional Fado recordings.

An exciting exhibition at the Korean Cultural Center on the Miracle Mile will explore the dynamic subject of immigration through the work of 40 women artists. Selected by MOCA Curator Alma Ruiz, who is herself an immigrant and naturalized citizen, WOMEN ARTISTS ON IMMIGRATION: Crossing Borders, Confronting Barriers, Bridging Identities is intended to inspire an conversation based on experiences of the social and political complexities that play a role in shaping everyone’s cultural, personal and political identities.

To broaden the public dialogue, the organizers have added two complementary sets of work: selected immigration posters from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, and a digital projection of the images submitted by artists. A full-color catalog will be available for purchase.

The exhibition is organized and presented by the Pacific Region chapters of the Women's Caucus for Art and the Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles in conjunction with the Center for the Study of Political Graphics and the WCA New Media Caucus. The exhibition is also part of The Feminist Art Project and is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

The participating artists: Mariana Barnes, Yvonne Beatty, Alejandra Chaverri, Ching-Ching Cheng, Gilda Davidian, Cosette Dudley, Dwora Fried, Shelley Gazin, Elizabeth Gómez, Becky Guttin, Jennifer Maria Harris, Trudi Chamoff Hauptman, Judy Johnson-Williams, Niku Kashef, Arzu Arda Kosar and Gul Cagin, Patricia Krebs, Alexia Kutzner, Li ’n Lee, Lynn Elliott Letterman, Viviana Lombrozo, Poli Marichal, Michelle Montjoy, Carol Nye, Amparo J. Ochoa, Priscilla Otani, Lark (Larisa Pilinsky), Sinan Leong Revell, Patricia Rodriguez, Sandy Rodriguez, Ann Storc, Yuriko Takata, Luz Tapia, Tate Sisters, Linda Vallejo, Alicia Villegas, Sama Wareh, Sarah Wilkinson, Holly Wong

The Women's Caucus for Art (WCA) is the leading national not-for-profit organization for women in the visual arts professions. Founded in 1972, WCA has 27 chapters across the country (six in California) and is an affiliate society of the College Art Association. The Southern California chapter (SCWCA) is the largest local chapter and has been providing programs, workshops, exhibitions and recognition opportunities to women arts professionals in this region for over three decades. Visit www.nationalwca.org.

The Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles (KCCLA) is the largest facility outside of Korea that provides insights into the rich cultural heritage of Korea through sponsored events, films, and educational programs. KCCLA’s 2,500 square foot gallery is a venue for traditional and contemporary art exhibitions. Visit www.kccla.org.

Alma Ruiz is a curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). She has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art with a primary focus on the Alma was born in Guatemala City, earned a B.A. in art history at the University of Southern California, and received an M.A. in Italian language and literature from Middlebury College.

Through March 2009

1130 State Street, Santa Barbara. Open Tuesday-Sunday 11 am to 5 pm. Closed Monday. Free every Sunday. $9 adults, $6 seniors, students with ID and children ages 6-17. 805.963.4364. www.sbma.net

Of Life and Loss: The Polish Photographs of Roman Vishniac and Jeffrey Gusky

This exhibition brings together the photographs of Roman Vishniac, made in Poland in the mid 1930s, and the images of Jeffrey Gusky, made six decades later in many of the same areas. Vishniac’s forty-four photographs portray the crowded, vibrant communities, pulsing with life: men, women and children in their homes and schools, at their trades and in their streets, in markets and at prayer. Gusky’s images, in equal number, capture the austere landscapes and vestigial remains – the markets stilled and the streets empty.

SBMA celebrates the gifts made possible by PhotoFutures - now celebrating their tenth year.

Showcased in this exhibition are important areas , and enthusiastic support of our committed members, the permanent photography of focus within the photography collection – the intersection of art and science, California masters, Western Pacific Rim artists, and the 19th century American West, among others. PhotoFutures collectors have made many of these acquisitions possible. With the generous, informedcollection is now richer than ever…and the legacy continues.

RE:NEW Building the Contemporary Collection

March 7 – June 21, 2009

Since its founding in 1941, the permanent collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art has reflected a distinct diversity as well as a consistently trained spotlight on contemporary art. The focus of the contemporary art collection in the 1940s comprised works by American regionalists and young California artists, in the 1950s European-influenced modernists, and in the 1960s-70s photography. RE:NEW, featuring works by Amy Adler, Edgar Arceneaux, Jack Goldstein, Robert Heinecken, and Candida Höfer, reveals recent acquisitions of contemporary art and photography being exhibited for the first time, and signifies our continued yet renewed interest in building the contemporary art collection.