Rebecca Morgan

Gitler &_____ presents seven exhibitions andoneartist-residency in Santa Barbara, CA.

219 Gray Ave. Santa Barbara, CA 93101

July 3-August 29, 2021

Gallery Hours: Wed-Sun, 12pm to 7pm (Mon -Tues), open by appointment)

Receptions: Sat July17, 5-8PM & Sat August 7, 2021, 5-8 PM 

In the Winter of 2020, as the lockdown continued well into its tenth month, the New York based gallery Gitler &_____ was invited to Santa Barbara for the summer to present a series of exhibits in the Funk Zone neighborhood building, which has been home to various art programming over the last decade.The gallery has chosen to curate seven exhibitions and to host one artist residency.The focus of these exhibits is to bring work by emerging and mid-career contemporary artists who have never exhibited in Santa Barbara. As gallery owner Avi Gitler pointed out "we have all been sequestered for a very long time, and we were thrilled at both the opportunityto spend the summer in a new environment, and to bring fresh work to Santa Barbara for everyone here who has been deprived these past 16 months of both new art and new experience." The artists being exhibited are a mix of East Coast American and international artists. During July, Gallery 1 will host a two-artist exhibit featuring the incisive American portraitists Tom Sanford (NY) and Rebecca Morgan (PA). The former is focused on life in urban America, specifically NYC, while the latter pays loving tribute to rural life in Appalachia, in all its color. Rebecca Morgan is exhibiting courtesy of Asya Geisberg Gallery.

The adjacent Gallery 2, which normally functions as a small painting studio, has been converted into an exhibit space, and will host Amanda Marrè Brown’s first solo exhibition Gloaming in Wyoming, a series of ethereal landscapes, made during an artist residency at the Jentel Foundation in March. Gallery 3 will host Boston based sculptor Damien Hoar de Galvan’s immediately identifiable patchwork wooden constructions.

In August, Gallery 1 will host a pair of Brooklyn based artists, including the environmental painter George Boorujy, whose meticulously rendered work attests to his deep investigation of our changing natural world. He will be joined by the painter Rachel Ostrow whose cosmic abstractions abound with both a frenetic and calming energy at the very same time.

In the adjoining spaces, two exhibits in August: The Incident from Spanish painter Juan de la Rica, the first solo American show of his joyful + charming tableaus. And Colombian painter Esteban Ocampo-Giraldo’s Aqui y Allá, an exhibit of 15 new paintings, all small jewels revealing an obvious affection for his native homeland, painted this year, after many years of NYC living.

Gallery 4 will be activated in August and will host Sean Lotman. Sean actually attended UCSB (a surprise to curator Avi Gitler) and has been living in Japan since 2003. In the first showcase of his work in the United States, Sean will show selected photos from his newest photo book, The Sniper Paused So He Could Wipe His Brow, to be published in July by the (M) éditions [Paris]. Finally, the Florida based artist couple Boy Kong and Kirza Lopez have been invited to spend the month in Santa Barbara. Both artists work in painting, sculpture, mural art, and more, and will create work based on their experience of Santa Barbara. A presentation of their work at the conclusion of their stay will be determined in mid-August.

SCHEDULE

JULY [reception Saturday July 17, 5-8pm]
Gallery 1:
July 3 – August 1 - Tom Sanford* (NY) and Rebecca Morgan (PA)
Gallery 2:
July 3 – August 1 - Amanda Marrè Brown* (NY)
Gallery 3/4:
July 3 – August 1 - Damien Hoar de Galvan (Massachusetts)

AUGUST [reception Saturday August 7, 5-8pm]
Gallery 1:
August 4 - August 29 - George Boorujy* (NY) and Rachel Ostrow* (NY)
Gallery 2:
August 4 - August 29 - Esteban Ocampo-Giraldo (Colombia)
Gallery 3:
July 22 - August 20 - Juan De La Rica (Spain)
Gallery 4:
August 4 - August 29 - Sean Lotman* (Japan)

In Residency:
August 4 - August 29 - Boy Kong (FL) and Kirza Lopez (FL)

*artist plans to attend reception