Westmont Magazine Museum Draws a Crowd
Art lovers have been flocking to the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, beginning with a record crowd April 7 at the opening of “Presence,” the annual show for graduating art majors. The 15 seniors offered a diverse exhibition featuring incredibly detailed drawings in ink and graphite, numerous paintings in oil and acrylic and gouache, a tribute to surfboard design cast in resin, multiple examples of screen printing and even a menagerie of fictional animal sculptures.
“The show took its title from the deeper value and appreciation our seniors had for in-person learning in the wake of the pandemic,” says Scott Anderson, professor for this year’s Senior Seminar cohort.
The graduate exhibition featured artists Brooke Dingman, Tirzah Dove, Katie Luttenberger, Meg Mason, Miguel Moreno, Marina Smith, Abigail Stadtlander, Selah Tennberg, Lauren Thomas, Cole Troya, Alyssa Mae Tumlos, Kenzie Westergard, Kate Wetterau, Anna Wheeler and Rachel Yates.
Most recently, the museum earned rave reviews for “Adam Belt: Wish You Were Here,” which explored the point where art, science and spirituality converge. “One of the most contemplative spots in Santa Barbara’s present fine-art landscape can be found by proceeding to the darkened main gallery of the Westmont College Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. You can’t miss it,” wrote Josef Woodard of the Santa Barbara Independent.
Belt, who was born in Seattle and grew up in Albuquerque, began his career as a landscape painter before shifting his interests to making visible the unseen energies at work in our universe, especially those forces beyond our meager understandings.
“His work is simple and minimal, yet it asks complex questions and reveals profound truths,” says Judy Larson, R. Anthony Askew professor of art history and museum director. “Curiosity is at the core of Belt’s works. He explores the intersections of science and the visual arts, inviting his viewers to see our world in new ways.”
Last summer, the museum featured works by four influential Southern California artists and art professors: Ken Jewesson, Ciel Bergman, Irma Cavat and Florence “FiFi” Russell. “Finding Beauty in Structure: Works of Ken Jewesson” included more than 30 pieces of art in the museum’s main gallery.
Jewesson enjoyed a long career working as a ceramic designer, printmaker, painter, draftsman, collage artist and jewelry maker. “His work is important as he was among a group of avant-garde artists to introduce modernism to Santa Barbara,” Larson says.
Two new acquisitions of works by Cavat and Bergman hung in the museum’s entryway, a celebration of the two pioneering women artists in Santa Barbara — the first to teach in the UC Santa Barbara Art Department.