Left Coast: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art

Since it opened its doors in 1941, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art has consistently been dedicated to collecting—an activity that has contributed to the growth of the permanent collection in significant ways. Art produced on the West Coast is a major part of this endeavor. Left Coast presents an overview of the Museum’s collecting habits in contemporary art over the past five years, focusing most heavily on artists living and working in Southern California. Featuring a variety of media, including painting, photography, works on paper, and sculpture, many of the works in the exhibition are on view for the first time. Tying these works together is the pervasive sense of individuality demonstrated in each, adding weight to the justification of the delineation of this side of the country as not just the West Coast, but also, as it’s commonly called, the “Left” Coast.

The exhibition is comprised of works from artists of both regional and international renown, such as Amy Adler, Uta Barth, Russell Crotty, Carlee Fernandez, Llyn Foulkes, Jack Goldstein, Lyle Ashton Harris, Richard Jackson, Kim Jones, Mike Kelley, Elad Lassry, Kori Newkirk, Steve Roden, April Street, Mario Ybarra Jr., and many others. We invite you to become acquainted with these works, which have recently joined the collection to ensure the continued relevance and significance of the Museum.