At the opening reception for Bridging Worlds at the Indah Gallery, many of the 100-plus gallery visitors asked artist Max Gleason, “What’s going on with this one?”
They stood in front of Entering the Arctic, a 6-foot-tall painting blending blues, greens, oranges, and pinks. It’s not just the colors that turn heads, though.
Viewers inquired about the missile icons, oil wells, methane and carbon dioxide molecules, and radiation symbols scattered across Gleason’s depiction of the North Pole. He mapped them out with geographic accuracy on the canvas at sites in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and Russia.
“All these missile icons are where there are military bases. All of the oil wells are where there’s active drilling going on,” Gleason told the Sun, pointing to the canvas. “These radiation symbols are nuclear waste disposal sites—where they’re actually located—which is very disturbing. Until I dug into this project, I had no idea there were so many nuclear waste disposal sites, and a lot of them are offshore in the ocean.”
Bridge your worlds
Visit the Indah Gallery (2190 N. Refugio Road in Santa Ynez) Friday to Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The last day to see Bridging Worlds is Aug. 9, with an artist talk held at 3 p.m. Find more about upcoming exhibits at indahgallery.org or check out @indah_syv on Instagram.
The painter doesn’t usually conduct such intense research for a project, but in the name of collaboration, a cartographer friend asked Gleason to create his own interpretation. It led him down a rabbit hole of information about how the changing global climate has impacted the North Pole.
Entering the Arctic is one of the pieces in Gleason’s first solo exhibit at the Indah Gallery, which he opened in early 2025 next to his personal studio at Roblar Winery and Vineyards. It’s the 11th show Gleason has displayed at the gallery in the vineyards, as it’s called. He’s excited to donate half of his proceeds to the local nonprofit Artist Advocacy Foundation, which grants funds to working artists for their basic needs.
Bridging Worlds will be up through Aug. 9, also the date of Gleason’s artist talk about the show. As the gallery owner, he’s usually the interviewer, but this time he’ll be on the other side of the conversation answering questions from his sister. Guests are invited to see the exhibit one last time and hear the discussion at 3 p.m.
‘I’ve been very blessed at this point in my life to have this space and to be able to put on shows, so it seems important to pay it forward.’
—Max Gleason, Indah Gallery owner and artist
Gleason enjoys talking about the themes in his artwork. He created all but one of the Bridging Worlds paintings in the past couple of years, and most reveal figurative imagery with mythological ties. There are multiple references to indigenous stories and gods in Entering the Arctic. Find Sedna the Inuit goddess of the sea and native shamans, called to heal the warming region.
Another painting, Personal Mythology, depicts Gleason’s life story through symbols. He tapped into a lifelong interest in folklore and is almost finished with a master’s degree program that’s heavily rooted in mythology.
“I deal a lot with mythological themes and themes that are kind of personal to my life story but that also have a more universal application,” Gleason said.
The title Bridging Worlds holds a double meaning for the gallery owner. He spends a lot of time thinking about bringing to life the dimension that can’t be seen. Spirituality, ancestry, the psyche.
“Those are all things that we experience, but you can’t really point to it and say, ‘There it is. It exists.’ And I think that’s one of the very cool things about art, and especially visual art, is that you can kind of bring those ethereal, ephemeral things into the here and now, into the physical realm,” Gleason said.
Another bridge he’s forming connects creatives and their patrons, the mission of the Artist Advocacy Foundation. Gleason appreciates that there’s a local organization helping artists survive and thrive financially.
He chose to donate 50 percent of his sales to the Artist Advocacy Foundation. Normally, if he were showing his work elsewhere, the gallery would take that percentage as a standard fee. Since he owns the gallery, he wanted to put that portion to good use.
“At this point in my career as an artist, and with what I’ve been able to accomplish, it feels important to help other artists who might need assistance,” Gleason said. “I’ve been very blessed at this point in my life to have this space and to be able to put on shows, so it seems important to pay it forward.”
Without professional artists, every community would look a lot different. Yet, it’s so difficult for them to make a living from their craft, even though they contribute to the vitality of society.
“As somebody who’s not a musician, if I didn’t have any access to go see live music, you wouldn’t want to live in that world,” Gleason said. “So, we have to find ways to support [artists].”
The painter said he first heard about the Artist Advocacy Foundation a few years ago from its co-founder Ron Colone.
Mainly based in Santa Ynez, the nonprofit first formed in 2007. Its board also has members in the Detroit, Michigan, area, where Colone grew up, and the committee convenes regularly to decide which artists receive grants. Last year, it handed out funds to people in 14 states, but it tries to deliver local fundraising dollars close to the Santa Ynez Valley.
The foundation donates educational, medical, and venue grants, for example, to help dedicated creatives stay on their feet. One artist couldn’t afford to frame her pieces to enter a juried exhibit in LA, but with a little help from Colone’s team, she got them framed and won best of show. One musician was able to buy hearing aids after suddenly becoming hearing impaired.
“We did it as a way to really acknowledge and support people who have done this their whole lives,” Colone said.
When artists like Gleason donate back to the organization, Colone appreciates the additional “fuel in the tank” to assist more folks. Besides the monetary donation, the executive director added that the acknowledgement is more important.
It’s cyclical. Gleason honors the nonprofit, which recognizes other artists.
“For forever, people have been trying to articulate the benefits of art, and it almost always falls short,” Colone continued.
But, as Gleason says, who would want to live without it?
Staff Writer Madison White enjoys the serenity at the gallery in the vineyards. Send wine and paint to mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in July 30 – August 6, 2026.
