In Indonesian, indah means beautiful. Artist Max Gleason and his wife have traveled to the country multiple times, and in 2022 they lived there for six months. Having learned a little bit of the language, indah stuck with him.
“The word indah I thought was—no pun intended—a very beautiful sounding word, and the fact that it meant beautiful was really appropriate,” Gleason said. “In terms of naming the gallery, I wanted something that felt different and could also be kind of a curiosity conversation starter.”
A contemporary showing
The Indah Gallery is open Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Roblar Winery and Vineyards, located at 2190 N. Refugio Road in Santa Ynez. See Kellen Meyer’s show through Dec. 21 before the gallery temporarily closes from January to February. Follow @indah_syv and @kellenmeyer on Instagram for the latest updates.
Around five years ago, Gleason set up his personal art studio inside part of a barn at the Roblar Winery vineyards in Santa Ynez, owned by his family. With a deep passion for art, he works as the winery’s creative director, too.
When the other half of the barn became vacant, it sat unused for many months. Eventually Gleason decided to put it to good use.
“I just got the seed of an idea in my mind,” he said. “It would be very cool to turn that into an exhibition space.”
Gleason hired contractors to help renovate the barn, turning it into the Indah Gallery. He left the ceiling exposed to show the “wooden bones of the barn,” but installed drywall, windows, and insulation. The gallery opened in March this year.
The sixth show, called Wild Weavings: Stories of Wonder, features work by fiber artist and sculptor Kellen Meyer. Indah will be its home through Dec. 21.
“It’s a very large-volume space. The ceilings are 18 feet tall, so it has the kind of white cube, repurposed industrial feeling that a lot of contemporary galleries have in LA or New York. It just happens to be housed in an old hay barn,” Gleason described.
Overlooking the vineyard, the barn-turned-gallery makes for a unique experience that blends wine, nature, and art. When the roll-up doors are open, the space combines interior and exterior scenes, allowing the breeze and natural light to seep through the gallery.
“You can hear the birds, and it feels like a really peaceful, rural setting,” Gleason said.
He wanted Indah to be a creative hub in the relatively rural Santa Ynez Valley, but since the art scene is small, he wasn’t sure how many supporters would back the gallery.
Plus, the gallery is tucked away in the vineyards, away from any storefronts or main roads. It takes five or 10 minutes to walk there from the Roblar tasting room.
“When I first started the gallery … it was a real kind of shot in the dark, like I didn’t know if anybody would show up,” Gleason said. “All that being said, I’ve been incredibly pleasantly surprised at the amount of people who have shown up, both artists and guests.”
From his perspective, the positive response tells him the area is hungry for a larger art scene. Gleason hopes Indah will help bring momentum back to the valley and encourage more creative spaces to open.
After all, the Santa Ynez Valley has a “kind of legacy identity” as an arts destination, he said, and it might be time for a resurgence. Many people visit the valley in pursuit of afternoons filled with good food, wine, and art.
“Art is a wonderful complement to wine,” Gleason said. “Wine and food and art and music—it’s all like sensory experience. It’s all people looking to have a beautiful, aesthetic experience while they’re here, so if some visual art can be a part of that, I think it’s awesome.”
After planning to close the gallery’s doors in January and February because of an anticipated decrease in foot traffic, Gleason has already booked featured artists through the first half of 2026. He said artists usually come to him with their work to see if it’s a good fit for the contemporary theme of the Indah Gallery.
Meyer, who has the last featured show of the year, met Gleason through a mutual friend, who’s also Meyer’s studio manager. Her current show conveys the inspiration behind each piece through a blend of different materials and stories.
She works with natural materials like wool, fabric, clay, stones, and shells because she likes their “ephemeral” qualities.
“I am always looking to collaborate with nature and be able to bring that wild outdoors inside,” Meyer said.
Her process usually starts with a concept or a specific material that she spends weeks and months developing into a larger piece.
“I love that concept in my work,” Meyer said. “Every small thing adds up to become something bigger than it would on its own.”
Many of her pieces are crafted on a large scale, so the Indah Gallery’s high ceilings accommodate her artwork well. She has a paper sculpture measuring 13 feet tall and one made with clay and paper between 11 and 12 feet tall.
“It’s been a pleasure working with Max,” Meyer said. “It’s such a beautiful space and beautiful location.”
Reach Staff Writer Madison White at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 4 – Dec 11, 2025.