Sometimes a place to show art is as important as the use of a particular medium or style used to create a piece. Without an appropriate venue, after all, art has a difficult time finding an audience.
The Betteravia Gallery is different than most show spaces. It’s tucked between the county clerk recorder-assessor’s office and the Board of Supervisors meeting room. County workers with identification tags dangling around their necks bustle past the exhibitions and into and out of offices. But the space has something that appeals to curator John Hood’s artistic mission: It has a constant audience.
Essentially a hallway in the Betteravia Government Center, the gallery is sponsored by the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission. Because of its location, its life through taxpayer money, and its exposure to such a cross section of the public, exhibitions face a lot of limitations. The lighting isn’t really set up to display art. Nothing too risqué or controversial can fill the space. So with the latest installation, Visual Inquiry, Hood was forced to do some editing when it came to deciding which works could be included. But he’s also pleased about reaching another audience, and as a 5th District Commissioner for the arts, Hood is trying to promote as many shows as he can in the Santa Maria area. Ideally those shows will be of a more contemporary variety.
“I’m trying to introduce a variety of mediums,” he said. “The space in the Betteravia Gallery is usually set up for photographic shows. I wanted to present a more abstract, conceptual show and present it to a different audience.”
The Visual Inquiry show is an offshoot of the mixed-media art class Hood taught at Allan Hancock College last year. For Visual Inquiry, he invited 12 artists from that class to present a mixture of mediums, including photography, painting, and collage.
Felicia Kincaid was one of the students in that class, which she said opened up a whole new world for her.
“Most of us [in the class] had already worked in traditional media and were excited to try new media,” she said. “It is more challenging and more fun to incorporate other media into my paintings.”
Kincaid said the challenge for her is to find a balance in the painting while using added materials, like chicken wire, wax, resin, metals, boxes, and books.
“When I find that balance, the painting is much more pleasing to my eye than just using paint,” she explained.
Kincaid, like Hood, said she hoped Visual Inquiry would expose a new audience to contemporary art.
“I think that having this show at the Betteravia Gallery will show another side of painting and represent some of the talent we have in the community,” she said. “I also hope it will inspire other artists in the community.”
Hood said he’s not sure how the exhibition will be received, but is excited about the possibility of winning over new art enthusiasts.
“I really don’t know what to expect,” he said. “We’ll find out.
This is pretty tame for what’s really going on in contemporary art,” he added. “I hope they embrace it and want more.”
Arts Editor Shelly Cone wants more. Embrace her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 5, 2009.