March 2, 2018 — Through the millennia, the ocean winds of Santa Rosa Island have sculpted the cliffs, shaped the flora and scattered the driftwood that defines the topography.
In the third installment of an art project called “Santa Rosa Island,” CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) students were instructed to “sculpt and paint with the wind” by Art faculty members Christophe Bourély and Matt Furmanski. And in a nod to environmental consciousness, the students picked up plastic waste also deposited by the wind in the more recent past.
The student project is one of four exhibits on display in CSUCI’s Napa Hall through March 15, with an opening scheduled for Thursday, March 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. in Napa Gallery.
The main Napa Gallery showcases UC Santa Barbara graduate students Toni Scott and Jennifer Lugris with an exhibit entitled “Kin.”
Scott and Lugris drew upon their multi-racial backgrounds to create a collection of paintings, sculptures and other installations designed to explore the common roots of all humanity.
“The premise of this body of work is based on my personal belief that we are all interrelated as human beings and that we carry memories embedded in our DNA from our journey out of Africa and our migration throughout the world,” Scott said.
Lugris’ series, entitled “Flia” (slang for “family” in Uruguay) is a series of paintings from photographs she took capturing gestures of affection among strangers in public places.
“In our current state of affairs, I find it more important than ever to capture reality of truth, love, and care in the world around us,” Lugris said. “Through photographing and later painting I find myself slowing down and paying attention to the intricacies and miracles of life.”
The Santa Rosa Island exhibit is in the Temporary Palm Gallery and includes both two and three-dimensional works of the more than 20 students who participated.
The sculpture and painting students created their work after a three-day visit to CSUCI’s Santa Rosa Island Research Station. They hiked the windswept bluffs, leaning into the powerful gales so as not to be blown off the trail. The students then constructed and painted kites that they flew off the cliffs overlooking Bechers Bay.
CSUCI Art senior Jessica Fowler’s show, “Body Language,” is on Grad Wall 1 and “Inside the Inside” by Business and Art major Carlos Andrade fills Grad Wall 2.
Fowler exhibits a series of photo-realistic oil portraits in which her hands literally press onto other people’s faces. In the process of creating the pieces, Fowler recalled how she felt at her darkest times, needing to show the world she was OK when she wasn’t.
“There was always some type of force in me that faked it or kept me looking happy,” she said. “I realize that everyone deals with this in some capacity. I relate these paintings to this feeling, the feeling of an unknown power forcing a smile that is your mask to the outside world.”
Andrade’s work involves paintings at least six feet by six feet. His bold paintings explore “obsession with money, sex and enlightenment.”
For additional information visit: https://art.csuci.edu/exhibitions/.