Something New for Another Sunny Day
Call For Entries 2005-2006

At left:
Robert Wechsler, Vacancy, 2006, Modified toaster, 7x13x10 in.

This September, Santa Barbra Contemporary Arts Forum will present Something New for Another Sunny
Day, featuring the winners of the 2006-2007 CAF Call for Entries—Julia Ford, Teja Ream, Tellef Tellefson,
and Robert Wechsler. This exhibition marks the first time that selected artists will be exhibited together in
a large group exhibition in CAF’s main Klausner Gallery.

Something New for Another Sunny Day presents four up-and-coming artists who were selected by a
distinguished panel of arts professionals including past CFE artists and renowned curators. The title of the
show refers to the unique culture and idyllic landscape of the Central Coast, which influences and inspires
the work and creativity of artists residing in the area. Although each artist approaches art making in
distinct ways—the show includes and array of photography, video, sculpture, and site specific
installation—they all present work that expresses a vitality, energy, and aesthetic sensitivity that
anticipates new directions in contemporary art for our area and beyond. Not merely a showcase of
individual artist work, Something New for Another Sunny Day is an opportunity for emerging Tri-County
artists to explore the challenge of proposing, creating, installing, and exhibiting their work in the context
of CAF’s galleries.


Exhibiting Artists:
After studying both fine art and physics, Tellef Tellefson focuses on installation work that
explores tensions between the perception, experience, and physical nature of light and space. Utilizing
transparent bricks, video projectors, and crystal souvenirs, Tellefson draws the viewers’ attention to tricks of light
that delineate space and create perceivable objects where none existed.

Teja Ream's work addresses the complex processes of gender construction and
representation—particularly questioning areas of slippage and multiplicity. Ream will employ several life-size
sculptures of unicorns in her installation to subvert norms with humor and encourage active spectatorship as a means of destabilization.

Julia Ford's current work centers around organic forms and fecund shapes that are intricately woven and
felted in natural wools. As the shapes represent those in nature, the work also tackles issues of fragility
and conservation subverting the classical ideal of enduring monumental sculpture.

Robert Weschler envisions himself as a contemporary incarnation of the ancient trickster archetype—part
invalid and part shaman, a mythical trickster character who uses sly jokes and malicious pranks to enlighten
victims and reveal the malleability of truth. Wechsler will exhibit a series of kinetic sculptures that subvert
the boundary between toy and pet—employing mischief to transform the meaningless to meaningful.

Marking the first collaborative exhibition in the Bloom Project Series, Joe Shea and Tanner Goldbeck will present a site-specific mural that fuses the iconography of each artist into an uncanny blend of imagery and text.  Influenced by animation, graffiti, hot-rod, and skateboard culture, Shea and Goldbeck collapse the boundaries between high and low art practices . Both artists have shown extensively in California.

J. Shea, Tanner Goldbeck

Franco Mondini-Ruiz's Paintin' Place offers audiences the unique opportunity to observe the progression of an artist's exhibition and participate in its creation. During the 8-week exhibition, the artist will take residence in Santa Barbara, using the Norton Gallery as his painting studio. Beginning with an installation of dozens of empty canvases, Mondini-Ruiz will invite gallery patrons and local residents to be his assistants—organizing supplies, arranging materials, painting and selling his amusing and beautiful canvases to passersby. A sly reference to Grace Metalious’ 1956 novel Peyton Place (later to became a popular soap opera and feature film), Mondini-Ruiz ‘s installation will explore the lifestyle and culture of the idyllic, small town setting of Santa Barbara.

This is the second exhibition in the series of artist projects entitled Salon. Begun in April 2006, Salon transforms the CAF Norton Gallery into a moveable feast of programs, interventions, and opportunities for public engagement. Artists are invited to create participatory work that blurs the boundaries between gallery, visitor, and artist. CAF has asked artists to address the tradition, begun in the living rooms of the 18th Century French women, to employ the interaction of a diverse group of literary, artistic and cultural figures to foster an open, transitory, and discursive space.

Franco Mondini-Ruiz
Installation Image, 2006, Photo: Joshua White

Wayne McCall’s photographs depict what Hal Foster calls “trauma culture”—surgical tools, organs, and equipment—bathed in swirls of psychedelic color. Hallucinatory, foreboding, and fresh, McCall’s surreal scenes evoke an array of references ranging from the expressionistic films of Fritz Lang, Timothy Leary’s psychedelic inspired writings, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles’ recent Ecstasy: In and About Altered States exhibition.  

McCall has shown extensively in Southern California and has had recent shows at Reynolds Art Gallery, Channing Peake Gallery, the Santa Barbara Jewish Community Center and Elverhoj Museum.

Wayne McCall,The Fragility of Expertise #1,
2005, Digital Print, Dimensions variable, Courtesy the Artist