• Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum || EXHIBITIONS •

Unusual Behavior
Curated by Heather Jeno Silva

This exhibition will feature performance-based video works that explore the notion of the absurd. Based loosely on non sequitur Dadaist techniques and surrealist-inspired writings, this exhibition explores absurdity in its many meanings. In many instances, these artists employ theatrical techniques by utilizing crudely-made props, costumes, and flimsy sets. By engaging dark and oftentimes ironic humor in absurd or impossible scenarios, these artists expose the underlying brutality, dehumanization, fears and taboos of American society.

Heather Jeno Silva is an art critic and independent curator residing in Santa Barbara, CA. Silva received her M.A. in Art History and Museum Studies from the University of Southern California in 2003 and has variety of experience in curatorial work, including the USC Fisher Gallery and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She recently curated a group exhibition, Fast Forward, for the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission featuring contemporary works of artists in the Barry Berkus Collection and has juried various exhibitions in Santa Barbara County.

Silva’s art criticism has appeared in numerous print and online publications, including various exhibition catalogs, art.blogging.la, RiM Magazine, the Santa Barbara New Press, and the Pasadena Weekly among others. She is a contributing writer for Flavorpill Los Angeles and THE Magazine and writes a column, Off the Wall, about visual art in unconventional venues for the Santa Barbara Independent. She is currently the Programming, Contracts & Grants Analyst for the Arts & Lectures performing arts program at UCSB. Silva also curates the Forum Lounge, a monthly public program at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum that features contemporary performance art, film, and multimedia events.

This exhibition has been made possible in part by the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special thanks to: Wayne McCall and Associates, Santa Barbara, CA; Herbert and Suzanne DeFriez; Miki Garcia; Jacqueline Klein-Brown; Adam and Janet Mermel; Leon and Elizabeth Olson; Heather and Paul Silva; Dante Sigismondi, Ian Smith and Tina Wilson; and Margie and Homa Yahyavi.

Marie Losier
Papal Broken Dance, 2009

Julie Lequin
Car Talk, 2008

Press Release

Mitchell Wright
the reconstruction

Wright’s drawings and paintings contemplate the romantic, evoking strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience and placing emphasis on trepidation, horror, and awe. In his work, one can see inspirations from varied sources including art history (Caspar David Friedrich and Francisco Goya), literature (William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor), and music (Neil Young). Mitchell Wright’s latest paintings were inspired by William Faulkner’s short story, Barn Burning. Relating this text to his own personal history, Wright creates images to understand how one’s sense of things is guided by their past and the importance of understanding when this is happening. This subject matter of buildings subsumed by flames has a particularly haunting and poignant read in the context of recent Santa Barbara fires and the tragedies that ensued.

Wright was born in Winona, Mississippi (1976). Solo exhibitions include Wishful Thinking, LAS Gallery, Phoenix, AZ (2008); You, Me., White Columns, New York, NY (2006); and Daydreaming is Squeezing Night Into Day, Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. In addition, Wright has participated in group shows such as The Merits of Silence, Gallery Min Min, Tokyo, JP (2008); The Object Direct, Heskin Contemporary, New York, NY (2008); Sonotube, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA (2007).

This exhibition has been made possible in part by the generous support of
the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Special thanks to Brush & Associates, Santa Barbara, CA; The Presidio Motel, Santa Barbara, CA; and Wayne McCall and Associates, Santa Barbara, CA.

Mitchell Wright
parking lot, 2009

Press Release