OPENING RECEPTION: 1st THURSDAY, MAY 2nd  |  FROM 5:00-8:00pm

Sullivan Goss is excited to announce a superb new exhibition to coincide with the arrival of Spring with new works by the gallery’s regularly represented artists and four artists who have never shown with Sullivan Goss before. Wonderland hopes to wow visitors the way that sprays of new flowers along a well-worn path do. While there are a few historical pieces–one from 1939, another from 1967, and another from 1972–most of the works are contemporary, if not brand new. Looking around, visitors may discover that Wonderland is a vibe more than a thesis, and that the vibe is buoyant, fresh–maybe even a little trippy.

The new artists are particularly exciting. International design phenomenon SAMI HAYEK will be exhibiting a brand new wall-hanging sculpture called Frequency 4 whose biaxially symmetrical shape comes from a particular auditory frequency that some claim helps to eliminate negativity. Spinning the sculpture on the wall, however, is pretty much guaranteed to put a smile on your face. PHILIP KUPFERSCHMIDT is a freshly-minted MFA from Southern California whose ceramic mushrooms, vases, and jars feature vivid and gloopy glazes over crusty surfaces, with drips and glops that are so exuberant, they can hardly contain themselves. L.A. artist JOHN MILLEI has been seen in and around Santa Barbara for the past few years as he has been living here in secret to raise his kids, but his career has always been based in L.A., where he taught at Art Center, Claremont Graduate University, and SCI-Arc. He is shown and collected internationally. Finally, Sullivan Goss is excited to announce its first exhibition of paintings by ROLAND PETERSEN, a Danish-born painter whose distinctive blend of brilliant color, geometric construction, and Bay Area figuration have earned him a place at the MOMA, the Whitney, and SFMOMA among many, many other public collections. At 98 years old, he and Raimond Staprans remain the last two painters of the San Francisco and U.C. Davis schools that produced such notable artists as Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud. 

Not to be outshone, HANK PITCHER will be represented by a six foot tall by four foot wide painting of the aeonium cyclops succulent in full bloom. The yellow cones of flowers and reddish, black leaves seem more like the imaginings of Dr. Seuss than real life, but residents can simply go outside right now and see what inspired him. KEN BORTOLAZZO will be showing new stainless steel kinetic floral sculpture, in addition to a new mobile. ALEX RASMUSSEN will have a new sculpture suspended from the ceiling. LYNDA WEINMAN has a whole garden of forms in ceramic and plastic. Her direction of the past few years might have even inspired the whole Wonderland exhibition. ANGELA PERKO will also have a painting called Castor Bean Plant in the show that is beautiful, seductive, and dangerous. 

The local contingent is balanced by L.A. artists SUSAN McDONNELL, ASTRID PRESTON, and J. BRADLEY GREER. McDONNELL, who is represented by the gallery, has a spectacularly realistic image of a butterfly inspecting fresh flowers. PRESTON will have two paintings in the exhibition – one involving a garden that dissolves into pixelation and the other a cosmic abstraction. GREER’s obsessively-applied thick paint will conjure decorative floral shapes floating over the ocean. 

In turn, these L.A. artists are joined by San Francisco based artist JOSEPH GOLDYNE, whose monotype of an iris achieves a sublime delicacy and subtlety. GOLDYNE is also represented by Sullivan Goss.

The gallery’s mission to connect the best artists of Santa Barbara with the great artists of L.A. and San Francisco in conjunction with important artists from across the country remains ongoing.