SBMA Online

Welcome to SBMA! Advance ticketing reservations are highly recommended and guarantee your entry time.

In his latest book, the idiosyncratic and indefatigable Geoff Dyer turns his well-honed wit and sharp-edged wisdom to the consideration of endings. Taking a closer look at endings of significant events in life, and even life itself, Dyer in conversation with with friend, fellow author, and professor in the Asian American Studies Department at UCSB, Sameer Pandya examine the achievements of writers, painters, musicians, and athletes that have meant something to him as he approaches "late middle age." With his signature playful charm and penetrating intelligence, he considers the intensifications and modifications of experience that come when an ending is within sight, and moves us seamlessly from the brush strokes of J. M. W. Turner to the tennis strokes of Roger Federer.

This book on last things, written while life as we know it seemed to be coming to an end, is at heart, a tale about how to go on living with art and beauty.

Book signing to follow.

This event is in person at Santa Barbara Museum of Art's Mary Craig Auditorium.

Ticket Cost:
SBMA Member: $5.00
Non-Member: $10.00

Mey-Yen Moriuchi, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Art History La Salle University

The Cuban artist Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) is acclaimed for his semi-abstract, polymorphic paintings that draw on African motifs and the Santeria religion, in addition to avant-garde movements such as Cubism and Surrealism. His hybrid animal-human figures and fragmented, flattened compositions are linked to his Afro-Cuban culture, as well as to his experimentation with automatism and surrealist games. The emphasis on Lam’s African roots and his encounter with European modernism has neglected the influence of Lam’s Chinese culture on his art. Is there a convergence of Chinese and Afro-Cuban traditions that have been overlooked? This lecture will explore the impact of Lam’s Chinese heritage on his artistic production and will consider the significance of multiple Surrealisms- European, Caribbean, Asian- present in his oeuvre.

This event is in person at Santa Barbara Museum of Art's Mary Craig Auditorium.

credit: Wifredo Lam, The Eternal Presence (An Homage to Alejandro García Caturla) (detail), 1944. Oil and pastel over papier mâché and chalk ground on bast fiber fabric. RISD Museum, Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Modern Latin American Art. Courtesy of the RISD Museum, Providence, RI.

Ticket Cost:
SBMA Member (Museum Circles): FREE
SBMA Member (Enthusiast and below): $10.00
Non-Member: $15.00
Student (Valid student ID required): FREE