Spring Arts Preview: Visual Arts

In a world where contemporary art would seem to have mined every approach imaginable, what’s new under the big black sun? Complete immersion in the artistic process, that’s what. Some time in early May, about a week prior to her exhibition opening at MCA Santa Barbara, Berlin-based artist Marinella Senatore will arrive in town ready to engage. Senatore will be bringing a retrospective of her recent work in the form of films, photographs, paintings, and other documentation, but she will also arrive charged with creating an original work that’s based on the people she meets here in Santa Barbara, because the core concept of Senatore’s art is total participation of the audience in the creation of the work. The only specific detail that the artist will tie herself to at this point is that she will be staging a parade to celebrate the MCA’s transition to museum status. The rest will work itself out when she gets here and begins her process of auditions, photo shoots, and public events. Expect to be surprised: Senatore is a highly accomplished filmmaker in the tradition of Fellini and Antonioni, and her spectacles elsewhere have resulted in ravishing short films. One can only imagine what they must be like viewed from the inside, as the artist intends. At the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, May 11 - August 17. Call 966-5373 or visit mcasantabarbara.org.

More Art

Walking in the Spirit: American Visionary Artists. At the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, through March 29.

Obsession. At the Arts Fund Gallery, through April 5.

Honest to Goodness: Tim Berg & Rebekah Myers. At SBCC’s Atkinson Gallery, through April 11.

Alice Aycock Drawings: Some Stories Are Worth Repeating. At the UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum, through April 19.

Heavenly Bodies. At the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, through May 25.

Spacks Street 108. At Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery, April 3 - June 1.

DeForest’s Santa Barbara. At Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery, April 3 - June 29.

Annual Student Exhibition. At SBCC’s Atkinson Gallery, April 25 - May 16.

Nell Brooker Mayhew: Paintings from the Estate. At Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery, April 3 - June 29.

Richard Haines: Mid-Century Master. At Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery, April 3 - June 29.

For Real? Magical Realism in American Art. At Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery, April 3-June 1.

Living in the Timeless: Drawings by Beatrice Wood. At Santa Barbara Museum of Art, May 11 - August 31.

Alter: MFA Thesis Show. At the UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum, May 16-29.

Left Coast: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art. At Santa Barbara Museum of Art, May 25-September 14.