Art in the Wild

As if rising from the desert, a castle of concrete lies waiting just off Clark Avenue in Santa Maria. The structure, affectionately nicknamed “the bunker” by the Presqu’ile Winery team, is now home to the latest artistic experimentation to-date from Santa Ynez–based artist Cole Sternberg. Sternberg is the inaugural artist to launch works in this monolithic structure, a partnership with the family-run winery and Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND). 

Laura Hyatt, director of LAND, could be considered the mastermind of this collaboration that’s driving more art into the valley. A native of Santa Barbara, the LAND veteran (she started at the nonprofit as an intern in 2010, just a year after its inception), had long dreamt of ways to bring the roving art exhibits of Los Angeles to her hometown. “I’ve really focused my efforts in and around Southern California,” she told me in March. “But being from Santa Barbara, I’ve long dreamt of ways to collaborate [with the region].”

The dream to bring LAND to the Central Coast finally revealed itself this past month. Along the high embankments is an exhibit with more than a dozen original works that make quite a literal nod to the setting itself. The conceptual artist introduced himself to the empty concrete structure several years ago, and began painting in January — rolling out massive Italian linen pieces directly on the dirt beside the forbidding structure. 

The final works on display are composed by Sternberg as much as they are by the environment — each piece has picked up bits of soil and grass, very subtle nods to earth, providing a texture undeniably tethered to the origins of life. The work was finished in his studio (he bounces between Santa Ynez and Los Angeles), and then he dragged the pieces behind a fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean before rigging them up on a 25-foot flagpole at the top of the winery’s land to dry out in the wind. “In the end, the finished works had been exposed to the land, air, and water in the region,” Sternberg says. “The environment makes a bunch of decisions with the work, and the ultimate final piece is [something] composed just as much by the environment as it is by me.”

As a LAND board member for nearly seven years, Sternberg was equally as eager to bring new art to the region. The former lawyer has been making art about the environment for years and has a particular investment in developing the Valley into a cultural hub. “There isn’t a lot of art,” he says, when speaking about the Valley. “There should be way more museums. This is a great addition to the broader community.”

So much of the work LAND does in developing new spaces is focused on introducing people and places to art. LAND, a nonprofit public art organization, has focused on connecting people and places through art for the past two decades; their artist-forward work is always driven by the environment itself, and each program is always free to the public. Over the years, the nonprofit has learned to work in an organic way so that programming doesn’t feel forced or like an interloper. “It’s important that when we work on a project, we aren’t popping up in an area, but understanding the local community and creating the projects for them,” says Hyatt. 

To that end, LAND brought in Corazón del Pueblo, a cultural and community arts hub for the Santa Maria Valley, as a programmatic partner. A week after opening reception, a group of guests from the winery took refuge in the cool concrete cavern as Corazón del Pueblo Executive Director Esmeralda Garcia facilitated introductions to the space, offered a map and pamphlet on the exhibit, and delivered a friendly smile.

The partnership with LAND is the first for the empty bunker, which Presqu’ile Winery co-founder Matt Murphy tells me was originally intended to serve as a barrel room and storage space. After scratching their heads a bit on what to do with the large space when the Murphy family took over — and it is a massive, almost cathedral-like space — Murphy’s old pal Sternberg introduced them to Hyatt, and the idea to bring in art was formed. “We want to provide a space for experiencing the arts,” he says, “but we didn’t know how to execute that. So, bringing someone on like Laura [Hyatt] and her organization, really allows a turnkey, professionally operated artist exhibit space.” 

“I hope at the end of the day, it inspires people to pursue the arts and to understand the arts, whether it’s going in to create it themselves or just learning how to appreciate it,” says Murphy. For now, Murphy is going to focus on the wine and be the ground beneath the art. But he’ll let the experts focus on the art. 

Visiting the “beautiful, wild monolith,” a term aptly devised by Sternberg for the wide-open concrete space, is free and open to the public during Presqu’ile business hours. Guests are not required to visit the winery when visiting the public art space, and while the two spaces technically sit on the same property, it’s recommended one drives between buildings (a 15-minute walk is possible, if a bit rough around the edges).

Reservations are not required but can be made online at Eventbrite. Visit 2510 E. Clark Avenue Santa Maria; open Saturday and Sunday, noon-5 p.m., through September 20. To learn more about LAND, see nomadicdivision.org.