Oodles of Art Shows to Ogle Over This Fall

Oodles of Art Shows
to Ogle Over This Fall

From Emerging Artists to Impressionist Masterworks,
Santa Barbara’s Art Scene Has Something for Everyone to Enjoy

By Leslie Dinaberg | October 2, 2025

Read more of the 2025 Fall Visual Arts preview.

Santa Barbara has so much natural beauty to contemplate and ponder on any given day, but this fall’s abundance of art in our museums and galleries may just give Mother Nature a run for her money.

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History spotlights the artistic explorations of four contemporary printmakers using traditional techniques to capture the beauty and wonder of the natural world in The Living Print, opening October 25. On view through May 30, 2026, will be intricate botanical portraits by Latifat Apatira; bold and colorful woodblock landscape prints by Sara Woodburn; gyotaku, the Japanese art of fish printing by Dwight Hwang; and Mineo Yamamoto’s masterful print of a 17-foot-long squid. (sbnature.org)

The view of our beloved Channel Islands from the vantage point of both land and sea is the focus of John Comer’s new exhibition, Paintings from Across the Channel, on view at Santa Barbara Fine Art gallery October 2-30. After Comer’s lifetime of being in the water as a surfer, sailor, and fisherman, this collection of new paintings is deeply personal, with each anchorage a fresh experience capturing the always-changing weather, waves, and wildlife. Comer, a well-known Santa Barbara painter who is part of the prestigious Oak Group of environmentally active landscape artists, has been exploring his world through drawing and painting since he was very young. An avid lifelong waterman, Comer’s many years on the water surfing, sailing, and fishing have continued to inform his ability to see and paint from a unique and deeply meaningful perspective. (santabarbarafineart.com)

Two highly anticipated exhibitions, The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art and Encore: 19th-Century French Art from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art will be on view at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art from October 5 to January 25, 2026. See Cheryl Crabtree’s feature story for details on this notable work from artists such as Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Piet Mondrian, and Henri Matisse. (sbma.net)

Separate Reality, a new gallery in the Funk Zone, has a dynamite debut exhibit called The Shifting Point, a retrospective of David Florimbi’s paintings, on view through October 12. The pulsing presence of blue has remained a constant in Florimbi’s long career, and the now Santa Barbara–based artist and his work have been widely reviewed and featured in esteemed publications from Vanity Fair to Architectural Digest, and the most recent cover of Santa Barbara Magazine. (separatereality.info)

Two uniquely interesting artists — Joan Rosenberg-Dent and Sarita Reynolds — come together for Raw and Revealed at Art & Soul Gallery in the downtown Arts District. Rosenberg-Dent’s beautifully refined sculptural forms and Reynolds’s expressive abstract paintings explore texture, tension, fragility, and strength for what’s sure to be a compelling juxtaposition of work, on view from October 2 to November 2. (artandsoulsb.com)

Currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, the California Nature Art Museum (formerly the Wildling Museum) has a powerful new exhibition on view through February 23, 2026: Wild in California, featuring the work of artist and museum founder Patti Jacquemain. Her mosaics and woodcut block prints, which beautifully depict the extraordinary diversity of California’s native wildlife — from mountain lions and condors to foxes and frogs — take the spotlight and underscore the museum’s mission to help the general public understand complex issues of conservation and environmental science through art, by focusing on the amazing beauty and diversity of the Golden State. (calnatureartmuseum.org)

Nathan Huff, known for his magical realist subject matter and versatility, has his fourth solo exhibition at Sullivan Goss Gallery (on view through Nov. 24) featuring works for sale concurrently with two separate museum exhibitions — a solo show at Stanislaus State University and a group show at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. The Sullivan Goss installation is a site-specific piece that organizers anticipate will be something unforgettable as he has done for so many museums and institutions in the past. Huff, a professor of art at Westmont, has had his work in the permanent collections of Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Culver Museum, and Hilbert Museum of California Art, among others. (sullivangoss.com)

Renowned naturalist and underwater photographer Ralph A. Clevenger’s exhibition Redwoods of the Sea: Life in the Channel Islands Kelp Forests is on view at Santa Barbara Maritime Museum through January 4, 2026. “Our kelp forests are not just beautiful — they are essential to life along our coast,” says Clevenger. “Through these images, I hope to inspire people to appreciate and protect one of the planet’s most extraordinary and endangered habitats.” (sbmm.org)

The new Seimandi & Leprieur Art Gallery has its second exhibition — Whose Paradise? — with the work of five international artists they represent, exploring the notion of a tropical paradise, each offering their own vision of imagination and narrative inspired by tropical landscapes and cultures. Artists Karine Tailamé, Pierre Roy-Camille, Dora Vital, Ricardo Ozier Lafontaine, and Anabell Guerrero will have their work on view beginning October 2. (seimandileprieur.com)

Gallery 113 in La Arcada focuses on representing artists from the Santa Barbara Art Association. The October artist of the month is Tina Coury Welsh, a Carpinteria resident who has spent a lifetime traveling the globe in search of inspiration. For the exhibition Paints, Palette and Passport: A Travel Artist’s Journey, her work reflects her explorations of more than 53 countries, capturing the beauty and diversity of people, animals, and landscapes she encountered along the way. (gallery113sb.com)

San Milano Drive, the highly anticipated exhibition from DJ Javier, has its grand opening on Sunday, October 5, noon-4 p.m., with a fun, family-friendly event featuring live dance performances, a pop-up marketplace, and Javier’s vibrant hand-painted murals and large-scale paintings reflecting his Filipino heritage, Goleta hometown, and surf culture. See Ryan P. Cruz’s story for more details on this exhibition, which runs through April 26, 2026. (mcasantabarbara.org)

Go inside the famed film Heaven’s Gate with photographer Susan Bridges’s exhibition at Tamsen Gallery. In 1979, Bridges was granted unparalleled access by Academy Award–winning director Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter), as well as the producer and cinematographer, to photograph the making of the movie Heaven’s Gate. This unique look into the world of filmmaking is on view through December 31. (tamsengallery.com)

Modern Mexican printmaking, highlighting artists who played a central role in the Mexican printmaking movement, takes the spotlight at UCSB’s AD&A Museum exhibit Mexican Prints: The Garcia-Correa Collection. Artists including José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo, Leopoldo Méndez, Sarah Jiménez, and Ignacio Aguirre have their work on view through December 7. (museum.ucsb.edu)

Photographer Kam Jacoby’s Retrospective Show at Solvang’s Elverhøj Museum, titled Central Valley, is on view through January 11, 2026. Celebrating more than 40 years of artistry, Jacoby’s work focuses on transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary and invites us to pause and see the subtle beauty in overlooked places and fleeting moments. (elverhoj.org)

Don’t see your favorite gallery listed here? Encourage them to send their event information by visting independent.com/create-event.