“If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”  President

John F. Kennedy, eulogizing Robert Frost in October 1963

Rubenstein Chan’s premiere group exhibition, Textual Integration, focuses on artists who work with language as integral to the art, i.e. where text and poetry are not added elements, but essential forms within the composition. From a broad field of creators spanning Goleta to Los Angeles, we have selected a group of distinctive voices whose work activates the space between reading and seeing.

Text transforms in the hands of these artists—felt as braille, shaped as a reflection on deaf communication, spoken in the peace prayers of eight religions and cultures, chronicling a long history of dictators, art from piano scrolls, from neon lettering, by aliens, letters, phrases, whole paragraphs on paintings, on photographs, on walls. Language as form, force, and field. No boundaries.

George Yatchisin, Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, will offer an evening of ekphrastic* readings by local poets responding to the work in the Textual Integration show on May 14th at 7:00 pm.

“Poets and visual artists often work together to expand perception and understanding. Work that already engages language offers a uniquely fertile ground,” said Yatchisin.

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Featured artists:

Jana Brody, Kevin Claiborne, Patricia Houghton Clarke, Linda Ekstrom, Wrona Gall, Stephen Holland, Rod Lathim, Kathy Leader, Cynthia Martin, Salvatore Matteo, Tom Pazderka, Benjamin Provo, Larry Vigon, Michael Vilkin

*Ekphrastic poetry is a type of writing that vividly describes a work of art, often aiming to bring the artwork to life through words, connecting the visual and literary arts.