Hanging On: Art Around Town

Nearly 30 artists from near and far are saddling up for the 13th annual SLOPOKE Art of the West Show on September 22-24 at Flag Is Up Farms in Solvang. Former longtime president of the California Art Club Peter Adams serves as the featured guest artist and juror for the fine art show – appropriately staged in a 6,000-square-foot repurposed barn – that celebrates the American West through scenery, wildlife, ranch life, and history. Visit www.the-slopoke.com.

A day later and just down the road, The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature opens its third juried exhibition showcasing California’s nine national parks called Stories of Water, which runsSeptember 23 to February 19, and features 39 selected works juried from a pool of more than 240 submissions by artists across the U.S. competing for $4,000 in awards. The exhibition explores various impacts of water – or its lack of – in California’s national parks through a wide range of media and techniques, from acrylic, oil, and watercolor paintings, to photography, mixed media, and textile art. Details at https://wildlingmuseum.org.

Back in town, the Art, Design & Architecture Museum (AD&A) at UCSB opens a pair of exhibitions for fall. From Within: The Architecture of Helena Arahuete is the first retrospective survey dedicated to the life and work of the L.A.-based architect, and meticulously traces Arahuete’s significant contributions to organic architecture by focusing primarily on her domestic projects. The experimental show Please, Come In… offers a selection of works from the museum’s permanent collection and loaned objects curated by UCSB Art & Architecture PhD students. Both are on view September 23 to December 17. Visit www.museum.ucsb.edu.