Westmont Museum Awards "Out of Place" Artists

Santa Barbara sculptor Joan Rosenberg-Dent won Best of Show and the $1,000 Diane Dodds and David Reichert First Prize at the May 18 opening reception of Westmont’s annual exhibition featuring Tri-Country artists through June 24 in the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. Ro Snell won First Honorable Mention, Cody Cammbell won Second Honorable Mention, Tom Pazderka won Third Honorable Mention and Sonya Kotler was the Art Council Award winner at “Out of Place,” which features 36 local artists.

Ruth Estévez, the director and curator of the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in downtown Los Angeles since 2012, juried the show. She reviewed 340 entries by 155 artists, selecting 52 works for exhibition. The artists are from Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties and use media ranging from stone sculpture, painting and collage.

“We had one of the best responses yet for our juried show “Out of Place,” says Judy Larson, R. Anthony Askew professor of art history and museum director. “Ruth selected 36 artists who interpreted our theme in a variety of provocative and interesting ways. This is a very strong showing of artists from the Central Coast region.”

Estévez, originally from Bilbao, Spain, was previously at Museum of Contemporary Art Carrillo Gil in Mexico City, where she co-founded the nonprofit LIGA, Space for Architecture. At REDCAT, she’s worked with artists including Pablo Bronstein, Javier Tellez, and Allora & Calzadilla. Current projects include “It is Obvious from the Map,” which examines the role of maps and map-making in the migration crisis between zones of conflict around the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East.

In 2013, she published a book, “Edgardo Aragon: La Trampa - the Trap,” a bilingual publication that was the first devoted to the work of Aragon, one of Mexico’s most promising artists. She holds a master’s degree in art history from Mexico’s National Autonomous University where she is completing a doctorate.

The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. It is closed Sundays and college holidays. For more information, please visit www.westmontmuseum.org or contact the museum at (805) 565-6162.