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Ridley-Tree Museum will Showcase Laguna Blanca Art Teacher Dug Uyesaka
Reprinted from Noozhawk:
The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum opens the fall season with a diverse collection of art objects and images by third generation Japanese-American Dug Uyesaka October 20 through January 14 in the museum.
“Uyesaka is beloved in Santa Barbara,” says former Westmont art professor Tony Askew. “This exhibition will be recognition of him as an educator, artist and community friend.”
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The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum opens the fall season with a diverse collection of art objects and images by third generation Japanese-American Dug Uyesaka October 20 through January 14 in the museum.
A free opening reception for “Dug Uyesaka: Long Story Short” will be held from 4PM to 6PM on October 20 in the museum.
Uyesaka enrolled at UC Santa Barbara in 1975 and was mentored by art faculty members William Dole, Howard Fenton, Bob Thomas and Richard Ross.
“He is such an integral part of Santa Barbara’s art scene,” says Judy Larson, R. Anthony Askew professor of art history at Westmont College and museum director. “He is a UCSB art graduate, a frequent exhibitor at art exhibitions around town and an art teacher at Laguna Blanca School. Our mid-career retrospective of Dug’s work will showcase his amazing oeuvre — from prints to paintings and drawings, from collage to assemblage.”
Uyesaka was born after World War II but recalls stories of his immigrant Japanese grandparents, who were interned in Arizona and Arkansas.
As a baby-boomer, he was influenced by the popular culture of the 1960s, especially television and comics.
“Dug often uses humor to snag the attention of the viewer,” Larson says. “But once we are drawn in, the deeper meanings and messages of his works captivate our attention. The works are simple and clean, yet thoughtful and provocative."
According to art critic Charles Donelan, “Uyesaka embraces change in all of its forms in a variety of media, but principally through the juxtaposition of found objects in sculpture. Uyesaka grasps and preserves images of transition.”
“Uyesaka is beloved in Santa Barbara,” says former Westmont art professor Tony Askew. “This exhibition will be recognition of him as an educator, artist and community friend.”
The exhibition is sponsored by Michael and Nancy Gifford and Dana White with support from Susan E. Bower, Diane Dodds and David Reichert, Amanda McIntyre, Nyla and Henry Rasmussen, Dennis and Susan Savage, Marie Schoeff, Dane Goodman, Bob and Chris Emmons, Frank and Josephine Tripi, Middleton and Carol Squier, Ronald and Terry Foil, Perri V. Harcourt, Brandon and Karishma Gattis, Clay Tedeschi, Susan Jørgensen and Alice Gillaroo.
The museum is open Monday through Friday from 10AM to 4PM and Saturdays from 11AM to 5PM. It is closed Sundays and college holidays.
For more information, contact the museum at 805.565.6162.
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Laguna Blanca is Santa Barbara’s premier private, co-educational, college preparatory day school for students in Early Kindergarten through Grade 12.