The Anapamu Street facade of Sullivan Goss, An American Gallery, looks friendly with a dash of imposing. As the city’s premier gallery, its status complements the Santa Barbara Museum of Art across the street. Established artists such as Hank Pitcher, Nicole Strasburg, John Nava, and Angela Perko have been with the gallery for several decades. Individual works on display are priced as high as five or six figures. Its archival holdings stretch into the 19th century, and the gallery has published handsome scholarly monographs on master artists including Ray Strong. Leon Dabo, and Lockwood de Forest. Sullivan Goss looks like a pillar of the art establishment because it is one.

This accumulated prestige makes the story of the gallery’s breakout star of the moment that much more interesting. Inga Guzyte, a 37-year-old immigrant from Lithuania by way of Germany, just sold out her solo show Young Sparrows. 

AS THE ARTS & CULTURE SEASON HEATS UP, galleries and museums are stepping up to add their own flair and excitement to the mix. As one of Santa Barbara’s finest galleries, Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery is leading the way with several new exhibitions by local favorites, including Nathan Huff: Almost Here, and the second solo exhibition by Inga Guzyte: Young Sparrows.

Barring any unknown knowns and known unknowns, our current most vital exhibition happening this summer is Inga Guzyte's "#rebelwomen" solo show at Sullivan Goss (11 E. Anapamu). And I'm not just hyping it because I wrote a cover story on her for Montecito Journal (cough, cough), but seriously, Guzyte is about to blow up big time, much like her friend David Flores.

Using recycled skateboard decks as her medium, Inga Guzyte (ingaguzyte.com) transforms her passion for skateboarding into sculptural art. Her new #RebelWomen series spotlights women from around the globe - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Malala Yousafzai, Frida Kahlo - emphaszing their strength, courage, fearlessness, and wit.

Artist Inga Guzyte is lucky. She's been able to turn her three obsessions – skateboarding, art, and woodworking – into a career that is growing step by giant step.

#REBELWOMEN: Celebrates the World's Strongest Women at her upcoming art exhibition at Sullivan Goss Gallery in Santa Barbara, California, starting June 1st.

How? That's the recurring question attending Inga Guzyte's upcoming exhibition at Sullivan Goss. How did a girl born in communist Lithuania end up in Santa Barbara? How did an exhibition full of shredded skateboards end up on the walls of a gallery known for historic American paintings? How on Earth does Inga Guzyte make these things?

CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS INFUSED WITH COURAGE… FRESH, EDGY, UNUSUAL. That’s contemporary art when Inga Guzyte is on the creating end. Born in Lithuania, raised in Germany, passionate about skateboarding and creating, and recently returned from time in New York and Europe, she will be opening her first solo exhibition with Sullivan Goss An American Gallery in June.

Dressed in sawdust-coated sneakers and a wide brim fedora, artist INGA GUZYTE can't help but smile at the stacks of old skateboard decks towering over her tiny studio space. "It's definitely time for a bigger workshop," she laughs, before adding: "I know it just looks like piles of old boards, but each one has such a unique story to tell."

Amid the bustle of 1st Thursday in downtown Santa Barbara, friends and family slowly trickled into the Sullivan Goss Gallery to see the latest show titled “The Red-Headed Stepchild.”.

The show celebrates local artists who embrace the idea of taking the old and unwanted, and transforming it into something beautiful.

Collage and assemblage is an art form often overlooked as fine art and is instead considered child’s play. This is how artist Sue Van Horsen and Sullivan Goss curator Jeremy Tessmer came up with the title for this exhibition.

“Yeah, we’re like the red-headed stepchild,” she says, as she explains how assemblage artists get invited to gatherings in the Santa Barbara art world only to be seated at the kid’s table.