The Reunion, 2021
16 x 12 inches | oil on panel
Leslie Lewis Sigler is the most recent artist added to the Sullivan Goss roster of represented artists (2020). Sigler began showing her highly realistic paintings of heirloom silver in the gallery’s annual 100 Grand exhibitions.
Sigler first started painting this series in 2011, when she came across a full tea set in the living room of a fellow Millennial. It was strikingly unusual and inspired the artist to create a quadtych of the whole set. At home, the artist had one antique silver butter chiller that had been given to her by her grandmother, but when she received a chased and filigreed spoon from the same grandmother the following year, the artist notes that “the seed had been planted, even if it took a while to grow.” Sigler had long been interested in painting stark, graphic still life images of antiques since her college days, but something about the silver heirloom portraits resonated more deeply.
According to the artist, this silver heirloom portrait series “is rooted in family and connection – how we belong together.” Once cherished and entrusted with family stories that have accumulated through the generations, Sigler notes that “many have been overlooked or even forgotten.” Giving her paintings names like The Obsessive, The Score Keeper, or The Emissary, this series became less about still life and more about portraiture. The names suggest family archetypes. Sigler suggests that the reflections, meanwhile, are “tiny distorted self portraits of [me] as [I] navigate where [I] belong.”
Sigler’s signature painting style is rooted in the genre of photo realism. Tightly connected brushstrokes create realistic reflections and surfaces as well as a three dimensional quality to the objects. Her paintings are all oil on wood panel.
Leslie Lewis Sigler earned a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006. She relocated to Los Angeles the same year, where she worked for a design firm. In 2008, the artist relocated with her husband to Santa Barbara and she has since become a mother of two. Sigler is represented in New York and in Santa Barbara, but now lives and works in Soquel, California.
Some artists follow a purposefully wandering, evolving path, seeking out new expressive avenues as they go. Others find their groove and stick to it, honing and refining a particular, familiar subject or style. Santa Barbara painter Leslie Lewis Sigler belongs to the latter category. Over many years, in many exhibitions locally and beyond, she has become closely identified and respected for her super-realist paintings of silverware — heirlooms given their close-up — with mesmerizing optical effects and dazzling iridescent surfaces.
“Potluck” is the unusual name Leslie Lewis Sigler has chosen for her second solo exhibition that opened Friday at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, in downtown Santa Barbara.
Unusual because it features the contemporary artist’s signature portraits of heirloom silverware instead of casserole dishes overflowing with comfort food.
“Potluck is a celebration of life. The work is rooted in family and connecting to one another,” Ms. Sigler told the News-Press. “This body of work grew out of my longing to gather with friends and family during the dark, isolated days of the pandemic. Historically, my portraits have been singular objects, pictured and posed like an old master’s portrait. When I experimented with pairing the objects together and joining them in groups, the compositions began to symbolize joyful gatherings around crowded tables.
Potluck, paintings by Leslie Lewis Sigler, opens July 1 at Sullivan Goss: “This exhibition will feature the artist’s signature portraits of heirloom silverware—giving personality and identity to otherwise inanimate objects with refined detail. The majority of this body of work deviates from the iconic solo portraits that were so prominently featured in previous exhibitions, and encompasses instead group portraits that speak to gatherings of friends and families.”
JUST IN TIME FOR A NEW YEAR, a new hope and a harbinger of wished-for continuity, Sullivan Goss kicks off with a main gallery exhibition looking both inward and out. As suggested by its title, Juxtaposed: The Art of Curation in which the very art of curation is central to its end effect. As art presentation dictates, guiding curatorial forces follow a creative collective heart, behind the art on the walls, but this time in a self-conscious way.
Coinciding with Women’s History Month in March, “Real Women: Realist Art by American Women” is on view through March 29 at Sullivan Goss-An American Gallery, 11 E. Anapamu St.
The works, which cover the last 90 years, feature drawing, oil painting, print-making and photography by local and regional artists along with national historical figures.
Among the artists in the exhibition are Susan McDonnell, Patricia Chidlaw, Leslie Lewis Sigler, Sarah Lamb and Dorothy Churchill-Johnson. Their works are shown here along with background information by Susan Bush, curator of contemporary art at the gallery.
Objects in a home, like flatware, vessels and various silver, carry the stories of all of those who used them, and thus, are imbued with their own inherent meanings. Some of these heirlooms may end up in antique shops, while others are passed on to relatives, but all the same, a story is always there.
Leslie Lewis Sigler, who resides in California, finds these objects beautiful, whether it be an ornate, gleaming vase or a weathered set of forks and spoons.
ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK
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EDUCATION
BFA, University of Texas at Austin
BIBLIOGRAPHY/PUBLICATION
American Art Collector, November 2018
805 Living Magazine, December 2017
Silver: Nature & Culture, Lindsay Shen, 2017
Santa Barbara Magazine, Spring 2016
Santa Barbara Sentinel, January 2016
American Art Collector, December 2015
San Marcos Daily Record, November 8, 2015
UPPERCASE Magazine, Issue 23, October 2014
Santa Barbara News-Press, Scene Magazine, May 9, 2014
Victoria Magazine, January/February 2014
Between Seer and Seen, Mark Robert Halper, 2013
Santa Barbara City College, The Channels, October 7, 2013
designsponge.com, April 2013
Santa Barbara News-Press, Scene Magazine, May 25, 2012
UPPERCASE Magazine, Issue 10, July 2011
The Santa Barbara Independent, “New Paintings in Old Town,” July 21, 2011
Santa Barbara News-Press, Scene Magazine, July 8, 2011
The Santa Barbara Independent, May, 2011
Santa Barbara News-Press, Scene Magazine, April 1, 2011
Santa Barbara News-Press, Scene Magazine, June 4, 2010
1000 Handmade Greetings, Rockport Publishers, 2008
Analecta Literary Magazine, 2002
EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions (selected list)
2022 LESLIE LEWIS SIGLER: Potluck, Sullivan Goss, Satna Barbara, CA
2020 LESLIE LEWIS SIGLER: Belonging, Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, CA
2018 Storytellers, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Silver and Grey, Jane Deering Gallery, Gloucester, MA
2015 Revival, George Billis Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Equipoise, Jane Deering Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2013 Relatives, Jane Deering Gallery, Gloucester, MA
2012 Relatives, The Architectural Foundation Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2011 Objects of My Reflection, Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
Group Exhibitions (selected list)
2019 MIXOLOGY: Classic + Contemporary Combinations, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2019 Getting Real, Chautauqua Institution Gallery, Chautauqua, NY
2019 Size Doesn’t Matter: Food for Thought, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY
2019 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2018 JuxtaPOSE: An Exploration of Portaiture, Santa Barbara Arts Fund, Santa Barbara, CA
2018 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2018 Palm Springs Art Fair, George Billis Gallery, Palm Springs, California
2017 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2017 SOFA Chicago, George Billis Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2017 Palm Springs Art Fair, George Billis Gallery, Palm Springs, California
2016 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2016 Joie de Vivre, Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Montecito, CA
2015 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2015 Summer Group Show, George Billis Gallery, New York, New York
2015 Red Dot Art Fair, George Billis Gallery, Miami, Florida
2014 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2013 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2013 Small Images, Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, Best in Show Award
2012 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2012 Small Images, Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CA
2011 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2011 5×5: An Invitational, Westmont Museum of Art, Montecito, CA
2011 Small Images, Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, First Place Award
2011 Santa Barbara Art Roots: Celebrating 60 Years, Channing Peake Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2010 Small Images, Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2010 Views and Visions: Travelers, Westmont Museum of Art, Montecito, CA
2009 Small Images, Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2009 Views and Visions: Interior Space, Westmont Museum of Art, Montecito, CA
