Sullivan Goss Gallery is celebrating its 40th anniversary.  To mark the occasion the gallery will present an exhibition of each of the gallery’s currently represented artists and artists’ estates, along with major works by artists who are important to our program. For longtime followers and friends of the gallery it is a chance to revisit old favorites. It is also a chance to see how the gallery has evolved with the community, and get an idea of where we are headed in the years to come. 

In 1984, Patricia Sullivan Goss opened a gallery in Sierra Madre, California devoted to fine prints.  In time, the program grew to include California painting and contemporary art. 

In 1992, the original location was damaged beyond repair by the Landers Earthquake. Patricia’s husband, Frank Goss, had recently sold his engineering firm, and the couple decided to relocate to Santa Barbara.  Together they reopened Sullivan Goss Books and Prints on State Street in Santa Barbara in 1993, modeled on L.A.’s historic Zeitlin & Ver Brugge, selling rare books and art. The next year, they bought a vacant building at 7 East Anapamu Street and built out the space, devoting themselves to books on art and architecture and historic and contemporary California art.  To the books and art, they added food and the Arts & Letters Café was born.

Gradually, they began to integrate themselves into the local art scene.  First, they began to buy and sell the turn-of-the-century plein air landscape paintings of National Academician Lockwood de Forest (1850-1932).  Next, they began to show local artists like Jon Wilshire (1940-1999) and Robin Gowen .  One day, the Estate of Don Freeman and Lydia Cooley came for sale and Frank Goss snapped it up.  Patricia remembers him putting part of the purchase on credit cards, filling her with anxiety.  The first exhibition proved a great success. 

From this, a business model was born.  The gallery went on to acquire increasingly prestigious Artist’s Estates affiliated with Santa Barbara or California: Colin Campbell Cooper, Dan Lutz, Grace Vollmer, Ben Messick, Lyla Harcoff, and Nell Brooker Mayhew.  Eventually, the gallery would come to own or represent Artist’s Estates with no local affiliation at all, but who had made a significant contribution to American Art. In 2002, current Gallery Director Jeremy Tessmer was hired as a registrar and web technician to help manage the ever growing collection. 

By 2004, as the economy began to recover from the recession of the early 2000s, the gallery got out of the book business and rebranded itself Sullivan Goss – An American Gallery, reopening with a show of major American painters like Georgia O’Keeffe and Joseph Stella.  Sales were brisk.  Susan Bush was brought in 2005 and the following year the gallery expanded into the building at 11 East Anapamu to build upon its offering of contemporary art.  It opened with an exhibition that included Chuck Close and Leon Golub.  In 2007, Susan was named the gallery’s Contemporary Curator.

In late October of 2008, just as the impact of the Great Recession was becoming clear, Frank hired Nathan Vonk as Gallery Assistant and Installer, during a week when very few people in the country were being hired for anything. In 2014, in preparation for retirement, Frank closed the Arts & Letters cafe, sold the 7 East Anapamu St. building and the art was consolidated to 11 East Anapamu. In the last few days of 2016, Frank sold the gallery to Nathan, who maintained the gallery name and staff, wanting to continue the gallery's trajectory as established by Frank and Patricia. 

Since 2016, the gallery has survived the Thomas Fire, Montecito Mudslides, a global pandemic, and in the same period of time has added a number of exciting new contemporary artists and nationally important artist's estates to its roster. In 2021, Lauren Wilson was added to the team in much the same role that Jeremy was hired for almost two decades earlier. 

Having mounted hundreds and hundreds of monographic and curated thematic exhibitions, having helped train three dealers who’ve opened their own galleries, having conducted thousands of hours of art historical research, having published dozens and dozens of catalogs and eighteen books, Sullivan Goss has become an institution.