OPENING RECEPTION: 1st THURSDAY, JULY 7th | FROM 5-8pm
Sullivan Goss is excited to announce the Gallery’s second solo exhibition for contemporary artist LESLIE LEWIS SIGLER. 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.
As previously seen, Sigler emphasizes different family archetypes through her still life painting, giving each piece of silver personality and the dignity of formal portraiture. The artist states that this body of work was inspired by “the rough days of the pandemic, and [her] longing to gather together with loved ones again.” Feeling the absence of family, Sigler focused on group portraiture, where family archetypes could come together in her work, if not in life. As with traditional family gatherings, these photorealistic paintings are a metaphorical potluck of temperament and connection.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
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. In 2011, she began painting her portraits of heirlooms and gained an immediate following from numerous small exhibitions throughout the area. She has since become a mother of two. Leslie is represented in New York and in Santa Barbara, but now lives and works in Soquel, California. Sullivan Goss has worked with the artist since the 2011 100 GRAND exhibition.
“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.”
