Artist Installs Poison Oak in First Solo Museum Exhibition at UCSB
- October 01, 2014 12:10
“To see is also to touch” is inscribed on one wall at UC Santa Barbara's Art, Design & Architecture Museum where a poison oak plant in a wood and concrete platform centers a courtyard. It's part of The Cave of Treasures exhibition of works by Eric Beltz, on view through May 1, 2015, which weaves together images with negative connotations- Medusa, poison oak, and the swastika. The installation is rooted in the artist’s academic research into legends, tragedies, misinterpretations, and the evolution of iconography surrounding mythological figures, plants, and symbols.
Beltz's ambitious new project is a dramatic departure for the artist who is known for intimately scaled, highly-detailed graphite drawings. For his first solo museum show, Beltz went big and created a large-scale wall drawing comprised of symbols and natural elements, in silver ink on black paper. His vision is a meditative interpretation of nature, fear, seduction, and repulsion.
A 2004 graduate of UCSB with a MFA, Beltz is the 2014 artist-in-residence at the museum.
