Proscenium: Elliott Hundley
Elliott Hundley, The Plague (detail), 2016. Collage, oil, pins, plastic, foam, and linen on panel. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © Elliott Hundley.
Elliott Hundley, Echo, 2022. Polystyrene, encaustic, pins, wood, metal. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © Elliott Hundley.
Elliott Hundley, Tiered Sounds, 2017. Paper, oil, fabric, pins, plastic, glass, shells, lotus pods, metal, foam and linen on panel. Private Collection. © Elliott Hundley. Image courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Lights up! Proscenium: Elliott Hundley, a mid-career solo exhibition, sets the scene. Sculptures and paintings are activated as dramatic devices, stages rife with an overabundance of sets, props, actors—though not necessarily proffering straightforward scripts. In a theater, the proscenium is the architectural structure around the stage that separates the stage from the audience and the invisible scrim—the fourth wall—between the fictional play and the real world where the audience is seated. Hundley imagines a scene that is an alternative to the one we exist in. Ancient Greek gods are still worshipped. Gravity is defied by floating rocks and columns. Stickpins, paper, feathers, goat hooves, and spangles have amassed into an impossibly complex and impractical confection held together by a miracle.
Proscenium: Elliot Hundley opens with By Achilles’ Tomb: Elliot Hundley in Ludington Court, an intervention by the artist contrasting and complementing his own works with the Museum’s renowned collection of antiquities.
Proscenium: Elliot Hundley is made possible through the generosity of The Earl and Shirley Greif Charitable Trust, Lilac Drive Foundation, Margaret Campbell Arvey, Susan D. Bowey, Jacquelyn Klein-Brown, Merrill W. Sherman, Susan and Bruce Worster, and anonymous donors.
On view in conjunction with By Achilles’ Tomb: Elliott Hundley and Antiquity @ SBMA.
Free* docent-led gallery tours are conducted daily and meet in Ludington Court near the State Street entrance. Tours provide an engaging opportunity to experience and discuss a variety of works in a relaxed, informal setting.
Tour Availability
| 11:30 am |
|---|
| May: 18 |
| June: 13, 22 |
| 1 pm |
|---|
| April: 25, 26, 27, 30 |
| May: 1, 3, 4, 9, 11, 15, 17, 21, 24, 25, 30 |
| June: 1, 3, 7, 11, 15, 17, 21, 24, 27, 28 |
*free with the price of admission
Santa Barbara Museum of Art Presents Mid-Career Exhibitions by Los Angeles Artist Elliott Hundley Opening April 20, 2025
Proscenium: Elliott Hundley
Through August 31, 2025
By Achilles’ Tomb: Elliott Hundley and Antiquity @ SBMA
Through February 22, 2026
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art will present an extensive mid-career exhibition of work by Elliott Hundley including an innovative installation rethinking the current display of Greco-Roman antiquities in the Museum’s Ludington Court. Proscenium (through August 31, 2025), a broad survey, sees his work through the lens of theater, props, sets, and backdrops. It brings together 50 artworks dating from 2000 to 2025, including paintings, collages, assemblages, bronzes, drawings, rarely seen early works, and loans from private collections. In By Achilles’ Tomb (through February 22, 2026), he rethinks and mischievously upends the display of Greco-Roman antiquities in SBMA’s Ludington Court. Long fascinated by the plays of Euripides (c. 480 – c. 406 BC), especially Medea (c. 431 BC), The Bacchae (c. 405 BC), and Hekabe (c. 424 BC), and ancient Greco-Roman culture and myths, he is an ideal artistic partner to reshape the Museum’s most prominent and public space, which opens onto Santa Barbara’s pedestrianized State Street.
Press Kit
Images
Lansdowne Hermes Roman, First half of 2nd century CE. Marble. Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Gift of Wright S. Ludington.
Elliott Hundley, By Achilles’ Tomb. 2009. Expanded polystyrene, wood, plastic, epoxy putty, pins, paper, photographs, willow, bamboo, string, wire, spray paint, and found wax vessel. Courtesy of Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Purchase.
Elliott Hundley, tearing flesh from bone, 2011. Wood, metal, plastic, rope, found upholstery coils, goat hooves, metal leafing, pine cones, lobster legs, feathers, and epoxy. Santa Barbara Museum of Art Gift of L. L. W. W.
Elliott Hundley, Troy to the Dirt, 2009. Oil on linen on canvas. Elliott Hundley Collection.
Elliott Hundley, W.A. 1959, 2011. Oil on linen on panel. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
Flask Roman, Eastern Mediterranean, 100-300 CE. Glass. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Gift of Lois and Richard Gunther.
Perfume Flask (Alabastron) Eastern Mediterranean, 525-400 BCE. Glass. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Gift of Lois and Richard Gunther.
Elliott Hundley Alessandro Seated, 2000. Collage on paper, color photocopies, found paper, and glue. Elliott Hundley Collection.
Elliott Hundley The Crawling Eye, 2015. Inkjet print on kitakata, paper, parabolic reflector, metal, gouache, string, photographs, pins, plastic, sound board, and wood. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
Elliott Hundley Untitled, 2010. Collage Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
Elliott Hundley Buried Alive!, 2015. Oil, linen, paper, pins, photographs, found embroidery, foam, and wood. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
Elliott Hundley Tiered Sounds, 2017. Paper, oil, fabric, pins, plastic, glass, shells, lotus pods, metal, foam, and linen on panel. Private collection.
Elliott Hundley Still Life With Table (Blue), 2015. Oil on linen. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
Elliott Hundley New Stratum, 2017. Oil and collage on linen. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
Elliott Hundley 15.2.22.1, 2022. Ink and collage on paper. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
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