Dear friends of SLOMA,
I can hardly believe how time has flown by. I joined the Museum as Executive Director in October 2020, our beloved Pacificaribbean mural was installed in January 2021, and we officially reopened your Museum at the end of May. It is a funny feeling having so many firsts while, at the same time, we’ve begun to find our rhythm.
Our good fortune continues as only the second exhibition in this new era features an international superstar of the visual arts world with Mark di Suvero: History and its Shadow. Mark di Suvero was born in 1933 in Shanghai to Italian parents and migrated to the US as a child. He discovered his passion for the arts right here in our region at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in the 50s. Di Suvero had literally shipwrecked his sailboat on the Central Coast and decided to make this region his home as he attended University.
Today, as an internationally renowned artist and pioneer in the use of steel, di Suvero is known for creating vibrant and dynamic works of sculpture and paintings throughout his sixty-year career, fusing joy and movement with complex construction. He is without peer in the exhibition of public sculpture, has presented city-wide projects throughout Europe and the United States, and is the first living artist to exhibit in Le Jardin de Tuileries and Les Esplanades des Invalides in Paris. His work is in over 100 museums and public collections. Mark di Suvero is a lifelong activist for peace and social justice and has demonstrated a generous commitment to supporting artists. He was a 2010 recipient of the National Medal of the Arts.
I am unbelievably proud to premiere di Suvero’s exhibition History and its Shadow here at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art and I look forward to seeing you in the galleries soon.
Leann Standish
SLOMA Executive Director