The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of GIMME SHELTER, an exhibition of paintings and prints by Marcia Rickard that highlight the fragility of “home” in a world fraught by war and natural disasters.

The opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Saturday, May 31st from 2 – 4 p.m. A conversation with Marcia Rickard and Architectural Historian Dennis Doordan will take place on July 12th at 2 pm.

GIMME SHELTER includes paintings, drypoint prints, monotypes, paintings, and fabric pieces with images of current events often added as collage elements and photo transfers. Despite the perverse allure of such images (sometimes referred to as “disaster porn”), Rickard asks us not to forget the human lives impacted by such events. Her work reflects the human dimension that loss of shelter—a place of personal safety, a refuge, a home—means, the recognition that in today’s world, this could suddenly be any of us.

“… I am drawn to the horrifying yet mesmerizing daily news photographs of destruction— war, terrorism, environmental degradation, natural disasters—that emphasize the fragility of our world.”

Marcia Rickard is a retired art historian (Professor Emerita from Saint Mary’s College, Indiana) who maintained a consistent artistic practice throughout her thirty-four years of teaching art history courses ranging from European Gothic art to Indonesian textiles. Since moving to Santa Barbara in 2019, she has studied printmaking with Siu Zimmerman.