The Art, Design & Architecture Museum (AD&A) at UC Santa Barbara will present the exhibit POOCH: The Art Full Life of Keith Julius Puccinelli as the headliner of its fall season.
POOCH celebrates the contributions Puccinelli (AKA Pooch) made to the Central Coast art and design community and showcases more than 250 works from the AD&A Museum’s Keith and Francis Puccinelli Collection.
A catalogue documenting the exhibit will be released later in fall.
Organized by the AD&A Museum and guest-curated by Meg Linton, the show opens Saturday, Sept. 7 with a public reception, 4-6 p.m. The show runs through Dec. 15. Gallery hours are noon-5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
Exhibition
POOCH: The Art Full Life of Keith Julius Puccinelli is a solo show featuring the work of graphic designer and fine artist Keith Puccinelli (1950-2017), alongside selections of work from the folk and contemporary art collection he and his wife, Frances Garvin Puccinelli, built over their 33 years together.
Pooch was a long-time Santa Barbara resident who began his artistic career as an award-winning graphic designer with his studio Puccinelli Design (1983-96).
In 1998, after surviving cancer and at the urging of his wife, he began working full-time as a fine artist and became an active and recognized contributor to the Southern California art scene.
The UCSB show investigates how humor, tragedy and wit animated Puccinelli’s art and design.
Further, the exhibit situates Puccinelli’s career within the constellation of his local and regional contemporaries including Dane Goodman, Hugh Margerum, Hilary Brace, Joan Tanner, Richard Ross, Lily Guild as well as artists like Philip Guston, Robbie Conal, Wayne Thiebaud, and others who influenced his practice more broadly.
POOCH celebrates the gift of more than 600 original works of art and the full artist’s archive including design and documentary materials made to the AD&A Museum in 2018.
The forthcoming catalogue documents the exhibit and provides insight to Puccinelli’s artistic process. It includes written contributions by guest curator Meg Linton, artist Keith Puccinelli, artist and collaborator Dane Goodman, director of Ruby City Elyse A. Gonzales, and a foreword by AD&A Museum director Gabe Ritter.
The book is being designed by Tom Stanley with assistance from graphic designers Ginny Brush and Lily Guild, and will be printed by Mike Szanger at V3 Printing: a National Graphics Company.