No matter how many birthday parties you have attended, you have never seen a piñata like any of those included in Roberto Benavidez’s vibrant and provocative summer show at the UCSB Art, Design & Architecture (AD&A) Museum. Hailing from Texas, where he handcrafts these subtly subversive works of art, Benavidez brings a light touch and a mischievous sense of humor to the clash of high and popular culture. He began the series on view at the AD&A in 2013, inspired by the 15th-century painter Hieronymus Bosch, and in particular by the fantastic figures in his masterpiece “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” Using delicate materials in a traditional, balloon-based piñata-making process, Benavidez replicates specific aspects of the painting, including not only animals and fruits but also some of the more bizarre, human-adjacent creatures of Bosch’s extravagant imagination.
A large reproduction of the painting, complete with magnifying glass, allows visitors to play detective in an art historical identification game of finding the piñatas in the picture. At the opening, a specially designated piece was smashed, releasing its esoteric contents in the familiar piñata cascade. Beneath the festive surface of this delightful show, there’s a fiercely satirical sensibility at work, sending up both the art scene and consumer culture’s magpie approach to Mexican life.
There’s another summer treat in store in the gallery next to the piñatas, where two distinguished Santa Barbara artists, Mary Heebner and Jeff Shelton, have collaborated with curator Silvia Perea on a show called The Muse Project. Heebner and Shelton were invited to display their own work alongside objects and images selected from the AD&A’s permanent collections. The twist is that Heebner, who is primarily a fine artist, was encouraged to search for her “muses” in the collection of architectural drawings, while Shelton, who is best known as an architect, was sent to find what he could relate to in the art collection. The result blends the warmth of familiarity with the joy of discovery, activating the museum’s collection and reinvigorating our appreciation of two of the city’s most representative artists.