By Achilles’ Tomb: Elliott Hundley and Antiquity @ SBMA 

The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is organizing a mid-career solo exhibition with Elliott Hundley and has also invited him to rethink the display of Greco-Roman antiquities in SBMA’s Ludington Court. Hundley has long engaged with ancient Greece, especially tragedies, such as Medea (431 BCE) or The Bacchae (405 BCE). While Proscenium will survey Hundley’s work through the lens of the stage, backdrops, and actors, By Achilles’ Tomb juxtaposes the Museum’s renowned collection of antique sculpture and glassware with Hundley’s sculptures, paintings, and newly made collages. These two presentations reveal his deep connections with ancient history and literature, and an ability to transform humble and castoff materials into bewitching artworks of great delicacy and captivating visual density.

Both exhibitions show Hundley imagining a world that is an alternative to one we exist in, one where the ancient Greek gods are still worshipped, where gravity is defied by floating rocks and columns, or where stickpins, paper, feathers, goat hooves, and spangles have been amassed into an impossibly complex and impractical confection held together by a miracle.

On view in conjunction with Proscenium: Elliott Hundley.