Art of Ray Cirerol Featured at Gallery 7000, Santa Barbara Channels
Posted by sbchannels on:
December 2 – December 18, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday, December 11, 5:30-7:30 pm
Here’s another great reason to visit The Santa Barbara Channels’ new TV facility in Goleta- art exhibits! Using an empty wall in their state-of-the-art new TV production facility in Goleta, the nonprofit that runs Channel 17 (community access TV) and Channel 21 (culture, arts and education) has opened a small art gallery at their facility at 7000 Hollister in Goleta, and fittingly call the exhibition space Gallery 7000.
The second exhibit features the art of Ray Cirerol. The opening reception on Friday, December 11th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.
Growing up in the Lincoln Heights area of Los Angeles brought many opportunities to Ray Cirerol as a young artist, from mural painting to film making.
Ray attended the Art Center of Design in Pasadena, studied under Harry Carmean, and worked with filmmaker Romeo Carey. Having lived in Santa Barbara for the past 20 years has inspired Ray’s art, which raises questions about his identity as a Chicano, his connection to others who have toiled in the fields, and his spirituality as embodied in images of the Virgen de Guadalupe, which he often includes in his art. Many of the paintings on display in this exhibit also incorporate physical objects such as rose thorns, cornhusks, and rice, in the artwork itself or in the frames, which Ray designed and constructed. Ray’s exhibit is timed to coincide with the feast day for the Virgin of Guadalupe, December 12th.
Since 1992 Ray has worked full-time as a Production Director and Set Designer at the Santa Barbara Channels TV station, so it is with great pride that our second exhibit features one of our own staff members.
Ray has exhibited at Sullivan Goss Gallery and has had art shows in venues in Los Angeles, Oxnard, Ventura, Carpinteria, and Santa Barbara. Within the last decade, Ray has often contributed his artistic services to Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Parish. His oil painting of the Saint Juan Diego now hangs as a focal point of a shrine at that church. In addition, he has restored a majority of the statues displayed within the church, including one, “Christ in the Tomb,” which is believed to have been brought to California from Spain.
The Santa Barbara Channels is the nonprofit organization that brings our community viewers the most local content on television, on Channels 17 and 21. The exhibit is open to the public during regular business hours: Mon-Fri from 9 AM – 11 PM & Saturday 9:30 AM–6 PM and will run through December 18th.
Artists interested in using the exhibition space for future exhibits should contact Ray Cirerol at the TV station via e-mail: ray@sbchannels.tv


1 Comment
Comment by Phil G. on
These are great. Wished I had seen the show!