Museum of Modern Art - Santa Barbara

Kota Ezawa: The Crime of Art
On view November 11, 2018 - February 3, 2019

Museum of Contemporary Art 

Santa Barbara

653 Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara is pleased to present Kota Ezawa: The Crime of Art, a series of light-boxes and video animations by Oakland, California-based artist Kota Ezawa that chronicles some of the most infamous and high profile museum heists in history. At the heart of this exhibition is a series of images paying homage to the 13 artworks—including those by Degas, Manet, Rembrandt, and Vermeer—stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.

In the absence of the original works, viewers must rely solely on reproductions of the lost Stewart Gardner paintings. Whether printed in a textbook, projected in a lecture hall, or gathered from Google image search results, artwork reproductions are ubiquitous. In this way, Ezawa asks: what does it mean to be original? More »





Please note all information, including photo from MCASB Website