Aquean is an evocative new exhibition exploring time, tides, and transformation through the multimedia works of artists David Ellis and Larry Vigon. Featuring photographs, paintings, prints, video, and mixed media, the show invites visitors to consider the sea as both subject and metaphor—revealing the delicate balance between permanence and loss along California’s coastlines, where what endures and what vanishes are bound together by the ocean’s rhythms. Highlights include Ellis’s Lobospheres: The Lost Souls of Point Lobos, a 20-year photographic exploration of wave-carved forms at Point Lobos, and Vigon’s Flotsam & Jetsam, an immersive collection of paintings, large-scale prints, found objects, linocuts, video, and dimensional collages. Together, their work captures the power and fragility of an ever-changing shoreline.

Aquean

Impressions of the Sea & Shore

Aquean explores the sea as both subject and metaphor, reflecting on the delicate balance between permanence and loss along California’s coastlines. What endures and what vanishes are inseparable, bound together by the rhythms of the ocean. The sea is more than a physical presence. It is a lens through which to consider time, change and the fragile continuity of our coastal world.

“Aquean is a collaboration that captures the constant movement of the sea as it recreates itself and everything it touches,” said David Ellis. “It expresses the tension between the found beauty and powerful uncertainty of a relentless ecosystem. Many thanks to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum for bringing Aquean to the public.”

Exhibition highlights focus on two major bodies of work by the artists:

David Ellis’s Lobospheres: The Lost Souls of Point Lobos is a 20-year exploration that consists of abstract, impressionistic photographs of textures, silhouettes, and mythical figures discovered in the wave-carved rock forms of Point Lobos, California. It is a celebration, an elegy, and a cautionary tale—an interpretive archive that captures its sheer, subliminal beauty, while also preserving and documenting an extraordinary landmark that may be changing with time. Last June, selected photographs from Lobospheres received top honors at the 24th Annual International Art Exchange exhibited at the Tokyo Municipal Art Museum.

Larry Vigon’s Flotsam & Jetsam is an expansive impression of the sea that includes paintings, large-scale prints, found objects, linocuts, video, and dimensional collages.

Larry recalled that once, Picasso was asked what his paintings meant. Picasso said, “Do you ever know what the birds are singing? You don’t. But you listen to them anyway. So, sometimes with art, it is important just to look.”

Flotsam & Jetsam extends Vigon’s world-class artistic sensibilities. His decades of album cover design for artists like Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, and Bonnie Raitt—seen by hundreds of millions of people worldwide—landed him in the Album Cover Hall of Fame. His commercial and logo identity work has helped build leadership brands for DreamWorks, Fandango, Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, and Epson. His work also spans Broadway posters, advertising campaigns, magazines, and books—including his design for The Red Book by C.G. Jung, considered one of the most significant psychoanalytic publications of the last century.

“We are thrilled to bring together the vivid visions of David Ellis and Larry Vigon in Aquean,” said SBMM Curator/Director of Collections & Exhibits Emily Falke. “Their work captures the power and fragility of the ever-changing California coastline. In Aquean, the sea is more than a physical presence—it becomes a lens for time and change, reminding us that what endures and what vanishes are forever intertwined by the rhythms of the ocean.”