SANTA BARBARA — At the invitation of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA), Awol Erizku, a noted photographer, sculptor, and painter and subject of a recent New Yorker profile, is collaborating with nine 2023 fellows at the Music Academy of Santa Barbara to plan a memorable one-night-only performance on July 23, that will bridge visual art and classical music.
Erizku is a natural choice for Radiant Frequencies project because music threads through his unusually varied and impossible to easily package practice. Nefertiti—Miles Davis Gold (2022) is a gold mirrored mosaic in the form of the ancient Egyptian queen, which also references Miles Davis’s album Nefertiti (1968). Moreover, the artist says that No Hesi(2022), from his new Cosmic Drill series, relates to Drill, a genre of hip hop. Both artworks are in the Museum’s collection and are currently on display. He is also widely known for his photographs of musicians, including Beyoncé, Nipsey Hussle, J-Cole and Bad Bunny.
