SANTA BARBARA, CALIF.- The Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the exhibition POOCH: The Art Full Life of Keith Julius Puccinelli will headline the fall 2024 season. POOCH celebrates the extraordinary contributions Puccinelli made to the Central Coast art and design community and showcases over 250 works from the AD&A Museum’s Keith and Francis Puccinelli Collection. A catalogue documenting the exhibition will be released later in fall. Organized by the AD&A Museum and guest curated by Meg Linton, the exhibition will open to the public on Saturday, September 7 with a public reception from 4pm to 6pm and will remain on view through December 15, 2024. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 12:00pm to 5:00pm.

POOCH: The Art Full Life of Keith Julius Puccinelli is a solo exhibition featuring the work of graphic designer and fine artist Keith Puccinelli (1950-2017), AKA Pooch, alongside selections of work from the folk and contemporary art collection he and his wife, Frances Garvin Puccinelli, built over their 33-artful-years together. Pooch was a long-time Santa Barbara resident who began his artistic career as an award-wining graphic designer with his studio Puccinelli Design (1983-1996). In 1998, after surviving cancer and at the urging of his wife, he began working full-time as a fine artist and became an active and recognized contributor to the Southern California art scene. This exhibition investigates how humor, tragedy, and wit animated Puccinelli’s art and design. Furthermore, the exhibition situates Puccinelli’s career within the constellation of his local and regional contemporaries including Dane Goodman, Hugh Margerum, Hilary Brace, Joan Tanner, Richard Ross, Lily Guild as well as artists like Philip Guston, Robbie Conal, Wayne Thiebaud, and many others who influenced his practice more broadly.

POOCH celebrates the extraordinary gift of more than 600 original works of art and the full artist's archive including design and documentary materials made to the AD&A Museum in 2018.

The forthcoming catalogue documents the exhibition and provides insight to Puccinelli’s artistic process. It includes written contributions by guest curator Meg Linton, artist Keith Puccinelli, artist and collaborator Dane Goodman, Director of Ruby City Elyse A. Gonzales, and a foreword by AD&A Museum Director Gabe Ritter. The book is being designed by Tom Stanley with assistance from graphic designers Ginny Brush and Lily Guild, and will be printed by Mike Szanger at V3 Printing: a National Graphics Company.

Keith Julius Puccinelli (b. United States, 1950-2017) received his Bachelor of Fine Art from San Jose State University in 1973. As a fine artist and self-taught graphic designer, he founded Puccinelli Design in 1983 in downtown Santa Barbara and ran a successful studio until 1995 when he closed the business to pursue other creative interests. For more than 40 years, Pooch has exhibited artworks in numerous solo and group exhibitions at galleries, museums, and contemporary art spaces. His work is included in private and public collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Westmont Ridley- Tree Museum of Art, Wilding Museum of Art & Nature, Weatherspoon Museum of Art, and the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara.

The exhibition includes drawings, sculptures, sketches, and designs by Keith Puccinelli alongside artworks and objects by: Todd Anderson, Sandow Birk, Jeff Brouws, Ginny Brush, Wendy Burton, Hilary Brace, Nell Campbell, Robbie Conal, Bob DeBris, Ann Diener, Linda Ekstrom, David Gilhooly, Howard Finster, Julia Ford, Colin Fraser Gray, Rollin Fortier, Marlin Garien, Dane Goodman, Penelope Gottlieb, Lily Guild, Philip Guston, Nathan Hayden, Mary Heebner, the Wixárika people, Patricia Hedrick, Neal Izumi, James Harold Jennings, Susan Jørgensen, Philip Koplin, Dan LeVin, Holly Mackay, Hugh Margerum, Penny Mast McCall, Wayne McCall, Virginia McCracken, Barbara Parmet, Jens Pedersen, Rafael Perea de la Cabada, Gail Pine, Fran Puccinelli, Harry Reese & Sandra Liddell Reese, Richard Ross, Alison Saar, Marie Schoeff, Judith Scott, Tom Stanley, Nicole Strasburg, Joan Tanner, Masami Teraoka, Wayne Thiebaud, Susan Tibbles, Richard Tullis, Dug Uyesaka, Beatrice Wood, Seyburn Zorthian.

POOCH: The Art Full Life of Keith Julius Puccinelli is organized by the Art, Design & Architecture Museum and is guest curated by Meg Linton.