Growing up in Lakewood, CA, a Los Angeles suburb with the easily mockable motto “Tomorrow’s City Today,” “It was so not that,” laughs Sue Van Horsen. That notion did provide inspiration for the Santa Barbara–based assemblage artist, however. “It always stuck with me that tomorrow really never happens. You know, it’s always today or yesterday. It’s never tomorrow.”
She was joking around with some artist friends about it, and they all agreed that the notion of the retro versions of the future would make a great show theme. “And then Asteroid City came out, and suddenly we’re like, cutting edge.”
The result is a group show, The Future That Never Came, featuring eight assemblage and collage artists exploring the theme of retrofuturism — a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. Inspired by sci-fi shows like Star Trek, Lost in Space, Gigantor and Johnny Quest, Van Horsen is bringing together some of Santa Barbara’s coolest collage and assemblage artists for a 10-day show beginning September 15 at the Community Arts Workshop Gallery (CAW).