Ed Lister's Impossible Objects at Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara

By Bay Hallowell

Improbably created fifty years ago by Ed Lister, these striking, post-Pop, pre-digital images range from two charming, blue tubes snuggling with one another to solitary pyramids placed in vast, mind-bending fields to cheery, twisting rainbow tunnels—all defying our understanding of 3D space. 

First, our eyes are seduced by the bold colors and clean shapes, then our assumptions of reality are challenged and delighted as we realize that such intriguing objects cannot exist other than in two dimensions, on a flat surface. 

Lister’s images play with our contemporary sensibilities and logical brains in their resemblances to imaginative digital images, yet they were entirely drawn by hand, predating computers.  Lister also perfectly registered and printed the multiple, intricate layers of color by hand, using traditional silk screens.  Happily, after many years and moves from London to Los Angeles to Santa Barbara to Santa Ynez, he rediscovered them in pristine condition. 

Ed Lister’s “Impossible Objects” is on view at the Architectural Foundation Gallery in Santa Barbara through Saturday, May 8, 2021.  Open on Saturdays 1-4 pm, and by appointment. Contact: (805) 965-6307,
info@afsb.org