Denis Gaston, “The Pollinator”, acrylic on canvas
Paintings by Denis Gaston and Sculptures by Eric Doctors
ARTicles/ Leslie Curran Gallery’s space in St. Pete is currently showing Robbie Acts Up, an exhibition of bright and colorful work by Denis Gaston and Eric Doctors.
Along with their rotating exhibitions, the gallery shows a wide variety of local artists and offers a wide range of services including custom framing.
The images above are from SUPERFLEX: This Is The Tip Of The Iceberg, GENERATOR: USF Contemporary Art Museum’s inaugural exhibition. The two part exhibition includes a sculptural installation and the mesmerizing interactive animation Vertical Migration, in which viewers encounter a siphonophore that reacts to their movements.
From the gallery about the exhibition-
This Is The Tip Of The Iceberg emerges from SUPERFLEX’s in-depth research into the deep sea, biodiversity, and the climate. The exhibition immerses viewers in two parallel and interconnected realms, separated by a curtain which acts as an imaginary filter between land and sea. Passing through the curtain brings visitors from a terrestrial space unsettled by rising water to the ocean’s dark depths, to meet one of the most important cleaners of the ocean, the siphonophore. Relatives of the jellyfish, siphonophores bring between two and six billion tons of carbon a year from the surface down to the seabed, where it is stored. This Is The Tip Of The Iceberg offers an opportunity to encounter this unfamiliar species, prompting reflection on the impacts and consequences of climate change, especially relevant to Florida and its coastal communities, and encouraging humans to imagine a future defined by interspecies living and ecological coexistence.
For a more detailed discussion of the work, the gallery has created an exhibition catalogue that can be viewed online or downloaded as a pdf.
Vertical Migration was originally created in 2021 by SUPERFLEX for ART 2030 and was projected on the United Nations Secretariat Building in NYC during the 76th United Nations General Assembly.
SUPERFLEX’s statement on the project-
The sea is not an abyss. It teems with an almost unimaginable array of life. Every night, the largest biological migration on Earth takes place, as trillions of creatures travel closer to the surface to feed. Some of these animals, like shrimp, are well-known. Others, like siphonophores—relatives of jellyfish—are unfamiliar: varying wildly in size, from the slightness of a fingernail to the length of a whale, they look like nothing that we find on land.
How does it feel to be one of these creatures? To explore this question, SUPERFLEX designed a computer-generated siphonophore and created an animated film, Vertical Migration, depicting its ascent. At first, the film mechanically circles the creature, getting closer and closer while giving the audience a view of it from all angles. But eventually the perspective shifts, the camera’s movements become more fluid, and the viewer sees the world from the perspective of the siphonophore.
Unsettling our perceptions of scale and otherness, Vertical Migration is an intimate encounter with a life form that bears no resemblance to human beings, though we share a planet, an ecosystem, and a future. Because of sea-level rise, humans will also be migrating vertically in the coming centuries, to higher elevations and raised buildings. The siphonophore’s story is our story. Though we can never experience its journey through the pitch-black ocean depths, we can shift our perspective to recognize that we’re connected, that our actions affect each other, and that we share a common fate.
For a look at the work in motion, below is the trailer from ART 2030.
About SUPERFLEX from their website-
SUPERFLEX was founded in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, and Rasmus Rosengren Nielsen. Conceived as an expanded collective, SUPERFLEX has consistently worked with a wide variety of collaborators, from gardeners to engineers to audience members. Engaging with alternative models for the creation of social and economic organisation, works have taken the form of energy systems, beverages, sculptures, copies, hypnosis sessions, infrastructure, paintings, plant nurseries, contracts, and public spaces.
Working in and outside the physical location of the exhibition space, SUPERFLEX has been engaged in major public space projects since their award-winning Superkilen opened in 2011. These projects often involve participation, involving the input of local communities, specialists, and children. Taking the idea of collaboration even further, recent works have involved soliciting the participation of other species. SUPERFLEX has been developing a new kind of urbanism that includes the perspectives of plants and animals, aiming to move society towards interspecies living. For SUPERFLEX, the best idea might come from a fish.
This exhibition closes 11/22/23.
This past weekend was Studio Waltz, an annual artist studio tour that takes place around Dunedin and Palm Harbor. One of the stops was The Mosaic House of Dunedin.
Carol Sackman and Blake White’s magical home has so much going on you almost don’t know where to look first. The couple teach classes from November thru April and can be contacted for tours of their home.
The Mosaic House was also featured in a gallery exhibition at the Dunedin Fine Art Center last year.
Spotted while at their home was a mural, pictured below, by former local artist Jennifer Kosharek, pictured below. She recently relocated to Alaska.
One of the two Creative Liberties spaces in the Limelight District
On the second Saturday of every month artists from the Sarasota Studio Artists Association open their studios around Sarasota, Florida. One place to stop is the Limelight District where you can find Creative Liberties, Palmer Modern, and The Bazaar.
Founded by artists Barbara Gerdeman and Elizabeth Goodwill, Creative Liberties opened its first location at the end of 2021 and the second in February of this year. Along with the artist studios, the space hosts exhibitions and classes for children and adults.
The exhibition space and tables from a finished class from September 2023
If you go make sure to also check out the delightful Free Little Art Gallery. Created by artist Judy Robertson and modeled after the Free Little Libraries, you are encouraged to take a piece of art, leave a piece of art, or sometimes just admire what’s been donated. There is one for work by adults and for children’s art work.
Below are images from a few of the artist’s spaces in the Creative Liberties buildings.
Paintings by Lisa DiFranza
Paintings by Adrienne Watts
Paintings by David Sigel
Photography by Henry Martin
Work by Sandra Wix
Paintings by Cheryl Taub
Work by Susan Hurwitch
Paintings by Ava Young
Work by Creative Liberties founder Barbara Gerdeman
Work by artists Traci Kegerreis and Sandy Koolkin
On the next page- Palmer Modern and The Bazaar
The University of Tampa’s Scarfone/Hartley Gallery is currently showing the creatively displayed B.A.S.K.: Because Art Should Kill, work by Aleš Bask Hostomsky aka BASK. The exhibition also allows visitors a chance to participate by adding their own marks to a wall in the show.
From the gallery-
Known for his iconomorphic revisitation of contemporary images, BASK’s work highlights the transformative ability of hybridization. Offering layered deconstruction and reconstruction, each piece pushes viewers to look anew at culturally infused images and text, in order to consider what they say about the viewer and the culture that developed them.
BASK’s bricolage style takes the known and familiar, the distressed and destroyed, and merges them to create windows through which visitors can explore places of unanchored interpretations and ask a multitude of questions of the piece and of their interpretations.
This exhibition closes 12/15/23.
Featured artist at Art Harvest- Michelle Mardis
Paintings by John Maurer
Paintings by John Maurer
The weather this past weekend was perfect for enjoying two big outdoor art events in the Tampa Bay area- the annual Art Harvest juried art show in Dunedin and the autumn edition of the biannual Art in the Yard event in Gulfport (the next one is next year in March).
Wendy Boucher’s collages made entirely of paper on canvas
More work by Wendy Boucher
Linda Heath’s work
Linda Heath (work above) uses the Gyotaku technique to make prints from the fish she catches in the Gulf of Mexico.
Below are a few artists from Art in the Yard-
A homemade sign from Art in the Yard
Art in the Yard is a great way to interact with local Gulfport artists and to see their creations. Stopping at the home of The Oiseaux Sisters (Susan Andrews and Carolyn Fellman), is a journey into their whimsical world. The head above was filled with little cards with their website and a different word, like a fortune, on each. My card read “Surrender”. All around their property you can find work hidden among the vegetation, on walls, and in among tables of materials they use for their work.
Outside at The Oiseaux Sisters’ home
Outside at the The Oiseaux Sisters’ home (the upper left work is a recreation of an image of Tallulah Bankhead turned into a movable figure)
Mixed media works by Dorian Angello
Jayne van der Voordt’s house had lots of fun decorated mannequins and mannequin body parts
Jenn Ryann Miller’s charming creations, seen above, are currently on view at Tempus Projects in the Kress Contemporary building in Ybor City for her solo exhibition, Hobby House.
From the gallery-
Hobby House– where art meets self-indulgence, subversion meets humor, and creativity meets absurdity. With ceramics, sterling silver, a little photography and a lot of gemstones Hobby House presents objects that are meticulously crafted for no good reason other than looking fabulous. Hobby House contemplates the places and practices of art making with humor, irony, and a little wit.
Jenn Ryann Miller explores materiality and aesthetics through sculpture and painting. With a background in functional ceramics, her work subverts tradition and process through the experimentation with oblique materials and forms. Miller has been part of numerous solo and group exhibitions in Florida and the United States. Originally from Connecticut, she received a BFA from the University of Connecticut and MA from the University of South Florida. Miller currently teaches ceramics at the University of South Florida.
In another of the Tempus Projects gallery spaces is Justin Myers‘ exhibition, What Did We Use To Say, seen below, which uses collage along with a video and sound installation to explore the concept of memory.
From the gallery and artist-
What Did We Use To Say? Trying to remember things from the past from distorted and fragmented memories. Is that really how it happened? With intention, the mind has the ability to erase just as easily as it does create. The mind decides what stays and what gets purged for the new. Are you in control? Or is the subconscious doing as it pleases? In this work, I explore deconstruction, recomposition, and sampling, and their impact on memory and perception.
Justin Myers, a Tampa Native, is a member of music projects Justin Depth, Alien House, and Diamond Man. He also is the co-founder of Tampa-based record label, Image Research Records.
Justin studied printmaking at HCC in Ybor City and began experimenting with sculpture and installation-based works during his time there. Myers finds inspiration from discarded imagery, random thought, and spontaneous actions. Over the last 10 years, Myers has participated in numerous exhibitions at Tempus Projects, including the T-shirt shows, Mix Tape Show, Return to Sender, and an offsite window installation as part of a partnership with Downtown Tampa and more. In 2020, Myers partnered with his brother, Jeremy Myers on a virtual exhibit with Tempus Projects titled, “One Day of Perfect”. Justin has been involved with Tempus Projects since his music project Alien House made its debut performance in November of 2011.
Both of these exhibitions are on view until 12/14/23.
“Steelhead” Terracotta sculpture by Ako Castuera
Spooky season may be coming to a close but there is still time to see the ghosts, and the artists behind them, in At Home with “City of Ghosts” at Dunedin Fine Art Center. Thoughtfully curated by Nathan Beard, the exhibition focuses on artwork, in a variety of mediums, by 17 of the artists who helped create the award winning Netflix series City of Ghosts.
Created by Elizabeth Ito, City of Ghosts follows a group of children as they track down and record stories about the history of Los Angeles from the ghosts who also live in the city.
Artists included in the exhibition- Mike Andrews, Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin, Ako Castuera, Alex Cline, Mercedes Dorame, Luis Grané, Chloe Hsu, Elizabeth Ito, Jasmin Lai, Bob Logan, Yulissa Maqueos, Hugo Morales, Keiko Murayama, Adam Muto, Claire Nero, Zen Sekizawa, and Pen Ward, with additional contribution from Decibel Studios LA.
This exhibition closes 12/23/23.
Below are some additional selections from the show.
Chloe Hsu– “Fish Market”, drypoint and watercolor
Jasmin Lai– “The 110 and Downtown LA”, digital print
Acrylic and ink work by Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin
Prismacolor and watercolor work by Alex Cline
Luis Grané– “Pool Maintenance” , acrylic on canvas
“La Mejor Herrencia”, Maqueos-Gonzalez family photos and “Maqueos Music (Banda Oaxaqueña)”, 2023, video by Decibel Studios LA with Los Angeles based clarinet player Yulissa Maqueos
Pendleton Ward (left) and Elizabeth Ito (right) both created Pepper’s Ghost animations for the exhibition
Photographs by Jerry Uelsmann (left) and Herb Snitzer (right)-“Bette II”, top and “Tennessee Williams”, bottom)
Photographs from the International Photography Competition
Continuing from the previous post about the Ybor Arts Tour, there are three venues that were part of the tour that are also worth highlighting.
The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts (FMoPA) is showing some impressive photography in their new Ybor City space. On one side of the museum is Icons of Black and White, a selection of over 60 fine art photographs, by some of the most famous photographers in history including Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston and more. This show will be on view until 12/3/23.
In the FMoPA Community Gallery are the winning photographs from the 2023 International Photography Competition, previously on view at The Tampa International Airport. This exhibition closes 10/28/23.
Kaitlin Crockett of Print St. Pete, “Why?” letterpress monoprint (left) and Chris Sellen/ Kaitlin Crockett, “It’s Only A Matter of Time”, risograph print
Mia Makes It, “[redacted]”, risograph print, and “Molecular Anxiety”, linocut on fabric
Marcolina’s (seen below) is a relatively new gallery currently showing the group exhibition EDEN: Beyond Paradise until 11/30/23. Check out their Instagram and Facebook to see upcoming events like Nude Model Life Drawing (every third Wednesday) and Deidre Kling’s “The Haunted Flesh” Photography Book Release on 10/28.
Installation by Edgar Sanchez Cumbas
The Ybor City Arts Tour was last week and was a great way to check out the many spaces currently in the Ybor City area. The Kress Contemporary building with its multiple galleries, artist studios, performance space (The Fringe Theatre), and microcinema, was definitely a highlight.
The above images are of sculptural work by Edgar Sanchez Cumbas (he was also in the Department of Contemporary Art group show in the same building). It is just one of the rotating works you can find while walking around the space.
Below are some selections from the event.
Kim Radatz opened her space, currently showing an installation focused on the “C” word.
Screen Door: An Ybor City Microcinema is always showing interesting films from a variety of genres. Pictured are the seating area and the movie posters lining the hallway outside of the film viewing area. For the art tour they were showing past Flex Fest short films.
On the third floor are a large group of artist studios with several walls hanging work by many of the artists.
Work by Jon Pannier
Sculpture by Eileen Goldenberg
Polaroid work by Brian Pannier
Lots of great work by the three very different artists that make up the Y3K Collective- Jon Pannier, Eileen Goldenberg, and Brian Pannier, seen above.
Work by Juan Espinosa (left) and Ashley Cantero (right) of Dluance
Inside Dluance
Creative space Dluance is run by visual artist Ashley Cantero and music producer/ graphic designer Juan Espinosa.
Paintings by Marilyn Binder Silverman
Paintings by Eilzabeth Fontaine-Barr
The work above is from the painters Marilyn Binder Silverman and Elizabeth Fontaine-Barr who share their studio space.
Painting by Karol Batansky
Self taught painter Karol Batansky just moved in to her new studio from the Ybor Art Colony which is closed while currently being renovated.
Mixed media artist Chase Parker makes a variety of work, including the unique sculptures pictured above.
Ron Watson creates highly detailed drawings at his Shades of Gray Studio.
Below is one of the common spaces filled with work by a selection of artists. It’s always worth a trip up from the 2nd floor galleries even if most of the artists are not in their studios to see what’s new.
Work by Jenal Dolson (left) and Michael Jones (collage, right)
The next post will focus on three spaces outside of Kress Contemporary that were also part of the tour.