Dec 162022
 

Themes for a Left-Handed Pitcher”, 2021: “Still Life with Left-Handed Pitcher (04-06)”, 2021. serigraphy, pochoir, collage, acrylic ink, gouache on paper; “Left-Handed Pitcher Still Life (II)”, 2021. particle board, acrylic ink, concrete, polymer clay; “Perfect Games (Theme for a Left-Handed Pitcher)”, 2021. projected sound from single speaker. 9:00 min. (infinite loop)

While at Dunedin Fine Art Center to hear Ry McCullough’s talk, I was reminded of seeing this work at the USF Contemporary Art Museum last year as part of Skyway 20/21: A Contemporary Collaboration. The discussion was great and touched on a lot of interesting topics, especially around his use of collage.

From the gallery’s wall plaque about Themes for a Left-Handed Pitcher

Inspired by the perfect game Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Sandy Koufax threw against the Chicago Cubs in 1965, Themes for a Left Handed Pitcher engages compositional fielding of the domestic pitcher and black and white balls in a callback and comparative dialogue between sculptural objects and works on paper. Inviting playful and participatory discovery, the project includes an amplified palindromic sound score and a zine, which are both available to download. Interspersed with abstracted baseball references, the project evokes a change-up between the fabricated and found forms, the known and the unknown.

On McCullough’s website you can find the downloadable zine and the audio file mentioned in the description above and its a chance to check out more of his impressive collage pieces. For his most recent work, also check out his Instagram.

In addition to his independent practice, he is part of the collaborative project, small_bars, with artist Nick Satinover.

From the small_bars information page about the project-

Within their collaborative practice they explore the structural authority of their band name moniker, small_bars. This ambiguous name serves as an all-encompassing banner which simultaneously referencing pixels on a screen, lines of type of a letter press, halftone processes, and the physical clubs and venues their former bands played. As small_bars, McCullough and Satinover are able to generate a collection of collateral materials such as audio recordings, videos, printed ephemera, performative events, and structural arrangements, all of which support and expand the notion of what the moniker suggests. This collaborative effort seeks to use the form of a band-like entity to create a space where the acts of publishing, printing and performance co-exist.

 

Dec 132022
 

“Thru” by Jessi Sherbet and “Remi” by Mia Makes It (sculpture on the right)

“Untitled” low fire ceramic by Mike Cannata

There were so many great artists showing work at the group of galleries in the Kress Building in Ybor City, this post needed to be split in two. For part one, on Tempus Projects’ three spaces, head here.

Quaid Gallery is an artist cooperative gallery founded by a group of Tampa artists and is focused on contemporary artists creating mixed media exhibitions. In addition to monthly curatorial projects, they are planning to host events which will include readings, drawing nights and film screenings. Liquid Snow is their current exhibition and included the artwork pictured above by Jessi Sherbet, Mia Makes It, and Mike Cannata.

Parachute Gallery is showing One and Only · يكتا , which centers around the project Green Wedding by Fort Myers, Florida-based Iranian artist, Leila Mesdaghi.

From the website’s description of the project-

In late 2021, Mesdaghi traveled to her childhood home in Tehran, Iran, to throw herself a wedding, sans partner. She writes, “As a child I had dreams about getting married and having a wedding in our house. An Iranian wedding is a heavily glamorized and festive event where the bride is treated like a princess and guests come celebrate and admire her with gold and jewelry. I decided to have a wedding for myself. I made my dress at a high-end fashion boutique, bought a beautiful gold ring with my dad’s money, hired Maryam Saeedpoor (a well-known photographer,) a hair stylist, played Persian wedding music, and had a few friends plus my aunt and uncle as my guests.”

Documentation of the ceremony—a series of six limited-edition portraits by Saeedpoor and a collaborative video piece with director Khashayar Khalilkhani and vocalist Mahboubeh Golzari, reciting a poem by Iranian poet Houshang Ebtehaj about love and longing—beautifully articulates the complex emotions behind the project.

The photos and dress are seen in the image below, along with the work of six regional and national artists whose work ties into this project thematically. These artists are Sharareh Allahyari, Jordan Blankenship, Golbanou Moghaddas, Pottery Boys – Glenn Woods and Keith Herbrand, and Rebecca Stevens.

Tampa artist and photographer Jenny Carey has opened a new space, Gratus, which is currently showing her work. She also had her book, All I See Is Your Glinting: 90 Days in the Pandemic, which she created with Gianna Russo, the inaugural Wordsmith of The City of Tampa, available for sale.

For more of Carey’s work and to see what’s next for the gallery, check out her Instagram. She also founded Creatives Exchange, a collective of professional women artists in Tampa.

Finally, Department of Contemporary Art Tampa, FL, once a week for three weeks is hosting a mystery local artist. During the event the artist of the evening was revealed as Selena Ferrer. This week on 12/15/22, the last artist will be revealed. Also check out the gallery’s Instagram for updates.

Dec 132022
 

“The Great Mother Text, Papaya and Pearls” and “Frozen Conch” photographs from Cristina Molina’s “The Matriarchs” series

Painting by Eric Ondina

“Here, Together” Photograph by Amber Bernard

It was an exciting night for art this past Thursday in Ybor City, Tampa, as several spaces opened their doors in the Kress Building.

Tempus Projects now has three spaces in the building. In their main gallery was KARST GROUNDS ::QUATRO SUNISTRA, the fourth iteration of their annual open call exhibition exploring “the sinister side of the Sunshine State”. The work varied in medium, and included painting, photography, and sculpture.

From their website-

The exhibition title is a portmanteau of “sunshine” and the Latin word “sinistra”—the forebearer of the English word “sinister” which retains some of its original connotations of something that is harmful and inauspicious. The play on words reflects the often idyllic/nightmarish dichotomy Florida embodies in its natural, social, and political climates. This serves as a thematic jumping-off point for the exhibition’s applicants as the artists investigate this peculiar state through their diverse perspectives and unique approaches.

In their Tempus Volta space was Beneath the Mistletoe Screaming, a group exhibition and holiday shop with lots of great affordable art, with most pieces ranging from $5 to $500.

View inside Tempus Volta

Paintings by Alex Torres

Paintings by Lynn Manos

Drift, is Tempus Projects’ independent curator’s space (seen below). On Thursday they were showing and selling work from various artists.

All three spaces were showing strong work. Make sure to check out Tempus Projects’ Instagram for updates on the galleries.

 

Dec 072022
 

For the months of November and December, Brenda McMahon Gallery is focusing on Fiber Arts, and Marlene Glickman is one of the artists included. Her fabric collages are made with hand dyed and found fabrics that she then embellishes with thread drawings.

Another one of her projects is using instant setting dyes to create silk scarves. She teaches workshops on the process and also sells kits to do it on your own. She recently gave demonstrations at the Dunedin Fine Art Center (as part of their Open House) and at Art in the Park! in Clearwater, where the scarves pictured below are from.

Glickman’s artist statement from her website

Art, for me, is the act of expressing ideas regardless of the medium and sharing them with others. I see things and am compelled to create with them. I also love to encourage viewers to interact with my art and put their imprint on the work. Creating 3D sculptural forms and textile “paintings” using new and found materials is a passion.

 

Dec 062022
 

Work by Bobbi Pratte

Work by Bobbi Pratte

This past weekend (12/3/22) was the 6th Annual edition of ArtJones in Gulfport, Florida. The self-guided tour takes you to several locations around Gulfport and is a great way to see what local artists are creating, and sometimes get a look at their process.

Bobbi Pratte just moved to the area from Washington D.C. and had numerous colorful paintings on view.

Work by Brenda McMahon

Work by Brenda McMahon

Brenda McMahon is one of the co-founders of this event. Her ceramic tiles can often be seen outside houses around town. She also created a large piece for the Gulfport Senior Center. Her local gallery shows a variety of regional work and has a featured artist every month.

Work by Nancy Poucher

Work by Nancy Poucher

Nancy Poucher was showing her lovely pastel work, seen above.

Other artists included in the show- Deserie Valloreo (who just opened her own local gallery), Kitty Zehnder, Curtis Whitwam, Charles Bahringer, Judith Villavisanis, Anna Ayres, Marius Wiget, Cynthia Dugat, Doug D’souza, Amy Howell, Denny Howard, Patricia Burrows, Margaret Foy Meinhart, Don Stafford, Pitzen Studios, Kiersty Long, Paula Roy, Ray Domingo (also a founder of the event), Herlys Perez, Dorian Angello, Joyce Burkholder, Janet Folsom, Eric Folsom, and Jessica Ryan (this year’s Larry Enlow Emerging Artist winner).

For more information on the individual artists, check out their links and the ArtJones site, which has little bios as well.

Dec 032022
 

Study for Milltown Icon, 2003

Dunedin Fine Art Center is currently showing three exhibitions based on the theme of Architecture. The images above are from Rust to Rust: Janos Enyedi and the Architecture of Industry. The work combines painting, photography, and sculpture. Parts of his work appear to be metal but are actually constructed using illustration board. His creations are an impressive exploration of the fading industrial landscape of America’s Rust and Steel Belts.

Janos Enyedi’s discussion of his work in 2009 (from the gallery’s wall information)-

“While I have a special affection for industrial landscapes, it is not industry itself that captures my imagination. What draws my attention is the simplicity and directness of the industrial architecture and the elements that support it.

Nowhere else is the Modernist tenet “form follows function” as explicit. The realm of industry is filled with large iconic shapes- water towers, smokestacks, complex steel structures, monitor roofs, images that we all know.

Most people, if they bother to look at industry at all, see large, dirty hulks. I see other things. There is an old saying, “The Devil is in the details”.

When it comes to industry, I see “Angels” in the details. I see I-beams and angle iron and the shadows they cast on corrugation: torch-cut edges, the staccato of rivets, the patterns of safety plate and rust- always the rich, amazing and beautiful patina of rust.”

The exhibition also includes works that allow you to see a bit of his creative process, including some of his sketches.

Also on view is We Built This City, a multi-media exhibition of work that “investigates the connection between Architecture and Music- conceptually, loosely, physically-poetically”.

Paula Scher– You Me

Vanessa Diaz– Decadent Ledge

The third exhibition Carol Sackman and Blake White: The Mosaic House of Dunedin, includes bright and colorful mosaic work borrowed from their famous home.

All these exhibitions are on view until 12/23/22.

Nov 172022
 

Verve Supreme by Neverne Covington

The Blue Book of Love & Longing by Neverne Covington

The Blue Book of Love & Longing by Neverne Covington (closer)

The Book of Remembering and Forgetting by Neverne Covington

The Book of Remembering and Forgetting by Neverne Covington

Currently at the Creative Pinellas Gallery is Arts Annual 2022. Creative Pinellas invited past Professional and Emerging Artist Grantees to participate in the show, which celebrates the work of local artists. Many of the works from the show are also available for sale.

For more on artist Neverne Covington, whose work is above, here is a bit more information.

This year the following artists are included in the show-

This exhibition is on view from November 11th through December 31st, 2022. It’s a great way to see some of the best artwork being made by local artists in Pinellas County.

A selection of some of the work on view is on the pages below, but all of the work is definitely worth checking out.

Nov 112022
 

Bosco Sodi’s outdoor sculpture installation, Perfect Bodies, presented by Pioneer Works, was on view in Redhook, Brooklyn from October 2020 until December 2020.

From Pioneer Works’ press release-

Sited on a once teeming commercial concrete parking lot two blocks south of Pioneer Works, Perfect Bodies speaks to, in artist Bosco Sodi’s words, “silence, contemplation and the passing of time—the small things in life and our relationship with the earth.” The installation consists of large-scale clay spheres and cubes made from local clay fired in the artist’s studio in Oaxaca, Mexico, which made the long journey by road across the Mexico-US border to Red Hook. A longtime resident of the neighborhood—itself named after the tone of its own clay soil—Sodi is known for his use of raw and organic materials to create textured paintings and objects.

Sodi’s ongoing dialogue with nature and landscape, shaped by his interests in Japanese aesthetics and Abstract Expression, puts himself in the lineage of both Arte Povera and Land Art—two post-war movements which emphasized, respectively, radically simple materials and an integral relationship between art and earth. As Spanish author Juan Manuel Bonet remarked in the artist’s 2020 eponymous monograph, his three dimensional works reconcile an interest in minimalism with the practices of Mexican heritage. On this topic, curator Dakin Hart further writes: “At his place in Oaxaca, Sodi hand forms large geometric sculptures from clay and fires them in a makeshift kiln on the beach. Cuboids in different formats recall the scale and how-did-they-do-that-craft of cyclopean architecture across the ancient world. While spheroids, each formed by eye in a landscape of unbelievable things, might be the petrified remnants—or organic vanguard—of a Jurassic invasion. The past seeding itself into the present, a starting point for nature’s revenge.”

Currently, as part of Art Biennale 2022, Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro is showing What Goes Around Comes Around at Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, in Venice, Italy, until November 27th, 2022.  The art installation will include his paintings as well as recent sculptures.

 

 

Oct 132022
 

This is the last weekend to see Jason Hackenwerth’s exhibition DARKMATTER at Creative Pinellas in Largo, Florida. It includes the two giant balloon sculptures shown above, as well as several of the artist’s paintings and drawings.

To hear the artist discuss his work, and see more views of the sculptures and artwork in the gallery, check out this video.

This weekend is also Third Saturday at Pinewood (Creative Pinellas, Florida Botanical Gardens, and Heritage Village). For this event Hackenworth will be leading a family arts workshop where he will be teaching visitors how to create sculptures from balloons.

DARKMATTER closes on Sunday, 10/16/22.