Sep 152023
 

Angel Rivera Morales, “Dystopian Paradise I, II, and III”, 2023, Acrylic and oil on canvas

Gilbert Salinas, “As We Speak”, 2022, Mixed media on canvas

Juan Nieves Burgos, “Germinar de patria” and “Mundo sin tiranos”, 2019; Carmen Rojas Gines, “She Warrior-SW3 “Guerrera”-G3″, Steel metal

Valentin Tirado Barreto, “Salcedos Death- La Muerte de Salcedo” and “Rebellion of the slaves- Rebelión”, Acrylic on canvas

Currently at Creative Pinellas is the group exhibition Keepers of Heritage: Hidden Tales / Custodios de la Herencia: Cuentos Ocultos, on view until 10/15/23.

From the Creative Pinellas website-

Keepers of Heritage is an extended collaborative effort whose purpose is to document, present and promote the contributions of artists of Puerto Rican artists in the Caribbean archipelago and abroad.

Its roots go back to 2015 with the presentation of the “La Diaspora” exhibition at the Terrace Gallery in Orlando City Hall. Since then, the collective has expanded and traveled to institutions such as the National Museum for Puerto Rican Arts and Culture in Chicago, the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala, and the Albin Polasek Museum in Winter Park, Florida.

Over eight years, the collective has documented and presented the work of nearly 30 artists whose artistic practices include a diversity of mediums such as painting, drawing, sculpture, engraving, multimedia, and photography.

Artists included in this exhibition-

Brenda Cruz

Alejandro de Jesus

Jose Feliciano

Carmelo Fontanez Cortijo

Domingo Garcia-Davila

Francisco García-Burgos

Martin García-Rivera

Michael Irrizary-Pagán

Juan Nieves-Burgos

Yasir Nieves

Angel Rivera-Morales

Rafael Rivera-Rosa

Carmen Rojas-Gines

Pablo Rubio

Aby Ruiz

Gilbert Salinas

Joan Emanuelli Sanchez

Luis Soto

Valentin Tirado Barreto

Rigoberto Torres

For more work by the artists head to the next page.

Sep 132023
 

Alison Elizabeth Taylor, “Anthony Cuts under the Williamsburg Bridge, Morning”, 2020 Marquetry hybrid (wood veneers, oil paint, acrylic paint, inkjet prints, shellac, and sawdust on wood)

Currently at Orlando Museum of Art is The Outwin: American Portraiture Today, an impressive collection of work in a variety of mediums.

From the museum’s website-

Launched in 2006 to support the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the United States, the National Portrait Gallery’s celebrated triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is a major survey of the best American portraiture selected by internationally prominent jurors and curators. Now in its sixth edition, The Outwin: American Portraiture Today presents 42 works selected from over 2,700 entries, that foreground the vibrancy and relevance of portraiture today. In addition to paintings, photographs, drawings, and sculptures, The Outwin includes video, performance art, and textiles, highlighting the limitless possibilities of contemporary portraiture.

Open to both emerging and established artists, this year’s entrants were encouraged to submit work that moves beyond traditional definitions of portraiture, and to explore a portrait’s ability to engage with the social and political landscape of our time. The variety of media and subjects featured in the exhibition invite audiences of all backgrounds to find relation in the human experience.

Since its inception, finalists for the exhibition have been determined by a panel of jurors including three Portrait Gallery staff members and four external professionals (critics, art historians, artists). The competition is endowed by and named for Virginia Outwin Boochever (1920 – 2005) who, for 19 years, volunteered as a docent at the Portrait Gallery. Her commitment to advancing the art of portraiture is continued through the support of her children.

Below are a selection of works from the show and information about them from the museum.

Alison Elizabeth TaylorAnthony Cuts under the Williamsburg Bridge, Morning, 2020 (pictured above)

On walks around her Brooklyn neighborhood during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Alison Elizabeth Taylor encountered the hair groomer Anthony Payne, who,with his workplace shuttered, had taken his scissors, mirror, and chair to the streets. Payne sought to financially support the Black Lives Matter movement, especially in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, and turned over proceeds from his donation-based haircuts to organizations advocating for social justice.

Taylor’s process, one she developed and named “marquetry hybrid,” incorporates vivid paints, inkjet prints, and the natural grains of over one hundred veneers. Marquetry, with its inlaid combination of woods, can “memorialize,” Taylor notes. She acknowledges the history of the craft, which was favored by Louis XIV (1654-1715) when he was acquiring furniture for Versailles. By giving Payne this “royal treatment,” Taylor aims to pay tribute to him.”I want him to see how much his example meant to me,” she explained.

Kira Nam Greene, “Kyung’s Gift in Pojagi (From the series “Women in Possession of Good Fortune”)”, 2019 Oil, gouache, colored pencil, and acrylic ink on canvas

Kira Nam GreeneKyung’s Gift in Pojagi (From the series “Women in Possession of Good Fortune”), 2019

In this mixed-media work, by Kira Nam Greene, the artist Kyung Jeon faces us with relaxed self-assurance. She is carefully positioned on her couch as her long black hair falls over her orange and turquoise tunic. In the foreground, a wooden cylinder containing paint brushes reveals her medium of choice. A plate with persimmons, consumed during the harvest festival Chuseok to celebrate good fortune, brims with potential while the rest of the painting pulsates with action.

Greene situates her friend in a fantasy world that echoes Jeon’s artwork and their mutual interest in the traditional Korean fabric quilting technique of pojagi. Two rabbits, representing Jeon’s Chinese zodiac, appear to be concocting a potion. Flowers sprout as kaleidoscopic patterns envelop her. The reference to pojagi, the visible paint drips in the background painting, and the hands of the sitter- left unfinished- invoke the role of tradition, process, and exploration in artmaking.

Stuart Robertson, “Self Portrait of the Artist” from the “Out and Bad” series, 2020, Aluminum, earth, acrylic paint, enamel, paper,metallic bubble wrap, sequins, and gold foil on wood

Stuart Robertson–  Self Portrait of the Artist from the Out and Bad series, 2020

“In my world, skin is high-tech, amorphous, and armored,” the artist Stuart Robertson observes. “Blackness is percussive, lustrous, flexible, and indestructible.” Self-Portrait of the Artist depicts a fragment of a man- half of his face and his upper torso-shiny and monumental. A black beard delineates his jaw, and a small gold hoop adorns his ear. Although the figure is cropped beyond recognition, the work’s title provides a clue.

Through the alternation of flat and repoussé aluminum sheets, Robertson achieves a hypnotic effect, a poignant tension playing on what he reveals or hides from us viewers. His refusal to depict his entire face or figure challenges the notion of what a portrait should be and blocks the objectification of the Black male body, so often sexualized in visual culture. Simultaneously, Robertson delivers an irrepressible, resplendent image of that body, one inspired by the aesthetics of Jamaica’s dancehall culture.

Vincent Valdez, “People of the Sun (Grandma and Grandpa Santana)”, 2019, Oil on canvas

Vincent ValdezPeople of the Sun (Grandma and Grandpa Santana), 2019

An elderly couple faces us with the gentle authority that old age provides. People of the Sun (Grandma and Grandpa Santana) is a portrait of Vincent Valdez’s maternal grandparents. “My grandparents spent most of their time outside,” the artist recalled. “Grandpa spent his entire life working under the blazing Texas sun as a carpenter and yard worker, cutting lawns in the wealthy communities of San Antonio right up until he passed away. Grandma was constantly working with her hands–raising kids, washing, sewing clothes, and tending the plants in her yard.”

The Santanas are depicted in a space defined by details the artist remembers: their vintage AM radio, their plants, their homemade clothes. The bedsheet, like the Virgen de Guadalupe’s aura, signals their spiritual role in the family. This portrait connects the pair to the Indigenous and mestizo cultures of the American Southwest, including the Aztec and Maya, who honored the sun.

For more work from the exhibition, please head to page 2.

Aug 252023
 

This mural was created by Hyland Mather, aka The Lost Object, in 2017 for Anti Gravity Project and The Foosaner Art Museum in the Eau Gallie Arts District in Melbourne, Florida. The museum, sadly, closed in 2021.

Aug 212023
 

Leora Stewart (1943-2021) “Banyan Tree”, Fiber wall hanging

Leora Stewart “Banyan Tree”, Fiber wall hanging (detail)

Norma Lewis (1929-2015) “Kimono”, Paper fiber

Nneka Jones- “Layers of Identity”, Fiber collage and embroidery on canvas

Kathleen “Kaki” King, “Syngonium”, Earthenware

Abraham Rattner (1893-1978), “Birds”, 1971, Wool

Taylor Robenalt, “Rookery Queen”, Ceramic

Josette Urso, “Chola”, 1990, Fabric collage, found object quilt

Duncan McClellan, “Alchemy”, 2013, Hand blown glass, sand carved

The works above are from Material Mastery: Florida CraftArt Permanent Collection of Fine Craft on view at Leepa Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs.

From the museum-

Florida CraftArt (formerly known as Florida Craftsmen) was organized in 1951 by Stetson University art professors Elsa and Louis Freund as a statewide organization celebrating fine craft. As the only statewide nonprofit representing Florida’s fine craft artists, Florida CraftArt is a member-supported organization helping mentor and advance artists. Now headquartered at 5th Street and Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, this vibrant organization has been at the center of St. Pete’s artistic renaissance.

The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art is delighted to partner with Florida CraftArt to showcase their permanent collection and enduring contribution to Florida’s cultural heritage. The goals of this collection are to recognize the significance of Florida’s fine craft art in our broad artistic landscape, document the rich tradition of craft art statewide and beyond, and to educate and inspire future generations of artists and arts appreciators.

This exhibition will close 8/27/23.

Artists included in this post-

Leora Stewart

Norma Lewis

Nneka Jones

Kathleen “Kaki” King

Abraham Rattner

Taylor Robenalt

Josette Urso

Duncan McClellan

 

Aug 112023
 

Work by Jenny Granberry (top) and Victoria Block (bottom)

Journals by Eva Avenue (top left) and Laura Waller (bottom left) and photography by Andrew Sovjani

On the second floor of the Dunedin Fine Art Center are photographs by Andrew Sovjani and a collection of sketchbooks from a variety of artists, many of which you can look through- with gloves of course. It’s easy to spend lots of time with all the inspiring books these artists have created.

The exhibition closes 8/13/23.

About Andrew Sovjani, from the gallery-

Andrew Sovjani is a visual artist recognized for blurring the boundaries between photography, printmaking and painting. Raised in a family of working studio artists, art making is in his blood. Andrew has drawn from his life experiences in the scientific world and living in Asia to create transcendent bodies of work that are often extremely peaceful. His award-winning photographs have been shown in exhibitions throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan and are held in many public and private collections. He has won awards of distinction at many of the top fine arts festivals in the nation and was a finalist for the Critical Mass book awards in 2008 and 2016.

Some of the artists whose books are included in the exhibition are- Jenny Granberry, Victoria Block, Eva Avenue, Laura Waller, Dion Dior, Daniel Mrgan, Julia Collver, Coralette Damme, Joan Duff Bohrer, Marjorie Greene Graff, Lukas Mosimann, Luis Colan, Kathy Pollak, Jennifer Kosharek, and Katy Deits.

Work by Eva Avenue

Work by Dion Dior

Work by Daniel Mrgan (top) and Julia Collver

Work by Coralette Damme

Work by Joan Duff Bohrer

Work by Marjorie Geene Graff

Work by Lukas Mosimann

Work by Luis Colan (left) and Lukas Mosimann

Journals by Kathy Pollak

Work by Jennifer Kosharek

Work by Katy Deits

 

Jul 272023
 

“A Cut Below”, 2000, Acrylic on canvas

Theo Wujcik’s painting, A Cut Below, is part of Tampa Museum of Art‘s All in Favor: New Works in the Permanent Collection, on view until 7/30/23.

Jul 202023
 

Polly E. Perkins, “Woodstork Portrait”, 2022 from Ferman Center for the Arts

24 Hands is a printmaking collective of Florida Gulf Coast printmakers founded by Marjorie Greene Graff. The group has regular exhibitions throughout the year at various locations in the area.

Recently a group of their artists were showing work at The Ferman Center for the Arts, on the University of Tampa’s campus. Below are a few selections from that exhibition.

For more information on Polly E. Perkins, whose work is in the first image, check out her Instagram.

Linda Dee Guy, “Botanical Shroud”, 2021, acrylic, Inkjet print, Goldleaf on canvas

Linda Dee Guy, “Nucleus”, 2021

Linda Dee Guy, “Seascape”, 2021

For more work by Linda Dee Guy, check out her website and Instagram.

Serhat Tanyolacar, “Untitled”, 2020, Laser engraved relief print

Serhat Tanyolacar, “Untitled”, 2020, Laser engraved relief print

For more work by Serhat Tanyolacar, check out his website.

Ry McCullough, “Meditations in Orange”, 2021, Pochoir, serigraphy, gouache, watercolor, vinyl, gaffers tape on okawara

For more of Ry McCullough’s work, check out his website and Instagram.

Currently at Brooker Creek Preserve’s Education Center in Tarpon Springs is Nature Inspired, another exhibition of work by the 24 Hands collective.

From the exhibition-

For “Nature Inspired”, the artists visited Brooker Creek Preserve in March 2022 and March 2023 to strategize the exhibit and hike around the Preserve. Their love for Brooker Creek and nature has been inspiring and their work represents a variety of approaches from comical to realist to aesthetic abstraction. The exhibition includes prints by: Holly Bird, Saumitra Chandratreya, Tyrus Clutter, Elizabeth Coachman, Marjorie Greene Graff, Mary-Helen Horne, Stephen Littlefield, Ry McCullough, Polly E. Perkins, Christine Renc-Carter, and Rachel Stewart.

Below is work from the exhibition by Mary-Helen Horne. You can also find her work on Instagram.

Mary-Helen Horne, “Floating on Air”, 2023, Monoprint with drypoint, relief and pochoir

Nature Inspired has been extended until 8/13/23. It’s a great show and a chance to check out the natural surroundings that helped create the work.

 

Jun 292023
 

Judy Pickett is an Orlando based artist who often shows her work at Soft Water Gallery in St. Pete, Florida. Her beautiful cyanotypes are painted with encaustic to give them added texture.

Jun 212023
 

Center work by Laura De Valencia

Morean Arts Center in St. Pete, Florida, is currently showing Fresh Squeezed 7, their annual exhibition of emerging artists in Florida. It’s a great opportunity to see some of the best artwork being done by local artists. The exhibition closes 6/22/23.

From the the Morean Arts Center’s press release-

As always, our selection panel culled over 120 applications from across the state, narrowing the exhibition down to the six artists featured here. It’s always a joyful and heartbreaking process, seeing so much inspiring good work and only having a limited amount of space in which to show it all.We were looking for diversity in medium, in ideas, and in geographical location, all of which somehow comes together to form a delightful, cohesive whole.

While we don’t necessarily plan it that way, themes and commonalities do emerge among the artists selected for the exhibition. We’re happy to announce this is the first year that we have an ALL FEMALE line up. And due to the inclusive interpretation we use to define an emerging artist (no previous solo shows in Florida), you’ll find artists here who are still pursuing their MFAs (KJ Skidmore and Leeann Rae) AND artists who are returning to their first love of art after finding fulfillment in decades of other related careers (Latonya Hicks and Deborah W. Perlman).

Other themes you may notice as you peruse the galleries are the inventive (and exuberant!) use of materials. Denise Treizman and Latonya Hicks both incorporate cast off, recycled and vintage materials in their dimensional wall work. While Denise’s process is more spontaneous and Latonya’s is deliberate and measured, they both create joyful works of art that invite contemplation and perhaps a spark of recognition from the viewer.

KJ Skidmore and Laura De Valencia both deal with contemporary issues and pop culture in their work, though to wildly different effect. KJ’s humorous mixed media paintings address the notion of the male gaze, and the women who must endure it. Laura’s installations use fashion culture as a jumping off point to raise questions about international stereotypes and the borders (both visible and not) that immigrants have to experience on a daily basis.

Both Leeann Rae and Deborah W. Perlman create work that challenge the viewer to look longer, and to think deeper. With their disparate materials (Leeann with soft pastel and Deborah with cut paper), they raise notions of space, whether physical or mental, real or imagined, in the present or a memory from the past.

KJ Skidmore “Squeeze ‘n’ Block”, Acrylic and coffee

KJ Skidmore

KJ Skidmore “Angel’s Bar”, Acrylic, fabric, trim, paste and wood paper

The work above is by Tampa based artist KJ Skidmore.

Morean Arts Center’s information about the artist-

KJ’s current work is based in painting/drawing that extends into3-D space through multimedia installation. Her immersive spaces are chaotic and aggressive, but at the same time alluring. She works within her own bizarre and disjointed narratives and themes containing warped textual elements, strange cartoon characters, and color palettes that are both grimy and fluorescent. Her material use is variable and may include masses of hair clumped together with canned beets, pink stained carpet, fabrics, wood, plaster, teeth, rain jackets, and Smurf-themed objects.

KJ’s painted series Burger Time caricatures leering male clientele as flat, monster-like cartoons that interact with a staring waitress to explore gendered tropes and forms of voyeurism. This series reconstructs reality in relation to being female by presenting experiences like getting stared at or groped within a hokey themed attraction called “Burger Time” restaurant. Her series is meant to revolt the viewer through acknowledging the male gaze, while also celebrating its trashiness and the culture surrounding it. She uses humor to poke fun at this harmful and uneven power dynamic. The series presents this sickening concept through more palatable presentation such as expressive cartoon figures and bright colors.

KJ is from Gainesville, FL, but was living on the West Coast until recently. She is back in Florida pursuing an MFA at USF in Tampa.

For more of the artists in the show, continue to the next page.

Jun 162023
 

The latest pop-up exhibition at Chad Mize’s SPACE in St. Pete’s Warehouse Arts District, is Hot Box, which opened Friday 6/9/23.  The show includes a LOT of artists and installations as well as, for this past weekend, an immersive performance by Dirty John’s comedy troupe.

Below are some of the works from the show-

Jay Hoff, “Criminally Divine”, Lego on Lego

Gianna Pergamo, “Pool Day”, Mixed Media

Miss Crit, “Love and Hisses” Acrylic on Wood

Rhys Meatyard, “Apollo, Artemis, Demeter”, Acrylic on wood

Macy Eats Paint (Macy Higgins), “Pieces of Me”, Mixed Media

In an upstairs section, artist Paul LeRoy has created a mixed media world of art world and celebrity icons, drawings, paintings and more.

The show will be open for its final weekend on Saturday 6/17 from 4-9pm and Sunday 6/18 from 11am-3pm.