For more of Jessica Contreras’ work, check out her Instagram
Nov 022021
Oct 112021
Happy Indigenous People’s Day! The work above, Because You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House, is by Choctaw-Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson. The sculpture was commissioned for Socrates Sculpture Park in New York, but is currently located at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
The deCordova website gives the following information about Gibson and the work-
Jeffrey Gibson weaves together his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage and queer identity into vibrantly patterned painting, sculpture, video, performance, and installation. Drawing on Indigenous process and materials and queer camp aesthetics, his artistry aims to transcend binary thinking and corrects nostalgic views of indigeneity. Merging styles and historical references, Gibson states, “I have continued to think about my practice as encompassing the past and present while considering the future.” Gibson often integrates phrases and words into his artwork, with language drawn from pop songs to activist slogans, to offer open-ended declarations of love, community, and liberation.
Standing over 40 feet wide and 20 feet tall at the entrance to deCordova’s Sculpture Park, Gibson’s Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House commands attention to its stepped form and psychedelic facade. Originally commissioned by Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, this installation expands Gibson’s signature artistry and collaborative process to a monumental scale. He took inspiration from North American Indigenous history, as well as queer nightlife to create this monument advocating for Indigenous space and culture. The tri-layered form references the earthen forms of the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia which flourished in the seventh through the fourteenth centuries before European contact.
The title, Because Once You Enter My House, It Becomes Our House, comes from the song “Can You Feel It” by Mr. Fingers (Larry Heard). Gibson evokes 80s and 90s-era house music and night clubs as they provided welcoming spaces for queer communities and people of color. Mr. Finger’s lyrics embrace intimacy, generosity, acceptance, and community. This installation echoes this broad communal ethos as Gibson invited fellow Indigenous artists–Eric-Paul Riege (Diné), Luzene Hill (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), and Dana Claxton (Hunkpapa Lakota)–to co-create the wheat-pasted posters covering the façade of the installation and stage performances on and around the ziggurat.
Oct 082021
For more of Tony Tasset’s work, check out his website
Oct 052021
Kim Anderson, “Alone Together”, 2021
Stereoscope for viewing the above painting
Skyway 20/21: A Contemporary Collaboration, is the second iteration of a joint exhibition across four institutions that highlights contemporary art created in the Central Florida region. Artists selected by a jury are from five counties- Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, and Sarasota. The exhibitions are an excellent sampling of the work being made in the Tampa Bay area.
The works shown in this post are from the exhibition at the Tampa Museum of Art. The museum has a video playlist on YouTube that includes all of the artists in the exhibition discussing their work. The links below are to the artists’ websites or those videos.
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Jaime Alaventhura and Amanda Sieradzki – Hillsborough
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Kim Anderson – Sarasota
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Wendy Babcox – Hillsborough
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Janet Folsom – Pinellas
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Samson Huang – Hillsborough
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Jason Lazarus – Hillsborough
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Kirk Ke Wang – Hillsborough
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Cassia Kite – Sarasota
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Jenn Miller – Hillsborough
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Sarah O’Donoghue – Sarasota
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Herion Park – Sarasota
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Anat Pollack – Hillsborough
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Libbi Ponce – Hillsborough
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Selina Román – Hillsborough
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John Sims – Sarasota
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Mike Solomon – Sarasota
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Jill Taffett – Sarasota
Selina Román “XS” 2019
For Selina Román’s XS series, she created abstract self portraits that examine standards of beauty in relation to expectations of weight and body. The title XS references an extra small size and alludes to the word excess.
This exhibition closes 10/10/21.
Sep 202021
Jake Troyli, “Shhh…this is the best part!”, 2018
Jake Troyli, “Shhh…this is the best part!”, 2018 (detail)
Jake Troyli, “Shhh…this is the best part!”, 2018 (detail)
Jake Troyli, “Shhh…this is the best part!”, 2018 (detail)
Skyway 20/21: A Contemporary Collaboration, is the second iteration of a joint exhibition across four institutions that highlights contemporary art created in the Central Florida region. Artists selected by a jury are from five counties- Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, and Sarasota. The exhibitions are an excellent sampling of the work being made in the Tampa Bay area.
The works shown in this post are from the exhibition at the The Ringling in Sarasota. I’ve included links for these artists as well as those not pictured.
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Carrie Boucher – Pinellas
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Ya La’Ford – Hillsborough
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Kalup Linzy – Hillsborough
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Noelle Mason – Hillsborough
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OK! Transmit – Pinellas
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Eric Ondina – Hillsborough
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Heather Rosenbach – Hillsborough
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Jake Troyli – Pinellas
Heather Rosenbach, “American Dream Byproduct”, 2018
Heather Rosenbach, “Class Warfare Shooting Star”, 2019
Eric Ondina, “Miss 911”, 2018
Eric Ondina, “Miss 911”, 2018 (detail)
Eric Ondina, “Palms”, 2020
Eric Ondina, “Keep the Change”, 2020
Ya Levy La’ford “American/Rōōts”, 2021
This exhibition closes 9/26/21.
Sep 162021
Untitled (Man with Briefcase), 2019, from Lenz Geerk’s 2019 exhibition Mixed Blessings at Roberts Projects in Los Angeles.
Sep 062021
From Here, 2019
The Passengers, 2019
Paintings by Lisa Golightly, from her 2019 exhibition at George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles.
Aug 142021
Casey McDonough “the immeasurability of this cosmological collider”, 2021
Casey McDonough “the immeasurability of this cosmological collider”, 2021 (detail)
Casey McDonough “the immeasurability of this cosmological collider”, 2021 (another view)
Skyway 20/21: A Contemporary Collaboration, is the second iteration of a joint exhibition across four institutions that highlights contemporary art created in the Central Florida region. Artists selected by a jury are from five counties- Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, and Sarasota. The exhibitions are an excellent sampling of the work being made in the Tampa Bay area.
The works shown in this post are from the exhibition at USF Contemporary Art Museum. I’ve included links for these artists as well as those not pictured.
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Rosemarie Chiarlone – Hillsborough
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Danny Dobrow – Pinellas
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Babette Herschberger – Pinellas
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Akiko Kotani – Pinellas
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Cynthia Mason – Pinellas
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Ry McCullough – Hillsborough
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Casey McDonough – Pinellas
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Kodi Thompson – Pinellas
Cynthia Mason, “Limp Grid with Arm”, 2021
Cynthia Mason, “Limp Pricks and Plants in Rising Water” 2021
Akiko Kotani, “Red Falls”, 2021
Akiko Kotani, “Red Falls”, 2021 (detail)
This exhibition closes 9/1/21.
Aug 132021
Dolores Coe “Perimeter”, 2019
Dolores Coe, “Borderland”, 2020
Dolores Coe, “Borderland”, 2020 (detail)
Skyway 20/21: A Contemporary Collaboration, is the second iteration of a joint exhibition across four institutions that highlights contemporary art created in the Central Florida region. Artists selected by a jury are from five counties- Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, and Sarasota. The exhibitions are an excellent sampling of the work being made in the Tampa Bay area.
The works shown in this post are from the exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. I’ve included links for these artists as well as those not pictured.
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Robert Aiosa – Hillsborough
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Dolores Coe – Hillsborough
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Keith Crowley – Sarasota
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Becky Flanders – Hillsborough
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Dakota Gearhart – Pinellas
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Bassmi Ibrahim – Pinellas
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Morgan Janssen – Sarasota
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Ezra Johnson – Hillsborough
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Karl Kelly – Hillsborough
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Savannah Magnolia – Hillsborough
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Jon Notwick – Hillsborough
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Gabriel Ramos – Pinellas
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Lynne Railsback – Sarasota
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Matthew Wicks – Hillsborough
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Janelle Young – Hillsborough
Gabriel Ramos, “Mi Isla”, 2021
Gabriel Ramos, “Mi Isla”, 2021 (detail)
Savannah Magnolia, “Chemical Inhalation”, 2019
Savannah Magnolia “In Big Pharma We Trust”, 2019
Savannah Magnolia “In Big Pharma We Trust”, 2019 (detail)
Savannah Magnolia “In Big Pharma We Trust”, 2019 (detail)
Keith Crowley, “Rain Season”, 2019
Keith Crowley, “Nocturne”, 2020
Bassmi Ibrahim, “Awareness 41”
Bassmi Ibrahim, “Isness 158”
Bassmi Ibrahim, “Isness 158” (detail)
The exhibition at this location closes 8/22/21.
Aug 102021
summer syllables, 2021
soft, dark, demigod, 2021
marshling, 2021
Currently at Jack Shainman Gallery is Diedrick Brackens: Rhyming Positions, the artist’s second exhibition with the gallery. Brackens’ weavings use nature as symbolism to tell stories about the current world.
From the press release-
In several tableaux situated in nature, Brackens plays with the idea of creating home in a wild space, honoring the outdoors as a place in which queerness lives. This is a nod to the history of queer and femme folks who have gathered in nature, creating safe spaces for ritual and communion. This notion of commune is present in summer syllables, in which two figures stretch in lyrical movement, seemingly fashioning loops out of their own bodies, as if flowing one into the other within a vast, yellow landscape. In soft, dark, demigod, a figure bends over, caught within a thicket of roses in full bloom. This moment is indicative of Brackens’ own observation of the outside world over the course of the past year, as he has relished in these quiet moments of continued life as flowers grow. The presence of roses hint at the sensuality and eroticism that are apparent throughout this body of work and in Brackens’ practice more broadly.
In marshling a lone figure stands poised in the water, akimbo, surrounded by catfish and flora of the swamp. Catfish are a recurring motif in Brackens’ work, an emblem of the American South, embodying the soul and ancestral spirits. Continuing his practice of pulling from traditional folklore, two rabbits rest on chairs in each their own, almost as if they have been conjured up by the figure seated in their midst. Rabbits, creatures that live both above and below the earth, have shown up throughout African and African-American tales and literature as messengers and trickster figures. To Brackens, the animals in these works feel less literal and more like other humans or spirits in communion with the figures, the trio seated together almost as if awaiting a dance.
This exhibition closes 8/20/21.