Author: Bay Art Files

Being Seen

Recent Acquisitions from The Ringling Photography Collection

by Robin O’Dell

“In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female form which is styled accordingly.” 
― Laura Mulvey, Visual And Other Pleasures

The above quote was written in the 1970s by the noted film theorist Laura Mulvey (British, b. 1941). This idea of the “male gaze” was expanded to include all visual theories and spurred a re-evaluation of how and by whom images have been and are being made of women. Chris Jones, Curator of Photography and New Media, has culled eighteen photographs recently brought into the collection of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and placed them sparingly on the walls, inviting visitors into this continuing dialogue. Small in number but large in visual delight, these photographs celebrate artists taking control of their own artistic identities. 

Zanele Muholi, Kodwa II, Amsterdam, from the series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness), 2017, Gelatin silver print. © Zanele Muholi

Artists using self-portraiture include Zanele Muholi (South African, b. 1972). A transgender artist, Muholi uses their own image to project strength and directness, challenging the very idea of how people of color have been depicted throughout history. Muholi considers themselves a visual activist and is specifically concerned with presenting gay and LBGTQ as part of the photographic canon. In these self-portraits, Muholi’s skin is darkened to an almost pure black and the prints are large, offering a visually dramatic and physically compelling visage. Muholi’s work is immediately recognizable and wholly unforgettable. 

Bea Nettles (American, born 1946) is respected for her use of experimental processes. For The Ringling, she created an image that incorporates photographs of the Museum’s environment with one of her own body to make a unique portrait. These fragments combine to layer time and place with her own distinct sense of self. The photograph is part of the series Return Trips including images of Spain and Morocco, so recognizing something so specific to this Museum offers an unexpected delight. The Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, is currently presenting a virtual retrospective of Nettles’ fifty-year career. You can access it here:   https://www.eastman.org/bea-nettles-harvest-memory. It provides a good overview of this very creative and inventive artist. 

Ilse Bing, Self-Portrait with Leica, Paris, 1931; printed later, Gelatin silver print.
The Stanton B. and Nancy W. Kaplan Collection at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, © Ilse Bing

In the photograph Self-Portrait with Leica twentieth-century photographer Ilse Bing (American, born Germany, 1899-1998) captures herself in the act of photographing. Using multiple mirrors, she plays with the idea of self and identity. The image shows both a frontal and side view of the artist while incorporating the Leica camera she became closely associated with. This small camera was revolutionary at the time, as most professional photographers still used box or cameras with bellows. This iconic photograph is part of a large gift of over a thousand photographs given to The Ringling by Stanton and Nancy Kaplan in 2019. Other gifts by the Kaplans in the exhibition include works by Ruth Bernhard (American, born Germany, 1905-2006) and Lotte Jacobi (American, born Prussia, 1896-1990). All three of these twentieth-century artists included in the exhibition were able to carve out noted careers, despite facing limited opportunities due to their gender. Women have actively participated in photography since its inception, yet when the history of photography was first written it was primarily male artists who filled the pages. Like in so much of Western society, women have had to steadily chip away at these constructs, often having to make their own opportunities. The bold images here testify to these artists’ skills. Bernhard, specifically, presents the female body in her own distinctive style, and Jones has selected some lesser-known, while still visually compelling, images. 

Endia Beal, Martinique, 2015, Pigment inkjet print, Museum purchase. © Endia Beal
Endia Beal, Sabrina and Katrina, 2015, Pigment inkjet print, Museum purchase. © Endia Beal

The exhibition also offers some fascinating portraiture, which the Museum has purchased in the last couple of years, having made an effort to acquire photography by a variety of contemporary women artists. In her series Am I What You’re Looking For? Endia Beal (American, born 1985) takes young black women who are transitioning from college to the workplace and poses them in their own home, but in front of a generic workplace backdrop. These young women stand dressed in their workplace finest, staring into the camera with aplomb. The very act of presenting young black women within the construct of a traditionally male-dominated workplace environment heightens the understanding of how the societal norms we take for granted can be culturally biased. Likewise, Deanna Lawson (American, born 1979) carefully poses a tableau of young lovers fully clothed and embracing within a bedroom. This representation particularly elicits comparisons to the “male gaze,” as Lawson empowers the young black woman to control her own sexuality. You would think that the photograph is a spontaneous snapshot, but Lawson carefully constructs her images to intensify the overall effect. Knowing this invites the viewer to look at every detail for clues to the visual story. 

Three photographs are presented from Rania Matar’s (Lebanese, born 1964) series A Girl and Her Room.  Matar photographs young women in their bedrooms surrounded by the trappings of adolescence. The locations vary from Beirut, Lebanon to Winchester, Massachusetts. Seeing how each girl has dressed and decorated her room gives an almost voyeuristic glimpse into how she is materially shaping her identity. It brings to mind Sally Mann’s series At Twelve, Portraits of Young Women, not because of any visual similarity (Matar’s pictures are color and large scale), but because they also illuminate the awkward transition from child to adult, teetering on the edge of full womanhood. Matar captures the importance of the outer world to inform the inner. 

Selina Román, Solar Flare II, 2016, Archival inkjet print on Museo Silver Rag Paper. © Selina Román

Selina Román (American, b. 1978) is a Florida artist. In her series Please Disturb, she invites friends and colleagues to visit her in traditional roadside motels and participate in the creative process through the use of props and costume. In the photograph chosen for this exhibition, Solar Flare II, the glare of sunlight obscures the face of the subject. Román uses this anonymity as a force of power. “I can see you, but you can’t see me–so you don’t know what I am thinking or feeling,” she is quoted as saying in the label. As a faceless woman, you are no longer being judged by traditional standards of beauty. That, alone, is empowering.

A trip to The Ringling Museum is always a delight. And where else in the Tampa Bay area are you going to see wall-sized sensual Baroque paintings by Peter Paul Rubens (Dutch 1577-1640) in one gallery and then experience the penetrating stare of Zanele Muholi in another? And if you have enjoyed looking at women claiming their power, the exhibition Circus and Suffragists is also currently showing at The Ringling Circus Museum through February 14, 2021, and Reframed is currently on view at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts through the end of the year. 

Being Seen: Recent Acquisitions from The Ringling Photography Collection is on view at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art through January 3, 2021.

LEAD PHOTO IMAGE: Rania Matar, Anna F., Winchester, Massachusetts, from the series A Girl in Her Room, 2010, printed 2018, Archival digital chromogenic print. © Rania Matar
Courtesy of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

Robin O’Dell is the former Curator of Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg and is currently the Curator of Collections at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa. In addition to curating dozens of photography exhibitions, she has written for Image Magazine, George Eastman Museum, and the Arts Coast Journal for Creative Pinellas. 

Setting the Table with Separate Checks

by James Cartwright 

“The main appeal of the name is that it speaks to how an artist collective functions on exhibition night: one shared space with many distinct voices.” – Katelyn Montagna and Adam Mathieu

Separate Checks is an artist collective founded in the summer of 2018 by Katelyn Montagna and Adam Mathieu, who created the group to reconnect with friends and encourage each other to produce new work.  Additional members include McKinna Anderson, Aaron Castillo, Krista Darling, Jonathon Dorofy, Anna Dunwody, Nabil Harb, Andres Ramirez, Erika Schnur, Kristy Summerson, and Jessica Thornton. Many members are University of South Florida alumni who came through the School of Art and Art History’s photography program or the School of Advertising and Mass Communications. It is easy to imagine that assembling the group’s roster had a definite “getting the band back together” feeling.

While the USF connection forms the backbone of Separate Checks, other artists have joined by contacting Adam and Katelyn on social media. Adam amusingly recalls how member Aaron Castillo slid into his DMs on Instagram before meeting with him and Katelyn in person. They describe the encounter as feeling like they were on a blind date with a photographer, but thankfully everyone clicked and the date did not end in awkwardness and disappointment. 

Installation view of Narrative Nowhere exhibition at Gallery221.
Photography credit: Emiliano Settecasi.

The many distinct voices of Separate Checks will be in conversation with each other in Narrative Nowhere, showing at Hillsborough Community College’s Gallery221@HCC Dale Mabry from November 2 – December 10.  Visitors are encouraged to view the show in person, by making an appointment on the Gallery221 website and following guidelines on social distancing.  Originally slated to debut this spring, it is yet another exhibition that was postponed because of the coronavirus. The show’s change in schedule also led to a change in content, as the extended timing allowed artists to respond to their experiences over the past eight months of this turbulent year. 

The initial concept of Narrative Nowhere was to invite other artists to collaborate and reflect on personal histories and the geographic spread of the group, but some members have refocused on addressing Covid-19, racial tension in the United States, and the U.S. Presidential Election. The collective has worked in concert with Gallery221 director Amanda Poss to adjust to these atypical conditions and deliver a show well-suited for this cultural moment.

Andres Ramirez, Muro Falso 1, 2020, panoramic decal.
Photography credit: Emiliano Settecasi.

Andres Ramirez is one member whose work confronts the political, with the artist reacting to the Trump administration’s brutal border policies. His images in Narrative Nowhere are “about facades and what hides behind them; whether they’re digitally invented or not, these images are constructions much like the norms of our society.” This year he has been grappling with the concept of borders and their violently divisive nature, as he questions whether they should even exist. 

Anna Dunwody, Sempiternity I and Dioscorea bulbifera 1-5, 2020, cyanotypes.
Photography credit: Emiliano Settecasi.

Anna Dunwody’s recent works tangle with themes of loss, discovery, and regrowth. Here she displays a series of cyanotypes that she created while in quarantine. She draws connections between the unpredictability of this year and her chosen media, musing that with cyanotypes “you can do everything with such care and intention and each one always comes out a little different and maybe not how you wanted or expected, much like life.” She says that in her work she seeks to find the constantly surprising and occasionally beautiful.

Installation view of Narrative Nowhere exhibition at Gallery221.
Photography credit: Emiliano Settecasi. 

The current exhibition at HCC represents a major sign of growth for the young collective, who previously held one-night-only showings in venues like the Creative Loafing Space and Dojo Sounds recording studio in Ybor. Those events emitted a special “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” energy, where it was exciting to see a show in an unfamiliar space and not already know everyone there. However, Adam is thankful for the opportunity to display work in a fixed space like Gallery221, where the group can reach a wider audience and their works are given ample time and room to breathe. 

  • The Main Course one-night-only show held at the Creative Loafing Space in 2018. Image taken by Anna Dunwody.
  • The members of Separate Checks meeting during simpler times. Image taken by an unnamed family member of the group. Sorry, fam!

Why join an artist collective in the first place? For McKinna Anderson, the group offers her friendship and a sense of accountability, without being restrictive or stifling her voice. Living in Nashville in 2018, she knew Adam and Katelyn from her time as an undergrad at USF and she found herself wandering through a similar post-graduate fog until she joined Separate Checks. She explains that the group has a tethering effect, acting as a lighthouse that always leads her back to the art community. 

Separate Checks logo designed by Jonathon Dorofy

The group’s identity is still in flux, but it adopts several traits from its founders. Adam’s Fine Art background blends with Katelyn’s graphic and advertising skillset to produce something with an art school sensibility and savvy self-promotion. The mixing of elements is persistent among the membership, with both Aaron Castillo and Kristy Summerson moving between the Fine Art and advertising worlds. Member Jonathon Dorofy is also heavily involved with the group’s branding, where he imbues quintessential Florida motifs with a sleek veneer and graceful simplicity. 

In a subtle way, the collective also has a quiet confidence that reflects Adam’s and Katelyn’s personalities, wherein his calm demeanor and her animated enthusiasm form a perfect partnership.  

Separate Checks is currently finding its place in the Tampa Bay art community alongside established collectives like QUAID and the photography-centered Fountain of Pythons. USF photography professor Wendy Babcox is a member of FOP, and Katelyn remembers being intrigued by the group when Babcox mentioned it in class. Babcox’s guidance has had a lasting impact on Adam and Katelyn, and they single her out as an important mentor from their undergraduate days. Additionally, FOP member Selina Roman also serves as a member of Gallery221’s Advisory Council, and she proposed the Narrative Nowhere show to HCC. She was one of the earliest and most ardent supporters of Separate Checks, and she continues to offer her encouragement on its ventures.

What is next on the menu for the young collective? The group plans to eventually host a juried show, and they have kicked around the idea of having their own permanent exhibition space. They are becoming friendly with other artists collectives such as Portland’s Small Talk Collective and are discussing a show exchange and curating each other’s work. For now, they seem content with taking things as they come and not looking too far ahead. 

When it comes to Separate Checks, part of the excitement is in not knowing what comes next. For many viewers, the Narrative Nowhere exhibition is likely their first exposure to the group. This show provides a rare chance to see numerous artists creating work together in the early stages of their careers. These separate voices are coalescing into something new right before our eyes. Don’t blink and miss the moment.   

Narrative Nowhere runs from November 2 to December 10 at Gallery221@HCC Dale Mabry campus. To learn more about the gallery and make an appointment to view the exhibition, follow these links:

https://www.hccfl.edu/campus-life/arts/galleries-hcc/gallery221

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/Gallery221HCC@hccfl.onmicrosoft.com/bookings/

To learn more about Separate Checks, visit their official website:

https://www.sepchecks.com/

James Cartwright earned his M.A. in Art History from USF in 2017. He focuses on cross-cultural exchanges in art production, while occasionally wandering into the realm of contemporary art criticism. He is an adjunct Art History instructor at USF and the University of Tampa, where he uses his liberal arts background to joyfully corrupt the impressionable youth of America. 

Radical Pleasures

by Sabrina Hughes

“I didn’t know that that work was even radical in the way that I see it as being radical now until I started to have a conversation with people—even black people—who thought that my work was “positive.”
Derrick Adams, Artnet News, February 5, 2020.

Derrick Adams: Buoyant is on its last tour stop at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg through November 29, 2020. The exhibition was initially conceived by the Hudson Valley Museum and curated by James E. Bartlett, founder of Open Art and former Executive Director of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, in Brooklyn, and Laura Vookles, Chair of the Hudson River Museum’s Curatorial Department. 

Installation view of Derick Adams: Buoyant.
Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

On entering, the exhibition may strike a viewer as many things: joyful, fun, playful, enticing, or whimsical. The twelve large-scale paintings in the exhibition are an explosion of neon and novelty. Radical may not be the first word that comes to mind upon visiting the exhibition when the subject matter, groups of people and individuals relaxing on novelty pool floats, is so patently ordinary. 

The Floaters series was created over a span of three years (2016-2019). This is a rare opportunity to see works on loan from private collections, and to see some of the Floaters together as a group, which creates a much different feeling than would seeing any one on its own. Walking into the gallery is walking into a space occupied by paintings of African Americans. Part of the impact of the exhibition is that it highlights how rarely we see representations—in art or popular media—of Black people simply existing. This everyday reality of Black life in America suffers from erasure by omission.  

Floater 66, 2018, Acrylic paint and collage on paper, Collection of D. Rebecca Davies and Jeremy Kramer. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

In relation to the picture planes of all of the Floaters, the viewer is left rather floating themselves. With the exception of one, the backgrounds of the paintings are one solid shade of blue (one painting has a darker blue at the top that seems to denote the difference between sky and water, the only horizon line in the gallery). The paintings are acrylic on paper, so there are ripples in the paper most noticeable in the blue background as the paper absorbed the paint and dried. The ripples and the occasional variations in the blue field—not a different color, but from more or less paint on the brush—enhance the suggestion of water and gentle motion. 

Figures are anchored to their novelty pool floats, but beyond that there are no clues to what kind of space they occupy, other than that it’s water. Without a horizon line, the viewer is left in an uncertain space. Some of the figures are looking out of their space, making eye contact with viewers while many others are engaged with other figures or are simply looking elsewhere. 

Installation view of Derick Adams: Buoyant.
Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

The swimsuits of each figure are collage elements of different fabric, adding another visual flourish to the already dazzling paintings.

In an interview with Charles Moore for artnet news that I’ll refer to several times, Derrick Adams uses the phrase “Black radical imagination” which, as he sees it, can be a tool to create the future. It is worth exploring this idea so we can fully appreciate how radical these day-glo spaces inhabited by patchwork figures are. 

Representation reflects and creates reality. We have seen this thought repeated a lot over the last decade or so—representation matters. Everyone wants to be able to see themselves and their possibilities reflected in the popular media they consume. When Adams conceived the Floaters series in 2015, he searched Instagram for #floaties and the algorithm returned only pictures of white people. In this instance, the representation failed to align with the reality that he had experienced.  

Digital Reproduction from Ebony, June 1967. Installation view of Derick Adams: Buoyant. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

In further research, Adams found inspiration in an Ebony feature from June 1967 of Coretta and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on a tropical escape to Ocho Rios, Jamaica (also included in the exhibition). While the article makes clear that this is not a vacation (King wanted a month in a place without a phone to write his book Where Do We Go from Here?), the photo essay is almost exclusively comprised of images showing Dr. King at rest: walking on the beach, relaxing in the pool, having breakfast on the balcony in his robe and slippers, reading the newspaper in bed. This fascinating editorial shows a seldom-seen side of Dr. King, but also shows what is necessary to fuel his public acts in the struggle for equal civil rights: rest, quiet, isolation, time to think and to put thoughts in order. Time and space to just exist. 

It’s worth quoting Adams at length because his intent with the Floaters series was to depict Black people at rest, similar to how Dr. King had been photographed for Ebony. 

Floater 74. Installation view of Derick Adams: Buoyant.
Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

“What I love the most is when I’m at an event or a party at someone’s house and I look around and everyone in the room is doing something. It’s all Black people doing all these amazing things and I’m like, wow, this is great. And I say to myself, this is what we should be making work about, this type of atmosphere. Young Black people should see that there are very normal, very consistent spaces like these—regardless of what’s happening in the news, regardless of what’s happening on social media. With all the conflicts that we’re having, we’re still finding the time. And not everyone in this room has money! These aren’t people who are all well off!

That’s what I’m thinking about in my studio: What can I reveal that has not been shown? And it always goes back to the simplest of things, like normalcy. Black people—not entertaining, just being, living. Letting people deal with that as reality. We’re sitting on this pool float. We’re thinking about life. We’re thinking about nothing. We don’t have to think about something every day. It’s a real human experience not to ponder on things constantly.”

The paintings that resonated most with me were both paintings of women. I’ll describe them but they’re not reproduced here, so you’ll have to go to the exhibition to see them for yourself. 

Floater #28 depicts a woman on a white unicorn float. Her bathing suit is neon animal print with hearts and stars, like a Lisa Frank notebook. She looks out of her space and is smiling. Though the blue fields that the figures float on often have the effect of suggesting water through the variations in paint application, most of the geometric planes that comprise the figures are more even in tone—less painterly, more hard-edge. This figure is different. The paint application on her legs and abdomen create a variation in tone within the planes that most of the other figures don’t exhibit. It’s like seeing the natural variation in skin tone across different parts of someone’s body. Adams has also employed the grey-tone paint—usually reserved for the parts of the figures bodies that are underwater—on the figure’s arm and face that couldn’t be the only part under the water if the rest of her is not. It’s the kind of variation that feels like improvisation on the theme. It’s just different enough to have made me stop and look a lot more closely.

Representations like Floaters reflect one reality experienced by Black folks in America, one that aligns with the experience of love, community, family, and just living life. It hints at another reality from the not-so-distant past—the reality that all-Black spaces were backed by apartheid laws and violently enforced by police and mercenary groups. Pools and beaches were sites of contestation. Here in St. Petersburg, the beaches downtown were segregated. From Spa Beach north was designated whites only. The beaches for African Americans were South Mole at what is now Demen’s Landing and Lassing Park. 

The subject matter of the paintings contain the tension of present and past, even while Adams is trying to create a future where celebrations of everyday Black life are more commonplace.  

We see Black lives snuffed out on live Facebook broadcasts. We see representations of Black Americans working, struggling, mourning. We see them relative to the white supremacist political and economic system that their kidnapped ancestors were forced to build, and that largely controls what type of images are disseminated in the public sphere. It is rare to see representations of Black people resting. Images of Black bodies at rest are radical. 

Installation view of Derick Adams: Buoyant.
Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

Floater #17 portrays a pregnant woman lounging on a hot pink float. I imagine the buoyancy of her body, with or without the float, is a welcome relief from gravity’s pull on the extra bulk of her body carrying a baby. Black women experience overlapping oppression of misogyny and racism, represented by the term misogynoir. As a class, they have always been expected to work (when white women may have been homemakers, Black women may have been their maids or nannies) and have had the highest labor force participation among all women for years. The United States has a dark history of sterilizing Black women without their consent throughout the 20th century. Yet look back earlier, when African Americans were enslaved and performing forced labor, and Black women’s bodies were commodities that grew the labor force. 

Artists are worldbuilders. By making these paintings, Adams populates our world with many more images of Black leisure. Adams realizes the power of the artist to create reality—to create the world in images so that later people can create it through action. If you want an action to succeed, you have to be able to imagine it has happened, and then imagine what happens next. Adams invites viewers to co-create a future where images like this aren’t “positive” in comparison to other pictures, where all aspects of Black life aren’t adjunct to their white counterparts, presented as the default.

The term radical seems to be used with such frequency that the impact of the word has faded. From radical feminism to radical self-care, radical honesty to the radical left, radical is just as often used by Instagram influencers to sell protein powder as in any political reformist sense. We live in a radical-saturated world. Invoking Black radical imagination asks for a rethinking of all assumptions about Black life in America, from the roots up. Ask why things are the way they are and why they seem unchangeable. And then imagine what systems need to be torn down to their foundations and rebuilt differently. In 2020 conversations about prison abolition have entered mainstream political discourse. This is radical imagination at work. 

As I’m writing this review, the verdict in Louisville has just come in. Nobody is going to be criminally charged for Breonna Taylor’s murder, though one officer is being charged for endangering the lives of her white neighbors. I’m thinking about Breonna who was not only at home, but was sleeping, literally at rest, when she was killed. Imagine if this had had a different outcome. Imagine what needs to be torn down and rebuilt to ensure future Black lives are valued and protected. I’m also thinking how even though Adams’ intent was to show Black joy and play and people just existing, it seems that there is no neutral in the representation of African Americans. It becomes political as soon as it enters the public because Black people just existing is a radical and revolutionary act. Unless we are part of the communities that Adams is talking about, we may not see the experience that he’s talking about. Black people just living, just being. Black figures at rest. Black people not othered by the implicit or explicit comparison to whiteness. Being in the gallery with so many Floaters makes me wonder if it’s a pool, how enormous the pool must be to hold the figures, the floats, and to still not see the horizon. Are we floating with them? Part of the party? Or interlopers?

Related Exhibition Programming

PANEL DISCUSSION: AFRICAN AMERICAN LEISURE IN THE SUNSHINE STATE & BEYOND WITH DERRICK ADAMS
October 15, 2020, 6:30-8 pm
Free for members, and $10 for not-yet-members.
An online conversation featuring Derrick Adams, Dr. Gretchen Sorin, author of Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights, and Cynthia Wilson-Graham, co-author of Remembering Paradise Park: Tourism and Segregation in Silver Springs. The discussion will be moderated by MFA Curator of Contemporary Art Katherine Pill.

BLACK FANTASTIC, BUOYANT AND BOLD: ART’S WAYS OF LEVITATING OVER THE WEIGHT OF THE WORLD WITH AUTHOR TENEA D. JOHNSON
October 22, 2020, 6-7 pm
Free for members, and $10 for not-yet-members
Author Tenea D. Johnson will read joy-centered selections from her latest book, Blueprints for Better Worlds (May 2020)as well as the forthcoming collection, Broken Fevers. 

POETRY AND SPOKEN WORD WITH DENZEL JOHNSON-GREEN
October 25, 2020, 3-4 pm
Free for members, and $20 for not-yet-members.
Join poet and author Denzel Johnson-Green in the time-honored tradition of utilizing spoken word and poetry to both raise awareness of, and develop mechanisms for addressing, the world around us. 

About the author:
Bay Art Files contributor Sabrina Hughes holds an M.A. in Art History from the University of South Florida with a focus on the History of Photography. Hughes has worked at the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg and is an adjunct instructor at USF and is the founder and principal of photoxo, a personal archiving service specializing in helping people preserve their family photos. She has an ongoing curatorial project, Picurious, which invests abandoned slides with new life. Follow her on Instagram @sabrinahughes for selfies, hiking, and dogs, and @thepicurious for vintage photos.

Revisiting DFAC

FALL 2020 AT THE DUNEDIN FINE ART CENTER

R. Lynn Whitelaw

Over the past 15 years Catherine Bergmann has served as the Curatorial Director at the Dunedin Fine Art Center where she has organized over 300 thoughtful and thematic exhibitions for the Center’s seven galleries.  Last year she was recognized by Creative Loafing magazine as “Best of the Bay” Visual Art Curator.  Her innovative and engaging exhibitions have drawn on connections with artists from Florida, the southeastern United States, and invitational exhibitions open to artists from around the country and internationally.  In 2017 Nathan Beard joined the curatorial team and became the Assistant Curator in 2019.  Together the critical eye of Bergmann and Beard, both also well-established visual artists, have put together some of the most creative and original contemporary art exhibitions being presented in the Tampa Bay area.  

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Spring exhibitions had to be altered and experienced virtually as the Center was forced to close for three months.  Summer exhibitions opened to the public under the banner of the “Art of Social Distancing” with limited access to the galleries. Re-envisioned shows used the mantra, “The Distance Brings Us Closer,” and included the engaging show, I’ve Come to Look for America, with thirteen diverse artists “representing the complex cultural fabric of our county, and beyond that – our humanity.”  

Catherine Bergmann and Nathan Beard in front of paintings by Carol Dameron and Herb Snitzer included in the exhibition Between | Us which is on view through October 18, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Dunedin Fine Art Center.

The Fall 2020 DFAC exhibitions have opened despite the logistics of organizing shows during a pandemic. Three new exhibitions expand our appreciation of the creative talents in our community while challenging us to open our minds to new artistic expression.  Between | Us, co-curated by Bergmann and Beard, is on view through Oct. 18 and documents six “It” art couples working in the Tampa Bay area.  The show provides a unique opportunity to compare and contrast the work of these highly regarded artists.  The well-written wall text and artist statements afford a personal look into the media, processes, and “creative partnering” of these couples, and the mutual respect, collaborative support, and years of encouragement for aesthetic, community, and even social issues as hallmarks of their artistic successes.  

Between | Us: A collaborative print by artists Mickett and Robert Stackhouse. Photo courtesy of the Dunedin Fine Art Center.
Between | Us: Carrie Jadus, Walking with Scissors I + II, 2020, oil on panel and Mark Aeling, Lip Series 2 of 10: A Cutting Remark, 2017, stainless steel scissors. Photo courtesy of the artists.

The artists include painters and retired art educators, Dolores Coe and Bruce Marsh; painter Carol Dameron and photographer Herb Snitzer (Herb even includes an endearing painting of his wife); painter Carrie Jadus and sculptor Mark Aeling; painter/emeritus art educator Mernet Larsen and multi-media artist Roger Palmer; joint collaborators and multi-media artists Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse; and, photographer Janelle Young and multi-media artist /art educator Ryan McCullough.  This is a celebratory exhibition and gallery viewers will greatly appreciate and learn from its engaging theme.

The exhibition Heroes + Sheroes is an intriguing look at “shining a light on those who’ve shown us the light” was co-curated by Bergmann and Beard.  Each curator selected a “Hero” and a “Shero,” including musician (Ronny Elliott), artist (Joan Duff-Bohrer); humanitarian/entrepreneur (Andre Heller), and poet (Hilary DePolo), respectively.   The “four celebrants” were then asked to invite their Heroes or Sheroes to participate in the exhibition, thus making for a highly original and insightful exhibition to inspire “the many faces and forms greatness takes in our midst.”   

Heroes + Sheroes: Gallery installation. On view through December 24, 2020. Photo courtesy of the Dunedin Fine Art Center.

Vespertine is an impressively poetic and cerebral multi-media exhibition curated by Nathan Beard.  The word “vespertine” is defined as “of, relating to, or flourishing in the evening.”  The reference, as defined by Beard is “the daylit logic of scientific and technological concepts or processes, … while probing the shadowed and paradoxical possibilities of the unknown …”.    In organizing the show, Beard thoughtfully examined the work of artists who represent a scientific or technological searching for a liminal space of becoming.  The nine invited artists include three from the Tampa Bay area: Elizabeth A. Baker, McArthur Freeman, II, and Luke Myers.  Myers, an MFA student at USF, is fascinated with bugs, specifically the Florida Deep-digger scarab beetle (Peltotrupes profundus).  Through video he documents the transformative “poetry” of the inch-long scarab moving “more than a pound of sand, one mouthful at a time” up from depths of as much as ten feet below. Massachusetts artist Lisa Nilsson, with a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, explores the topography of human anatomy through scientific reproduction of lateral cross-sections intricately created through the collage of Japanese mulberry paper and the gilt edges of old books.  She represents one of the six artists Beard selected from around the country, including Julia Buntaine Hoel, Kysa Johnson, Anne Mondro, Elsa Muñoz, and Michael Reedy.  Each of the artists in Verspertine incorporates fascinating approaches, utilizing either traditional media to explore macro- or micro-cosmic worlds or newer media, like video, transposed scientific data, and 3-D printing, to convey their artistic and scientific discoveries.  If you spend time studying the bios and statements of these artists, you may realize we are on the cusp of artistic evolution.

Vespertine: Gallery installation.
Photo courtesy of the Dunedin Fine Art Center.
Vespertine: Lisa Nilsson, Male Pelvis, 2012, Mulberry paper collage. 
Courtesy of the artist and Pavel Zoubok Fine Art, NY.

Additional exhibitions on view through the end of the year are Hold Me, an invitational exhibit by contemporary ceramic artists from around the nation and PHANTOMS and Bandits, a tribute to the Center’s past Wearable Art Runway events.   Lastly, if the above exhibitions have not convinced you to visit to the Dunedin Fine Art Center soon, the show lining one of the hallway galleries is Velvet Elvis.  Artists were invited to create their own kitschy versions of the nostalgic art form on supplied velvet canvases.  Velvet Elvis is a fundraiser, so purchase tickets before October 18th for a chance to win your favorite piece – and as Elvis would say, “Thank you, thank you very-much!” 

For more information about these exhibitions and related programming,
visit the Dunedin Fine Art Center website.

R. Lynn Whitelaw was the founding director and chief curator of the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, located on the Tarpon Springs Campus of St. Petersburg College. In 2015, Mr. Whitelaw was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Association of Museums. An active independent curator and writer, he has served on numerous statewide and local boards and art committees and has been a judge for over 18 outdoor art shows and juried exhibitions throughout the state of Florida.

A Conversation about Public Art

Interview held August 13, 2020

In the fall of 2019, Grounds4Art@HCC commissioned artist Cecilia Lueza to complete a mural on the Hillsborough Community Collge Dale Mabry Campus focusing on the theme of health and wellness. Community partners, such as the City of Tampa’s Arts & Cultural Affairs division, worked alongside a committee of HCC students, faculty, and staff to create a mural that would reflect upon the theme, taking into account feedback from the community, and to raise awareness of social issues such as food insecurity and mental and emotional health. The project resulted in a mural titled Exuberance that was completed in April 2020 on the exterior of the Social Sciences building. The artistic component was funded by a Community Arts Impact Grant through the Arts Council of Hillsborough County.

Amanda Poss is the Gallery Director of Gallery221@HCC Dale Mabry Campus and the Committee Chair for Grounds4Art@HCC. 

Amanda Poss: I wanted to start this conversation with the opportunity for each of you to introduce yourself to our readers.

Cecilia Lueza: I’m a public artist with a focus on sculpture, mural art, and mixed media installations.

Melissa Davies: I work for the City of Tampa in the division of Arts & Cultural Affairs. I’m now in my 16th year there, believe it or not, working solely on public art projects. I’m a Tampa native… and I’m also a board member of the Florida Association of Public Art Professionals.

AP: Thank you both for introducing yourselves! Cecilia, let’s start with you and talk about your work, which can be found all over the Tampa Bay region. You have developed this very cohesive, very recognizable style: bright, colorful, and bold—often full of geometric patterns and shapes found in nature. This is something that you also brought to the mural you completed earlier this year at Hillsborough Community College (HCC), which you titled Exuberance. Could you describe what led you to this particular approach to art making?

CL: Well, it’s interesting because before moving to the United States, I was a very monochromatic type of painter. But I have always had a love of lines and curves and geometric elements. Then I moved to the US and things started changing—gradually I started incorporating more color, experimenting more, and trying to find a balance between geometric elements and color. I think that Florida, with its natural beauty, the light and the vibrancy really influenced my style. As an artist, especially as an art student, I was always looking for inspiration somewhere… and then I finally realized that nature has the answers.

AP: You can definitely feel that reaction to the Floridian landscape in your work. I’m a transplant from the Midwest, and color is something I always very strongly identify with Florida, living down here next to the water, surrounded by the pastels of beach houses, vibrant tropical plants, and the wildlife… So I love that you went from monochrome to this explosion of color in your work.

CL: Yes, because before Tampa Bay I was living in Buenos Aires, and in big cities, like New York, almost everything is monochromatic, buildings are gray, people wear neutral colors—wherever you live, as an artist, that influences you, and can really alter your work.

Lueza’s mural titled Exuberance that was completed in April 2020 and is located on the exterior of the centrally located Social Sciences building on the HCC Dale Mabry campus in Tampa, FL. The project was partially funded by a Community Arts Impact Grant through the Arts Council of Hillsborough County.

AP: So, what specifically inspired your design for Exuberance at HCC?

CL: First of all, it was the meeting we had with the community and the students. In this meeting, they learned about my work and we showed them [my] other projects, and they expressed that the colors made them feel amazing, and it was an expression of feeling good in every sense of the word—physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally. So that was the starting point for me, this concert of colors as a symbol of complete wellness.

In early 2020, Lueza participated in a comprehensive and interactive Community Dialogue discussion about health and wellness with HCC Dale Mabry Campus students, faculty, staff, the campus Public Arts Committee, and members of the Tampa Bay community. Photo: Courtesy of Gallery221@HCC.
 

AP: Yeah, that was the Community Dialogue event that we hosted back in January, which seems so long ago now… You’ve mentioned in other interviews that you really thrive on meeting people and working with people in different locations, hearing their thoughts and impressions. Was there anything that some of the students or the participants of that event said that led you to this idea of a holistic sense of wellness, a well-being of the spirit?

CL: At one point I was at a table with two or three girls and they were telling me about their expectations for this mural. They wanted to see something that made them happy, something to uplift their spirits, to inspire them and make them feel proud.

AP: I remember you sitting with those girls. During the event I was so impressed by the way you connected with the participants. For instance, you spoke Spanish with them and I think that allowed them to feel comfortable and build a rapport with you—they were in conversation with you for a long time.

CL: Yeah, they were funny and sweet, and many of the students spoke Spanish… so it was easy for me to really connect and understand what they were trying to tell me.

AP: I think they felt like you could really listen to them.

CL: Yes, I love to listen to other people’s stories… I usually prefer to listen to other people.

MD: I think those conversations are really important for a successful end product and installation [of art], because not only does the artist listen and convey that into some level into the design, but also, on the flip side, the people that are involved really take ownership of it, and take pride in the fact that they were part of the process. The cool thing about public art is that every single space is different, every single community is different, and every team is different.

AP: Absolutely. For us, working with community partners and listening to community feedback was especially significant given our project’s focus on health and wellness. I also think, broadly speaking, we’re seeing this intersection of public art and social issues more and more in recent years.

CL: People want to see something that’s not just beautiful, but also meaningful and conveys a message that speaks to them and expresses what they feel… they want to see that they are represented. I think it doesn’t have to be a very complex type of art for people to really connect with it and to find something that’s not only about beauty but also meaning.

Tes One, I AM PRICELESS, 2017. Initiated and funded by the Junior League of Tampa in collaboration with the City of Tampa’s Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs. Photo: Courtesy of Tes One.
 

MD: There’s so much going on right now, for instance… on the front page [of the news] with Black Lives Matter murals throughout the country. Artists leading social justice projects can be really impactful. For instance, the City of Tampa was approached by the Junior League of Tampa, who wanted to do a mural highlighting the issue of human trafficking, which is a huge problem in Hillsborough County… So we brought in a local artist named Tes One [for the project]… and he met with former victims, organizations that help the victims, the Tampa Police Department and then with the Junior League of Tampa. The end result was a very powerful mural featuring the words “I am not for sale, I am priceless.” Additionally, in the upper corner, the artist added the human trafficking hotline. The location of the mural was situated in an area that is right by the bus station… and between the location and raising awareness… if we just reached one person, you know? A spin-off of that project is that Tes One brought in another local artist, Jay Giroux, who took the theme “I am priceless” and installed posters at a lot of the bus stops throughout the city of Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa.

AP: So, Melissa, in your view, how have public art projects have grown, developed, or changed in our area from where they started to now?

MD: The City of Tampa’s public art program started in 1985. Back then, there were trends in public art like ‘plop art,’ purchasing or commissioning sculptures [for buildings]. In the 90’s there were more traditional public art installations at community centers. Over the last 20 years, under Robin Nigh’s direction, the program has grown through innovative programming that has been recognized by the Americans for the Arts public art network. We had a photographer laureate program, which really grew the public portable works collection, that also documented Tampa throughout a 10 year period, and we also saw technology change within those 10 years pretty rapidly. Lights on Tampa has been running since 2006 and is still going strong. Since Mayor Castor has been in office, we have a new program called Art on the Block, which seeks to get art and artists into neighborhoods. We have a wordsmith that is under contract—which is sort of like a poet laureate. We also have artists Sheila Cowley and Matt Cowley who are husband and wife team. They’re writers based in St. Pete—Cecilia, you may know them…

For the inaugural 2006 Lights on Tampa Paris-based artist and architect Jorge Orta created a projection on the University of Tampa’s Plant Hall, which transformed the iconic 1891 landmark and its surrounding environment for one night. Photo: Courtesy of the City of Tampa’s Art Programs Division.

CL: Yeah, I know them.

MD: He’s a Foley artist and sound engineer and she’s a writer… they’re working with Paul Wilborn and bringing in a team of actors, lyric authors, and literary artists to compile a sensory experience at Centennial Park… Public art can just come in different types of forms: it can be sculpture, sound, all sorts of different elements. Of course, we are still doing many traditional public art installations, but our primary goal is that it makes sense to the community and has context to the site. 

AP: Cecilia, how about you? As someone who’s completed numerous artworks in the public realm for many years, what changes have you observed in the attitudes and culture surrounding public art?

CL: What I’m noticing is that people have more knowledge about public art now, I’m seeing public art agencies and committees doing a lot of research, talking with different artists, connecting with their communities and looking at collections in other cities, incorporating more community-based projects to their collections. So, I’m seeing a great, very positive, change.

AP: This is a conversation that parallels public art on a national scale with community-driven projects and programming. The idea of awareness is particularly important and transformative to how we approach public art, creating not just something that’s done to a community, but by, for, and with a community…  So related to that point, I wanted to ask: what motivates and inspires both of you to continue working in the realm of public art?

Lueza participated in the City of Tampa’s 2020 Art on the Block Mural Day. Located in West Tampa at the intersection of Habana Avenue & West Tampa Bay Boulevard, volunteers were provided by the Our Aim Foundation. Photo: Courtesy of the City of Tampa Art Programs Division.

 

CL: For me, public art is a way to communicate with others. I was very shy as a kid growing up, and I realized that art was both a way to express myself and to connect with others. What I love about art and public art in general is the connections you create with the viewer, with people from all walks of life, especially during the process of bringing the artwork to life. There’s also the challenge of transforming a public space and making the space better than it was… to see this radical transformation. That’s why I want to keep doing it.

MD: I feel the same way. I like the connection to people, not only the community, but also each team, like I mentioned before. Each team is different, each site is different… it’s constantly changing. My primary role is as Project Coordinator, so digging into the details of the logistics is my thing, it’s exciting and fun. Sometimes it can be stressful, but you problem-solve and work with the team… I’ve worked with artists on design teams that have worked through challenges and have just completely transformed the space. I just love seeing the projects come about—being able to work and get to know our artists both locally and from around the world.  

AP: I completely agree. For me, managing a public art program wasn’t originally part of my job description when I started working at HCC, but… between community involvement and that moment of radical transformation, as you said, Cecilia, there’s just something magical about it every time it happens. The last question I want to ask is: what have each of you been working on since we completed the mural Exuberance at HCC? Are there any recently completed projects or events on the horizon that we should know about?

CL: Well, I’m working on two sculpture projects: one is for Jacksonville, Florida, and the other one is going to be installed in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Right now, I’m on my way to Kentucky to complete a mural project that’s been in the works for months and months due to coronavirus. 

New Tampa Community Center’s new 2020 installation. Photo: Courtesy of Matt May Photography.

Lights on Tampa rendering courtesy of Erwin Redl.

MD: We actually just finished an installation a couple of weeks ago with a local sports photographer, Matt May. Matt worked with the kids (gymnasts) and took action shots and created a window installation. The kids were thrilled to be a part of this, to see their images in the windows, and to be photographed by someone who shoots professional athletes… We’re also about to do a community project with local artist Ya La’Ford… Then, of course, there are a couple of Lights on Tampa installations. One is Erwin Redl who’s based in Ohio and New York—we actually worked with him in 2006 for Lights on Tampa—and he is under contract to do an installation underneath the Channelside Drive tunnel. We’ve also commissioned artist Andrea Polli, who is based out of Santa Fe, to do a sort of canopy of LED lights to emulate bioluminescence that’s going to be programmed and triggered by sensors. This will be on the Riverwalk under the Harbour Island Bridge. I think it will shine a light, if you will, and bring some positive energy that we need these days.

To learn more about HCC’s public art program, visit: Grounds4Art@HCC.
To learn more about Cecilia Lueza, visit her website.
Learn all about the City of Tampa’s public art program on their website.

@tampabaebae art files

@tampabaebae art files

by James Cartwright

jenal, 2019. Acrylic, oil, coffee grounds, enamel, on board, foamular frame, 50 x 50 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

Jenal Dolson is a nervous flyer even under normal circumstances. Add scrambling to get out of the country during a global pandemic before international borders close and anyone’s stress levels will ascend to new heights. It is Tuesday, March 31st, and she is leaving the United States and returning home to Canada to shelter with her family as the severity of COVID-19 slowly dawns on U.S. citizens. She sits alone in Tampa International Airport, waiting to board a flight that she never expected to be on and saying goodbye to a place she is not ready to leave behind. 

To call the last few weeks of Dolson’s time in Tampa a whirlwind would be an understatement. At this point in March, she is a MFA candidate at the University of South Florida, in the thick of her final semester when the coronavirus hits America. Between transitioning her in-person classes to an online platform (no easy feat for studio art courses), finishing her thesis work, writing about said work, preparing for install, and making travel arrangements, change is the constant. Her graduating class’s MFA exhibition Battin’ A Hundred is canceled, their reception is canceled, their panel discussion moderated by artist Kalup Linzy is canceled. It feels like everything is canceled. However, the artists are undeterred, and they still exhibit their work in the USF Contemporary Art Museum. There is almost a defiant pride in displaying their art knowing that it will not be seen in person.

Dolson spends her precious final hours in Tampa packing for her flight and installing her work in the CAM, with the invaluable assistance of museum staff Vincent Kral, Eric Jonas, and Tony Wong Palms. She recalls visiting the museum for the first time on a 2014 trip to Tampa and sensing then that she would one day show work in this space, a premonition fulfilled these six years later.

Bump Dream, 2020. Acrylic, latex, oil on canvas, 72 x 72 inches.
From the MFA thesis exhibition. Image taken by Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez.
Soother, 2020. Acrylic, oil, fabric, foamular, on MDF, 50 x 50 inches.
From the MFA thesis exhibition. Image taken by Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez. 
Whale, 2020. Acrylic, oil, foamular, on panel, 50 x 50 inches.
From the MFA thesis exhibition. Image taken by Jezabeth Roca Gonzalez.

Her arrival in Toronto is not met with a warm embrace from Dolson’s parents, who are relieved to see their daughter home safe but still respecting the social distancing rules that now measure our lives. Everyone dons their face masks and Dolson sits in her parents’ backseat on the car ride from the Toronto airport to their family home outside of Cambridge, Ontario, taking these moments to let a wave of quiet calm wash over her and finally exhale. She is deeply grateful to her parents for hosting her, knowing that in doing so they have committed to the country’s mandatory 14 day returning traveler quarantine alongside her. 

Dolson uses the next few days to reacclimate to these surroundings, the familiarity of place comforting her during an unfamiliar time. She self-isolates in a section of her family’s basement, with her beloved chihuahua Bam Bam to keep her company and a mini-fridge stocked with snacks to keep her fed, courtesy of mom. That Friday she joins a Zoom reception hosted by CAM for the MFA exhibition, which has a great turnout as many people are eager to see the artists’ work and congratulate them. Dolson later passes the two-week quarantine mark on the same day that she passes her thesis defense, and her reward for this tremendous accomplishment is finally being able to hug her parents. 

Into the Belly, 2020. Coloured pencil, watercolour pencil, gesso, on board, 8.75 x 8.75 x 0.6 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

A welcome focus for Dolson’s energy comes in the form of creating a solo exhibition entitled Into the Belly for Tempus Projects, highlighted on the non-profit gallery’s Instagram account. The show, which ran from May 30th-June 12th, neatly aligns with the Tampa-based gallery’s approach to the pandemic’s unique challenges. Tempus is utilizing social media to showcase a series of mini-virtual exhibits that feature works on a small, intimate scale. As Tempus Founder and Programming Director Tracy Midulla explains, “We have taken the approach of offering small, short virtual exhibitions. This allows us to keep the quality of the work featured at a high standard, but the format and delivery of the works to a manageable level for everyone as we are distanced from one another.”

Installation view of Into the Belly in a section of Dolson’s converted basement space. Image courtesy of the artist.

Into the Belly consists of eight coloured pencil drawings on gessoed board, with each work’s dimensions around 5×6 or 7×8 inches. Dolson’s process is reliant on found materials, so she seamlessly adapts to her new circumstances by repurposing leftovers in her old studio in her parents’ house. Her use of coloured pencils on board allows for textures to come out of the surface itself, some areas pulling through the grain of the wood or underlaying brushwork; paired with a uniform attention to colour blocking and gradient fades. These underlaying patterns resemble countless tiny fissures, which further emphasize the material’s surface while adding layers of complexity to already rich compositions.

The Days Eye (Edelweiss), 2020. Coloured pencil, watercolour pencil, gesso, on board, 8.75 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

The small scale of each work is in keeping with the gallery’s current theme of miniature exhibitions. Dolson also expresses her interest in scaling down the works to a size that is accessible, where they can be held in your hand and you can take them with you very easily. Although these new images are much smaller than her thesis paintings, she draws several parallels between the two bodies of work. Dolson clarifies that the viewer is still looking at a series of shapes, forms, lines, directions, and pathways, which you can follow around the work finding little areas where something new can be seen.

Bathhouse, 2020. Coloured pencil, watercolour pencil, gesso, on board, 5.8 x 4.8 x 0.75 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

There is plenty to see in Dolson’s drawings, so much that you might get lost in looking. The artist presents the viewer with a plethora of shapes and motifs to latch onto and alluring pathways through each labyrinth. One might glance at a piece like Bathhouse and seize upon the chain in the lower right of the composition as a good entry point. If you follow this chain directly upwards, it becomes veiled by a light blue rectangular shape that hints of cloth or drapery. If you choose a different approach and start from top to bottom, does the chain then become unveiled? Other areas may suggest something recognizable while leaving you grasping to articulate this familiarity.

Into the Belly is an apt title, as Dolson equates our current COVID-19 reality with entering the belly of the whale or belly of the beast. As levels of infection fluctuate worldwide and we find ourselves months into isolation with no clear end in sight, she muses “it is hard to say if we are on the other side yet, are we still inside of it completely, or can we see the light? There is a lot of emotion in this time that is kind of unpredictable and everyone’s pace of life has changed dramatically. It is not only a metaphor, but it is allegorical of how everyone has been forced into this journey.”

The title also attaches us to the body, to be within a living thing, which she connects to the physical referents that a lot of the shapes and forms take on in her work. The tempest of emotions and anxieties we feel manifest physically in our bodies, and the pandemic makes us hypersensitive to these sensations. We continually self-monitor for the first signs of fever, the slightest cough, and to make sure we have not lost our sense of smell or taste. As Dolson succinctly puts it, “our emotions in our bodies are really in our guts.”

Insulation (viewfinder), 2020. Coloured pencil, watercolour pencil, gesso, on board, 5.8 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

Dolson is appreciative of Tempus for giving her a platform to explore new ideas post thesis, amidst the pandemic. She explains that the timing was especially beneficial, as it “really gave me a lot of purpose during the first month and a half that I was back. I was able to come home and put in work drawing 8-10 hours a day and that was absolutely amazing. I think Tempus has a strong sense of what it means to be an art space in that they truly value their artists and look to foster a sense of creativity and programming that makes sense for who they are affiliated with.” 

Proceeds from Dolson’s show will go towards helping Tempus fundraise for a paid full-time director position for the gallery. Dolson is also donating a portion of the proceeds from future sales to Black Lives Matter Tampa.

What is next for Jenal Dolson? “Making more work” is her immediate, unflinching answer. Dolson is making a new series of paintings on canvas and she looks forward to waking up each morning and having her studio time. She relishes the daily grind of making work, embodying that true artist-as-hustler mentality, where the balancing act of juggling multiple jobs and projects only energizes her to seek more.

In terms of future exhibitions, Dolson is thrilled to have a solo show this fall at an artist-run space in Benson, Nebraska called The Pet Shop, and she beams when discussing the opportunity. Her close friend Kim Darling, currently a MFA candidate at USF, ran a space at the gallery and helped Dolson make connections in Benson. Dolson also remains in good virtual company through regular studio visits with friends and a gallery in Chicago with which she is enamored. Finally, it has been only days since Dolson moved into an apartment in the port city of Hamilton, Ontario. The industrious city’s “steel town” identity matches her own tenacious work ethic. She is drawn to the city’s strong local arts scene, where she can make her marks on the community. There is also a lovely blend of nature and rich architectural history that she is wasting no time in exploring. Dolson is eager to create her place in this new environment, and everywhere she looks she absorbs new lines, new shapes, new textures, new patterns, and new objects, searching for another source of inspiration around every corner.

Dolson in her Tampa studio with Bam Bam. Image taken by Kim Darling.

Into the Belly ran from May 30-June 12 and it can still be viewed on the Tempus Projects Instagram account. For more information about Jenal Dolson, you can visit her website and Instagram account. You can also learn more about the 2020 MFA exhibition on the USF Contemporary Art Museum website. 

James Cartwright earned his M.A. in Art History from USF in 2017. He focuses on cross-cultural exchanges in art production, while occasionally wandering into the realm of contemporary art criticism. He is an adjunct Art History instructor at USF and the University of Tampa, where he uses his liberal arts background to corrupt the impressionable youth of America. 

A Mindful Mural

When this article was written, the Public Art Committee and I were full of enthusiasm and anticipation. Months of meetings, preparation, and planning were beginning to culminate in the realization of a new mural and in a series of community-driven programs that would accompany the mural’s unveiling. Students and volunteers from the community were gathered to assist with the fabrication. However, with the arrival of COVID-19 in March, it was no longer safe for communities to gather the way we were used to, and many plans were suspended. 
Despite all of this, creativity continued on. Cecilia Lueza safely worked alone to complete a vibrant mural, titled Exuberance, which exudes an uplifting message of well-being that feels all the more necessary in the midst of a pandemic. Once it is safe to gather together once again, we still plan on hosting events to celebrate the completion of Exuberance and to raise awareness of health and wellness resources for our community–and I, for one, am looking forward to that day!
Amanda Poss, Gallery Director, Gallery221@HCC Dale Mabry Campus

The 2019/2020 Grounds4Art@HCC
Health & Wellness Mural 

by Jeffrey Rubinstein

Students, faculty, staff, and visitors to Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus must be noticing a much higher presence of art, murals, and especially, student involvement in the college’s public art projects. Recently, HCC has also increased its footprint for health, wellness, and food security programs. With the ever-growing awareness of the connection between food security and academic performance, members of the HCC Public Arts Committee, Feeding Tampa Bay, Bay Art Files, and The City of Tampa Arts and Cultural Affairs joined forces and began meeting last year to design and create a large, visually engaging mural on the exterior of the Social Sciences building of the busy, urban Dale Mabry Campus in Tampa. The mural will be a permanent reminder that each of us must proactively sustain our well-being through health and wellness.

Under the direction of Gallery Director Amanda Poss, Gallery 221@HCC received a grant from the Arts Council of Hillsborough County for the 2019-2020 mural project. The project was conceived by the Grounds4Art@HCC initiative, HCC’s public art program, formed in 2018. Two other community-centric exterior mural projects have been completed to date, with more in the works as additional funding and sponsorships become available.

The first Grounds4Art@HCC Mural was created by Florida-based artist Michael Parker in collaboration with HCC students during the spring of 2019. Visible from the main courtyard of the campus, the 67-foot-long mural titled Infinite Transitions is located on the ground floor of the Learning Resources Center (DLRC) and is directly below Gallery221.

Egyptian artist Aya Tarek’s large-scale mural was the second public art project to be completed on the HCC Dale Mabry Campus. Tarek, a prolific artist who has created murals in Cairo, Berlin, São Paolo, and Portland, worked on campus with HCC students and community members to fabricate the mural. Titled Painting Ourselves Visible, the mural project and related programming sought to celebrate and increase the visibility of Arab, Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) and Muslim communities in the Tampa area. Organized in conjunction with the community organization Art2Action, this project was made possible with the support of the Gobioff Foundation Treasure Tampa Grant and can be seen on the west side of the Humanities building (DHUM).

Poss explains and gives us insight into the process for such a large project involving so many various local entities: “Our newest Grounds4Art@HCC mural is envisioned as a creative placemaking project that sheds light on the theme of health and wellness. The mural will provide vibrancy and color to the heart of campus while at the same time highlighting the Social Sciences building as the home of our campus’ newly established food pantry.  It will be a large canvas for the artist to work on–over 65 feet in length spanning the upper section near the building’s southwest entrance.“

Artist Cecilia Lueza at work on one of her numerous public art projects located throughout Florida and the southeastern United States.
In early 2020, artist Cecilia Lueza participated in a comprehensive and interactive discussion about health and wellness with HCC Dale Mabry Campus students, faculty, staff, the campus Public Arts Committee, and members of the Tampa Bay community.

The focus of this exciting project is health and wellness, will culminate in a dynamic and visually engaging mural by Cecilia Lueza, an Argentinian-American artist-based in Tampa Bay. The mural will be the final step in a long process that involves HCC students from its inception. In early 2020 on the HCC Dale Mabry Campus, the public arts committee, the artist, staff, faculty, students, and members of the Tampa Bay community engaged in a comprehensive and interactive discussion that allowed the artist to hear directly from students about how they think about health and wellness, and how this can be interpreted visually. The artist will ultimately, create the mural, but the image is based on feedback suggested by HCC students. Lueza described the feedback she received, “The majority of the students suggested the mural should inspire, connect, beautify, stimulate thought, have a sense of motion, and be geometric, bright, energetic, lively and represent mental health in a positive way.” Lueza presented three design options on February 14th and voting commenced until the 17th.

Based on the winning design, the mural will be an impressive composition of a fit and healthy young person, possibly a student, her head and eyes skyward, all in a palette of vibrant tones, at the prow of a flowing wave of energy that she creates. The image is provocative enough to allow viewers to contemplate the mural’s themes. Health and wellness are more than what we eat or how often we go to the gym. It is a mindset and lifestyle that includes our thoughts and attitude toward life and the energy we create and leave behind us.

Poss expands: “The majority of the mural’s fabrication took place in March and April and we are planning a free public unveiling party and related programming to occur in the Fall of 2020. Everyone who would like to participate in will be encouraged to attend, whether they are a part of the HCC community or a member of the Tampa Bay area community at large.”

Artist Cecilia Lueza high above the ground in a cherry picker during the Spring 2020 installation phase of Exuberance, the newest addition to HHC’s public art program on the Dale Mabry campus. Located on the exterior of the Social Sciences building, the mural takes its inspiration from issues related to food insecurity, mental and emotional health, and social and cultural inclusion.

To be officially dedicated and unveiled in the Fall of 2020, the mural Exhuberance will be on permanent display on the HCC Dale Mabry Campus in Tampa and will be a visual reminder to the entire community that health and wellness are part of a journey to be embraced that includes more than exercise and nutrition but exposure to the arts, as well.

About the author

Professor Jeffrey Rubinstein is the English Discipline Chair and the college-wide Tenure Committee Chair at Hillsborough Community College in Florida. Based on the Dale Mabry Campus in Tampa, he is a founding member of Grounds4Art@HCC.

About the artist

Argentine American artist and sculptor Cecilia Lueza, studied visual arts at the University of La Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Today, she is well known for creating vibrant public art pieces in a range of mixed media. Since 2000 she has been working on a variety of public art projects in many cities throughout the United States. Her work has been exhibited at Art Miami, Arteamericas, and Scope Miami Beach, and in the last year she completed public art pieces in Washington DC, Jacksonville FL, West Palm Beach, and St Petersburg FL among others.

Additional reading

Maggie Duffy, Bright Spot and Art Reporter
Tampa Bay Times
April 28, 2020

What’s it like to paint a mural in isolation? This Tampa artist shares her experience Cecilia Lueza socially distanced on a lift for the project at Hillsborough Community College.

FloodZone – Much is amiss in this paradoxical paradise

By Selina Román

I have a couple versions of a recurring dream. In one, a car I am driving careens off the road into some unknown body of water – sometimes clear, sometimes murky. Sitting in the driver’s seat I become a spectator as water seeps into the car and it slowly sinks away from the world above. In the other version, I’m driving down an old Florida backroad surrounded by swamp. As I turn a corner, the road disappears beneath water that has breached its banks. I recall in this dream that I felt scared but mostly hopeless. In all of my drowning/sinking dreams, I wake up never knowing if I made it or not.

That sinking feeling rushed back as I took in the large-scale photographs in the exhibition FloodZone, by Miami-based artist Anastasia Samoylova on view in the University of South Florida’s Contemporary Art Museum. The lush images, full of color and water, are akin to walking through a waking dream where the surroundings are familiar but something always feels amiss.  Her photographs, just like the intrusive water she depicts, seep into the psyche and linger.

As Samoylova pointed out in a recent artist talk, nowhere in the images will the viewer see the catastrophic. Those fraught scenes are relegated to the news. In her photographs, it’s flooded streets after a typical rainstorm, swollen waterways, construction sites, and mysterious figures navigating a landscape in limbo. However, the most telling images are the ones of details – ones that most people overlook. In these, nature fights back and it just may be winning. 

Courtesy USF Contemporary Art Museum; photo by Don Fuller.

I lived in Miami for nearly six years in the late 2000s. Cranes punctuated the skyline for projects with names like Quantum, Paramount, Epic and Infinity – names that embodied the human need to go higher, achieve more, get more. I see this quest again in Samoylova’s images of architectural renderings – computer-generated images showing happy couples sharing a romantic moment poolside or the luxe interior of a living room. But look a little longer, past the promise to the reality and see the abandoned construction site, detritus spilling over the sign like weeds. In what seems to be a nod to the developers’ slick signage, these stand-alone images occupy the gallery floor confronting viewers in their own space. It’s here in the intersection of reality and façade, of man versus nature, that Samoylova’s photographs become a poignant harbinger. 

Just like the signs for the construction projects, Miami puts on a good face for tourists, especially those that don’t have to leave the beach save for going to and from the airport. I learned this when I was living in Little Haiti in 2005. I had just moved to Miami and was welcomed that year by hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Wilma. That year, the Atlantic was the hottest on record and spawned more than a dozen named storms. While Dennis and Katrina caused damage and power outages in South Florida, Wilma delivered a staggering blow to an already storm-fatigued area. My roommate and I rode out the storm as winds howled. From my apartment window, I watched an electrical transformer explode, in awe of the green flashes of light. 

Little Haiti was without power for four weeks, while just across the railroad tracks that line Dixie Highway, lights flickered back on and air conditioners were humming in a matter of days. A coworker bemoaned that she was without power for about 45 minutes – she lived in an area of the beach, near hotels, where the power lines were buried. That year of storms awakened me to the social implications of climate change. 

Installation view; photo by Selina Roman.

As a Miami Beach resident, Samoylova sees beyond that touristy façade. Some of her most successful images are those of the details that only someone living there would notice. On the side of a concrete overpass pylon, a green plant fights its way out of a crevice while brilliant violet mold flourishes beneath it. Severe lines and geometry dominate the visual plane but the plant and mold triumphantly stand out from the stark environment. It’s repulsive and beautiful in the same breath.  In one of her few black and white photographs, a small, proud plant grows near the roof of a building, its roots clinging to the surface like veins and capillaries. Air plants are common in Miami, but there’s something different about this one: the plant’s roots have been painted the same white as the building.  In these moments, I find myself hopeful and terrified as nature asserts herself.

Samoylova does not shake her finger at you. She’s not passing judgment. If anything, she collectively takes our heads and turns them, telling us to look closely at these pieces of a puzzle she’s assembled. As singles, they are strong images but together, they become this dull pang in the pit of my stomach – the knowledge of what’s at stake. 

In one particular photograph, fourteen eggs occupy a nest tucked between concrete and steel adjacent to an unidentifiable body of water. The carefully composed image of the nest and water is a perfect inverse of each. But this ying-yang, however perfectly arranged in the frame, belies the precarious balance of the natural world against the man-made. The eggs appear protected, but from above they are not. Will they hatch? Or maybe the larger question is will they survive once they hatch? Will we make it? It’s this false sense of security that plagues South Florida. 

When looking at her work, I am struck and reminded of Robert Frank’s The Americans. In the 1950s the Swiss-born Frank traversed the country making documentary photos of post-war America. With a keen outsider’s perspective, Frank’s images revealed not a prosperous super power, but a country marred by racism, poverty and injustice. Samoylova, born and raised in Russia and living in Miami since 2016, also has that eye for detail and incongruity. Just like Frank’s, her images show us that there is more to learn if we just look a little longer and a little harder.

In an homage to Miami’s color, Samoylova designed the eye-catching presentation of the exhibition that underscores the thin line we Floridians tread. Angled swathes of bright colors on the wall – sky blue, canary yellow, magenta – serve as a backdrop for the works. The colors are painted on a diagonal and border a deep gray. Standing in the gallery, the sloped lines create a sense of uneasiness and symbolically represent the downhill direction in which we find ourselves. Yet look again and those same lines could be the uptick of hope.

Courtesy USF Contemporary Art Museum; photo by Don Fuller.

From the Everglades to South Beach, humans have invaded this place, not only altering the landscape but upsetting its delicate ecological balance. Her compositions show the constant battle between man and nature. The brilliance of so many of the images is they’re composed in a way in which it’s difficult to determine who is dominating who. In an image of Miami’s famed Vizcaya mansion, water covers the intricate inlaid marble floor of its elaborate latticed gazebo with Biscayne Bay ominously visible through its arches. The horizon all but disappears under the overcast day, and the bay and the floor are one in the same. The breach is not catastrophic in the moment the photograph was made, but the potential for disaster is made clear.

Several years ago, I sat in Miami’s Legion Park which overlooks Biscayne Bay. The breeze rustled the palms, which stood majestically and stoically against the sparkling blue water. It was nothing special in particular – just Miami on a good day. I snapped a photo, but it’s what I wrote under the image later that still haunts me: “I belong here.” But now I’m not so sure any of us do.

Just the other night that recurring water dream came rushing back. This time I was visiting friends in their beachside condo. As I walked to the balcony, I could see the waves of the rising ocean swirling outside. When I looked down, however, I realized there was no beach below and that the ocean was lapping at the building not far from where I stood. That hopeless feeling also resurfaced. I woke up and my thoughts volleyed to Samoylova who offers us a slice of hope wrapped up in a wake-up call – a black and white photograph of her son, standing in ankle-deep water, surveying flooding in a parking garage. Will we let him and his generation inherit this flooded world?

This quiet, yet powerful and important show reminds us that Florida’s future is at stake as climate change and continued unchecked development wreck havoc. I am also reminded of what sadly could become Miami’s unofficial theme song, “Dear Miami” by Irish singer Róisín Murphy: “With a little style fool ‘em for a while, but you can’t turn back time,” she sings. “Dear Miami, You’re the first to go, disappearing under melting snow…”

Selina Román is a Tampa-based artist and photography professor. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of South Florida.  

FloodZone is on view at the USF Contemporary Art Museum on the campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa through March 7th. The exhibit was curated by Sarah Howard, organized by USFCAM, and supported in part by an Oolite Arts grant, a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Dr. Allen Root. 

Sponge Exchange, in the adjacent Lee and Victor Leavengood Gallery presents artist Hope Ginsburg’s new collaboratively-produced video and sculpture installations reflecting on historic sponge diving and contemporary coral restoration and inspired by explorations of climate crisis impact on coastal ecosystems. The exhibition, also on view through March 7th, was curated by Sarah Howard, organized by USFCAM, and supported by a National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grant, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Dr. Allen Root, and the USFCAM ACE Fund. 

Related event:
Gallery Talk with Anastasia Samoylova and Ksenia Nouril, Ph.D. Thursday, February 13, 6 pm, USF Contemporary Art Museum (CAM)

Art Thursday’s gallery talk and reception with artist Anastasia Samoylova and Ksenia Nouril, Ph.D., Jensen Bryan Curator, The Print Center, will contextualize Samoylova’s work within the historical and contemporary role of photography in society. Light refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public.

ANCIENT THEATER AND THE CINEMA

By Dr. Bob Bianchi

You may not realize it, but if you’re a movie buff you may be surprised to learn about just how indebted Hollywood is to the civilizations of Greece and Rome. I’m not just talking about the obvious, like Gladiator (2000) or 300 (2006), but about films like the eleven in the Star Wars series. As one critic has perceptibly noted, filmmaker George Lucas admits his indebtedness to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy (1951), for which Asimov likewise acknowledges his indebtedness to Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776).  All rely on the binary interaction of benevolent forces of good against malevolent powers of evil, think Caligula (1980).

And that is why I am so enamored of Ancient Theater and the Cinema, on view through April 5th at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, carefully researched and curated by Michael Bennett, Ph.D., Senior Curator of Early Western Art, and mounted to great effect in the intimate, upstairs Works on Paper gallery. This exhibition features magnificent ancient works of art, principal among which are outstanding examples of theater-themed vases from Magna Graecia, as the southern part of the boot of the Italian peninsula was affectionately named in antiquity.

Installation view of the exhibition Ancient Theater and the Cinema.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Art St. Peterburg.

Upon entering an environment bathed in a deep red, one is encouraged to follow the prescribed line of march, dictated by the carefully chosen and thematically grouped movie stills, on loan from Tampa’s University of South Florida Special Collections Library, which line the four gallery walls. One looks at the stills, one walks, and one turns only to find a series of exhibition cases conveniently arranged in the center of the gallery with each object in each of those cases presenting its principal side toward the stills. You do not have to walk around the case in an attempt to figure out what to look at first.

Object Head of Dionysus
2nd – 1st century B.C.
Bronze, copper-tin alloy, silver-plated eyes
Anonymous loan L 2019.7.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg.

And while you may recognize the famous actors and actresses and the productions from which the stills are taken, you will probably be introduced to the theater-themed ancient art for the very first time. So here’s a quick “Theater-themed Ancient Art for Dummies.” Ancient Greek drama developed around the cult of Dionysus, popularly regarded as the god of wine and the party. However, via aspects of his cult’s transformational characteristics, Dionysus became the embodiment of impersonation or role-playing. There is an original Greek, hollow-cast bronze portrait of Dionysus (on anonymous loan) on view in this gallery, one of only six ancient Greek originals in America. Dionysus became the patron of ancient drama, which, as we know it today, was invented in Athens, and consisted of annual competitions with prizes for tragedy and comedy. The trio of award-winning dramatists—Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides—are well known; the authors of comedy, less so. And that comedy evolved from the often very personal and satiric attacks in the comedy of Aristophanes to the phlyax (pronounced fli-ax) plays, derived from the Greek noun meaning gossip players. Introduced during the fourth century BC in Magna Graecia, phlyax plays were basically absurd or ridiculous portrayals of traditional myths and daily life or even satirical burlesques of classical tragedy. Less than a half a dozen of the authors of these plays are known by name, and even less is known about the actual titles of their plays or their plots. Consequently, the depictions of phlyax actors on the vases exhibited in this gallery play a critical role in one’s understanding and assessment of those lost plays. Like those plays, the names of the painters and potters of these vases from Magna Graecia are generally not preserved, so that scholars have traditionally grouped vases which are stylistically similar to one another together, and have named the painter after the most significant example of that group, usually by the name of the collection in which that particular vase is housed.

Object Red-Figure Bell Krater (Wine Mixing Vessel)
South Italian, Apulian, c. 375-350 B.C.
Attributed to the Berkeley Painter Ceramic
On loan from the Collection of Willian Knight Zewadski.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg.

A leitmotif, or recurrent theme, of the depiction of those phlyax actors on those vases is an inherent eroticism, suggested by the bawdy, salacious nature of their content. A case in point is the subject matter of a red-figure (so-called because the figures are reserved in the red color of the clay) bell krater, or ancient kind of punch bowl in which wine was mixed with water, attributed to the Berkeley Painter working in the south Italian city of Apulia. The phlyax wears a padded bodysuit emphasizing his pot belly and cellulite buttocks to which has been attached an oversized phallus, which incidentally, is often associated with the aroused, male followers of Dionysus. He holds a crooked cane as he confronts a (male actor in the guise of a) female figure, clothed in a loosely-fitting garment, who gesticulates with her right hand. 

Photo Credit: United Artists presents “Satyricon” (1969) starring Martin Potter and Hiram Keller (Produzioni Europee Associati), directed by Federico Fellini and produced by Alberto Grimaldi, film still. @MGM. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts St. Peterburg.

Although no phlyax plays have survived, one can gain a vicarious impression of their nature with the screening at the  MFA on March 5th from 7-9 pm of Federico Fellini’s Satyricon (1969), based upon the novel of the same name by Petronius (circa 27-66 CE), writing during the reign of the infamous Roman Emperor Nero. (This screening is free to museum members; non-members will be charged the museum admission fee plus an event fee of $5.00.) 

The theater stills on view were gifted to the University of South Florida by William Knight Zewadski, who also loaned from his personal collection most of the original antiquities on view in this exhibition. Curator Michael Bennett will interview Bill Zewadski as part of the museum series In the Shade of the Stoa on February 7th, from 11-12 pm. Mr. Zewadski will also present a lecture, Drama in Ancient Greek Pottery with Bill Zewadski, at the Museum on March 10th, from 2-3 pm, in an event which is sponsored by and free for members of the Museum’s Friends of Decorative Arts. (For those who are not, the usual admission plus lecture fees apply. All planning on attending are advised to arrive before 1:45 pm.)

One can only be impressed by the synergy generated by this particular type of programming which enables visitors to confront original works of ancient art in tandem with vintage film stills and select screenings, and made possible in large part by the passion and vision of a local collector.

Dr. Bob Bianchi received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, after which he served as curator in the Department of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. During his career he has been the recipient of several post-doctoral fellowships, has subsequently served as a curator in museums in the States, Europe, and the Middle East, has excavated for 17 seasons in Egypt, and has taught as an adjunct professor at three universities.  To date, he has published 96 books, 376 journal articles, and book reviews, and has appeared in 96 telecasts worldwide. As a critical art historian with a specialization in Ptolemaic Egypt, he continues to explore intercultural artistic connections between Egypt, Greece, and Rome. He recently retired, as chief curator, after almost twenty years of service with the Foundation Gandur pour l’Art, Genéve. Dr. Bianchi continues to publish, address international congresses, and serve as a fine art advisor and certified appraiser to collectors and institutions.  He can be reached at thedrbob@verizon.net.

ANCIENT THEATER AND THE CINEMA is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg in downtown St. Petersburg, FL, through Sunday, April 5, 2020.

RELATED PROGRAMMING

Friday, February 7, 11 am- 12:00 pm
In the Shade of the Stoa with Dr. Michael Bennett — Theater in the Classical World with Bill Zewadski
Free with Museum admission

Thursday, March 5, 7–9 pm
Ancient Theater and the Cinema Film Series
Satyricon (1969)
Cost: $5, plus Museum admission

From the Museum’s website: Petronius’ Satyricon, written during the reign of the emperor Nero and set in imperial Rome, inspired Fellini’s 1969 Italian fantasy. The film is divided into nine episodes, following the scholar Encolpius and his friend Ascyltus as they try to win the heart of the young boy Gitón, whom they both love, within the film’s depiction of a surreal and dreamlike Roman landscape and culture. Vincent Canby of The New York Times noted that Satyricon was “the quintessential Fellini film, a travelogue through an unknown galaxy, a magnificently realized movie of his and our wildest dreams.”

Tuesday, March 10, 2-3 pm
Friends of the Decorative Arts Lecture Series
Drama in Ancient Greek Pottery with Bill Zewadski
$10, plus Museum admission; $10 for MFA members; and free for MFA Friends of Decorative Arts members. 
Complimentary coffee and cookies.
Doors for the lecture do not open until 1:45 pm. 
Early attendees are invited to view the gallery.

Time+Space+Place

A Look at Tempus Projects’ Residency Program

by Caitlin Albritton

Combining the best of immersive time in the studio with the added perk of travel, artist-in-residence programs have become the norm for artists to pursue just as much as exhibitions. Allowing for the opportunity to disrupt routine and refresh oneself in an unknown location, work made during residencies can change the course of artists’ careers.

In order to nourish the art community, Tempus Projects – an artist-run non-profit gallery housed in Seminole Heights now reaching their 10th anniversary this year– stepped to the plate to bring a residency experience to the Tampa Bay Area. While there are other local residency programs, like Morean Art’s Center for Clay’s AIR or USF’s invitation-only Kennedy Family Artist and Scholar in Residency, there is a gap in open-application residencies for national and international interdisciplinary artists.

“It was something that I had wanted to do with Tempus from the beginning. When we had the opportunity for the apartment above the Project Space, we took it,” says Tracy Midulla, Founder, Programing Director and Board Chair of Tempus Project.

Artist Kalup Linzy supervising the installation of Suns. Moons. Stars. Dreams. Recent Works by Kalup Linzy, May 21 – June 26, 2016, at the Tempus Projects’ Project Space.

Tempus Project’s residency started in 2016 with an invitation extended to Kalup Linzy, who is a previous graduate from the University of South Florida’s BFA and MFA programs. Commingling with local artists to use as actors in his performances, Linzy used his studio time to create scenes for his soap opera videos that he has become known for.

A 2016 evening view of Tampa’s Tempus Projects building featuring the work of Kalup Linzy in the Project Space (the far-right storefront). The second-floor live-workspace houses the Artists in Residency Program.

In a live-work environment, artists implement both the upstairs apartment and the back half of CUNSTHAUS (an additional exhibition and project space next to Tempus Projects that’s main goal is to create an engaging space for a variety of cultural programs and experiences with a low-key emphasis on showing women artists) as their studio space, where they have access to a modest collection of tools to suit their needs along with a $1,000 stipend. To celebrate the end of a residency, the artist presents their most recent works in an exhibition that is usually accompanied by an artist talk at the opening reception and a private cocktail party for the Sustaining Members, whose contributions help fund these residencies along with general operational funding (and previously from ACHC grants).

Decisions, decisions: the difficult selection process

As Tempus Projects begins to get its name out, they have seen residency applications from all over the globe. The open call for their Sunistra exhibition–with over 280 submissions—helped get them on artists’ radars. With their most recent residency open call, Tempus received 63 applications, many of them coming from Georgia, New York, and Florida.

While they don’t give a preference to a certain type of artist, they prefer non-Tampa-based artists since they feel that they can best support local artists in other ways. Trying to do as many residencies as possible in a year, typically two artists are selected from the open call, while other residents are selected by referrals.

“The reason we do our selections as a committee is because we all look at it differently. We are a well-balanced committee, so some may look more closely at their resume and writing, while others might look more closely at the imagery. Everybody has something that they look for, but we don’t give preference to any particular artist. We tend to look at work that is more engaging and relevant to social topics. We look for the most challenging work,” Midulla explains. “Overall, it’s been pretty easy for us to select artists. What it comes down to is that we all have two or three of the same favorites, then we look at the best fit.”

While “success” in terms of how a residency concludes is highly subjective, Tempus Projects has found that the most successful projects revolve around a strong work ethic and the ability to balance time well.

“We’ve had some artists where they didn’t make any work while they visited, then we had other artists that highlighted their time here, and this was indicative in the work they made. They were immersed in local culture, but also made the time for their work. They really got to know our city and community of artists. Kalup Linzy has roots in New York but lives here part-time. While Jenal Dolson (2017 AIR alumnus) was here, she ended up being recruited by USF for their master’s program. Roxanne Jackson (2018 AIR alumnus) is always trying to find reasons to come back to Tampa, and I think that’s exciting that even if they don’t stay here, they have a long-term relationship with us. That’s how we’re serving Tampa and our visiting artists through this residency,” Midulla says.

The artist’s residency experience: creating lasting bonds

 Though it may have a small grass-roots foundation, Tempus Projects’ influence and notoriety has spread. Whether having heard about the residency online or meeting a Tempus supporter or board member in passing, sights have pointed artists to Tampa with Tempus becoming a noteworthy destination in itself. In Jenal Dolson’s case, an initial interest in the Tampa Drawers Sketch Gang [a drawing collective previously run out of Quaid Gallery, which was previously housed in Tempus’s Project Space] turned into an exhibition opportunity, which led to her learning about the residency.

Studio work-in-progress for Jenal Dolson’s Artificial Paradise, February 11 – March 10, 2017, Tempus Projects’ Project Space

 

“My residency proposal talked about my interest in the visuals of choropleths and geology. I was thinking I’d try to focus on something thematic as I’ve always been fascinated with the solid spaces of land, which seemed to be at odds with the marshy swiss-cheesiness of Florida. I was—and still am—interested in the duality of meanings that can be grown out of these notions,” Dolson says. “I love a change of scenery when starting a new body of work. I started projecting images onto panels and editing stills of them on my computer, which helped me look at the space around the work in a new way. It helped me take the step towards breaking a few boundaries or rules I was stuck in, and let me explore a more desired inventory of materials.”

In between studio time, Midulla invited Dolson to all of the local arts and culture events as well as set up studio visits with folks within the art community like Tempus Board Members, local artists, curators, and college faculty and recent MFA graduates.

“It made me feel very welcome, and I’m really grateful to have made some lasting relationships. I had always been interested in doing an MFA a few years after I graduated from the University of Waterloo, but I had never lived anywhere other than Ontario. When people in Tampa learned that I was looking at grad schools, they suggested I apply at USF, so I did. I felt like there was a community to insert myself into here. Despite getting into another program I thought I was set on at the University of Guelph, the universe said, ‘Go to Tampa.’”

Community ties

Other than one-on-one studio visits, many artists have taken their residency opportunity to work collaboratively with local artists and institutions.

Cuban Artist Marian Valdez Rodriguez & Tampa Master Printer Erica Greenberg Schneider at Bleu Acier working prints for
Rodriguez’ 2017 exhibition.

“We research the artist’s work, get to know them for a few days, and try to get them in touch with people in the area to help them facilitate their needs,” Midulla says. “Cuban artist Marian Valdez Rodriquez was part of our International Artist Exchange Program, and she worked on a print edition with Bleu Acier [a Tampa-based limited edition fine art publisher and collaborative workshop run by Master Printer Erika Greenberg-Schneider].”

“The Tempus Projects residency is well-suited to artists who work collaboratively and are interested in community engagement,” says Katherine Pill, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Art in St. Peterburg and a long-term Tempus Projects Board Member. “It’s always important to remember that we don’t exist in a vacuum. Creating bridges between different arts communities is extremely valuable in terms of gaining an outside perspective and being introduced to new ideas and ways of doing things. A 2017 panel discussion we organized at the MFA allowed for a public talk regarding the US-Cuba artist exchange that Tempus initiated with the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “San Alejandro.” Christina Humphreys, a San Francisco-based artist and a graduate of USF who was able to spend a month working in Havana, and Cuban artist Marian Valdéz Rodriguez, who had spent a month in Tampa, were present and were able to speak about their respective exchange experiences.”

Artist team LIZN’BOW were selected for their new youth project A Talk Show with LIZN’BOW, which was set up like a workshop series at Community Stepping Stones, a local Sulpher Springs-based non-profit organization using arts-steeped pedagogy to educate and inspire at-risk youth, using a talk show format for the kids to explore different social and identity potentialities.

A Talk Show with LIZ’BOW
January 27 – February 17, 2018, at CUNSTHAUS

“Our project with Community Stepping Stones needed every minute we had: we were teaching workshops several days a week and editing the footage from class at night while preparing for the talk show. The actual show ended up being a live audience and live stream performance using work different elements from our classes to bring it together,” LIZN’BOW say. “The kids had so much fun and always had something to say. We really like giving kids a lot of agency, which they like a lot and aren’t used to in normal classroom settings. Every time we had a different workshop session, they had big reactions because we pushed them to experiment, like during our makeup sessions. They got pretty wild adding globs of lipstick all over their face. At first, they would judge the experience, but after actually doing it they would get excited, laugh, and want to do it again.”

The community overall was helpful in supporting LIZN’BOW’s project and helping it come to fruition, allowing for additional informal collaborations to nourish the next generation of artists and thinkers. By the end of their residency, LIZN’Bow had two exhibitions: a LIZN’BOW Retrospective in one gallery, and A Talk Show in the other.

“The day of the show was really special and a lot of folks really liked what we did with them, including the kid’s parents. The Stepping Stones kids and Tempus Projects folks became our community during that time,” LIZN’BOW explain. “I think that ideas that are worked out and through between a group of people can be more powerful than an idea coming from just one person. Doing creative and social work can also be very difficult materially and emotionally, and having the support from several different places and people can be crucial in seeing a project and concept grow.”

Even well after these projects have finished, students at Community Stepping Stones who participated in the Talk Show still brag to new students about their live-feed gallery debut.

“The most notable moment in these projects is the pride the kids take in their work. We can really see the difference it makes to them. First, they might be standoffish with new artists or dismissive of the medium—these are some pretty skeptical kids—but as the lesson unfolds and they connect to these new experiences, they become very excited and confident about it. It is really just the best thing to see,” says Michelle Sears, Director of Programs at Community Stepping Stones.

Installation view of the second-floor live-work space during I WOULDN’T GO THERE UNLESS I COULD FIT EVERYTHING SHE OWNS IN MY MOUTH
Recent Works by Mike Stasny, September 17 – October 8, 2016
Tempus Projects

Mike Stasny from Atlanta was another Tempus resident artist who came to work with these students for two 2-hour sculpture classes. The young artists were asked to imagine their subject (whether a dog, an old-fashioned radio or a person) stretched out in strange ways to pull the animals and objects out of proportion. Using foam and wire, they created new and unusual artistic “monsters.” 

“They were so excited and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We try to introduce as many different artists and experiences as possible to our classes,” Sears says. “These are extremely meaningful collaborative experiences to the students. It opens their world view and exposes them to new ways of thinking about how they connect to people and their world in general, and they take these experiences home. Our students’ families visit our classroom regularly and they see what the kids are doing and they have conversations about it, and I believe those conversations strengthen bonds and open doors to possibilities and a new understanding of many different things.”

Tempus Projects has hosted eleven artists and two artist groups since their first residency, but what’s so special about Tampa as a destination to drive artists to come? Whether being enchanted by the tropics, wishing to work collaboratively with the community, or a myriad of other reasons, it’s clear that there’s a fascination with this place; there’s something luscious and mysterious that causes artists to gravitate to this area that encourages a different kind of growth.

“We have other interesting projects here that bring people here, but I think the weirdness of Tampa is the driving curiosity for these artists,” Midulla says.

—————-

Caitlin Albritton is a freelance writer based in Tampa with a BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design and an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. A practicing artist, you can learn more about her practice by following her on Instagram @caitlinalbritton or visiting her website.