While out at the “Dirty” exhibit at the Tampa Museum of Art on Friday night, I was able to shoot this quick interview with participating photographer Clay Lipsky.

Clay is a Clearwater native and a 1993 graduate of Berkley Prep. Since then he has steadily moved west and now resides in Los Angeles.

A multi-Emmy Award winning designer/director. Clay is now focusing his free time on photography. The crisp colors of Clay’s work first caught my eye. I thought these photos were most likely prepped in a photo editing software, but was pleased to find out they were not.

Clay explains his work.

See more of Clay’s work

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Gonna head out to the Tampa Museum of Art tonight for their show featuring works by Clay Lipsky, Rudolph Lopez and Daniel Mrgan.

Here is the Press Release pulled from the TMA’s site.

“Dirty,” A Night of Art and Music

Get Dirty with Friends while we explore nature with artists Clay Lipsky (goclaygo.com), Wesley Allen (fromtheearthpottery.com), Rudolph Lopez (rudolphlopez.com), and Daniel Mrgan (danielmrgan.com).

Dirty will be held Friday, June 4, 2010 from 7:30pm to 10:00pm at the Tampa Museum of Art and will feature Art of Sound by Josh Wilkins, hors d’ouevres my Mise en Place, and cash bar. The event is FREE for Friends, $5 for Members, and $10 for Non members.

Friends is a volunteer group made up of current museum members and created to promote and support the Tampa Museum of Art . Friends hosts and assists with special events to raise funds for educational programs and acquisitions. Now, for $25 added to your membership, you can be a Friend. For more information, please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 813.421.8370.

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I finally made it over to check out the Rough Draft Polish show at Cafe Hey last weekend. If you have not made it, make sure to. Cafe Hey’s shows usually run for about two months.

There are works having by Paul Valentine, Eli Cannon and April Childers.

Here are some pics of Eli’s work. I really enjoyed her colors and content.

“Of Fawns”

“Bear Boy”

“Skeleton Key”

Here are some of Paul’s photos, I recommend seeing them in person rather than my dodgy photo on photo crime.

My photos of April’s work were to grainy to post. Sorry.

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Chris Deacon is the latest in a line of local artist to present his work in the Urban Outfitters Artist Window.

Here are some words from the artist explaining his installation and art process along with some photos of the window.

Tart: Who are you and what your work is about?

Chris: My name is Chris Deacon and I’m an artist living in Tampa with my wife, Jessica and daughter, Lily.  For several years now, my work has reflected on biographical and cultural memories.  I think of my work like I think of life, a dark comedy.  To me, it is a series of humorous events intertwined with punctuations of tragedy.  More specifically, I find myself interested in a kind of neo-regionalism with a twist of Americana underbelly.  I respond to my surroundings, both past and present.  My process becomes a constant struggle to assimilate where I have been, where I am, and where I am heading.

Tart:Explain your art history and what you do day to day.

Chris:I first started taking art classes at HCC in Ybor City.  Then I transferred to the University of Florida in Gainesville, where I received a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in 1999.  Next, I moved back to Tampa and received my Master’s in Fine Arts from the University of South Florida in 2002.  Over the years, I have done several shows locally and nationally.  I also have two pieces in the contemporary collection at the Tampa Museum of Art.

For the past three years, I have been an instructor for the Art Institute of Tampa.  I currently teach several drawing and sculpting classes for them.  It’s a great job that is a perfect fit for me.  It is very rewarding to be a facilitator for students who want to become artists and designers.

Tart: Explain your artist window.

Chris: The window display that I recently installed at Urban Outfitters is titled “Who Wants Pie?”  Conceptually, I was interested in portraying (on the surface) a southern county fair.  The work is very character driven and started with the idea of a preacher who is constantly running for Jesus.  The piece is intended to be multi-faceted with several open ended questions.  Ultimately, what’s in the pie?

As I was working on the two-dimensional pieces, I wanted to find ways for the work to begin to spill into the viewer’s space.  I wanted also to make the best use of the window’s depth.  I then decided to create cut-outs that would be blocked off of the wall at several different distances.  Additionally, I arranged objects that seemed to fit thematically, such as the hatchet, shovel, and logs.  These objects become a hinge between us and what is on the wall.

Tart: Why Tampa?

Chris: I love Tampa!  I love its beauty and its grit.  I think that Tampa is really starting to experience a growth spurt that I believe will create even more opportunities for artists.  I am really pleased that we finally got the new art museum.  However, I do wish that there were more places to show in Tampa.  I enjoy a grass roots kind of space that is not afraid to show edgy and experimental work.  The Skatepark of Tampa is one of the few right now that is willing to do that.  I miss places like Covivant on Florida Ave.  The shows were always a lot of fun. 

Check out more of Chris’s work at chrisdeacon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On Saturday May8th,  “The 600 Block Party” (between 6th and 7th St. on Central Ave.) in downtown St. Pete, Central Ave. will be closed to traffic between 5PM to 11PM to celebrate the Grand Opening of the Crislip Arcade, plus thirty new businesses including galleries, boutiques, film studios, art & design studios and music outlets.

There will be dancing-in-the-street music with Lounge Cat, Fall on Purpose and DJ Mega. A fashion Show featuring styles from all the cool shops on the block! The Saturday Art Walk, including Florida Craftsman and The Arts Center.

This event is free. Food and drink will be available for purchase.

VITALE ART STUDIO
“There Goes The Neighborhood” Art Show with Art by Tom Thewes, Frank Strunk III, Jeff Srsic, Andrew Spear, Allen Hampton, Brandon Dunlap and BASK.

BLUELUCY
“COMPUTE THIS” An exhibit of paintings, prints and products by Phillip Clark and Chad Mize of Bluelucy. Come explore the Bluelucy Gallery and Studio as they showcase new works, styles and designs.

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Drawing Lab | a group exhibition featuring work from The exhibition includes works created by fifteen graduate students from the University of Florida School of Art + Art History and School of Architecture.

Artists

Radhika Agarwala
Zach Castedo
Robert Finkel
Andrew Hendrixson
Lauren Hill
Chisum Justus
Meghan Medina
Jorge Pérez-Gallego
Nathan Sapio
Marjorie Shropshire
Stacy Streeter
Garima Thakur
Kalina Winska
Nicole Yatulis
Odenis Vitoreli

This exhibition will debut at TEMPUS PROJECTS in South Seminole Heights located on the back lot of 5132 Florida Ave Tampa, FL 33603. More on these artist will soon to be posted at www.tempus-projects.com

 

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I was able to make it out to the Gasparilla Arts Festival on Sunday. This year’s show had some very solid artist along with a great location.

I am glad to see Curtis Hixon Park getting used so much in such a short time.

I talked to a hand-full of the artist throughout the day. Here is a quick interview with Terry Pipitone, this year’s winner of best “emerging artist.”

This painting by James Michaels won best of show. The painting is homage to art history, including Rembrandt whom Michaels said he studied while learning to paint.

“Nice Men”
Oil on Canvas

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I made it out to the Dunedin Fine Arts Center on Friday night for their annual event Contain It!. Each artist is given a POD container to create an installation.

Kaya Jill the Associate Curator / Special Events Director for the DFAC answered these questions for me about the show.

Tart: Can you give a brief history and thoughts behind CONTAIN IT!?

KJ: We got the idea at Art Basel in Miami a few years ago. They had installations inside shipping containers, and we thought we could do something similar on a bit smaller scale here at DFAC. We asked PODS to be involved and the rest is history!

Tart: What kinds of artist do you look for when curating the show?

KJ: I look for artists who have experience with art installation, or artists who I know could create something amazing, even though they’ve never done an installation before. Some artists contact me with their ideas for installation and if I think it will work I invite them to participate.

Tart: If someone was interested in taking part in the show or other events at the DFAC, how could they do that?

KJ: They can email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Currently we are accepting applications for Wearable Art Fashion Show

http://www.dfac.org/pdfs/dfac_wa6_application.pdf

Here are some photos from the show.

Chad Cardoza

Cardoza had his Disco Bean installation under new light.

The model behind the band was in attendance.

Catherine L. (Cat) Thompson

Cat had series of photos of these anatomical models. This explainer was on the show.

Medicophillia
A portmanteau word devised to describe a fascination with
all things anatomical/medical.

Catherine Bergmann and Neverne Covington

Catherine and Neverne had this piece, which allowed the viewer to become part of the installation.

Angela Dickerson and Psynner

Angela and Psynner’s sewed forest environment was my favorite piece in the show.

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I made a trip out to the State Fair on Sunday. On what was a trip planned around some fried food, I was also pleasantly surprised to run across some nice art work by some local high school students.

I really liked the washed out color pallet on these.

Jenna Miller
Plant City

“Eleanor Lynn Miller”
Lakeland

“Caleb Brown”
West Palm Beach

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It was a busy Saturday night for the Bay area arts community. Here are some photos from the four openings I made it to.

I started the night off at Cafe Hey where Victoria Skelly and Emily Labit Fingar had a two person show.

“Cowboy Catharsis” a series of block prints by Victoria were great.

Eash print is relief-carved from “Sintra”, a plastic composite material then hand printed on paperboard

A block of carved Sintra

The little seed that grew
Emily Labit Finger
Glass collage

My next stop on the night was the new Tempus Projects space. Atlanta artists Mario Schambon and George Long where showing. Both of these guys had fresh work and a knack for good conversation.
They were both also impressed on the amount of events going on in area in one weekend.

George Long’s paintings.

Here are two of Mario’s scultpures. I will have to head back and get photos of the rest of his work.

This piece really reminds me of an Alberto Giacometti.

Next stop was over the bridge to Central Ave in St. Pete for the opening of the BlueLucy and Vitale Brother’s work spaces. I can not wait for this strip of artist shops and workspaces to be fully opened.

BlueLucy

Chad and Phillip had a selection of new and old works up on the wall of their new diggs.

Vitale Art Studio

The Vitale Brothers space was jammed pack, like a normal Vitale event.

It was a little hard for me to get shots of any of the work on the walls.

I did score a shot of this newer Bask piece hanging next to Dj Mega, who was providing music for the evening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There are a ton of openings on Saturday, starting with the opening of the new Tampa Museum of Art and its Matisse exhibit. Here is a list of events to get out and check out this weekend.

TAMPA MUSUEM OF ART
February 6, 20010 10.30 a.m.
General Admission: adults $10;
seniors, groups, military plus one guest $7.50;
students $5; and children ages 6 and under free

Check out a virtual tour of museum put together by the Tribunes art department.

TEMPUS PROJECTS

TEMPUS PROJECTS
South Seminole Heights
Located on the back lot of 5132 Florida Ave Tampa, FL 33603.
This event is free and open the public.
http://www.tempus-projects.com

George Long & Mario Schambon | Recent Works, a two man exhibition featuring new work from Atlanta-based artists. George Long and Mario Schambon: artists, friends, collaborators, wearers of hats, eaters of glazed hot doughnuts. They even share a birthday. Now: Don’t stop scratching your head. Long and Schambon have always had a connection between their artwork, sharing a similar visual vernacular and approach to the creative process. TEMPUS PROJECTS brings these two together for an exhibit of installation work that centers on personal narratives. “The work we make is often very personal, laced with references to gluttony, vice sex…the good life!” Says Schambon.

CAFÉ HEY

Victoria Skelly and Emily Labit Fingar.
Saturday February 6, 2010 7pm to midnight
1540 North Franklin Street Tampa, FL 33602
This event is free and open the public.
http://www.cafehey.com

The “Cowboy Catharsis”  series   features Victoria Skelley’s etchings. 
The “VItreous EleMent”  series features stained glass collage by Emily Labit Fingar. 
 
WMNF will join in with the   their ongoing free concert series at Café  Hey.  Musical artists will include Moon Dust Plus,  Neon Blud,  Father Finger,  Parker Lindley and Kristen and I. 

Doorstop Productions,  in conjunction with Neo Nerd and Island Vibe Collaboratives will also be represented by several local spoken word artists.

Bluelucy Launch Party

Saturday February 6, 2010
6-10PM
653 Central Avenue
St Pete FL

Bluelucy will be opening a new gallery/work space on the renovated 600 block of downtown St Pete at 653 Central Avenue.The event will feature new and some old art by the Bluelucy boys, Chad Mize and Phillip Clark.

Vitale Art Studio
Saturday Feb 6, 2010
Starts at 8pm.
651 Central Ave.
St. Petersburg FL

Vitale Art Studio unveils it’s new location in the heart of downtown Saint Petersburg Art show will feature the works of Bask, Frank Strunk III, John Hutcherson, Sarah Hutcherson, Heinz Hinrichs, Mark Michaels, Chris Parks, Chad Mize, Phillip Clark, Jeff Cinco and Joey Vitale. Music by DJ MEGA.

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Austin is a young guy with loads of talent and style with a drawing utensil. This month he is the guest artist at Urban Outfitters artist window. His installation will be up for the month of January.

You can check out Austin’s new work as well as the work of several other local artist on Friday night at Urban as well.

Austin gave me a few minutes of his time this week to talk about the new work as well as a little bit about him self.

Here are a few other still images from Austin’s sketchbook.

 

 

 

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I made it out to Café Hey to check out their new opening, which is all work from Blake High School students.

“The Artwork chosen for this exhibit is an eclectic mix of all of the art genres of art that are taught at H.W.Blake School of the Arts. Students come to us, some talented, and some with a desire to grow. They blossom into individuals with a passion for looking at art, talking about art, owning art, and making art. Hard work and dedication produces young artists who meet or even exceed adult artists working today.” says Lonni R. Hopkins. Lonni is the Blake School For The Arts Visual Arts Department Faculty member who curated the show.

Castle Pendant
Elizabeth Westerfield
Silver, brass, amethyst

“Charisma”
Morgaine Scott
Sterling silver, Titanium plated druzy and rainbow moonstone

“Phone Line”
Joseph Lee
Color photography

“Floating freely”
Rachel Bramer
Color photography

“Untitled”
Maria Maldonado
Cyanotype print

“Susan”
Gustan Joseph
Graphite on paper

“Spirit Valley”
Catherine Caldwell
Acrylic on canvas

“Fork in many colors”
Jarina Molokwu
Linocut, Monoprint

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Chris Parks(Pale Horse) and Allen Hampton were kind enough to answers a few questions about their recent two-man show “Gods & Monsters”. 

Tart: Can I get you both to explain the others work to someone who has never seen it before?

AH: I would describe Chris’ work as highly graphic, intricately designed, and tightly executed. I think maybe those are all things I would sometimes say about my work as well, but the end results are anything but similar. That is one of the main reasons I have always been so interested in working with Chris. Our art styles are simultaneously very similar and strikingly different. Our processes parallel, but our medium of choice dictates very different results.

“Yami”
Chris Parks (Pale Horse)
Giclee’ print on canvas

CP: Allen Hampton’s drawings are created with precise detail and painstaking layers of pig’s blood. The combination of the medium and often disturbing subject matter make for a very raw, personal and intense experience for the viewer. Allen also has amazing abilities with aerosol cans and paints huge, photo realistic mural portrait pieces.

“I would rather, from time immemorial, have had serpent coiled around my neck than look into your eyes”
Allen Hampton
Hand dawn in blood on paper

Tart: What was your favorite piece made by your fellow artist?

AH: I loved the “Kraken” piece, as well as the “Lucifer” piece. Those two really stood out to me. They are visually stunning (color, composition, and production), but also, the subject matter of both pieces is that of topics that I have been interested in for years.

“Lucifer”
Chris Parks (Pale Horse)
Giclee’ print on canvas

CP: : My favorite piece was Allen’s self portrait called “As Maldoror”, I also really love the collabs we did together.

“As Maldoror”
Allen Hampton
Hand drawin in blood on paper

Tart: Can you explain your take on the Altered Beast pieces and the Medusa piece? How did these come to be? The thought process you both took to bring these to life?

“Altered Beast” pieces with artists in front: (Left)Chris Parks (Right) Allen Hampton

“Medusa”

AH: The portraits and the medusa piece were really the first things that Chris and I talked about. In the beginning, they were just rough ideas based around the ‘lets do some collaborative pieces’ idea. Chris wanted to work in on of my aerosol portraits, and it just seemed like painting a medusa would be the absolute best way to make an amazing mural. i mean what mythical creature is more bizarre and incredible than Medusa?

The altered beast pieces went through a few different incarnations in the conceptual phase of production. Originally they were just going to be split portraits, then chris had the idea for the animal parts. Each of us would be left to our own devices for what we thought would work best with the others portraits. I think they turned out really great.

CP: I was super excited to collaborate on these pieces. Our styles are so different and it really pushed me to create works that I could never have pulled off on my own. The huge Medusa mural turned out exactly the way I pictured it in my head. The die-cut vinyl and graffiti mixed so well and I’m really proud of the finished product. The “Altered Beast” pieces came out so raw and in your face. Combining hand drawn blood and printed, digital illustration was definitely a first for me. We really wanted to experiment with mixing our mediums, and the self portrait / altered beast concept seemed to be a natural fit and really defines the whole exhibit to the viewer.

Check out more of the show:

Video tour of the show

Online store

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Cafe Hey will be hosting the “Blake High School Student Show”, on Saturday. The show runs through January 21.

Opening Reception: December 12th
Time:               7-10 pm
Cafe Hey:           1540 N. Franklin Ave.
                              Tampa Fl 33602
                              (813) 221-5150

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