SEASON PREVIEW 2023-24
Below, left to right: in lin oll isitin of sso i lutions mations installation of SPAACES Art Gallery; Art in Common Places Lime Laundromat installation at Creative Liberties, photo courtesy of Creative Liberties.
Ablutions & Affirmations SPAACES Contemporary Art Gallery is one of Sarasota’s finest destinations not only for viewing art that introduces a new perspective, but also for supporting local artists who are following their dreams. The gallery strives to give emerging artists the recognition and facilities needed to thrive as professionals. “These are artists who really want to make a career. They are pursuing galleries, they are pursuing residencies and trying to make it to the end goal. The dream for most visual artists is to be in a permanent museum collection, someday,” SPAACES Founding Director, Marianne Chapel Junker, says. “We want to support professional artists who have those types of goals in mind.” One way that SPAACES champions the contemporary art scene is by offering a sliding scale, meaning that artists who earn less, pay less to use the coveted SPAACES facilities. This month’s solo exhibition is by talented Ringling College visiting Professor, Marina Shaltout. The exhibit, Ablutions & Affirmations, was inspired by Shaltout’s critique of the commodification of “self-care” within a capitalistic society. “It’s this idea that society is selling us these sort of ‘remedies’ that actually in turn, create more issues for us”. Shaltout says. “I’m also exploring how those feelings have risen exponentially in the post-COVID landscape that we are living in now,” Shaltout explains that she was inspired to create Ablutions & Affirmations during the summer of 2021 when she was faced with a bout of hair loss due to anxiety surrounding the COVID pandemic, political climate and economy, as well as her own career. Throughout the exhibition, Shaltout uses the bathroom as a stage for showing how even a place many go to relax and unwind cannot escape the influx of marketing and advertisements enticing us to invest in capitalism, even if it is masked by beautiful, sweet-smelling soaps and luxurious products. “Objects reminiscent of the bathroom ambiance are curated to invoke the transitory calmness we experience when we indulge in candles, a glass of wine and the catharsis of bathing away our proverbial sins with fancy soaps. However, the core of this work is situated in the tension between bedazzled objects and strands of hair clinging to tiled walls,” Shaltout adds. “In this regard, I ask my audience to sit with the uncomfortable interplay between the glamorous and the grotesque, inviting a reflective pause in the face of societal contradictions and beneath the veneer of superficial comfort.” —E.Dannenfelser SPAACES, 2087 Princeton St, Sarasota, 941-374-3492, Ablutions & Affirmations will be on view at SPAACES Contemporary Art Gallery from October 6-28, spaaces.art
Building Art in Common Places Creative Liberties’ main mission is not only to provide local artists with a place to create, show and sell their work, but also to create an inspiring artistic community. This heightened sense of community is exactly what the organization plans on achieving during their upcoming exhibit in collaboration with Art in Common Places. Art in Common Places was founded by Teresa Carson and Leslie Butterfield in 2020 based on the belief that art belongs to everybody, which perfectly aligns with Creative Liberties’ mission. The premise of the exhibit is that an artist and a poet work on a collaborative team for six weeks to create a piece of art and corresponding poetry. The exhibit will run from October 5th through 28th and features 36 collaborative works of art. “Every piece has a poem and a work of art where the artist and the poet have collaborated,” Butterfield says. “So sometimes the poem is in the painting, but other times there’s some kind of relationship that they’ve discovered around a theme as they have gotten to know each other’s work.” The beauty of an exhibit like this is that it speaks to people who are passionate about both poetry and visual arts and acts as a new way for guests to learn more about poetry. Both poetry and visual art is largely imagery driven, making the combination a complete immersive experience. “We love the integration of the art forms; it’s taking the written word, the visual arts and combining them to create really unique pieces,” Barbara Gerdeman, co-owner of Creative Liberties, says. Not only does a collaborative exhibit like this produce beautiful end results, but the dialogue and workshopping it requires can also have a lasting effect on the participating artists. “Almost never do you see a poet who has worked with a painter before, or vice versa,” Butterfield said. “They have these ‘Ah-ha!’ moments, where they learn about how we think differently in the different arts.” Along with the exhibition, Creative Liberties and Art in Common Places will also be collaborating on a Family Art Day, on October 28 from 9am-Noon. This event will be completely free, no RSVP required. Family Art Day will be centered around story bracelet making, during which families can learn how to express themselves through bead patterns and words. —E.Dannenfelser Creative Liberties, 901B Apricot Ave, Sarasota, 941-799-6634, Art in Common Places at Creative Liberties will run from October 5th through 28th, creativeliberties.net
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