Sunny Central Florida » artist

Surreal Photography to be Displayed at Polk Museum of Art

meredith — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:43:02 +0000

Jerry Uelsmann, Untitled, 1987, Gelatin Silver Print, 16 x 20 inches, Collection of Lee and Becky Jackson

Polk Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, The Surreal Photography of Jerry Uelsmann, is certain to be a favorite among people who love photography or surrealism. The artist, Jerry Uelsmann, is a former University of Florida photography professor, and he’s been creating dream-like images in his darkroom longer than Photoshop has been around! He uses up to 7 enlarges to create composite images from his original negatives, and then develops the paper using traditional chemical processes.

The exhibition will be a 50 year retrospective of Uelsmann’s work, and it will be on display November 14 – January 17.

Polk Museum of Art Has an Art-O-Mat

meredith — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:14:32 +0000

Polk Museum of Art has a new toy in its lobby – an Art-O-Mat! It’s an old cigarette machine that has been refurbished to vend original pieces of art for $5 each (+ tax). This is one of three Art-O-Mats in the state. The other two are in Miami.

Clark Whittington, the founder of Art-O-Mat, will be at the Museum on Saturday, June 27 at 10:30am. He’s going to give a presentation about the machines and their history, and then he’ll talk to artists about how they can have their artwork sold in the nearly 100 Art-O-Mats around the world. The talk/presentation is free with Museum admission.

Exhibition Opening at PMoA This Weekend

meredith — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:49:01 +0000

This Friday night, Polk Museum of Art will be hosting the opening reception for its newest exhibition, Unbelievable Transformations: Moving Sculptures by Gregory Barsamian. The artist will be talking about his work at 6:00pm and there will be light refreshments and a cash bar starting at 7:00pm. The reception is free for Museum members and $10 for non-members.

I know I’m biased, but I really can not convey in words how cool this exhibition is going to be. Once it’s finally up, I’m going to post some video to give everyone a better idea. In the meantime, here’s a link to a movie of the piece above in action. Keep watching because there’s another piece shown after the halfway mark.

Prominent African-American Artist to Speak at Polk Museum of Art

meredith — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:57:08 +0000

Black Belt by Radcliffe Bailey. Courtesy of the artist.

Radcliffe Bailey, one of the most prominent African-American artists working in the South, will be at Polk Museum of Art next month to talk about his artwork. A Conversation with Radcliffe Bailey will be held on Friday, January 9, at 6:00pm.

Todd Behrens, the Curator of Art, will be guiding the evening in an interview format. Everyone will gather in the Dorothy Jenkins Gallery, where Mr. Bailey’s artwork is displayed, and Todd will ask him questions about his work. After the conversation, there will be a light reception with a cash bar.

Mr. Bailey’s work is often based on vintage sepia-tone photographs of African-Americans. He then creates collages around the photographs. The pieces deal with taking broad themes like history, migration, settlement, and tradition and figuring out how each of us is influenced by them.

The talk is held in conjunction with the exhibition Radcliffe Bailey: Between Two Worlds and is free for Museum Members and $10 for Non-Members. The exhibition and talk are funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.