Art Center focuses wide angle lens on photographic styles
Sarasota photographer Jimmy Peters discusses his work with guests at the opening reception of Art Center Sarasota’s latest exhibit. Photos by Robert Frederickson.
Art Center Sarasota.
If there is an overall theme to a new exhibition that opened recently at Art Center Sarasota, perhaps it’s that early interests and fascinations often lead to life-long inspiration.
The exhibit is primarily of photographs, but at least one series of watercolors is included as well. Everything from traditional landscapes in the realistic style of masters like Ansel Adams and Florida’s own Clyde Butcher to abstract, digitally manipulated images guaranteed to make most card-carrying traditionalists cringe are presented.
But throughout, the individual personalities of the photographers and artists are clearly on display. And their creative focus can often be traced back to their earliest passions. All of which makes for an entertaining experience for the viewer taking in the Art Center’s offerings.
The exhibit is really two shows in one. The first displays the work of five featured artists. “They are part of a curated exhibition,” said Art Center’s Lisa Berger last week. “They were selected by our exhibition committee. The balance of the exhibition is juried photography by Florida photographers, both professional and amateur.”
Even before the 119 images competing in the juried exhibit are considered, the five featured artists bring a considerable range of expression and experience to the Art Center’s galleries.
Just to the left upon entering are the works of Dean Mitchell, the only member of the featured five displaying works in a non-photographic medium. His watercolors capture rural southern landscapes recalled from his youth. They reveal a place where time moves slowly enough for thoughts to roam at their own unimpeded pace – far removed from the modern world of cell phones, twitter and facebook where the inspiration born of boredom has seemingly been forever vanquished. “I have inherited a passion for the simple things of life,” he says. It is a passion clearly evident in the simple but evocative lines of his work.
Across the foyer, two other heartfelt visions from the past draw the viewer’s attention.
Arieh Aizenberg is an Israeli born photographer with a background in architecture and design. That background inspired his fascination with such pedestrian features of modern life as electrical transmission poles and repetitive forms in bridges, walls and angular buildings. His works seem to revel in finding order and symmetry in the most mundane corners of everyday life.
On the opposite wall, an entirely different vision comes to life: scenes of cowboys working a cattle roundup, presumably somewhere out west. But upon closer examination, the viewer notices cabbage palms and palmetto bushes in the background. Could this be Florida? Well, yes, photographer Jim Peters told surprised guests at the exhibit’s opening night reception last Thursday evening. But that surprise only grew when they learned that not only are the scenes from Florida, but that they were captured right here in Sarasota County. And, they’re not from decades past but were actually taken quite recently.
Just as remarkable is that Peters has only been pursuing photography seriously since he retired two years ago from P. Taylor McHone Advertising here in town. As to his choice of subject matter, he explained he has been fascinated with Sarasota’s cowboy heritage since growing up on a ranch in the Bee Ridge area in the 1950’s and 60s. After he retired, he drove out to the Hi-Hat Ranch near Myakka River State Park one afternoon and asked if he could take some shots of the ranch hands at work. To his surprise, the owners agreed. “They really opened the place up to me,” he said last Thursday. The access allowed him to perfect his black-and-white, realistic style while documenting a side of local life and heritage often overlooked by those living along the coast. In addition to the images displayed at Art Center Sarasota, Peter’s work can be viewed online athttp://www.jimpetersphotography.com/.
Leaving the area’s rural eastern reaches and moving a few steps to the west, the next Art Center gallery is filled with images more attuned to Sarasota’s well-cultivated identity as an arts town. The subject for native New Yorker Richard Brownbill’s display is artistic motion. His photos capture dancers poised between past and future in mid-performance, suspended in the wonderful, rarefied air of endless possibility. Again, it was an early association – with mentor Lois Greenfield – that fueled his inspiration. Greenfield opened her studio to the young photographer, giving him the opportunity to shoot the dancers participating in her many photo sessions. It was an experience that provided the focus for his most powerful and persistent work.
Rounding out the five featured artists is David McGough, who has perfected his own special brand of papparazi art. He grew up in Northern New Jersey and studied art and photography at New York’s Pratt Institute in the late 1970s. While at Pratt, McGough was attracted to the city’s then burgeoning punk rock scene, which he chronicled with photos of The New York Dolls, The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Heartbreakers, Lou Reed and many other musical luminaries of the day. His photos have appeared in such magazines as Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Time, Paris Match and Rolling Stone.
His Art Center offerings attracted quite a crowd Thursday evening, including a characteristically goofy 1982 shot of Ozzy Osbourne holding a gun to his head and one of Mick Jagger taken in 1983 shooting a bird the photographer’s way. McGough now lives nearby on Anna Maria Island.
Many of the photographers participating in the juried part of the show were on hand to discuss their work Thursday as well. Local photographer/videographer Mark Vance produces futuristic images alive with the motion of color and light. His abstract visions are created using long exposures and camera motion to create spirals and trails of light moving across a photographic canvas. But they do not involve multiple exposures or computer generated images. Many of his works take familiar local scenes like the downtown Sarasota waterfront and present them in a new and literally different light.
Vance’s techniques grew out of the boredom he sometimes experienced during down time while traveling and working early in his career with his father, Michael Vance, co-founder of the respected and high profile “Creative Thinking Association” that gave the world such now ubiquitous phrases as “thinking outside the box.”
“We’d be in the hotel in places like New York and to pass time I’d set my camera up in the window and take pictures of the city lights at night,” said Vance.
One of those efforts, “Ghosts of New York,” is on display as part of the Art Center Sarasota show. It reveals Times Square bathed in a fluid movement of light and helped inspire the techniques that have developed into his own personal style.
Vance’s pictures have been used on several television shows, including FOX’s “House,” ABC’s “Private Practice” and CBS’s “Eleventh Hour.” In addition to his display at Art Center Sarasota, his works can also be viewed online athttp://markHvance.com.
Artistic awards announced at last Thursday’s reception for the juried portion of the show were as follows: First Place: James Forbush, Second Place: Jay Van Dam, Third Place: Ian Dean. The Nell Rude Award went to John Zeiss, while merit awards were presented to William Vilenski and Betty Perry Glass.
But the talent on display extends far beyond the winning entries. Indeed, if you weren’t able to get a vacation in this year, Art Center Sarasota might offer a measure of relief. Over a hundred photos on display, each one a destination all its own.
The exhibit continues through Jan. 9. Viewing hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Art Center Sarasota is located at 707 North Tamiami Trail.