Fine art answers many questions. “Who?” and where?” are the focus of the regional exhibition “Faces and Places” at the Art Center Sarasota, which called for art that reflects the local habitats and identities of the artists. 173 Florida-based artists responded and the work you will see is is based on their submissions.The works were judged by Amanda Cooper, chief curator of the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg.
Karla Pirona’s “Southgate” (2022), which won first place, is a detailed oil painting of the modernist marquee at Southgate Shopping Center in Lakeland, not the one in Sarasota. Pirona’s piece is definitely not paint-by-numbers. Let’s start with the proportions. The painting has the panoramic aspect ratio of widescreen film, like a still from a letterbox director’s cut. What appears photographic across the room appears painterly up close. A scene of lush colors and impressionistic sunbeams.
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But Pirona’s framing of the picture also goes beyond the box. The entrance to the mall is the focus of the painting. Normally it should dominate the illusory window of the screen. But Pirona has relegated it to the bottom right, in a view from across the parking lot – a cropped view cutting through the cars in the foreground. A sky of stratocumulus clouds receding in perspective fills most of the painting. Pirona’s works of art break with the rules of landscape painting, architectural depiction (and photography, by the way). It’s definitely something different.
Second place went to Li Volk’s “Shane” (2021), a charcoal-on-paper portrait of a reporter living in the Philippines. The woman’s face is sharply detailed. The technology here is amazingly realistic; Hair, eyes, shadows and modeling are high res, like a high grain black and white photo. Moving away from Shane’s face, the edges of the image blur like a rain-splattered window. Volks Technik becomes more gestural. Charcoal spots create rhythmic patterns for their own sake. The combined result is a beautiful mix of representation and abstraction.
David Fithian’s oil on canvas Quiet Pool (2021) took third place. This piece of summertime features a pool without a party. A scene on a terrace: pool, water slide and beach chairs in subtropical colors and playful geometry. It’s reminiscent of the Sarasota School hotels on Lido Key in the 1960s – perhaps the Three Crowns. The only thing missing are people, although the painting’s perspective works for a diver on a platform, looking down and ready to jump in.
Honorable Mentions went to Brian Jones’ “Pink” (a photo of a bright pink, rectangular modernist building adorned with zany graffiti); Tony Souza’s Federal Style Living Room (an acrylic-on-canvas painting of a textured, gilded interior, as detailed as an elaborate doll’s house); Alaina Pompa’s “Sunday Float at Siesta” (a layered, multicolored multimedia work showing two girls on the beach at sunset); and Nika Zusin’s witty “Home” (a plastic sculpture with severe, industrial angles, its only organic form, a golden figure hanging its head on the wall like Charlie Brown).
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Merit Awards went to Tony Reinemann’s “Danger on a Sutton Place Terrace” (a pencil-on-paper scene of a wild hawk eyeing an apartment full of cats) and Gianna Santucci’s “Bottoms Up!” (an oil-on-canvas Painting of four uninhibited friends raising a toast).
The show’s official winners are a small, if not so random, selection. Some artists took the theme of faces and places literally. Others turned it around to places of the heart and faces in the mind’s eye. There’s ingenious work here – along with some playful eye candy that has caught the eye of a few kids attending an art class. According to Kinsey Robb, the Art Center’s executive director, they counted the paintings in one of Tony Souza’s paintings.
What was your opinion of the show? Pleasure? relief? Surprise?
“All of the above,” she said, “doing a regional art show always makes me nervous, especially at the end of a pandemic! I kept asking myself, ‘Will we get an answer?’ The answer was an overwhelming “yes”. We received so many outstanding pieces. Amanda Cooper did a great job selecting the best of the best.”
Once Faces and Places closes on August 6, the Art Center Sarasota will kick off a new season of September 1-30 with POP!, a celebration of pop art
“Faces and Places”
Through August 6 at the Art Center Sarasota, 707 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota; 941-365-2032; artsarasota.org
Read more about the visual arts and reviews of Marty Fugate