The Gallery AIA show CONSTRUCT is more than an art show. For artist-curator Nathan Beard, itäó»s the strengthening of a vision to connect art communities.
CONSTRUCT opens with a reception Friday, April 28 4:30-7:30 p.m., in conjunction with Tampaäó»s Fourth Friday. The show includes Caitlin Albritton, Catherine Bergmann, Robin Perry Dana, Janos Enyedi, David Erdman, Bryce Hudson, Kenny Jensen, Nin McQuillen, Chad Mize, Laine Nixon, Charles Parkhill, Gabriel Ramos, Jan Richardson, Nathan Skiles, Patricia Sriram and Christopher Wharton. These 16 local artists explore the ways in which we build our world. The Center is located at 1315 East 7th Avenue, Ste. 105 in Ybor City and the exhibit can be viewed during business hours through June 23rd.
Cross pollinating area cities in a combined surge of artistic razzamatazz would build the network and expose all the area talent that goes unnoticed between cities. Beard thinks it is natural that everyone wants to move to the Tampa Bay area. Where others may see reasons to complain, he sees opportunity.
äóìWhen you talk about Tom Stephens, people are like, äóÖWhoäó»s that?äó»äó Beard said. äóìHeäóÖs one of the best painters in Sarasota!äó
Tomäó»s not in this show, but Beardäó»s point is that Tampa Bay artist groups can be insular, partly because thereäó»s no sensible public transportation between Sarasota, Dunedin, St. Pete, Safety Harbor, Tampa and other surrounding areas.
äóìWe want everybody to go to the Dunedin Fine Arts Center,äó he said. äóìWe want everybody to go to Leepa Rattner and see a show. And thereäó»s a whole bunch of stuff on the other side of the Bay we donäó»t know about but thereäó»s things going on over there where if they were just connectedäó_. maybe itäó»s too idealistic. Iäó»m not a money person, I donäó»t always factor in (the financial reality).äó
Every year Gallery AIA has an exhibition called Beyond Architecture where they invite visual artists to show in their space, Beard said, and the work should have either a connection to architecture or the spirit of architecture. So Juan Ricardes, Gallery Director at AIA Tama Bay’s Center for Architecture and Design, invited Beard to organize an event there. A good number of the artists are curators themselves.
äóìThis is great exhibition – great artists, but thereäó»s the big idea here to tie into this movement thatäó»s already happening toward greater collaboration among the cities,äó Beard said. äóìItäó»s all good. The city needs it all. It needs artwork in coffee shops, restaurants; it needs painting with a twist, it needs high end galleries, it needs co-ops, it needs museums, it needs all of it.äó
This show represents coming together and creating new tendrils. Heäó»s very excited about the artists in the show and tells me why over a two-hour conversation: Kenny Jensenäó»s 2015 solo show at Studio@620 is one of the greatest gallery feats Beard has ever seen. Nathan Skiles from Sarasota creates soft sculptureæcuckoo clocks. Itäó»s all about time and space and how we build with an entire backstory called the Clockmakeräó»s Apprentice. æ
äóìIäó»d love to introduce some of these other artists to him,äó Beard says.
Such as Kenny Jensen. Beard thinks Kennyäó»s 2015 exhibition at Studio@620 was in the top three greatest shows heäó»s ever seenæand would enjoy seeing more exhibitions featuring him as an artist in addition to his curation. Actually, almost half the artists in CONSTRUCT happen to be curators.
Janos Enyedi, who died in 2011, got his chops in New York City and Washington D.C. making abstract metal sculptures before deciding to take a different route from abstraction, ending up falling in love with the industrial landscape of Midwest America and, at the time, said Beard, the sort of disappearance of it. He uses fold paper to recreate realistic-looking metal scraps and it all looks exactly like metal.
äóìAll of a sudden you have this allusion to Platoäó»s form,äó Beard said. äóìThereäó»s the idea of the chair and then thereäó»s the chair and then thereäó»s the representation of the chair. Which is the most real? æYou have the object, the idea of the object and you have the experience of the object. Hereäó»s a chair, I made a painting of a chair but it has to go through here, the perception and the experience, to be put on the canvas or be built. And Platoäó»s asking, which is the most real? And not just the most real but the most valuable. The idea was the highest. The painting was the lowliest. To me, (Enyediäó»s) work brings up those questions – itäó»s not steel, itäó»s paper but it looks like steel. Why would you do that? Itäó»s art. We donäó»t have to answer that question why did you do that? æI was compelled.äó
Patricia Sriram makes abstract prints that look like aerial site plans, but what Beard was most interested in are the works she keeps privately to herself, which she revealed in her studio two blocks from his house. Patty hails from Pennsylvania, coal country.
äóìShe showed me this picture of a foot print. Itäó»s her footprint. Itäó»s a print,äó Beard said. äóìThen thereäó»s a little threaded line that runs through it. She said, äóÖItäó»s a map of my town and the black footprint referenceæcoal dust.äó» Coal dust. I was like OK, thatäó»s interesting. Thatäó»s in the show. Itäó»s a map. æAnd Iäó»m also including another piece by her, a digital reproduction of her fingerprint and written in the lines are the names of her ancestors that she researched. The labyrinth of ancestry.äó
He likes that her work begs the question äóìhow do I fit into this world?äó When Beard talks about building, he says you have to bring some kind of consciousness to it and think about what youäó»re doing, which architects are good at.
äóìHowäó»s it going to function, not just as a building and space but as part of the larger community, the city? Which, by the way, is one of the main drivers of this exhibition,äó he said. äóìWe can extend that to everyone involved in the show. Where do I fit in Tampa Bay? What kind of impact can I have? What more can we all do as a community, as separate communities, to collaborate and build this area into something really great? Why canäó»t Tampa Bay be a huge tightly networked creative hub?äó
