LEFT: “Memento Mori, Memento Vivere” by Perry deVick, Honorable Mention. ABOVE: “Breaking Free” by Ravi Venkataraman, Second Place.
Art lovers are in for a treat, as Art Center Sarasota presents its largest juried exhibition of the season, “Identity: Exploring the Human Condition.” The show features more than 100 artworks in just about every category, including oils, watercolors, mixed media and sculpture.
Juror Christy Paris, an art professor and Ph.D. candidate in the College of Education at the University of South Florida, curated the exhibit and selected the final winners — an arduous process.
“Thematically, there were a lot of different approaches to this overarching description, and there are works that are dealing with race and politics and gender and age, family and money,” she said. “And what was also really interesting is that there was also a variety of mediums submitted to the show. I thought that was really intriguing to see not just painting and sculpture, but also photography and a new kind of art with digital manipulation.
“Everything was just really inspiring to look through and go through … it was incredibly hard to choose the winners … this one, this one, this one. And then I had to narrow it down. So, I spent a long time, kind of going through and looking at everything that had been submitted.”
LENNIE DUENSING / COURTESY PHOTO
To better understand the scope of her duties, one has to know that more than 300 works were submitted.
“There were incredible techniques that I have not seen. I was really inspired by the different approaches. I think you all did a great job,” Paris said. “I was incredibly impressed by all the submissions and the talent each artist demonstrated through skill, and creatively and uniquely handling the mediums. This exhibition is filled with a diverse array of voices and styles, and it was an honor to be part of the selection process.”
The exhibition is accessible to all, Paris said.
“The submissions allow for everyone to have their own opinion and have that opinion validated. The goal is education and everyone’s point of view matters.”
According to Christina Baril, Art Center Sarasota’s exhibitions director, the annual regional exhibit “showcases a broad range of perspectives and reactions from an exceptionally diverse group of artists.” The theme, “Identity: Exploring the Human Condition,” she said, “is meant to “highlight the journey, the turmoil and the ecstasy of the human condition. These artworks may reinforce the underlying communication of emotional truth as only understood by other human beings.”
Paris’s dissertation focuses on queer inclusivity in art- and museum-based educational settings, drawing on an exhibition she curated in the fall of 2022, entitled “#visibleUSF: Queering the Art Narrative through Curatorial Activism.” The exhibition included works created by LGBTQIA+ artists from USF and pieces from the USF Library’s LGBTQ Special Collections. She earned a museum studies graduate certificate from Florida State University focusing on museum education, and interned at the Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee while earning her master’s degree in interdisciplinary humanities. During that time, she co-curated “Photographing the City” at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. Paris has taught humanities, film and art history at FSU, USF and the University of Tampa, specializing in modern art, contemporary art, art theory and museum education.
“Everybody Smiled” by Jana Millstone, Merit Award LENNIE DUENSING / COURTESY PHOTO
The winners of the exhibition are:
• George Zebot (Venice), First Place ($800) for “Healing Democracy,” 2021, Oil on Wood.
• Julie White (out-of-state), Second Place ($600) for “Reflection,” 2022, Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas.
• Ravi Venkataraman (Longboat Key), Third Place ($400) for “Breaking Free,” 2023, Acrylic on Wood.
• Eva Bejar (Brandon), Merit Award ($100) for “Roses on Grey,” 2021, Oil on Canvas.
• Jana Millstone (Sarasota), Merit Award ($100) for “Everybody Smiled,” 2021, Acrylic on Wood.
“Roses on Grey” by Eva Bejar, Merit Award LENNIE DUENSING / COURTESY PHOTO
• Ann Kozeliski (Tallahassee), Honorable Mention ($50) for “Enough for the Bus,” 2022, Sumi-e, Asian Watercolors on Single Shuen Paper.
• Perry deVick (St. Petersburg), Honorable Mention ($50) for “Memento Mori, Memento Vivere,” 2020, Oil on Wood Panel.
• Richard Monteleone (Bradenton), Honorable Mention ($50) for “Chemical Isolation,” 2021, Oil on Canvas.
• Denise Pruett (Fort Myers), Honorable Mention ($50) for “Internal Struggle,” 2022, Photography.
The last show of the season will be “An Abstract View,” for which submissions are now being accepted until 11:59 p.m. Sunday, July 23. The exhibition will take place Aug. 24 to Sept. 30.
For more information, see www.artsarasota.org.
“Internal Struggle” by Denise Pruett, Honorable Mention LENNIE DUENSING / COURTESY PHOTO
This content was originally published here.