Business for the Arts of Broward (BFA) has partnered once again with GALLERYone DoubleTree Suites by Hilton to host “Inspired,” an art exhibition that features the work of 10 artists from Jacksonville to Tampa and South Florida. The exhibit will be on display throughout the lobby at the GALLERYone DoubleTree Suites by Hilton, located at 2670 E. Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale from May 14 through November 16. An opening reception to celebrate the launch of this exhibit takes place on Monday, May 14 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. The event is open to the public. RSVP is required to rvegas@bfabroward.org.
Proceeds from the works sold benefit Business for the Arts of Broward and the artists. Business for the Arts Broward supports and promotes local arts and cultural non-profits and projects including such innovative programming as the free Arts Mean Business speaker series, Art in the Workplace, Cultural Tours and Artist Encounters.
The exhibit’s contributing artists are:
Genie Appel-Cohen has been inspired to paint women over the age of 50. She is especially interested in women who work with their hands. In our commercial society, youth and sex sells and, as a painter and colored pencil artist, she is presenting another view of women – those who celebrate life and creativity.
Sharon Dash’s “Corporate Character” was inspired by numerous events related to America’s financial industry. The towering figure, with his stock market covered suit and dollar-sign red tie, is symbolic of how Wall Street drives power and money, overshadowing the generic city below. It is meant to bring attention to the dominant role Wall Street plays in our everyday lives and its impact worldwide.
Kevin Grass has been fascinated with realism ever since he first picked up a pencil. With each new piece, Grass attempts to improve upon his brand of realism, which combines Flemish painting and contemporary Photorealism, ultimately making it hard to distinguish between the actual subject and the image. Grass’ brand of realism sets him apart from most other artists and it is what initially draws viewers to his work.
Susan Hanssen draws inspiration from taking an idea, cliché or metaphor and turning them into visual experiences. She finds it challenging to put a twist on the familiar or a question on the ordinary. An idea that works is her pure inspiration.
Dustin Harewood is an artist whose imagery is based on memories and ideas, not photographs. Harewood wants his reef drawings to suggest a gnarled elegance, quiet beauty and sadness. As far as humans are concerned, he finds it fascinating that there are many instances when people unwittingly destroy the things that they love.
Elaine Harvey is a passionate painter with an urge inside that can only be relieved by painting. Each canvas that she finishes is a journey further into another realm as well as into herself. Blending surrealism with realism, Harvey’s pop surreal art reveals the characters of her portraits with their emotive eyes and evocative facial expressions.
Amanda Moon is an artist whose work is connected to the process of transformation. It is meant to challenge the physicality, solidity and gravity of reality. Through her creative process, she is confronting the dualities of the internal and the external, the physical and the energetic, the form and the formless in an effort to integrate these elements, merging them together.
William Phelps Montgomery thinks that artists have always struggled with originality, color, space, design and reason. Like scientists, artists study materials and tradition to turn abstract information into concise works of art. The work that Phelps Montgomery produces reflects the personal marriage he’s made between the highly sophisticated devices of digital technology and modern science with subjective, intuitive, impulses of abstract expressionism.
Lori Samuels is passionate about her art, health and wellness and paying it forward. A diagnosis of breast cancer in 2004 put her on a lifetime journey of healing. The desire to heal herself and others through her art encouraged Samuels to devote herself to work that is authentic and inspiring. Partial proceeds from all her paintings benefit Touch A Heart Foundation (www.touchaheartfoundation.org) and other charities.
Maria Wieder trained in the European realism style and recently began to experiment with portraiture. Her series of paintings combining some of the portrait works of famous artists and adding pears to them was an attempt to explore their paintings styles. Wieder admires Van Gogh, Klimt and Kahlo’s portraits and feels she has established an artistic connection to them.
More information available HERE.