On July 14, the Delray Beach Center for the Arts, in cooperation with the Cornell Museum of Art, opened a new internationally renowned exhibit called REIMAGINED, which features 16 internationally recognized artists using unconventional and innovative materials to create avant-garde artwork.
About the REIMAGINED artists:
Steve Blackwood is an internationally known sculptor based in Palm Beach County, where he owns a gallery and studio. He is also represented by Cacace Fine Art located in Artists Alley, here in Delray Beach. Steve is a master of materials, often combining wood, steel, neon and fiberglass. “His work tells stories. The idea is that objects have had a unique history of their own. By joining the individual elements together to create new objects he gives them a new life that reminds us of where we have come from. That life is amazing and complex.” — Atlantic Avenue magazine.Steve simultaneously developed his sculpture and design careers over the course of 25 years. As an art director his clients included Playboy, Smithsonian, Time-Life, NY City Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Mastercard and VISA. As a sculptor he has shown in New York, Chicago and Washington DC, and his works can be found in museums, U.S. Government collections and private collections world-wide. Steve’s next local exhibition will be in September at the Palm Beach Cultural Council galleries in Lake Worth. He holds a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago as well as AAS degrees in Advertising, Design and Marketing and has taught at the college level.
Pepe Calderin was born in Havana, Cuba in 1957 and came to the United States with his parents and brother in 1970. Beginning his creative career as an errand runner for a local architect, he is now the president of his own esteemed interior design firm, Pepe Calderin Design. With a flair for the imaginative and a deep respect for the spiritual, his work seeks to connect the soul with the physical environment. That very philosophy shines through in his mixed media series of artwork. Inspired by the “misguided value” society places on the material world, his pieces transform old or recycled items into familiar images that reflect what he believes the world should place value on: love, family, community, and the environment.
Michael Chearney grew up in Baltimore and learned to paint from his immigrant grandparents. They inspired him to look at the world creatively, and to color outside the lines. Chearney has stated that “art is a living thing, and that the process involves mind, body, and spirit.” His paintings have impressionistic overtones, and each one relates a different message. In 2013, Chearney was recognized as ATOD Magazine’s Male Artist of the Year. Exhibitions include Red Dot Miami, the Palm Springs Fine Art Show, INCOGNITO 2013 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and solo shows at the George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles. His work has been in nationwide group exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami.
Brian Dettmer is a New York-based artist known for his detailed and innovative sculptures with books and other forms of antiquated media. Dettmer’s work has been exhibited, internationally, in numerous solo and group exhibitions at galleries, museums and art centers including the Smithsonian (D.C.), Museum of Arts and Design (NY), Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (VA), Museum of Contemporary Art (GA), Museum Rijswijh (Netherlands), Wellcome Collection (England), the Bellevue Arts Museum (WA), The Kohler Arts Center (WI), and the Illinois State Museums (IL). His work has been featured on the CBS Evening News and in The New York Times (US), The Los Angeles Times (U.S.), The Guardian (UK), The Telegraph (UK), Chicago Tribune (US), The Age (AU), ARTnews, Modern Painters, Wired, The Village Voice, Harper’s, Esquire, and on National Public Radio, among others. Dettmer’s work can be found in several public and private collections throughout the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
Sayaka Ganz was born in Yokohama, Japan and grew up living in Japan, Brazil, and Hong Kong. She grew up with the Shinto animist belief that all things in the world have spirits. Thus, she works with reclaimed plastic objects to create sculptures that depict animals in motion. Plastic materials range from cutlery to sunglasses to baskets collected from dustbins, charity shops, and from donations. Her philosophy does not condemn the use of plastics, but rather expresses their beauty and what can be created from repurposed plastic; value can ultimately reduce waste. Ganz’s work has been exhibited throughout the world, in both solo and group shows. She possesses an MFA in 3D Studies with a concentration in sculpture from Bowling Green State University. Her sculptures have been privately collected, and she has permanent installations throughout the world.
Nick Gentry, a British artist from London, is best known for recycling obsolete media and for reuse of personal objects in his work. By using 35mm film negatives, VHS tapes, X-ray prints, and floppy disks, his works comment on the speed of change in today’s world. Of these works, Gentry himself notes that, “today we go to great lengths to create a digital identity in addition to the actual lives we live, with the belief that these online records are only growing in importance and will outlive us.” Gentry’s artworks have been featured in galleries in the UK, the U.S., and in other cities throughout the world.
Tina LaPorta uses her art to comment on mental illness, after being diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2009. Her works use both prescriptions she has been prescribed herself, as well as easily accessible over-the-counter pills. The result of LaPorta’s use of pills in her work illustrates the side effects, company ad campaigns, and the self-medicated consumerism of today’s culture. Her work displays struggles that are often hidden in plain view, and as she says, this body of work she has created is “inseparable from her own.” LaPorta’s current work is the result of years of misdiagnoses and pain. She was prescribed numerous medications that did not help her, and she endured several hospital stays. Once she relocated to Florida and was accurately diagnosed, she then had to undergo finding the medication that would work for her. LaPorta is from Chicago and possesses a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY. She has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S. as well as in several cities throughout the world.
Christopher Marley has a fascination with insects that began in his childhood — mainly with ways on how to avoid them. He saw insects as all that was wrong with nature. Eventually, however, he discovered beauty and elegance as he more closely studied the insect world. Many people view insects the way Marley viewed them as a child; in order to help his audience overcome their fears, the insects are displayed far out of their natural context and arranged geometrically. The end result is a colorful work of art that showcases nature’s story. Marley’s passion for insects has taken him to some very interesting places around the world, including countries in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe, to collect the specimen used in his artwork. In response to inquiries, Marley explains that his collecting of insects is not harmful to their populations, however, what is detrimental is the destruction of insect habitats. Marley is an avid naturalist who is passionate about his work.
Jessica McCambly, who is originally from Massachusetts, has said that she grew up around the ocean, collecting sea glass, shells, and rocks. She credits this, as well as playing in her grandmother’s costume jewelry box, to her desire to chase beauty. On her webpage, she states that she wants her work to “look like nothing, and then everything.” Beauty is certainly accomplished in her geode creations. McCambly’s unique mixture of acrylic and glass paintings form jeweled creations that draw the viewer in for a closer look. Currently, McCambly resides and works in San Diego, CA. She holds an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of North Texas, College of Visual Arts and Design. Her work has been featured in galleries both nationally and internationally.
Kathleen McCloud lives and works in rural La Cienguilla, which is Southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The landscape in which she lives provides her with countless inspiration for her work. McCloud’s mediums include fabric, paper, paint, printmaking, collage, and installation. Her work has been exhibited in solo shows across New Mexico, as well as in group shows across the United States. Some of her career highlights include a guest artist presentation at Sheridan College; Jentel Artist Residency; and The Artist is In, a public presentation of her ongoing project Open Letters from the Hotel Central: Correspondence between Henry Miller, Emil Schnellock and Posterity at Axle Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Jason Mecier is a mosaic portrait artist, who clearly enjoys having fun with his work. Using mediums such as food, junk, and candy (to name only a few), he carefully creates mosaics that are vivid and amusing, with subjects such as Kevin Bacon made of bacon, and Honey Boo Boo made of 25 lbs. of trash. Mecier’s mosaics never cease to delight and charm. His website also showcases his sense of humor; he clearly enjoys interacting with his audience, and he wants to help others enjoy his work. He even has a request for “Special Junk” on his site, requesting interesting trinkets that he could potentially use in his art. Mecier’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times, and has also been featured on the TV shows Glee, Rachel Ray, and TMZ. He also has portraits hanging in Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museums, numerous celebrity homes, and the Playboy Mansion.
Donna Rosenthal works with mixed materials that bridge the gap between art and craft and which almost always reference the past. Most often, she deconstructs vintage textiles and printed papers, such as magazines, comic books, cookbooks, romance novels, catalogs, music sheets and atlases. They are then transformed into something entirely different by cutting, folding, sewing and gluing. She also knits or crochets a variety of metal wires, including silver, nickel, brass, and copper. Each piece is embellished with embroidery, trim, buttons, costume jewelry, glitter and hardware store items. Furniture, paint, and gold and silver leaf may be used to complete the work. Rosenthal was born in New Haven, Connecticut and received her MFA in mixed media sculpture from Long Island University. Her works have been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the U.S.
Troy Simmons is a Miami artist, who has immersed himself in his latest artwork, exploring the evolution of urbanism and nature’s persistence to coexist. A consistent theme, which echoes true to his intense fascination with nature and modern Brutalist Architecture. His massive, large-scale concrete canvases are a mix of acrylic paints and raw concrete. At first glance, the magnitude of his work is clearly realized. Most of his pieces weight over 100 pounds. A rough and raw relationship often described as a cataclysmic illustration of urbanism. The inspiration behind his latest series evolved after a recent trip to Germany. He spent time with his wife’s family exploring Baden-Württemberg in the southern part of the country. The postwar architecture is a fragmentation of Germany’s traditional heritage mixed with simple modern construction. Simmons currently works as a full-time artist, but his educational background is in Architecture and Environmental Science. He studied at Sam Houston State University and worked as an Environmental Lab Technician in Houston, Texas. He later went on to Oklahoma State University and earned a degree in Architectural Design.
Paul Villinski has a lifelong concern for environmental issues, and this is reflected in the work he creates. Villinski’s work often repurposes discarded materials, such as found beer cans, which he turns into wondrous creations. Metaphors of flight and soaring also often appear in his work, as evident by his use of butterflies. Villinski’s work is permanently displayed in numerous museums, including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the New Orleans Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Art in Richmond, Miami International Airport; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville (FL) and the University of Michigan Mott Children’s and Von Voitlander Women’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI. Publications featuring Villinski’s work include ARTnews, Artforum, Art in America, Sculpture, Interior Design, Design Bureau, New York Magazine, ID, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, International Herald Tribune, Village Voice, Seattle Times, New Haven Register, Toronto Star, and the Times-Picayune.
Dale Wayne works with discarded plastic trash and repurposes it. Working with plastic bottles, she creates bright and bold sculptures. She has involved the Orlando community in some of her larger projects, including the creation of a recycled plastic tree for the Festival of Trees in the Orlando Museum of Art. Wayne also creates jewelry from recycled plastics. She finds new and interesting ways to reuse plastic, and by doing so helps promote environmental awareness.
Max Zorn is a Dutch artist who has been active in street art at night and urban art since May 2011. His style is notable for its use of brown packing tape as a medium and cutting on acrylic glass with a scalpel to create portraits that need lighting from behind to be seen. Max Zorn’s work has been hung on street lamps in Germany, United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, France, and The Netherlands. His work has also been spotted in Key West, Canada and Hong Kong. Through his project, Stick Together, his work has also been put on street lamps by fans worldwide. He has created commissioned pieces for, among others, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum in Orlando, Florida. In spring 2012, Zorn was invited by the Sovereign Art Foundation to perform a live tape at Art Basel Hong Kong, where proceeds of his work went to the foundation for disadvantaged children in Southeast Asia.
The exhibit is open until September 6, 2015, and will be available to view during normal museum hours. The Cornell Museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Admission is a suggested $5 donation.
The museum is located on the campus of Delray Beach Center for the Arts at Old School Square, 51 N. Swinton Avenue in downtown Delray Beach. Follow the Cornell Museum of Art on Twitter and Instagram, and the Delray Center for the Arts on Facebook.
The Cornell Museum of Art participates with First Friday Art Walk, a downtown Delray Beach gallery promotion. The museum galleries will be open from 6 to 9 p.m. on August 7 and September 4.
Now celebrating its 25th Anniversary Season, Delray Beach Center for the Arts offers “a total arts experience™” through events, theater, exhibits and learning opportunities. The historic campus includes the intimate Crest Theatre (in the restored 1925 Delray High School building) the Cornell Museum of Art (in the 1913 Delray Elementary building), and the Vintage Gymnasium (c. 1925). The Pavilion, which opened in 2002, hosts outdoor concerts and festivals. The School of Creative Arts (located on the second floor of the Crest Theatre) offers art, photography and writing classes and workshops. The Center also serves as a venue for community, corporate, private and media events. For information on performances, exhibits, classes or facility rentals, call 561-243-7922 or visit DelrayArts.org.
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This project is sponsored in part by the State of Florida through the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.