Filed by Daniel Miller at 5:03 pm

We are so excited to tell you more about our first “Invitational” exhibition opening Fri., Oct. 22. Each of the ten S/ART/Q artists has invited another artist from the Sarasota community to show his or her work during a special two-day engagement at 1549 State St. in downtown Sarasota. As part of our core mission of community outreach, we are creating this opportunity to recognize other artists we feel are contributing significantly to contemporary art in Sarasota.

We will be introducing each of the invited artists here on our blog and invite you to get to know them and their work. Read on to meet Steven Strenk, invited by S/ART/Q’s Joseph Arnegger.

Steven is the Head of Foundations Program as well as the instructor of the Advanced Placement Drawing course at Booker High School VPA Program. Along with his duties at the High School, he also is one of the CORE foundation instructors at Ringling College of Art and Design. On top of his busy teaching schedule, he is just as involved creating his own work. It is as diverse as the materials he works with, ranging from graphite to kinetics. His work has been referred to by some as “playful kinetics.” He has shown his work in several faculty shows at Ringling College of Art + Design, has had juried shows in Pennsylvania and Florida and most recently received recognition at an invitational show in Lakewood Ranch. Steven holds a BFA fromRingling College of Art + Design, an MFA from University of South Florida and a professional education certificate. One of his work’s is pictured at right.

Says Arnegger of his choice of Strenk for the Invitational:

The sarasota area has many artists in many different disciplines. Several are artists I admire, am influenced by or just plain have my eye on. While trying to decide which one I would like to showcase during this Invitational, a certain painting of Steven Strenk’s kept popping into my mind. This was enough of a sign for me to contact him to talk about what he and that painting had been up to, since the painting I was thinking of was made over ten years ago. To my surprise, Steve informed me that he was concentrating on sculpture, specifically kinetic. He proceeded to show me the most wonderful pieces made up of a mixture of handmade and found objects. The work not only was of superior craftsmanship and presentation but the pieces have a sense of wit and whimsy that I respond to with thought provoking smiles (my favorite). (more…)

Filed by Daniel Miller at 10:16 am

We are so excited to tell you more about our first “Invitational” exhibition opening Fri., Oct. 22. Each of the ten S/ART/Q artists has invited another artist from the Sarasota community to show his or her work during a special two-day engagement at 1549 State St. in downtown Sarasota. As part of our core mission of community outreach, we are creating this opportunity to recognize other artists we feel are contributing significantly to contemporary art in Sarasota.

We will be introducing each of the invited artists here on our blog and invite you to get to know them and their work. Read on to meet Kim Russo, invited by S/ART/Q’s Brian Haverlock.

Kim Russo has exhibited her work throughout the United States and in Ireland. She has received residency fellowships from the Lenz Foundation, Caldera, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Americans for the Arts, and a regional artist’s grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the New Mexico Museum of Art (Santa Fe, N.M.) and the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum (Lafayette, La.). Her work is included in many private collections as well. Russo was born in Darby, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. She received her BFA from Tyler School of Art (Temple University) and her MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington. Kim Russo lives and works in Sarasota, Fla. Previously she lived and worked in Santa Fe, N.M., Los Angeles, Calif., Lafayette, La. and Philadelphia, Pa. One of her works is pictured at right.

Says Haverlock of Russo’s work:

Kim Russo is a skilled draughtsman who uses appropriated imagery to inform the narrative of her drawings. I find that her recombined efforts result in strange, thoughtfully provocative representations of her experience in contemporary American culture. It is in this context where Russo sees the absence of human compassion, gentleness and humor, and voices an apparent need for social awakening through the line and value of her pencil. It is for her sensitivity to drawing and her reflective nature that I chose Kim Russo. (more…)

Filed by Daniel Miller at 9:49 am

We are so excited to tell you more about our first “Invitational” exhibition opening Fri., Oct. 22. Each of the ten S/ART/Q artists has invited another artist from the Sarasota community to show his or her work during a special two-day engagement at 1549 State St. in downtown Sarasota. As part of our core mission of community outreach, we are creating this opportunity to recognize other artists we feel are contributing significantly to contemporary art in Sarasota.

We will be introducing each of the invited artists here on our blog and invite you to get to know them and their work. Read on to meet Michael Panarella, invited by S/ART/Q’s Tim Jaeger.

Michael Panarella was born in New York but raised in Sarasota since he was one year old. This dynamic, young artist is a graduate of Ringling School of Art and Design, with a bachelors of Fine Art. His work has been shown at a number of galleries in Sarasota. Michael has created art in many styles, but most of his early work was primarily abstract painting. One of his works is pictured at right.

Says Jaeger of Panarella’s work:

There is something wonderfully peculiar about the large scale paintings of Mike Panarella, which is part of what initially drew my eye to them.

What do we expect from a portrait? A true likeness? A bit of psychological insight? Both can make a portrait work, of course. There are all sorts of portraits in this enigmatic group of work. The flamboyant female figure is undoubtedly a seductive one for Panarella, which serves as a vehicle for the mood of the artist, rather more than the sitter, around the time he was working on the picture. (more…)

Filed by Daniel Miller at 10:46 am

We are so excited to tell you more about our first “Invitational” exhibition opening Fri., Oct. 22. Each of the ten S/ART/Q artists has invited another artist from the Sarasota community to show his or her work during a special two-day engagement at 1549 State St. in downtown Sarasota. As part of our core mission of community outreach, we are creating this opportunity to recognize other artists we feel are contributing significantly to contemporary art in Sarasota.

We will be introducing each of the invited artists here on our blog and invite you to get to know them and their work. Read on to meet Jen Nugent, invited by S/ART/Q’s Daniel Miller.

Jen Nugent is a Sarasota native and fourth year Fine Arts major at Ringling College of Art + Design. She is the 2010-2011 recipient of the Trustee Scholarship for her department and a participant in the New York Studio Residency Program. One of her untitled works is pictured at right.

Says Miller of his choice:

Jen Nugent epitomizes the progressive, 21st century contemporary artist. Her fearlessness through multi-media usage such as performance art, drawing, painting and video contributes to work that questions art in its purest form as well as a way to understand herself as an art maker. As I have been an advocate of Jen Nugents past and present work, I am excited to see what is to come. (more…)

Filed by Daniel Miller at 10:11 am

We are so excited to tell you more about our first “Invitational” exhibition opening Fri., Oct. 22. Each of the ten S/ART/Q artists has invited another artist from the Sarasota community to show his or her work during a special two-day engagement at 1549 State St. in downtown Sarasota. As part of our core mission of community outreach, we are creating this opportunity to recognize other artists we feel are contributing significantly to contemporary art in Sarasota.

We will be introducing each of the invited artists here on our blog and invite you to get to know them and their work. Read on to meet Vanessa Mayoraz and Andrew Scott Ross, invited by S/ART/Q’s Nathan Skiles.

Vanessa Mayoraz received a BFA from Geneva University of Art and Design, Switzerland and an MFA from Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including Qui Vive! Young Artist Moscow Biennial; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Villa Bernasconi, Geneva, Switzerland; Chashama Gallery, New York; D.C. Art Center, Washington, D.C. She has delivered various workshops and lectures on subjects such as Artist as Archivist and Contemporary Art Practices. She is the recipient of a Pro Helvetia national Swiss grant and a Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans grant.

Andrew Scott Ross received a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art, an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He is a founding member of the artist collective Dos Pestañeos, and has been selected for a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and a CEC ArtsLink Award. Ross has exhibited throughout the United States and abroad including; The Museum of Arts and Design in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta, The Guggenheim Museum’s Peter Lewis Theater in New York, The Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, and A-Z West: The Institute of Creative Living in Joshua Tree California.

Vanessa Mayoraz and Andrew Scott Ross have studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as shown in several exibitions together. For this invitation they are creating a collaborative installation.

Says Skiles of Mayoraz and Ross:

When I think about the best of contemporary art I think about work like Vanessa Mayoraz and Andrew Scott Ross’, work that is articulate, evocative and most importantly poignant.  Their coupling of common objects and ephemeral material with the symbols of structure and history produces a body of work that profoundly plays with traditional conceptions of memory, history and society. I have chosen Vanessa and Andrew because it is their ability to profoundly play that makes them exemplarily and connects them to the best of contemporary art.

Join us from 5-10 p.m. on Fri., Oct. 22 for the opening reception of the S/ART/Q 2010 Invitational Exhibition, featuring Mayoraz and Ross’ work and ten other local contemporary artists invited by S/ART/Q.
Click here for more information.

Filed by Daniel Miller at 2:34 pm

We are so excited to tell you more about our first “Invitational” exhibition opening Fri., Oct. 22. Each of the ten S/ART/Q artists has invited another artist from the Sarasota community to show his or her work during a special two-day engagement at 1549 State St. in downtown Sarasota. As part of our core mission of community outreach, we are creating this opportunity to recognize other artists we feel are contributing significantly to contemporary art in Sarasota.

We will be introducing each of the invited artists here on our blog and invite you to get to know them and their work. Read on to meet Paul Matkowsky, invited by S/ART/Q’s Tom Stephens.

Paul Matkowsky attended the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C. 1991-1994. “I gained most of my ethical foundation from working within blue collar and corporate America and recognize this lesson in discipline, determination, and common sense as a valuable tool for the creation of artwork. Outside of the ethical necessities, I believe fine art is a psychological endeavor and to truly understand fine art we must appreciate the psyche. My life experiences and investments into subculture have provided me with a distinctive ability to explore psyche artistically, ” says Matkowsky. His work “The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion” is pictured at right.

Says Stephens of Matkowsky:

Filed by Daniel Miller at 9:55 am

We are so excited to tell you more about our first “Invitational” exhibition opening Fri., Oct. 22. Each of the ten S/ART/Q artists has invited another artist from the Sarasota community to show his or her work during a special two-day engagement at 1549 State St. in downtown Sarasota. As part of our core mission of community outreach, we are creating this opportunity to recognize other artists we feel are contributing significantly to contemporary art in Sarasota.

We will be introducing each of the invited artists here on our blog and invite you to get to know them and their work. Read on to meet Caui Lofgren, invited by S/ART/Q’s Daniel Perales.

Caui Lofgren received his MFA and BA from the University of Florida and has exhibited his work in Gainesville, Sarasota, and Miami. He currently oversees the Art program at the Pendleton School at IMG Academies in Bradenton Florida. His drawing “Double Bubble” is pictured at right.

Perales explains that he invited Lofgren because:

Caui Lofgren’s constant smile and punchy laugh are a pleasant reminder how nice it is to associate with people and how art can be fun, engaging and entertaining. I worked with Caui for over a year and have since been impressed by his perspective, commentary, and whim in creating art work. (more…)

Filed by Daniel Miller at 11:20 am