New Exhibitions in September August 26 2016
New Smyrna Beach, FL — Arts on Douglas announces the opening of two new exhibitions for the month of September. In the featured gallery, Orlando-based painter Robert Ross presents In Plain Sight: New Paintings by Robert Ross, on view September 3 - 24, 2016, with an opening reception on Saturday, September 3 from 4-7pm. In the alt_space gallery, Gainesville artist Victor Perez presents Funhouse, on view September 3 - October 15, 2016, with an opening reception on Saturday, September 3 from 4-7pm. Arts on Douglas will also host an Artists Talk with Robert Ross on Friday, September 16, 11am. All exhibitions, receptions, and Artists Talk events are free and open to the public.
In the featured gallery:
In Plain Sight: New Paintings by Robert Ross
On view: September 3 - 24, 2016
Opening reception: Saturday, September 3, 4-7pm
Artists Talk: Friday, September 16, 11am
Robert Ross’ paintings are marked with a deceptive simplicity, revealing the essential character of his landscapes, interiors and still lifes. Ross enlivens the character of overlooked places-alleys, demolition sites, abandoned farms, and empty rooms-with loose brushwork, strong color, and asymmetrical compositions.
Ross spent the past seven years painting landscapes ‘en plein air’ which has taught him to look intensely at his subject as well as respond quickly and decisively to the dramatic challenges of shifting light and shadow. This past spring, Ross attended a 2-week artist residency at the Glen Arbor Art Association in Michigan. The residency’s intent is to provide visiting artists with a respite from daily responsibilities to enable them to concentrate on their work. For Ross, this respite afforded him the opportunity to explore themes of relationship and memory. The result was a simplification in his painting with a greater focus on emotional and perceptual responses. The empty spaces emerge as the true subjects of his paintings, becoming visual meditations and implied narratives on absence and desire.
Ross has been working more in the studio. “Now I look more intensely at the painting rather than its ‘subject’ derived from nature. I still use the perceptual tools I learned painting outdoors, but I am taking more time to explore design and pattern in my subject,” explains the artist. "I catch glimpses of the mysterious beauty and hidden life of ordinary objects and places that we see ‘in plain sight, but fail to truly see.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Robert Ross’s urban and rural landscape paintings have been exhibited in a growing number of venues throughout Central Florida, including Anita Wooten Gallery at Valencia State College, Winter Park City Hall, Orlando City Hall, Maitland City Hall, Orange County Chambers, Orlando Museum of Art, Gallery at Avalon Island, and Casselberry Art House. Ross has been a participating artist in the Winter Park Paint Out sponsored by the Albin Polasek Museum and he was an “Artist in Action” for 2014 at Maitland Art Center. He received his art education at Oakland University, Crealde School of Art in Winter Park, and in master workshops taught by Stuart Shils. Ross currently maintains a full-time studio at McRae Art Studios in Winter Park, Florida.
In the alt_space:
Victor Perez
Funhouse
On view: September 3 - October 15, 2016
Opening reception: Saturday, September 3, 4-7pm
Victor Perez's exhibition, Funhouse, transforms the alt-space gallery into a midway attraction. The mixed media installation showcases a riot of color, illusory pattern, and geometric form, demonstrating Perez’s capacity to experiment and innovate within the constraints of simplified lines and shapes, further leading him to expand his practice with the use of unexpected materials and pursuit for new meanings.
Familiar concepts and imagery undergo the distortion mirror treatment in the artist’s Funhouse. For example, the large-scale mixed media piece Crystal Blue, the artist alters the concept of paradise. Ocean waves break not on shore but into geometric repetition and wild pink flamingos are recast in plastic. In Tropical Depression, familiar patterns arise and grab the viewer's attention. Perez subverts these patterns with additions of contrived imperfections that suggest instability reflected in the brushstrokes and slight wobbles in the line.
Perez states, “While the physicality of my work blurs the boundary between image and object, its severity is softened by its pairing with domestic materials. This pairing elicits a desire to play with the familiar, possibly bringing our perceptions into question, hence the show’s title Funhouse.”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Victor Perez received his BFA from the University of Florida. He is the recipient of an honorable mention in Dave Bown Projects Semi-Annual Juried Competition. Perez was selected as an associate for Sanford Biggers residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts this fall. He lives and works in Gainesville, FL.