Mark Ryden -- Happy Birthday -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

Happy Birthday Mark Ryden. Born January 20th 1963 in Medford, Oregon. 
Mark was raised in Southern California and now resides in LA. Mark has seen his star rise the past fifteen years, from relative obscurity to top selling artist commanding huge prices for his work. I have gushed about Mark on this blog before, you can find my post about him HERE.

A great quote attributed to Mark;
“There is a very dark and painful side to life, but that is natural. People in our culture think they shouldn’t ever be unhappy. They think being unhappy is unnatural. They try and make it go away. They take pills or they go to therapy to “fix” themselves. They blame themselves or others for their suffering. We need to understand that sadness is as much a part of this life as joy. It would be easy to just get bitter and cold while focusing on the dark side, but there is also an amazing, wonderful side of life. If you look for it, there is true magic all around us. Maybe that sounds trite to the hardened self-protective modern ego, but there is magic in this miraculous life. If you open yourself, you do make yourself vulnerable to pain but the deeper pain you experience, the deeper joy you can have.”
Please visit these two Mark Ryden websites for more;
Mark Ryden website
Wondertoonel website 

"All Locals" Show Opening at Bear and Bird -- Saturday Night -- posted by Florida Fine Art

Be There Be Square - Local's Only Art Show
Saturday, January 15th from 6 - 10pm at Bear and Bird

For Show Information and Directions - www.bearandbird.com
For info on being a part of our next "All Locals Welcome" art visit www.tatescomics.com/localartists!

Call to Artists -- All-Media Juried Biennial 2011 -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood - All-Media Juried Biennial 2011
Entry deadline: Jan. 31, 2011

Exhibition runs: April 30 – June 5, 2011

All artists residing in the state of Florida are invited to submit entries for the Art and Culture Center’s All-Media Juried Biennial 2011.

Original paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photography, video, computer-generated images, performance, and site-specific installations will be considered.
Awards

Cash awards totaling $4,000 will be distributed as follows:
$2,000 Best in Show
$1,000 First Place
$600 Second Place
$400 Third Place

To find Guidelines and Entry Form follow this link

Art and Culture Center of Hollywood website

John Singer Sargent -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY -- by Florida Fine Art Blog

John Singer Sargent  (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925)

John Singer Sargent was a working man's artist, never concerning himself with what his critics called his anachronous state.  John wanted to sell paintings, not push boundaries, and he became the premier portrait artist of his time.  His supporters and clients were the important people of the day.  He completed hundreds of portraits for European Royalty, US Presidents, Generals and Business Tycoons. 

Salvador Dalí Museum Grand Opening -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Grand Opening of the New Salvador Dalí Museum
1 - 11 - 11 at 11am Saint Petersburg, Florida

The Maestro himself would love what is going on this week in St. Petersburg, Florida.  This Tuesday the man who focused his art on Metamorphosis will see a great transformation take place to the largest collection of his artwork outside Spain.  The new Dali Museum will open just blocks away from the museum space that had held his artwork for years.  The museum and the city of St. Pete have created a spectacle opening worthy of the artist and his work.

Billed as a "surreal procession" the festivites start at the old museum at 1000 Third St. S., at 9:30 a.m. and concluding at the new museum, located eight blocks north at One Dalí Blvd.  The procession will include VIP guests and dignitaries, entertainers, models and musicians, plus the Krewe of the Knights of Sant’ Yago and a Dalí look alike in a horse and carriage.  The entertainment continues at the new Dalí Museum, starting with a 30-second Horn Fanfare by the Florida Orchestra Brass Quintet.

A dedication program and a ribbon cutting ceremony led by the King and Queen of Spain’s youngest daughter, S.A.R. la Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, begins at 11 a.m. The ceremony will conclude at noon and mark the beginning of a new era for the Dalí.


More after the Fold

University of Miami's Beaux Arts Festival This Weekend! -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

The 60th Annual Beaux Arts' Festival of Art will take place January 8th and 9th, 2011 on the grounds of University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.  The festival is open each day from 10 AM to 5 PM.

I have grown tired of most outdoor art festivals that take place in South Florida.  The crowds and the exhibitors, quite frankly, are not interested in art anymore.  Most of the time the crowds are just out to walk their dogs and be "seen" and the exhibitors have become more about crafts and home wares then real art. What makes this event stand out from the other outdoor art festivals is the quality of work.  The show is juried and the prize money is significant enough to attract the highly skilled artist.  Another bonus to this show along with it being free to the public is that the Lowe Museum itself is open and free.

This year's event of the region's oldest juried fine art show boasts over 240 artists from 30 states, Canada, and Israel and working in 10 distinct mediums. GL

 Beaux Arts Festival website

Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville picks new Director -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

MOCA Jacksonville chooses Monterey Museum of Art chief curator as its new director.
Marcelle Polednik, chief curator of the Monterey Museum of Art in Monterey, Calif., has been hired as the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.  Polednik, 33, begins her new job Feb. 21.

She replaces Deborah Broder, who resigned in September to take a position with the Baltimore Symphony.

Her goals for MOCA Jacksonville are to expand the relationship with UNF, attract ambitious exhibits, build the permanent collection and bring financial stability to the museum.  Eventually, she said, "... MOCA Jacksonville will undoubtedly emerge as a singular and significant member of the regional and national arts community."

The MOCA in Jacksonville has had some serious financial trouble in the past.  I think the pick of such a young new director along with the partnership to the University is going to be interesting to watch.  The museum should be a vital part of Jacksonville and the downtown revitalization that is taking place.  GL

The Florida-Times Union Article about the New Director

Museum in Winter Park to showcase Tiffany glass works -- posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

The last major art works from the estate of American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany will go on permanent display for the first time in February at Florida's Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art.

From Reuters Life! -- A new 6,000-square-foot gallery at the Winter Park museum will be opened on February 19, nearly 54 years after a fire destroyed Laurelton Hall, the turn-of-the-century New York home of Tiffany, who was best known for his leaded glass works.

The gallery will house the surviving components of the estate, including the reassembled Daffodil Terrace, an outdoor room marked by eight 11-foot (3.4 meter) marble columns topped with wreaths of glass flowers and covered by a cedar, tile and glass ceiling.

"Laurelton Hall was not simply another house that he did," said Laurence J. Ruggiero, the director of the museum. "Tiffany saw this as a statement about art and philosophy and an attitude about life."

Over the past five years, the museum has been developing the new gallery designed to display Tiffany's remaining large-scale works in a manner that suggests their placement at his estate, as well as his love of natural beauty and his style of blurring the line between indoors and outdoors.  The gallery will also include 250 objects from or related to the estate.

The Morse Museum also houses the Tiffany Chapel, a Byzantine-inspired interior created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and an extensive collection of Tiffany pottery, jewelry, ecclesiastical works and lead-line drawings which served as patterns for his glass works.  There are also thousands of photographs and business records from his studio. GL

Link to Reuters Article