. Art On! Art on the Bay (Take Two)

View of the show, early in the day.

 Art On! Put this show on first back in September, but it was rained out by a deluge of quasi-Biblical proportions. The grounds around the St Pete Museum of History were pure mush in between huge puddles. I was there and reported on it. This was the rain date version of the Sept event that was rained out. Saturday, Nov 5th. Here's a few highlights from the show.

Jindra Noewi

Jindra Noewi brought this lovely floral close-up and many of her beautiful pet portraits. Her work is highly skilled. She is at ease with natural forms, human portraits, pet portraits, the human figure and also with murals. She can be contacted here: [Link]

Lost Talent

This artist goes by the name of "Lost Talent". He does grafitti-style stencil work involving photographs and multiple layers. You can see more of his work here. That link will give you a glipmse of the process, too. His FB site: [Link]. He's a very laid-back guy with a graffiti background and a very distinct style using mostly cosmopolitan street scenes.

Matt Deterior

 Matt Deterior is one of a kind, a living wellspring of creative energy. He hails from Reading, PA, now in St Pete, and paints in a throbby, distinct, edgy tribal style. His work has been reviewed  here before. We talked for a bit. Like his work, conversing with Matt is a series of staccato leaps and energy exchanges. Bright and funny, too, with a touch of David Bowie and Hunter Thompson. The work has a sense of fusion between the iconology of several indigenous peoples, art history references, folk art and more, all recontextualized into the dystopic present. I'd say future, but that's up for grabs.

This Matt quote will give you a good idea of what he's like:



“Brut, primitive, intuitive, outsider, folk, visionary, naive, untrained – whatever, I have been creating the things that I do long before I heard any of those terms used for art. When it comes to my work I could care less how the viewer decided to label it because fitting into someone’s little box will never be my goal, I am not catering to an audience, my work is strictly self serving.”

It is, and since Matt's part of our tribe, it also serves the culture, but shhh...don't tell him. I bought a painting by him on the box of an old cassette tape, with the tape still in it!  [Link].

Calan Ree's work was recently reviewed here. See here: [Link]. Her art is expanding more into larger ceramics and seems to be moving on to another level, but it's been strong for years. While at Calan's tent, there was Demeree of DemiGod Studios, another artist that was reviewed in the Kahwa show. See Dmeree's work here: [Link]

Christine Galas

Christine Galas does very stylized swirling abstracts and figurative paintings in a recognizable individuated style. They have a whimsical thing about them, are very colorful, reminiscent of some 60's work brought up to the present. I've seen her work in a new gallery in St Pete, maybe two months ago.









Congratulations to all the artists who made this show a success, and to Art On! for following through with a great rain date.

--- Luis