The Gadsden Arts Center & Museum presents an exciting exhibition, Contemporary Art from the Coast, opening Friday, April 14, 2017 from 6–9pm in the Sara May Love Gallery. The exhibition features cutting edge work by artists living and working along Florida’s Forgotten Coast, the region stretching along the Gulf of Mexico from St. Marks to Port St. Joe – Jaime Llewelyn, Joyce Estes, Joe Kotzman and Leslie Wentzell. Three of these artists, Estes, Kotzman and Wentzell, will offer presentations about their work at 6:30opening night in the Woodell Family Art Studio. Opening receptions are offered free and open to the public.
Sculptor Jaime Llewelyn allows the earthiness of clay to guide the organic and natural forms she creates; Joyce Estes, a silk master designer, uses vibrant French dyes on silk allow for free-flowing and elegant designs; award-winning watercolorist Joe Kotzman creates imaginative and subconsciously fanciful imagery derives from childhood folk tales; and sculptural ceramicist Leslie Wentzell, uses the textures, colors, patterns, and linear movement found in nature to create hand-built clay sculptures. The exhibition will examine the ways in which a shared environment can inspire artists working within different mediums and how each personally connects with nature to capture the region’s beauty.
Also opening the same night in the Zoe Golloway Gallery is the exhibit MJ Lord: Warp-Weft-Image, a visually immersive display of tapestries by weaver Mary Jane Lord. With over thirty years of experience creating textile arts, her work is aimed at the play between imagery and texture, with a current focus on the interaction between colors, both in her abstracted creations and within nature.
Contemporary Art from the Coast and MJ Lord: Warp-Weft-Image, will be on view from Friday, April 14-Saturday, June 24, 2017. Suggested exhibitions admission is $5 (members and children free), with guided tours available for any group with a reservation by calling850-627-5023.
The Gadsden Arts Center & Museum, Florida’s 27th art museum to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is located at 13 N. Madison Street, Quincy, Florida, just 20 minutes from Tallahassee. Exhibitions in four galleries and our Bates Community Room change quarterly. The museum also offers a Museum Shop and studio art programs for children through adults. For more information, please call (850) 875-4866 or visit www.gadsdenarts.org.