Brush to canvas: News from the art community

Chad Mize’s latest pop-up exhibition, Maze: a beautiful and complex journey, opens with a reception 6-9 p.m. Friday at the FloridaRAMA Gallery. Exploring thoughts, dreams and pivotal moments in LGBTQ+ history, it features works from (among many others) Rhys Meatyard, Katie Niewodowski, Andrea Pawlisz, Chad Jabobs, Gloria Muñoz, Jay Hoff, Painkiller Cam, Lucky LeRopy, Saumitra Chandratreya, Dylan Marvin, Wasil, Cristi López and Mize himself.

Mize’s talk Thursday at the Dali Museum, in celebration of Pride Month, is sold out.

New this week and afterwards

“Not an Idle Minute,” oil by Heide Press at the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art.

Opening Friday with a reception (5-9 p.m.) at Pinellas Park’s Studios@5663, VISIBLE: Seen and Heard features works by Wendy Bruce, Lori Vinesett, Beth Belaschky and Katie Pavone. Running through June 28, the exhibition includes paintings, threadworks, sculptures, photography and mixed media.

The artists met as gallery hosts at Creative Pinellas; all had retired and were seeking new creative horizons. “After completing our careers, we just wanted to have visibility as artists,” says Bruce, who spent 35 years teaching school. “This is how we formed the group known as VISIBLE. We support one another in our efforts to ‘be seen and heard.'”

The exhibition was kickstarted with a Creative Pinellas grant.

Photography by Beth Belaschky is part of a new exhibition at Galleries@5663 in Pinellas Park.

Gallery hours (at 5663 Park Blvd.) are 12-5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 12-5 Saturday.

Havana-born mixed-media artist Karel Garcia will attend Friday’s (6-9 p.m.) reception at Brenda McMahon Gallery in Gulfport. Garcia’s exhibition, Truth and Freedom, includes oil, acrylic, charcoal, India ink and gouache. His exhibit is sponsored by We Art St. Pete, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting BIPOC artists.

Friday, 5:30-8:30 p.m. at Florida CraftArt: A reception for the current show, 99 Bottles, works in glass, ceramics, metal, wood, fibers and mixed media in which artists “explore the bottle as both a form and an idea.”

The next show at the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art is Perseverance: A Woman’s Journey West, opening June 14. The collection of oil paintings and graphite by artist Heide Presse depict day-to-day pioneer life through the eyes of a woman who lived it (Keturah Belknap, 1820–1913). It’s complemented by period artifacts, reproduction quilts and a covered wagon. Presse herself will speak during the opening day event. Perseverance will run through Sept. 28.

Multimedia artist Nina Yankowitz blends painting, textiles, sound and technology. Her pioneering work goes on view at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg starting June 21, with an immersive exhibition called In the Out/Out the In.

“I have probed the material, political, and sonic nature of abstract art when addressing social justice-for-all concerns throughout my six-decade career,” writes the veteran New York-based artist. “It’s been a profound experience to realize the arc of time that has occurred while working on my retrospective exhibit with curator Katherine Pill at St. Pete Museum of Art. I love the collaborative ways we together have designed the gallery spaces via color and also appreciate Katherine’s unique ability to bring my works into other museum programs.”

In the Out/Out the in will run through Sept. 21. Yankowitz will perform (with a synth mixer) at the museum on Sept. 19, and give an artist talk the following day.