Brush to canvas: Visual art news and events

The Tully-Levine Gallery, on the Warehouse Arts District Association’s ArtsXchange campus, has a history of working with groups that cater to the underprivileged, people with mental disabilities and more – those struggling with the issues that life sometimes throws down in front of them.

Opening July 13 is From Within, an exhibit of works from clients at St. Pete’s Boley Centers. The national nonprofit serves individuals with mental disabilities, homeless individuals and families, veterans and youth, and providing – for those who need it – a variety of treatment, recovery and vocational services.

It’s one of numerous exhibitions that will open in conjunction with the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance’s Second Saturday ArtWalk (July 13, 5-9 p.m.) This map of the self-guided tour of galleries and studios provides specific information about each.

“From Within,” art from the Boley Centers at the Tully-Levine Gallery.

Consisting of 30-plus works of art, From Within is a continuation of WADA’s “Arts Exploration” educational program. Past classes and Tully-Levine exhibits have showcased young people from Pinellas County’s Exceptional Student Education (ESE) program, and the Suncoast Centers, an organization serving victims of abuse or trauma.

“WADA is always actively seeking to do something good in the community, and to collaborate with different community partners,” says program administrator Vicky Lang.

The new project began in the spring. “We started with art classes at the Boley Centers,” she explains, “so people really had the opportunity to work with and learn from a professional artist.”

That would be WADA member artist Karen Gonzalez. “This was really wonderful because she’s not only an artist, she’s also a therapist. We would start, for example, with a breathing exercise; it was really a form of art therapy for the clients there.”

According to Lang, the process was therapeutic for Boley clients, who began to translate their emotions and feelings into the art they created.

“It was wonderful,” she said. “I was there every week, and you could see how positive, how transformative this experience was for them. Some of them would come in, and you could see on their faces that they probably had a bad day – and then through this art-making experience, their faces lit up. And they were so happy all of a sudden.”

The opening night reception (Saturday, July 13) is from 5 to 9 p.m., 515 22nd Street S.

Florida CraftArt’s “HEROES” exhibition.

More openings

Next door to Tully-Levine, at Soft Water Gallery, Carrie Jadus’ wildly popular series of small Blue Nudes canvases has grown; opening with a reception Saturday (during the July Second Saturday ArtWalk) is Blue Nudes – Tight Ten, a small-scale exhibition.

Florida CraftArt’s latest, HEROES, opens at 6 p.m. on ArtWalk day. Many of the participating artists will be there for the reception.

HEROES consists of depictions, in varied mediums, of those we perceive as heroes, from mythology and movies to those in real life – firefighters, soldiers, nurses and EMTS.

The artists are Caitlin Albritton, Joyce Curvin, Ajalena Daniels, Mikhail Gubin, Susan Hess, Jhordyn Innocent, Caelan Jeffery, Pamela Jones, Jackie Kaufman, Victoria Kudryavtseva, Anna Laxton, Jill Lindsay, Victoria Rose Martin, Elizabeth Neily, Phyllis Petrillo, Ellen Simon, Donna Slawsky and Virginia Walton.

Opening July 13 at Morean Arts Center, 719 Central Ave.: Wish You Were Here, the 2024 Members show, with nearly 200 works of vacation-inspired art.

The Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild exhibition, Threads of Nature: Art Inspired by the Florida Botanical Gardens, opens July 18 at the Gallery at Creative Pinellas. The fiber artists’ show will highlight creative processes including dyeing, painting, printing, stitching, embellishing, quilting, weaving and more.

Terracotta tiles from 1903 at the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.

At MAACM

The latest acquisition at the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement: A collection of Desert and Jungle terracotta tile friezes hand-made in 1903 for the lion and tiger houses at the brand-new Bronx Zoo in New York. These are creations of the Grueby Faience Company – a well-known ceramics manufacturer during the peak period of the American Arts and Crafts movement – which went on to create tile friezes for the New York subway system and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Skyway on the way

Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration unites five Tampa Bay art galleries, in a rotating exhibition of contemporary art, including paintings, sculptures, installations and multimedia presentations by 63 area artists and art collectives.

The ’24 edition of the annual multi-county collaborative art effort arrives at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg July 13; MFA curator Katherine Pill talked about Skyway at length during a recent episode of our Arts Alive! podcast.

The other participants are The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art; Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design; the Tampa Museum of Art; and the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum

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