Local artists to celebrate St. Pete with a pop-up show

Fresh off his most recent commissioned mural, on the outside wall of a Sprouts market on Fowler Avenue in Tampa, St. Petersburg artist Chad Mize has put together a unique one-night-only exhibit. Mize himself is one of the 51 contributors to Fun Set, which will exist for a mere three hours (7-10 p.m.) Thursday, in the outdoor courtyard of Green Bench Brewing.

The craft beer bistro is celebrating its 10^th anniversary, and Mize – who’s been curating art shows there since the beginning – was asked to put together something special for the occasion.

Fun Set (subtitled A Sunshine City Art Show), he explains, is a celebration of all things St. Pete. And a way for him to give back to his adoptive hometown.

“At this point, for me, I don’t do things like this for exposure,” Mize says. “Really, it’s a love for the city. A love for these people that I work with. A love for the artists. And I don’t look at these types of things as money-making ventures. I make money in other ways in my life.

“Just to be a part of stuff is really important to me.”

“Fun Set” work by Stephanie Agudelo.

Fun Set was conceived much like the monthly exhibits in the Mize Gallery, which the artist shuttered earlier this year (he was simply too busy to keep it going). The artists were given a theme, and each received a 16 by 16 inch cradled wood canvas on which to paint. Or draw. Or print. Or whatever.

“I kind of prompted the artists to either go old-school, or futuristic, or a fusion of both,” Mize adds. The result is a wide and colorful cross-section of ideas, styles and media.

The artists: Stephanie Agudelo, Bask, Todd Bates, Ivan Castro, Kristi Capone, J.P. Dicarlo, Courtney Dodson, Derek Donnelly, Charlotte Elizabeth, Ellustrative, Laura Eve, Lauren Fraser, Ora Fraze, Brittany “Novafro” Freemon, Bailey Gumienny, Cort Hartle, James E. Hartzell, Luke Heath, Kayla Heintz, Merritt Horan Capurro, Amy Ilic-volpe, Santiago Jaramillo, Rebekah Lazaridis, Cat Lim, Ted Locascio, Steve Madden, Melissa Manning Borland, Cake Marques, Mike McGrath, Spencer Meyers, Chad Mize, Katie Pavone, Andrea Pawlisz, Gianna Pergamo, Beth Reynolds, Lainey Rhodes, Heather Rippert, Rob, Cory Robinson, Hoolie Rowe, Sandrasonik, Dan Schuman, Chris Sellen, Shadow 1188, Angela Stork, Ashton T, Tate Tattoos, The Peach Moon, Andree Tracey, Tricia Tierney Moses, Vodka Bacon Studios and Wasil.

“Fun Set”: Work by Ashton T.

When Fun Set was initially hatched, Mize considered moving the entire exhibit – after its debut at Green Bench – to his space (“Space”) in the Warehouse Arts District. He even announced it.

But that’s not happening.

“The concept was to just have this be a one-night-only,” he says, “but I was ‘Well, I have the space, maybe we should move it over there for the weekend.’

“But I just feel like it’s too much. It’s a lot of work to move all the art.”

On top of things: Artist Chad Mize with his mural “Algorithm,” at the Sprouts market on Fowler Avenue in Tampa.