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Your weekend arts forecast: A new look at Dali, pianist Aaron Diehl at MFA
As part of his ongoing quest to make the surrealist works of Salvador Dali even deeper, more compelling and more weirdly profound than they already are, Dr. Hank Hine is peering behind the curtain – in a manner of speaking – and letting the viewer engage with eight masterworks via augmented reality.
Hine, the executive director of St. Petersburg’s trendsetting Salvador Dali Museum, told the Catalyst in April that cutting-edge technology such as augmented reality is a way to engage and delight young, potential art aficionados. “We’re not creating artworks, we’re creating experiences that allow the artworks to live,” he said. “We’re adding context, things that our educational system should provide so that a literate, cultured society can look at the art, from any era, and understand its terms. Get excited about it.”
Opening Saturday, Visual Magic: Dalí’s Masterworks in Augmented Reality presents eight paintings, each of them at least five feet in height or width, each of which occupied the artist’s time and energy for a year or more, which can be viewed in AR with a downloaded app. Viewers can focus on specific areas of the paintings, which will come alive via digital animations and more.
In other words, you aim your phone at The Hallucinogenic Toreador, The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus or Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters Becomes the Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the work will be yours for the exploring.
You have to download the Dali app first, at thedali.org.
Also making their debuts at the museum Saturday: A new exhibit featuring works by another great Spanish painter, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828). Before Dalí: Goya — Visions & Inventions features two suites of first-edition prints, printed during Goya’s lifetime, alongside three significant paintings representing unique themes of Goya’s art. It’s on loan from Dallas’ Meadows Museum.
Bronzes from the Vault features Dalí sculptures created 1969-79, the only sculptures Dalí ever worked on by hand. In addition to the 20 small-scale pieces, four large-scale bronzes ranging from 6.5 to 10 feet high will be on view in the Museum’s Avant-garden.
Friday
Chad Mize’s Mizzy Gallery is throwing open the advance door for St. Pete Pride, and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, with Icons: LGBTQ+ Portraits. Opening with a reception from 6 to 10 p.m., it includes 50 portraits, each created by a different artist, of iconic figures from gay cultural and/or social circles.
Saturday
Here’s something not a lot of people know: Many professional opera singers either started in musical theater, or have remained steadfastly passionate about good ‘ol show tunes even as their careers in classical vocal music have progressed. St. Petersburg Opera Company, which books some of the country’s most promising young opera talents for their big productions, traditionally gives everyone a chance to get onstage and well, belt. So as rehearsals continue for Puccini’s Madama Butterfly June 21-30 at the Palladium, the cast – including the outstanding soprano Zoya Gramagin. Mezzo Sahoko Sato Timpon, baritone Daniel Scofield, tenor Samuel Hall and more – will put on Broadway Cabaret Saturday at 8 p.m. at Opera Central, 2145 1st Avenue S. This is a fun, freewheeling show spotlighting astonishing young talent – and the program includes numbers from Hamilton, Jekyll & Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, as well as Rodgers & Hammerstein and Sondheim chestnuts. Tickets and info here.
At precisely 6:20 p.m. (of course) Saturday, thestudio@620 celebrates its 15th anniversary, with liver music, birthday cake and much celebrating. Admission is free.
Sunday
Aaron Diehl
Jazz pianist Aaron Diehl, the 2014 Monterey Jazz Festival Commission Artist, is Sunday’s featured performer in the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts Marly Music Series. It’s a solo concert, at 2 p.m., and the program includes everything from Phillip Glass to Duke Ellington to Jelly Roll Morton. This musician has series concert cred; tickets are $15 for Marly members and students – and $25 for non-members, which includes museum admission. Tickets are first-come, first-served, and can be purchased in advanced here.
- Are you a performing arts space, large, small or in-between, an art gallery, a bookshop or any place where public cultural events take place? Please put us on your email list – we can’t publicize you if we don’t know what (or who) you are! The address is bill@stpetecatalyst.com. Thanks.
