It’s hard to look at Dominique Labauvie’s 33-feet-long installation of tangled blue and yellow lines without pondering our struggles to connect during quarantine. Although technically, Amanda Poss planned Labauvie's solo exhibition at HCC Dale Mabry's Gallery 221 long before COVID-19 became a problem.
“Warm Up: In Tandem” stood ready to go mid-March. Then Hillsborough Community College extended students' mid-term break and announced its upcoming transition to an online environment due to COVID-19.
Rapidly throwing real-life onto the internet is a formidable challenge, especially when it comes to art. For art novices like college freshmen, conversations with gallery curators and artists are essential to understanding and appreciating art. Normally these conversations would happen at an opening reception. Unfortunately, these receptions often cluster over 40 people into a small gallery space. It's just not feasible under threat of COVID-19. Even with some galleries opening up again, real-life receptions seem like a bad idea, especially for high-risk populations.
That's why I'm thrilled that HCC Dale Mabry’s Gallery 221 and USF’s Contemporary Art Museum are taking these conversations online via Zoom.
On May 21, Gallery 221 hosted its first virtual opening reception on Zoom to an audience of over 70 artists and art-lovers.
Participating artists included Tampa sculptor Dominique Labauvie; his wife, and graphic printer, Erika Greenberg-Schneider (pictured above); their daughter, Esther Labauvie, who is studying opera in Stuttgart; and their friend, Dee Moses, principal double-bass with the Florida Orchestra. The four virtually assembled during quarantine to bring music and art together for this exhibition.
The project began with Labauvie’s installation.
"The whole process was to create a stage,” says Labauvie, but “Warm Up: In Tandem” doesn’t look like a stage at all. The stage, Labauvie tells his audience, is the space in the middle where the lines meet. He refers to this space as “the place where something is suddenly created” or the cradle of invention. Labauvie created it for his daughter Esther so that she might have a safe space to sing.
In the middle of a pandemic, finding a safe space to create and be inspired is now more important than ever. Gallery 221 and Dominique Labauvie’s “Warm Up: In Tandem” is a shining example of what can happen when people come together to share their art, their energy, and their emotion across the distance. Through technology, Esther was able to sing in her apartment in Stuttgart, accompanied by Dee Moses on double-bass in Tampa, on a virtual stage provided by Gallery 221, for an audience all over the Tampa Bay area. And they accomplished all this without unnecessarily exposing anyone to COVID-19. In case you missed it, here’s the link to the panel discussion and musical performance on YouTube:
The May 21 reception launched a series of virtual events coordinated by Gallery 221’s Amanda Poss. On Thursday, June 4, from 6 p.m.-7 p.m., Gallery 221 hosts a virtual studio conversation with local legend Robert Stackhouse (he lives in New York now, but he graduated from USF) and collaborator Carol Mickett. Then on Friday, June 12, from 6 p.m.-7 p.m., Akiko Kotani speaks about her recent work. Register in advance via Eventbrite and follow Gallery 221 on Instagram and Facebook for updates.
The University of South Florida’s online art adventure begins this weekend with “Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of Coronavirus.”
Ever since this pandemic started, I’ve been waiting to see how artists respond to our current crisis. This week, thanks to USF CAM, my wait will finally be over. USF CAM recruited about 50 artists from all over the world to participate in “Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of Coronavirus.”
The online exhibition hosts not only work created during the coronavirus pandemic but also work created leading up to it. The clever juxtaposition encourages comparison between works created in normal life and works created in a time of crisis.
In the opening reception for “Warm Up: In Tandem,” Dominique Labauvie stressed the importance of difficulty in creating and performing art. When he speaks of Esther and Dee Moses’ performance of “Dido’s Lament” from Henry Purcell’s 1688 opera, “Dido and Aeneas,” he says, "It's incredible to serve, to protect that music and to hear that together after centuries. After wars, after devastation, after pandemics. It's incredible the relationship between art and life and death. It's like the art needs death to be purposed in the future."
The world is changing, and art is changing with it. In both art and life, there will be a before and after coronavirus. “Life During Wartime” gives us six months to reflect upon this. During those six months, USF CAM plans to add even more artists and more artwork to the exhibition. And with more artists and more artwork comes more virtual events.
The fun begins Saturday, June 6, from 1 p.m.-3 p.m., with an online opening reception featuring an artist/curator talk, a virtual walk-through of the exhibition, and a public Q&A. It’s exactly how I want to spend my Saturday afternoon, safe at home, talking to artists and looking at art. The Zoom link goes live at 12:45 p.m. via lifeduringwartimeexhibition.org. Follow USF CAM on Instagram or Facebook for “Life During Wartime” updates.
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