Time was when a tattoo — particularly a full-body spread of skin art — marked the wearer as a member of a small subculture. These days, it seems like everyone is sporting tats of some variety, whether traditional, semi-permanent skin stamps or the tattoo-like designs silk-screened onto today's must-have graphic tees. Tattoos have made prime time, literally — don't even get me started on the hours I've poured down the tube watching Miami Ink — and they've even cropped up in fine-art galleries and museums.
This week, tattoos take over the Arts Center with an exhibition that includes fine art by a pair of pioneering tattoo artists as well as documentary photographs of passionate tattoo "collectors." But Skin City: the Art of the Tattoo quickly transcends the literal premise of the tattoo to make broader connections within contemporary art. When the exhibit opens on Friday — along with two other tangentially related shows that make for wonderful companion exhibits — even folks who have little interest in tattooing will find plenty to be consumed by.
Three artists on display represent the (now) old guard of tattoo artists who brought a fine-art aesthetic to the practice in the 1970s and '80s. Californian Don Ed Hardy is widely credited for bringing Japanese aesthetics (saturated colors, full body "suits," nature as symbol) to tattooing in the United States. These days, Hardy may be better known for his Ed Hardy line of apparel and international clothing stores; here, a cluster of his tattoo-inspired paintings on round wood panels demonstrate his chops as a fine artist.
A portfolio of prints and remembrances by Hardy, Nick Bubash and other tattoo and fine artists pays tribute to Thom DeVita, a New Yorker and elder statesman of tattooing who is also a prolific mixed-media artist. Bubash weighs in with a found-object sculpture made of tattoo needles, and John Wyatt's portfolio of black-and-white documentary photographs captures tattoo wearers of all stripes across a period of three decades.
From there, Arts Center curator Amanda Cooper mixes tattoo-inspired contemporary artworks into the show. A feminine voice joins the chorus in the form of Susan Jamison's delicate tempera-on-panel paintings of figures sporting swirling decoration reminiscent of temporary henna tattoos. Susan Moore's larger-than-life charcoal drawings — and one massive, multicolored oil painting — give a magnified view of elaborately tattooed bodies, drawn from real life. (The cropped, back-only view of each figure frees viewers from feeling self-conscious as they ogle, Cooper says.)
Steed Taylor's "road tattoos" put a new spin on the term street art. His site-specific paintings on pavement — shown in color photographs in this exhibit — take tattoo-like forms meant to have special significance for each community he works in. One scrolling tangle of thorns, called "Hurricane Charm," was installed in front of New Smyrna Beach's City Hall to serve as a talisman against future storms and a memorial to residents who had suffered in the past. D. Dominick Lombardi's "Post-Apocalyptic Tattoos," biomorphic plaster sculptures and black-and-white India ink drawings, add another dimension to the tattoo theme.
Though constituting a separate show, lithographs by Mexican-American artist Luis Jimenez make for a fortuitous pairing with Skin City. Jimenez's bold, graphic style — with some images in black-and-white, some in vivid color — puts punch into allegories of immigration and identity. Jimenez was better known as a sculptor until he died last year at age 65, and these prints make plain his ability to model powerful, dynamic figures that practically leap off the page. Tragically, he was killed when a section from one of his sculptures, a 35-foot tall fiberglass horse he was in the process of constructing for Denver International Airport, fell and struck him.
Last but not at all least, Augusta-based artist Jennifer Onofrio Fornes exhibits several series' of unsettling self-portraits. Coating silver gelatin prints with a thin oil overpainting, Fornes creates gorgeous-but-creepy icons of her own body, fragmented and contorted. In one chilling spread of images, she kneels and turns her bony spine to the camera to create the illusion of a skull emerging from a hole. You'll not easily forget the haunting beauty of her work.
Sketchbook
Celebrate Oktoberfest in artsy style at St. Petersburg Clay Company's first annual Brew-Ha-Ha. From 1-7 p.m. on Saturday, sidle over to the historic Seaboard train station (where SPCC is housed) for grilled hotdogs and brats, live music, raffles and a Raku firing demonstration. The event is free, but to get your fill of brew you'll need to buy a handmade ceramic stein or pilsner from the SPCC's prolific clay artists. (Once you buy a mug, they'll gladly fill it up with frosty goodness.) A portion of the proceeds will benefit the SPCC's artist-in-residence fund, which grants experienced clay artists free studio and exhibition space, as well as Midtown's 22nd Street redevelopment program. For more info, go to stpeteclay.com.
Keep your art party on by heading up to ArtSpace's 20th anniversary shindig above Florida Craftsmen Gallery, also on Saturday evening from 5:30-9 p.m. Two dozen resident artists celebrate 20 years of togetherness and affordable rent in the cooperatively run studio space. (Of course, not all of the current artists have been on board for two decades, nor has ArtSpace always roosted in its current location.) As usual, lobby "gallery" spaces upstairs and down will feature two artists — paintings and drawings by Susan Hess and Mary Jo Dicus this month — while resident artists open their studio doors upstairs. Look for music, food, and drinks — "good art, bad cookies," as resident artist Betsy Lester puts it.
Emerging artists take note: The artist collective [5]art wants submissions for its next exhibit/fundraiser for Silver Meteor Gallery in Ybor. (The first one was held last year and raised enough cash to fix the gallery's dilapidated roof.) The entry fee is a mere $10, and the one-night exhibit will be held on Sat., Oct. 20, 7-11 p.m. For more information, check out five-art.com.
This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2007.