By Megan Voeller
Three great exhibits in the Bay area close their doors after this weekend. If you haven't seen Highly Recommended, an invitational of emerging artists, run — don't walk — to Florida Craftsmen Gallery. Dedicated to artists working with traditional craft media to create works that rise to the level of "fine art," the show spotlights 15 diverse Florida talents. Highlights of the works on view include lamp-worked glass and silver jewelry by Haley Holeman; playful woven and embroidered fiber portraits by Sarah Butz; blown glass globes with mirage-like photographs inside by Courtney Johnson; and a porcelain-and-wax sculpture of female fertility figures by Karla Walter.
At both St. Petersburg's Arts Center and the USF Contemporary Art Museum, work by internationally known St. Pete artist Robert Stackhouse takes center stage. And while you're at the CAM, peek in on a show called Everyday Atrocities, featuring work by three USF art faculty members: Gregory Greene, whose bomb-themed sculptures touch on current events; Julie Weitz, whose delicate gouache paintings tackle the iconography of hoods; and John Byrd, whose sculptures employ taxidermy to ends that are chillingly cute and macabre at once.
This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2008.