It's a cerama-palooza! The NCECA ceramic arts shows take over Tampa Bay
Normally what goes on at the Tampa Convention Center is of little interest to art aficionados around the Bay area, but in late March, when NCECA (pronounced in-seek-a), the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, comes to town with its yearly conference everybody will be paying attention. That's because seemingly every museum and art gallery on either side of Tampa Bay is getting into the act by hosting an exhibition of ceramic art leading up to the conference. And while plenty of exquisite functional pottery will be on display, many NCECA-related shows will offer a view of contemporary ceramics as, simply put, sculpture — in all its post-Minimalist, post-Conceptualist head-scratching-and-soul-searching glory. Of 40-something scheduled exhibitions, three stand out: Place, large-scale ceramic installations by Jennifer Forsberg, Sarah Lindley and Jeanne Quinn at St. Petersburg's Museum of Fine Arts; Elastic Authenticity, a show (including Susan Beiner's Artificial Selection, right) that bridges ceramics and technology at the Morean Arts Center; and the NCECA Biennial, a juried exhibition that includes artists from around the world, at the Tampa Museum of Art. 45th Annual NCECA Conference — Tidal Forces: The Next Wave, March 30-April 2, with programming at the Tampa Convention Center, Hyatt Regency Tampa and the Tampa Museum of Art, nceca.net, 866-266-2322. 2011 NCECA Biennial, Jan. 29-April 24, Tampa Museum of Art, tampamuseum.org. Place: Contemporary Ceramics by Jennifer Forsberg, Sarah Lindley, and Jeanne Quinn, March 5-April 24, Museum of Fine Arts, fine-arts.org. Elastic Authenticity, March 25-May 27, Morean Arts Center, moreanartscenter.org.
TEN MORE MUSTS
Romantics to Moderns: A Survey of British Watercolors and Drawings from the Collection of BNY Mellon (Jan. 22-May 1, Museum of Fine Arts, fine-arts.org). Check out virtuoso performances in a notoriously difficult medium by the likes of John Constable and J.M.W. Turner in this exhibit that follows British artists from the late 18th century into the dawn of modernism.
Women's Views (Feb. 5-May 22, Polk Museum of Art, polkmuseumofart.org). Lakeland's Polk Museum mines its permanent collection for photography, painting, basket-weaving and more by contemporary artists including Barbara Kruger, Hung Liu and Miriam Schapiro.
Natural Fashion: Art & the Body, Photographs by Hans Silvester (Feb. 10-April 10, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, fmopa.org). German photographer Silvester's images document the elaborate and ephemeral body painting rituals of societies in Ethiopia.
Séance For No One (Feb. 11-25, Tempus Projects, tempus-projects.com). Tampa art power couple Joe Griffith and Kym O'Donnell team up for a project at Tempus.
3rd Annual Muse Art & Body Art Party (Sat., Feb. 12, 7 p.m.-midnight, ARTpool Gallery & Boutique, artpoolrules.com). Slather your sweetheart with body paint for ARTpool's Valentine's salute to hedonism, or just watch the resulting showcase of "living canvases."
Lights On Tampa 2011 (Sat., Feb. 19, 5:30-11 p.m., lightsontampa.org). Head to Curtis Hixon Park for a look at the digital art produced for the third installment of Lights On Tampa, including an architectural video projection by artist Pablo Valbuena.
Contain It! (March 11-12, Dunedin Fine Art Center, dfac.org). DFAC's annual installation fest challenges regional artists, from the emerging to the experienced, to create art installations inside PODS containers.
Degas: Form, Movement and the Antique (March 12-June 19, Tampa Museum of Art, tampamuseum.org). The famed French artist's tiny dancers, i.e., his bronze sculptures of ballerinas, and their relationship to the art of ancient Greece and Rome are the focus of this show.
Lucid Dreams (April 8-May 21, C. Emerson Fine Arts, c-emersonfinearts.com). The surreal experience of cognizant dreaming sets the theme for this open-call exhibition, which is accepting submissions through Feb. 20.
The Work of Arnold Mesches (May 7-June 18, Mindy Solomon Gallery, mindysolomon.com). Arnold Mesches, an octogenarian painter with a career that's still hotter than most (he had a solo show at P.S. 1 in 2002), brings his vibrant figurative works to the St. Pete gallery.
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2011.