Creatives Exchange’s latest show at HCC Ybor’s art gallery doesn’t really have a theme. What it does have is a lot of art from some of the best artists in the Tampa Bay area, in just about every medium imaginable.
Creatives Exchange is a women’s artist collective based in Tampa. Jenny Carey formed the group in 2015. After seeing their amazing art show last year, I was looking forward to checking in with these ladies at this year’s show and experiencing their latest work.
This year’s show is a juried selection of work, chosen by Catherine Bergmann, curator of exhibitions for the Dunedin Fine Art Center (she curated I + Thou ). She’s worked at DFAC for almost 20 years, and I was excited to see what she would do with Creatives Exchange.
Seeing Now features work from 14 artists: A filmmaker; a casting director; a choreographer; four photographers; a sculptor; a potter; a couple of painters; a printmaker; and several mixed-media artists. These are successful solo artists who simply enjoy the fraternity of being in a group.
Victoria Jorgensen, winner of a 2017 Best of the Bay award for Best Local Filmmaker, has focused on the #MeToo movement with her latest film, Your Turn. I walk into a tiny black booth to see the film on opening night. Jorgensen stands guard outside the booth, letting in one person at a time.
Sitting in the booth, I’m about three feet from the television screen. Actor David Vogel shows up onscreen, looking right at me, as though we’re about to have a one-on-one conversation. Then the compliments begin. It’s all empty stuff — you’re so beautiful, you’re going to go far in life, and you’re smart. Blah, blah, blah... This guy’s totally full of shit, I’m thinking, and that’s the point.
Then he offers to mentor you: “You help me, I help you,” he says. What a douchenugget. Oh shit, he’s getting up and walking towards me. And he’s just unzipped his pants. This is when the video stops and asks if I have something to say to this man. The first word that comes to mind is, “seriously?” But I say nothing. He is just a character in a movie, but if this were real life, I still wouldn’t have anything to say to this man. Clearly, he is beyond help. Jorgensen draws the curtain back and peeks into the booth, asking if I’m OK. “I’m fine,” I say, and I am. I’ve been blessed with the presence of many good men in my life; I am one of very few women fortunate enough to not have her own #MeToo moment.
Oh, shit, he’s getting up and walking towards me. And he’s just unzipped his pants.
But about Vogel's “character”: When Stormy Daniels started to appear on the news, discussing her affair with Donald Trump, Jorgensen thought for a second that the woman had stolen her script.
“They really all say the same things, don’t they?” Jorgensen asks me. I’m glad I don’t know.
My mood quickly improves when I catch Suzanne Camp Crosby and Suzanne Williamson, both photographers, standing together and chatting each other up. These two women symbolize everything I aspire to as a photographer. Crosby is, technically, retired (in 2015, HCC Ybor put together an exhibit celebrating her 20 years as full-time art faculty) — but she hasn’t exactly put the camera down yet. Her advice for photographers who are just starting out is, as she says, “You don’t have photography without light.” In her Available Light series, on display here, she explores everyday objects in a different, ahem, light. The photos depict mundane things: an antique pin cushion, a robe and a blue bottle in the shape of a violin. But as Williamson says, “it’s not about the subject — that’s secondary.” Anything has the ability to look gorgeous in the right light. Williamson shares some of her latest waterscape photo grids, and Jenny Carey has travel photos in the show. Paula Brett, known for her mandala photography, created mandalas out of sea shells and other found objects for Seeing Now. Altogether, the quality and variety of photography in this show is top-tier.
Moving beyond the show’s photography component, there are a lot of interesting mixed-media projects represented by this show, including Debra Radke’s sheep series. Radke loves working in series, and I greatly enjoy her sheep series, inspired (in part) by a residency in the Bulgarian village of Lessidren. Radke’s sheep are a mixed-media series involving interesting combinations of charcoal, pastel, photography, monoprint, etching, acrylic and pencil. She’s added some new works to the project, inspired by current events, which you can see here. In many ways, Radke tells me, she feels as though diversity has been under attack lately, and much of her recent work is a response to this. In “The Chosen,” a black sheep stands in the center of a flock of white sheep. By placing it in the middle, Radke makes a bold statement about diversity and inclusivity. It’s a theme that runs through all the works she has on display here.
Eileen Goldenberg has a couple of works on display in Seeing Now. I was particularly interested in “Resist and Resist Again,” inspired by the 2017 Women’s March in DC. It takes the form of a woman’s torso, in ceramic, with a black glaze. Etched into the torso are various messages: nevertheless she resisted, rise up, etc. The piece was created using a technique called sgraffito (it’s Italian). You start with an unfired ceramic body, in this case the torso. Next, you add two layers of glaze, then you can scratch your drawings or messages into the work of art. Finally, you fire it. The whole process takes about five minutes. I’m just kidding — it takes a long time.
Melissa Fair brought something different this year. Last year it was art dolls, but here she's worked a lot with a process known as encaustic, in which hot wax is incorporated into works, often paintings, to varying effect. In “If Memory Serves,” an image of George Washington is partially obscured behind a layer of encaustic, as if to say we’ve forgotten our roots. Next to this is “All the Letters I Never Sent,” a photo of the Golden Gate bridge paired with a series of stamps, letters and numbers.
Kim Radatz, Creatives Exchange’s sculptor, has more works from her FLOCKED series in this year’s show. There is more of Kim Cumming’s pottery, Candace Knapp’s Water Reflections paintings, and Rose Rosen’s glasswork this year, too. Brenda Gregory, who shared her 3-D scrapbooks (aka recycled art sculpture) last year, switched over to sterling silver jewelry this year.
Last but not least, local choreographer Cynthia Hennessey participated in this year’s show. Marion Baldeon Kampert performed Hold On-Hold Steady, a solo dance choreographed by Hennessey, in the lobby of the performing arts building. The dance featured a combination of slow, restrained movements, held poses, and rapid movements. It’s an excerpt from a larger work that Hennessey will debut this fall.
In all, Seeing Now offers you a mixed bag of artistic experience — but what an excellent bag it is.
HCC Ybor City Campus Performing Arts Building, Art Gallery, first floor, Palm Avenue & 15th Street, Ybor City
Through July 31: Mon. & Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m-4 p.m.; Tues. 12-7 p.m.
813-253-7674, hccfl.edu/yborgallery
