FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Date: May 30, 2018
From: Dunedin Fine Art Center
Contact: Ken Hannon @ 727.298.DFAC, x230
Exciting Talk to Surround New Summer Exhibits at DFAC
Hearing artists talk about their history, inspirations, and methods can add depth to our understanding of their work. With the Dunedin Fine Art Center opening four new exhibits on June 8th, there will be plenty to talk about!
On Friday, June 8th from 6-7 pm, there will be a panel discussion featuring Michael Massaro, talking about his exhibit: Fait Accompli (reception to follow). Admission is $10 and is FREE to DFAC members.
Michael Massaro’s intense interest in the connectivity of materials spurs him to experiment, combining materials to create harmony or discord. His recent work is a social commentary concerning humanity’s inhumanity. Fait Accompli is the artist’s emotional response to the problems of refugees across the globe.
Kenny Jensen, Shannon Leah Halvorsen, Stephen Schatz, Jane Jaskevich, Mason Gehring will be joining him to talk about their group exhibition, I and Thou. This multi-media group show explores themes of identity—Self, our various Personas + the Other. The title is drawn from Martin Buber’s classic essay discussing how we relate to ourselves and the world as either: I-It (objectified) or I-Thou (sacred encounter).
The second exclamation point comes with a more international flair, as the panel focuses on Triangulate, the three nation photographic exhibition. The panel will be held Thursday, June 14th from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. (refreshments will be available). Admission is $5 and is FREE to DFAC members.
Consisting of 27 photographs by 9 artists from China, Norway and United States of America, Triangulate paints a subtle portrait of the human relationship to land – as cherished refuge, as bountiful resource, as political boundary, and as tense experiment with sustainability. Because human longevity on Earth depends greatly on our planet’s health, it is wise to consistently and honestly reassess the ever-changing personal, social, cultural and ethical relationships that we form as communities through our relationship to land. By drawing connections between three very different countries, each with separate development agendas in the 21st century, this exhibition attempts to reaffirm that humans around the globe share an ancient love for and dependence upon the land we inhabit together, despite both the very real, and the completely fabricated, differences between us.
In effort to provide context and depth to Triangulate, Dunedin Fine Art Center is proud to present a panel discussion featuring both curators and artists. To begin, co-curators Kirk Ke Wang (China/USA) and Nathan Beard (USA) will discuss the exhibition’s overarching concepts and what they learned from each other, as well as from the artists’ work, during the curatorial process. It will be a rich conversation covering their collective global experiences as well as the relationships formed through their own artistic practices and personal histories.
The panel discussion will then shift to a conversation with artists Robin Perry Dana (Florida), R. J. Kern (Minnesota), and Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin (California), Oddleiv Apneseth (Norway), as well as Chen Ronghui, Shi Yangkun, and Zhou Pinglang (China). Each artist will speak about their work and the specific locales and communities their projects focus upon. The artists’ personal stories will cover a broad, but connected, range of subject matter such as the beauty found in central Georgia’s kaolin mines and the connection to porcelain; the complexities of competition at county fairs in Minnesota and its relationship to the human condition; the gentrification of everyday Hollywood as an echo of the displacement and development that is redefining urban centers globally; the search for ‘realistic absurdity’ among the 3000 inhabitants of Jølster municipality in western Norway; the relationship between China’s urbanization and individual experience; the exploration of memory and shifting identity when returning to a home in Shangshui that has been transformed by profound changes; and the documentation of people along the Hu Line, an artificial political boundary with acute political and cultural ramifications.
The Gallery Shop at DFAC will remain open until the panel starts and R.J. Kern will be selling and signing his latest book on June 14th from 5:30 -6:15 pm and then again after the discussion until 8:30 pm.
All at the Dunedin Fine Art Center – 1143 Michigan Blvd. – Dunedin, FL – 727.298.DFAC – www.dfac.org
Gallery Hours:
Monday – Friday: 10am-5pm
Saturday: 10am – 2 pm
Sunday: 1-4pm
Palm Café Hours:
Mon.- Friday 9am-3pm
Sunday Brunch 9am – 2pm
Click HERE for Exhibition Release and Images.


