FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 25, 2017
From: Dunedin Fine Art Center
Contact: Ken Hannon @ 727.298.DFAC, x230
Hanging out, drinking delicious coffee, talking about art… ahhhh, that’s the life! Well, that IS the life at least for an hour or so each month at the Dunedin Fine Art Center’s Coffee and Conversation series. Enjoy coffee (Presented by the Sterling Society of DFAC) and insights as each month’s invited guest holds forth on their own area of expertise. Admission to these relaxed talks is $5 and is FREE to current DFAC members.
Thursday,February 9th, 2017 at 12 noon, the series hosts photographer Selina Román. Her current project is Please Disturb. Her talk will encompass the genesis of the project, her process, her use of color and props and the dynamic she has with her models. The Please Disturb project deals with ideas of memory and liminality by way of performance that is then documented with her camera.
Please Disturb takes its title from the ubiquitous door hangers that signal to hotel/motel staff to not bother their guests. However, she wants to be disturbed. She uses the motel room as a studio. Invited guests visit her in two-hour blocks in what is part studio visit and part photo shoot. The resulting photographs are a product of concocted stories, shared memories and crossed physical and psychological boundaries.
Many of the images in this series utilize props and costumes – pink bubble wrap, rubber lips and a lot of sequins to name a few. Disguise and transformation free the participants to play out new narratives in the context of a motel setting. The choice of motel is a crucial one. Every mid-century roadside motel has its own personality and vibe. Even with their vibrant colors and sleek architecture, many show the wear of time. It is at this intersection of perception and reality that she wanst viewers to stop and consider what they hold beautiful in their lives and their reasons for doing so.
The project is a love letter of sorts to South Florida – a place she has romanticized since childhood – and its photographs a reflection of her own idealized Florida.
Selina Román was born in Florida in 1978. She received her B.A. in Print Journalism from the University of South Florida. For almost a decade she worked as a newspaper reporter and later as an investigator at an international investigations firm. Román received her Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of South Florida in 2013. She has participated in residencies with the Visual Artists Network and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator. Her work is in the collection of the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs, as well as numerous private collections. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions such as Kenyon College in Ohio, Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, and Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 2016, her work was shown at Brighton Photo Fringe in the United Kingdom during the Brighton Photo Biennial. She teaches photography at the Art Institute of Tampa and Hillsborough Community College.
So stop by for some Coffee & Conversation. Or call ahead to the Palm Cafe’ (298.DFAC ext 237) and have lunch waiting for you!
Coffee and Conversation with Selina Román – Thursday, February 9th, 2017 at 12 Noon.
for more info call 727-298-DFAC,
Dunedin Fine Art Center – 1143 Michigan Blvd. – Dunedin, FL 34698
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