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| metro art by Megan Voeller |
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Fernando Botero,
Picasso in Paris, 1930
Created in 1998, Oil on canvas
Private Collection.
Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts.
The Baroque World of Fernando Botero
Museum of Fine Arts,
St. Petersburg
An extensive exhibition of paintings by Colombian artist Fernando Botero comprise the latest exhibit to alight in the new Hazel Hough Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. Since the wing’s debut in 2008, its spacious galleries have hosted prints by Andy Warhol as well as a thought-provoking retrospective of sculptural installations by New York-based artist Leslie Dill. With Botero’s paintings and small-scale sculptures inside—outside, three large-scale bronze sculptures greet visitors to the museum — the MFA aims for another crowd pleaser.
Though the popular artist is perhaps best known for his bracing work depicting the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and drug wars in his native country, Baroque World pays more homage to the artist’s penchant for depicting voluptuously rendered figures than to overt social commentary. Both tendencies combine in the painting Our Lady of Colombia (1992), which plays on traditional iconography of the Virgin Mary to create an allegory of national suffering, while others — like Dancer at the Barre (2001) —evince a slightly bawdier and more corporeal humor and eroticism.
The Baroque World of Fernando Botero continues through April 4 at the Museum of Fine Arts, 255 Beach Dr. N.E., St. Petersburg. For more information, call 727-896-2667 or visit fine-arts.org.
—Megan Voeller
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Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts
Tampa’s Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park
The onset of spring in Tampa Bay heralds the annual return of outdoor art fairs. Perhaps the best known of the area’s offerings, the Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the
Anne Kantor - Necklace of individually coiled natural stones: banana jade, carnelian, freshwater and Swarovsky pearls,
Swarovsky crystals – 16" - 18"
Susan Livingston – “Cret’s Window”
clay and fossils with terra sig slip
26" x 22" x 6"
Shannon Batton - “Coral Antler Vessel” hand-carved glazed porcelain vessel, with a handle made from zebra wood, sterling silver, leather and coral – 9" x 6" x 6"
Arts – inclusive of some 300 artists working in a variety of traditional fine art and craft media – celebrates its 40th anniversary on March 6 and 7. Fittingly, the festival returns for the first time in several years to downtown Tampa’s Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, recently redesigned by noted landscape architect Thomas Balsley in conjunction with the reopening of the Tampa Museum of Art.
The festival, which attracts participating artists from around the country, may owe its popularity in part to a competitive awards package. This year’s juror, Jack Becker, who heads the Museum of Art at Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art in Nashville, Tenn., will bestow the coveted $15,000 best of show award in addition to other honors. Like collectors, he’ll find a diverse array of artists vying for his attention — from Lutz-based sculptor Susan Livingston, whose sculptures combine ceramic forms with fossils, to Anne Kantor, a Tampa jewelry artist who nests semi- precious stones in coiled wire to create necklaces that seem to float on the wearer’s neck.
The Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts takes place Sat., Mar. 6, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m., and Sun., Mar. 7, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., in Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park in downtown Tampa. For more information, visit gasparilla-arts.com.
—Megan Voeller
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