Gallery 209 Art Exhibition Puts dis/ORDER In Your Court

Two Tampa artists present harmony and equilibrium in spite of their dissimilar approaches in an exhibit at Gallery 209 in The West Tampa Center for the Arts. It is called - appropriately enough - dis/ORDER.

George Byers and Melissa Fair provide the creative energy as well as the disparity. Gallery director Maida Millan provides the insight into the total effect.

"I think the two of them will bounce off of each other and create a balance," she said. "For instance, there's a splotch of red painted wood in the center of one of Byers' pieces that echoes the red square in one of Fair's works."

The instantly noticeable differences are that Byers puts together well-ordered wood assemblages; Fair works on canvas in a looser style.

"George works very meticulously with assembled parts," Millan said. "And what he refers back to and what he loves is the spirituality of mythology and the classical."

"I am very structured," Byers agreed in a telephone interview. "My influence is a 20th century art movement called "constructivism,' which to me means the joining together of geometric forms and familiar objects from the world into a focus of interest that would not otherwise exist."

Byers' long background as a construction worker set him up for his kind of art.

"I would see the abstract connections between the piles of lumber and the tools, and I thought they should be brought to the art world because they are visually stimulating."

Although he started hammering metal and casting bronze in junior high, Byers now works almost exclusively in wood. "It's so seductively beautiful, I can't seem to stop," he said. "Sometimes I start out with a rough piece of wood and then find the object within it, so they're not true found objects but manipulated found objects."

Fair likes to use vintage photographs in her heavily narrative mixed media assemblages.

"She approaches her work with a sense of looking from a Jungian perspective - the collective unconscious," Millan said.

Fair agreed. "There are things that are shared because we're all human. Those kinds of things can be evoked on a canvas."

But there's more that defines this talented emerging artist who was just accepted into this year's Gasparilla Art Festival.

In addition to Jung, she likes exploring Einstein and string theory in her work; she is skilled at creating tension through composition; she likes the color red, and she is "totally obsessed by forensic pathology and all the little darker parts of the psyche."

Although most of her works tell a tale, the message is not immediately apparent.

"I prefer the viewer find his own story," Fair said.

Although they have never met, Byers and Fair feel intuitively that their works are harmonious.

"My work seems very frenetic at first glance, but there's actually very tight order to it the longer you look at it," Fair said. "And people may be fooled into thinking that George's work is very calm, but it's not."

Byers agrees. "My work really is very loose and untidy. It's the antithesis of pristine. I love that word - pristine - but my work is not. It reflects the imperfection of the world. Upon close scrutiny, some of my pieces look like they're about to fly apart."

Both artists will be at the opening reception from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday in Gallery 209, on the second floor of The West Tampa Center for the Arts, 1906 N. Armenia Ave.

The evening consists of the usual hors d'oeuvres and cash bar, Millan said, plus live music provided by Lazlo Horvath, one of the artists renting space in the building. Admission is a suggested $2 donation, but Millan stresses that no one will be turned away.

For information, go to www.wtca-art.com or call Millan at (813) 453-4381.

Greet Artist At Open House

The University of Tampa will host a meet and greet open house for visiting artist Sam Gilliam at 6 p.m. Tuesday in STUDIO-f on the university campus.

The reception will introduce a new series of monoprints which Gilliam created with master printer Carl Cowden in STUDIO-f.

An award-winning African-American abstract painter, Gilliam is known for going beyond and reinventing the traditional concepts of painting and printing.

He creates colorful, abstract paintings, often using a concrete and paint mixture, which he then prints on paper. He then cuts the prints into geometric shapes and sews them together into a new construct.

The new exhibit will stay up through March in STUDIO-f, in the R K Bailey Studios at 310 North Boulevard.

To see it after the reception, call Dorothy Cowden at (813) 253-6217.

Winners Of Art Competition Announced

The Tampa Realistic Artists announce the winners of the Second Annual Bay Area Art Show that featured 124 entries by 77 local artists. Best of Show honors went to Phyllis Barrett for her oil painting, "Two Pelicans."

The other first-prize winners are: Jeff Whipple, oil, "Circumstance;" Beatrix Rahms, acrylic, "Omi Bei Fedderwardersiel;" Donna Morrison, watercolor, "The Unfinished Church;" Chris Hoyer, photography, "Pause to Reflect;" Deborah Farley,other media, "Nambucca Fishermen #1;" Frank Bolock,drawing, "Great Artists in Tampa."

The exhibition is up through March 6 at The Old Hyde Park Art Center, 705 Swann Ave. Call the center at (813) 251-3780.

Monthly Art Mixer At New Location

The Tampa Artist Emporium will host the February Mixer from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday at its new location, 3415 Bay to Bay Blvd.

As usual, many of the 70 gallery artists will be present, along with hundreds of original pieces of art.

A complimentary wine bar and $5 photo shoots by award-winning photographer David Pritchard also will be featured.

Call the store at (813) 835-0212 with questions.