Welcome to Art Ovation Hotel’s premiere art exhibitions. Through such expressions of the arts and artists, Art Ovation Hotel furthers its mission to serve the community as an active host, facilitator, patron and partner for the arts. With this and many, new and varied initiatives, an exciting palette of artistic opportunities and experiences are presented for the enrichment of our guests and our community.
You are invited to tour our exciting present and past exhibitions and learn more about the artworks and the talented artists that created them.
Weaving Dreams invites viewers into a realm where woven canvases narrate tales of connection, exploration, and unexpected beauty. Each painting in this series originates from two canvases, initially marked with paint, graphite, and charcoal to lay the groundwork for composition. Through a transformative process involving paint and other materials, these canvases morph into contrasting yet harmonious artworks.
SARTQ, Sarasota’s local popular artist collective whose name underscores their connection to the region, was founded and formed in early 2008 by local artists Tim Jaeger and Joseph Arnegger. The collective quickly expanded and gained the attention of many local enthusiasts. SARTQ aims to maintain a network of accomplished Sarasota artists, manage exhibitions and events, and collaborate with the community.
Award-winning international artist Rhona L K Schonwald creates intuitive, passionate paintings that throb with dramatic sensuality. Each canvas portrays a mysterious journey of colors that resonate with their own lyricism and act as a metaphor for human relationships. Every sweeping brush stroke calls out to the innermost soul of the viewer. Colors vibrate with emotion depending on personal interpretation…passionate, joyful, serene.
Garry Scott Wheeler is a multi-award-winning international abstract acrylic artist, published author, and entrepreneur from Southwest Florida. Wheeler has painted for most of his life, but during the pandemic, he focused on it intensely and launched his art business late in 2020. Since then, he has participated in over 50 exhibits, joined multiple galleries, established an online store, won many national and international awards, was featured in House & Garden Magazine and has sold original paintings all across the US and in Europe.
Pablo Contrisciani’s artwork explores the Universe and its unity in the infinite diversity of elements. The paintings depict the multiplicity of the Universe: the juxtapositions between chaos and harmony, constant change and movement, each of its parts containing the whole. The combination of all these components creates a visual plurality that the artist calls: Energies.
The National Association of Women Artists was founded in 1889. It is the oldest professional women’s fine arts organization in the United States. It serves professional women artists of all backgrounds and traditions. It is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization. The purpose of the National Association of Women Artists [NAWA] is to foster public awareness and interest in the visual arts created by women in the United States. It encourages contemporary and emerging artists while continuing to honor the long and important contribution of women to the history of American culture and art. Founded in 1995, the NAWA Florida Chapter extends the mission of the National Association by providing highly visible Florida venues, designing art education opportunities for its members and promoting art education to Florida communities.
Sharing the Journey is a celebration of the profound impact of teachers, and the impressive dedication of students. Pablo Contrisciani has worked as an instructor at Oolite Arts in Miami, FL, from 1998 to the present. Through his teaching, Constrisciani has influenced countless students – some of whom are featured in this show.
Rigoberto Pelaez is a self-taught painter and sculptor born in Havana, Cuba, in 1973. His interest in landscape painting is clearly linked to a strong preference for rural life. In his works, the artist expresses a new romantic vision of the Cuban countryside, imbuing the vegetation and sky with a sense of movement and an atmosphere of romance. Peláez, who practices open-air painting, concentrates in detailing the tonalities of light and joyous exuberance of the Cuban landscape.
Weaving Dreams invites viewers into a realm where woven canvases narrate tales of connection, exploration, and unexpected beauty. Each painting in this series originates from two canvases, initially marked with paint, graphite, and charcoal to lay the groundwork for composition. Through a transformative process involving paint and other materials, these canvases morph into contrasting yet harmonious artworks.
SARTQ, Sarasota’s local popular artist collective whose name underscores their connection to the region, was founded and formed in early 2008 by local artists Tim Jaeger and Joseph Arnegger. The collective quickly expanded and gained the attention of many local enthusiasts. SARTQ aims to maintain a network of accomplished Sarasota artists, manage exhibitions and events, and collaborate with the community.
Award-winning international artist Rhona L K Schonwald creates intuitive, passionate paintings that throb with dramatic sensuality. Each canvas portrays a mysterious journey of colors that resonate with their own lyricism and act as a metaphor for human relationships. Every sweeping brush stroke calls out to the innermost soul of the viewer. Colors vibrate with emotion depending on personal interpretation…passionate, joyful, serene.
Garry Scott Wheeler is a multi-award-winning international abstract acrylic artist, published author, and entrepreneur from Southwest Florida. Wheeler has painted for most of his life, but during the pandemic, he focused on it intensely and launched his art business late in 2020. Since then, he has participated in over 50 exhibits, joined multiple galleries, established an online store, won many national and international awards, was featured in House & Garden Magazine and has sold original paintings all across the US and in Europe.
Pablo Contrisciani’s artwork explores the Universe and its unity in the infinite diversity of elements. The paintings depict the multiplicity of the Universe: the juxtapositions between chaos and harmony, constant change and movement, each of its parts containing the whole. The combination of all these components creates a visual plurality that the artist calls: Energies.
The National Association of Women Artists was founded in 1889. It is the oldest professional women’s fine arts organization in the United States. It serves professional women artists of all backgrounds and traditions. It is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization. The purpose of the National Association of Women Artists [NAWA] is to foster public awareness and interest in the visual arts created by women in the United States. It encourages contemporary and emerging artists while continuing to honor the long and important contribution of women to the history of American culture and art. Founded in 1995, the NAWA Florida Chapter extends the mission of the National Association by providing highly visible Florida venues, designing art education opportunities for its members and promoting art education to Florida communities.
Sharing the Journey is a celebration of the profound impact of teachers, and the impressive dedication of students. Pablo Contrisciani has worked as an instructor at Oolite Arts in Miami, FL, from 1998 to the present. Through his teaching, Constrisciani has influenced countless students – some of whom are featured in this show.
Rigoberto Pelaez is a self-taught painter and sculptor born in Havana, Cuba, in 1973. His interest in landscape painting is clearly linked to a strong preference for rural life. In his works, the artist expresses a new romantic vision of the Cuban countryside, imbuing the vegetation and sky with a sense of movement and an atmosphere of romance. Peláez, who practices open-air painting, concentrates in detailing the tonalities of light and joyous exuberance of the Cuban landscape.
Sveta Osborne is an international artist, passionate about texture, color, movement and design as conveyed in her paintings. The artist lives and works in Cape Coral, Florida, USA, staying near tropical islands and the Gulf Coast beaches. Vibrant colors present in the waters and sea life form an endless source of inspiration for her work. Coastal influences are incorporated as images of tropical leaves, seashells and coral resonate in the artist’s environment.
Clifford McDonald was born and raised in Sarasota, Florida, where he attended Booker High School. McDonald earned a bachelor degree in fine arts from the University of Maine at Presque Isle. Today he is a painter and the founder of the nonprofit Art 4 Change, a nonprofit organization that creates positive social change through art, information, advocacy, and service. In 2016, after he started teaching art at Visible Men Academy in Bradenton, Florida, McDonald became inspired by his students and the idea of using the transformative power of the arts to make a difference in the world. His paintings today focus on culture, community, and positive social change. His goal is to use his gift to make a difference in the community by sending a message of love.
Julie Ann Bakker is a photographer based in Sarasota, Florida. Her work focuses on the natural beauty of the outdoors, and the historical objects in her environment. Bakker describes her photography practice: “I seek out that which calls to me—objects that will allow me to frame a poignant story through my roving camera lens.” For still life images in her exhibit, Bakker was inspired by soft velvety petals of pastel-colored roses, integrated together with textures that would not necessarily go together, but were blended in with an eclectic array of many-layered old postcards, and tilting stacks of antiquated books conveying their history and age from the tattered Smyth-sewn spines to the handwriting from complete strangers on the margins of the pages.
This exhibition is inspired by the artist’s journey from Prague to Israel, to New York City. For over 50 years, her extensive travels while working in the fashion and art industries influenced her colors, textures, emotions, and her constant hunger to create. Inspired by organic shapes and planes in nature, Reich’s artworks are a woven interplay of rich color spectrums that explore the depth and intimacy of our abstract world. Through pure pigments and layers of epoxy resins, her works allow her visions to breathe with motion and fluidity and reflect her optimistic and sensual worldview while giving one a glimpse of the enigmatic life she has lived.
Javier Suárez Jr. (b. Puerto Rico, 1972) studied architecture at the University of Florida. Being the son of an architect, he always felt compelled to follow in his father’s footsteps, though art has been his first love. What has made him a successful artist, though, is his innate passion. The works featured in Sarasota Icons can be described as “rational-Expressionism.” They result from synthesizing rational thinking (concept) and action (body, feelings). The stories of layered images and the rendering of moments within these images’ literal overlap generate a three-dimensional space perception from a two-dimensional plane. He lives and works in Sarasota.
Robyn Holl is a visual artist whose paintings and collages demonstrate energetic movement and vibrant coloration. Her work has been exhibited locally and internationally. Exhibitions include Visionary Women at the Columbia Art Center in 2019, 2020, & 2022, The Art of Abstraction in 2018, and Colorful Spirit in Historic Ellicott City in 2017. Robyn has held solo exhibitions in Sarajevo and Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and a show featuring her travels, The Balkans, in Brooklyn, New York. She holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.
Originally from Colorado, Carol Lukitsch has traveled and lived in various parts of the world. She received a BFA Summa Cum Laude from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and an MFA from The University of Maryland, College Park. Her career as a college art professor and curator has involved many cross-cultural projects, including a Fulbright Grant to Turkey, where she was a Senior Lecturer. Her energetic, brightly colored, abstract paintings convey a sense of movement and discovery. They have been widely exhibited in the United States and internationally and are featured in distinguished private and public collections.
Isaac Azulay (b. Caracas, Venezuela) received a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Reichmann University IDC in Israel, and a master’s in Business Administration from Nova University in Davie, Florida. Over the last four years, he has taken courses at Roberto Mata School of Photography in Miami, where he currently teaches urban photography. At first sight, Azulay’s photographs describe recognizable locations and commonplace imagery. However, Isaac’s work introduces the complicated interplay between form, lines, and color, suggesting a physical arrangement of geometric shapes within the landscape.
Jude Zawaideh, a 21-year-old fine artist, captures the essence of the self in response to the physical body over time. With a focus on a contemporary figurative style, her work serves as a reflective medium that pushes towards notions of self-awareness and exploration. Zawaideh uses oil paint as a medium which encompasses her love of the process and the patience it takes to get to know the subjects she paints. She creates enigmatic, vaguely familiar compositions that explore the multiplicity of reality and human consciousness, diving into the artist’s personal experiences within her reality. Viewers find themselves exchanging glances with the subjects immersed in scenes of unexpected yet intensely introspective states.
Dan Houston, formerly of New York, was transplanted to Houston, Texas, more than 30 years ago. A mecca for artistry and fine art, Houston was the ideal place to cultivate his love for art, which he developed as a small child, creating his first masterpieces with crayons on brown paper bags and his mother’s walls. Dan Houston’s natural artistic talents were nurtured at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and Cooper Union School of Art. Since then, his unique art has been showcased at countless worldwide galleries. Dan has recently relocated to Sarasota, Florida.
Clemy Abadi was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, on February 8, 1940. She studied art at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas Cristobal Rojas in Caracas, the University of Nebraska, and with Venezuelan master Pedro León Zapata. A talented pianist, she has trained in classical music with Eva Hangelaid and Harold Y. Vargas. Clemy ventured into handmade wet felting in 2018 while visiting Uruguay, in the workshop of the artist Alejandra Rodriguez Medina, with whom she continued to experiment and perfect this ancestral textile technique between 2019 and 2021. Clemy reached her own expressive language of textures and colors that refer to her intimate connection with nature, art, and the delicate universe of emotions.
Alexander Solotzew was born in Kaliningrad, Russia, in 1957. At eleven, he entered the Moscow Academic Art Lyceum, a school for gifted children supported by the Russian Academy of Arts. After graduating from the Lyceum, he studied at Tambov Art College, where his parents taught art. In 1977, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg State Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. After receiving his master’s degree in fine arts in 1981, he immigrated to Germany, where he began his artistic career.
Ana Albertina Delgado was born in Havana Cuba, in 1963. She studied art at the Academia de Bellas Artes San Alejandro (1979-1983) and pursued her bachelor’s in fine arts at the Instituto Superior the Arte (ISA), where she majored in painting and graduated Summa Cum Laude (1983-1988). In 1991, she studied printmaking techniques at the Taller de Serigrafía René Portocarrero. Delgado is one of the few women who participated in what is known today as Cuba’s Eighties Generation.
Andrés Valerio (Havana, Cuba, 1934-Miami, Florida, 2021) studied art at the Academia de Bellas Artes San Alejandro and graduated with honors in 1958. He joined the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC) in 1969 and was an active participant in the visual arts scene on the island for over two decades. He presented a one-person show, participated in over 65 group exhibitions, and produced 18 ceramic murals. He also taught furniture history, design, and artistic drawing. His open opposition to Cuba’s socialist regime made his work stigmatized and marginalized. Valerio went into exile in 1980 and arrived in Miami as part of the Mariel exodus.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1914, Rainer Hildebrandt became an active participant in the resistance against East Berlin’s communist regime after World War II. On August 13th, 1961, Hildebrandt witnessed the rise of the Berlin Wall. He worked with the CIA in helping East Berliners escape to the west. On November 8th, 1989, President Mikhail Gorbachev announced that travel restrictions would no longer be forbidden, and people from the west began to tear down the Wall. By November 9th, the Berlin Wall had fallen.
Humberto Castro was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1957. He attended the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes de San Alejandro and the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana. His work mixes figures with lyrical and conceptual elements resulting in a new art form known as Neo-figuration. Thematically, it deals with the social and psychological challenges of humankind and incorporates historical and social-cultural myths. His artistic production can be divided into three distinctive periods. The first one corresponds to the work produced in Havana, Cuba; the second one includes paintings and drawings made while living in Paris, France; and the third and most recent one features the work produced after moving to the United States. Each period features different series which incorporate specific themes using different symbols and materials.
Philippe Attie was born in Seguin, Haiti, in 1986. At the young age of twelve, he began teaching himself how to paint. By the time he was sixteen, he had earned an apprenticeship with renowned master Ralph Allen. He was later mentored by artist Richard Barbot. Under their direction, his passion for painting grew even stronger, and he eventually developed his own style. Attie’s work is defined by the relationship between the realistic figure and the ground of gestural abstraction. He works primarily with acrylics and oil on canvas. His subjects are meticulously depicted in states of contemplation and repose and enveloped by a psychological atmosphere built up by transparent layers of soft color and hints of expressionist forms.
María Silvana Sandoval was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1970. She studied fine arts and graduated with a Visual Arts Teacher’s degree from the Martín Malharro School in Mar del Plata, in 1991. She has taken courses at the Ceramic School in Mar del Plata and the Escuela Superior de Arte Ernesto de la Cárcova, in Buenos Aires. For over thirty years, she has taught art in several educational institutions in Mar del Plata, Capital Federal, San Isidro, Pinamar, and General Madariaga.
Davies’ work has been exhibited in more than 60 group and solo exhibitions in significant galleries and museums internationally. In the United Kingdom, these include the Redfern Gallery, The Royal Academy, The National Museum of Wales, Bradford City Museums, The Gulbenkian Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery, and Walker Art Gallery and Museum. His paintings have shown in Paris (Galerie Sabin Herbert), Berlin (Raab Gallery), Johannesburg (Everard Bearne Gallery), Perth (Western Australia Museum of Art), and galleries throughout America, including Allyn Gallup Contemporary in Sarasota, Hal Katzen Gallery NY, Longstreth Goldberg Gallery in Naples FL and Museum of the Arts, Sebring FL.
Carina Segredo is best known for her usage of bright colors using acrylic on canvas. She recently graduated from Cornell University in 2019 with a degree in Hospitality and concentrations in Fine Arts and Marketing. She currently lives in Miami, FL, where she finds her inspiration in the area’s culture, people, and ambiance. Her contemporary style marries an impressionist personality with a modern twist.
Daniela Steiner was born in Venezuela. She graduated as a licensed architect in 1988 and worked for five years in the field of design. An interest in personal growth, psychology, and psychotherapy inspired her to become a psychotherapist. Since then, she has approached art as one of her forms of expression and inner healing.
The exhibition Converging Dialogues in Contemporary Art: Cernuda Arte Represented Artists presents a panorama of contemporary Cuban art made inside and outside the island. The show includes works by Giosvany Echevarría, Miguel Florido, Flora Fong, Lilian García-Roig, Danuel Méndez, and Jorge Luis Santos.
Bill Haffner is an Abstract Expressionist painter. He has spent nearly a quarter-century immersed in the electric local and international art scene as an artist, gallery director, fine art dealer, and broker. Besides being a painter himself, he has a high level of expertise in 20th-century art and has built fine art collections for distinguished clients worldwide.
Peter Jacob Christ attended Syracuse University, studied painting at the Sir John Cass School of Art in London, and traveled to Europe before moving to New York, where he pursued painting and worked as a creative director in the field of advertising. He earned a Master of Fine Arts from New York University.
Romelle is an abstract artist based out of Denver, Colorado. She is motivated by the growth and resurgence of her hometown, Detroit, as it relates to the healing of humankind. She specializes in bright, highly textured pieces that bring spaces to life.
Lisa DiFranza started her daily painting project in March 2020 when the Covid-19 health crisis emerged. The images she created are a diary of sorts, reflecting internal thoughts and dreams, daily surroundings, and the larger American political landscape, during the pandemic. As a collection, they chronicle the year, and the strange ways time has alternately seemed to slow down, then accelerate, only to slow down again — as the world is being transformed and reinvented.
The Petticoat Painters is one of the oldest continuously exhibiting women’s art groups in the United States. It was formed in 1953 to showcase the talents of female artists at a time when women had difficulty finding venues to show their work. Seven women participated in the first show held at a local Sarasota gallery. These original members selected the name “Petticoat Painters,” thinking it would be a one-time opportunity. The name continues to be used today both in honor of the founders and to retain its historical signature.
October 16, 2019 – September 7, 2020
The Independent Eye features photographs by Barbara Banks; photos and models by Michael Halflants; sculptures by Duncan Chamberlain; and paintings by Bill Buchman, Larry Forgard, Grace Howl, and Andrea Dasha Reich. The show also includes photographs by Chuck Reich. More recently, SVAS welcomed jewelry designer Ned Bowman who will be joining the studio tour in the upcoming 2019-2020 season.
When you enter Valentina Bilbao’s studio, you fall into a trance, marveled by the colors of her abstract paintings, engulfed by the music that inspires them. While working to the sound of carefully chosen songs, Valentina’s emotions take over. Her hand impregnates the canvases with brilliant colored strokes while the rhythms of different melodies allow her to express ideas, feelings, and sensations.
Her paintings open our eyes to the good and the positive in our world. As a passionate and engaged artist, her main goal is to have an impact on the younger generations and to provide a positive experience by making a better world.
October 16, 2019 – September 7, 2020
Glassover’s colorful abstract compositions are beautiful examples of a practice that has evolved in the last few decades under the term of new media art. Art Ovation Hotel is pleased to introduce the public to a selection of works produced using digital technology as an essential part of their creative and presentation process.
The exhibition Watercolor Spectrum presents works by John Bayalis, Helen Burkett, Kathy Houghton, Jenny Medved, William Perry, Diane Schmidt, Roger Parent, and Deborah Wicks, distinguished members of the Florida Watercolor Society, the state’s largest and most respected arts organization. A curated selection of watercolors by these award-winning artists and art educators features a variety of subject matters including portraits, still-lifes, and landscapes. Each painter has his or her own personal style and looks at different sites and cultures for inspiration.
Leslie Lerner (1949-2005) began his artistic career in California in the 1960s, where he was influenced by San Francisco’s pop culture Hollywood’s stage sets. He became a sort of “visual writer” whose paintings depicted the tales of an imaginary voyage titled “My Life in France.” His magnificent world was inhabited by his alter-egos “The Man with the Wooden Arm” and “The Poor Boy.” Through his illustrated stories, he was able to transport the viewers to fantastic places and share with them a beautiful, dreamlike world.
Robert Doyon is a self-described “Swiss Artist’s Knife,” with skills and interests in all sorts of creative endeavors. After spending many years working in design and fabrication in Orlando’s theme parks, theatre, and museum exhibits, and assisting other artists in the making of their artwork, he decided to nurture his own artist’s spirit full time. At the age of 48, he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with Honors in Sculpture/Painting from the Ringling College of Art & Design (1994), in Sarasota. Since then, he has focused on integrating his previous work experience to his personal storyline and visual freedom.
Cuban Art of the 1980s. The Reynardus Collection presents a selection of works from one of the most comprehensive private collections of contemporary Cuban art in the United States. Focusing on the artwork by Cuban artists who left the island after 1989, it represents a generation that changed the Island’s culture through its aesthetic practices. The majority of the works in the exhibition belong to artists who gained recognition at a young age and were instrumental in the development of Cuban art in the 1980s. Their stories, styles and experiences are all different but they share a common bond: they chose to live in exile. The collection also includes works by Cuban masters who influenced them and by artists born in Cuba who left early in their careers or became artists after migrating to the United States. The collection reflects the vision of Jorge Reynardus, a Cuban art lover who, like these artists, grew up in Cuba but left in search for safer and better opportunities. His collection serves as a testimony of a crucial time in Cuba’s art history, but also to what it means to have a passion for art and to live with it.
Art Ovation Hotel is honored to present an exhibition of photographs by Ulrich Mannchen and Jan C. Schlegel, founding members of White Rabbit Collective from Nurnberg, Germany. Mannchen and Schlegel discovered their passion for photography at an early age. As they grew older, they were able to further develop their skills and build strong careers doing what they love. Their passion for the medium brought them together, not only to produce their own impressive portfolios, but also to share their knowledge and experience with others.
In the exhibition Alternative Realities, Jose Margulies creates a dialogue between his three-dimensional sculptures and reliefs, and the two-dimensional works that result from photographing them. The exploration of Margulies’s parallel universes allows viewers to connect with their own emotions and to enter a state of self-reflection through contemplation.
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) and Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) are considered to be two of the most influential figures in 20th century American art. Stieglitz, a prominent photographer and gallery owner, is known for elevating photography to fine art as well as introducing European modern art to the New York art scene. He gave Georgia O’Keeffe her first solo show in 1917, promoted her work, and married her in 1924. Their love story – one of passion, deceit, and betrayal – is legendary as it documents a significant time in the history of modern art.
The origins of watercolor painting go back to prehistoric times when the first known artists painted cave walls with natural pigments. Watercolors have dominated Asian art and they have also had a prominent place in Western art history. They became particularly popular in Europe and the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries; this can be seen in works by modern masters Wassily Kandinsky, Emil Nolde, Paul Klee, Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keeffe.
An Exhibition by Jose Angel Vincench
With this exhibition more than fifty works by twelve outstanding artists who are dedicated professors, successful alumni and, in some cases, both bring to the community an exciting collection of paintings, photographs, videos, installations and sculptures. Displayed both online and throughout the Hotel’s public areas showcases the richness and the diversity of the art produced by these great ambassadors of the College’s artistic community.
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