by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
Washing over the city like a gentle tide is the evolving arts scene in Jacksonville. To document the changes, the University Gallery at the University of North Florida is hosting Street Scene: A Decade of New Painting in Jacksonville.
Eleven local artists are participating in the exhibition: Jim Draper and Steve Williams, co-owners of Pedestrian — A Gallery of Contemporary Art, Ryan Rummel and Jonathan Lux, whose “Mannacles+Fetters” exhibition just closed at Pedestrian; gallery owner Lee Harvey, Marsha Glazière, Mark Creegan, Christian Pierre, Tony Rodrigues, Jerry Smith and Kurt Polkey.
“When I came here, it wasn’t possible to earn a living by practicing this type of art,” said Henry Petersen, visiting gallery director and a painter. “This is a difficult environment to be a contemporary artist as opposed to a commercial artist. Now, there’s a bigger population. The number of people interested in riskier art is increasing and the number willing to take financial risks is increasing.”
In 1976, Petersen said just a handful of painters were showing their work, primarily conservative pieces. From Petersen’s perspective, the most interesting exhibitions of non-traditional work were produced by local artists and staged by university galleries. Early 1990 marked the beginning of the metamorphosis.
“It’s about what was happening at the time,” said Williams. “During the period the show represents, the arts were more of a mission to me. Now, it’s a real life business. We’re making sure Pedestrian is stable so we can take part in all of the things happening.”
Artists who had established themselves, or enjoyed visibility in the Riverside district, are spotlighted in the show.
“What interested me was that we finally have a self-sustaining body of artists,” said Petersen. “That was not the case before. My audience is the university campus. What I wanted to accomplish was to show that students don’t have to move out of the area to make a living as a professional. These artists can be role models for our fine art majors.”
No common thread, other than creating paintings within the past decade, connects the group of artists selected for the show. Some are representational pieces, others are more abstract.
“There’s every kind of painting imaginable,” said Petersen. “They’re exciting and original and can’t be imitated. It’s not producing a commodity; it’s risk-tasking work. Every one of them is exploring new territory with their paintings.”
“The art world in general is very confused,” said Williams. “Jacksonville is a good example. No one knows exactly where it’s headed. What’s interesting about being here is anything you do is interesting because there’s not much here. This is still a small town. There are 3,000 painters in Manhattan. You get lost in the shuffle. We get a lot of attention now, though, and less people complain about how horrible it is. Jacksonville is ripe for something interesting to happen. What that is, I don’t know.”
Despite the wave of art appreciation in the community, some local artists believe residents are still slow to accept avant-garde art work.
“I’m not seeing a whole lot of different images or a whole lot of changes,” said Glazière. ”People are still particularly interested in scenes of local imagery. Maybe we’re catching up, but I still see a whole lot of palm trees and lighthouses. I don’t think the taste for more sophisticated art has changed that much. It’s growing, but a lot of educating needs to be done, along with more galleries. The public should get to see more variety.”
Pierre, a veteran of the New York and British experimental art scenes, concurs with Glazière that an interest in the arts is surging. She believes the slow rise in the popularity of art locally, especially contemporary art, is because of Jacksonville’s lack of identity with the more liberal artists.
“It takes a lot of energy from individuals who care about art [to keep the arts alive here],” she said. “This is a football town to me.”
An opening reception for Street Scene is tonight at UNF from 5-7 p.m. The exhibition runs through Feb. 20.