Jax Contemporary Artist Bios

ROBERT DEWITT ADAMS

Growing up in an educated military family, I have always been intrigued by humanity’s potential for creativity, measured against its penchant for destruction and cruelty. I seek understanding through contrasts, in material and concept. Inspired by 'zine culture and outsider art, I began using found objects and imagery after a Conservation Corps job fishing colorful trash from streams. I am interested in formation of identity and use collage and assemblage to invoke layers of the self. After graduating from American University and traveling, I settled in Seattle and began exhibiting in alternative spaces. I relocated to Oregon for my MFA. I have continued my work through moves to Minnesota and Florida, and I’m currently manager of Florida Mining Gallery.

My work has been exhibited in group shows around the U.S., and highlights have included a regional grant for a show of 200 Battleship game boards assembled into maps of the Great Lakes, in Minnesota; and a show at the Seattle Art Museum Rental/Sales Gallery with two paintings purchased by the city. My works are often regionally and historically based, and my focus here has turned to the South. My work takes an aesthetic approach to the continuing legacy and potential futures of civil war, racism, and classism in today’s climate of authoritarianism and disinformation. Florida is the third most populous state. Signs of change are everywhere, including along the many roadsides where old rugs are discarded after home renovations for incoming residents. I wonder about ongoing shifts in southern culture as new immigrants layer on top of old behaviors and conceptions. In the bags I craft from found materials, I include hand-made or digitally reproduced items exemplifying positive influences between north and south.

My 'refuse flags' series also explores identity. I envision proud Floridians arising post-apocalypse or post-hurricane, staking their claim with whatever debris is at hand. I am also investigating flag history and symbolism. There is debate whether the Florida and Alabama flags are inspired by the cross of the Confederate battle flag, or the Spanish Burgundian banner. I plan to engage other flags, such as Georgia's based on the Confederate national flag (less well-known than the battle flag). Other current bodies of work include alternate history, wondering how our national identity might be different if the south had won. I look for items like children's toys to modify. Maps are another focus of my art, related to my grandfather’s cartography work for the Tennessee Valley Authority and my father’s for Defense Intelligence. Humor and absurdity in the face of challenges are vital in my approach to art and life.

TODD ALEXANDER

Todd Alexander is a working artist and contemporary art gallery owner, living and working in Fernandina Beach, FL. Born into a family of artists, at a young age Todd experimented with watercolor and oil mediums, as well as hand-thrown pottery. He then pursued scientific and medical illustration at the University of Georgia, working afterward to produce anatomically driven creations for the medical industry. For the past 25 years, Todd’s evolved creatively, exploring alternative ways to express himself and his subjects. Todd has used encaustic, mixed media, collage, plexiglass and oils throughout his many series. Todd allows no boundaries. For him, it’s not about the finished product as much as the journey, discovering emotions and sharing them. Todd has most current works represent his exploration of consciousness, meditation, and what it means to exist in a vibrational state. The works found herein distill universal emotions. Subjects take the viewer to different planes in a view of the subconscious, inviting curiosity and contemplation. Collectively, they deliver new levels of validation and self-awareness. His works have been commissioned and acquired by private and public collections nationally and internationally.

ÅKE ARNERDAL

Åke Arnerdal is a Swedish born artist with a Master of Fine Art from Umeå University, Sweden, who currently divides his time between Torsåker, Sweden, and Jacksonville, Florida. He works with mixed media collage paintings and sculpture. He has exhibited at various venues across the US and Europe. Most recently, his works were displayed in two solo shows; one at the SPAACES Art Gallery in Sarasota, Florida, and the other at the Mora Kulturhus in Mora, Sweden. He has also participated in group shows such as ART Rabbit and Sculpture Weekend in London, UK, Fountain Street Gallery, Boston, MA, and Concepto Gallery, Hudson, NY. Åke also has experience working as an art educator at Skulpturen Hus, an art center in Stockholm, Sweden, and as a painting teacher at the Hampstead School of Art in London, UK, for over 10 years. He has also taught annual courses in Sweden, the UK, and the US.

GAIL BEVERIDGE

Gail was fortunate to grow up in a time and place that allowed her great freedom to explore the world around her. As a teenager living near Philadelphia, she and her best friend would often venture into the city to spend the entire day at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, marveling at all the great works within its cavernous galleries. Her art appreciation was further piqued by exposure to a variety of art media throughout her school years. Art is Gail’s outlet for expression and has guided her through life, first with a career in interior design and subsequently as a sculptor and now a painter. “I’ve always been a visual person and being able to express my vision of the world through painting is a joyful experience. Finding the right words sometimes eludes me, but if my paintings evoke a special feeling or memory for the viewer, then I have succeeded in communicating on a very personal level with that person and that is important to me. Gail earned a Bachelor of Design degree with honors from the University of Florida and built a successful thirty-year career in interior design, twenty of those as founder and owner of PeopleSpace, Inc., a commercial design firm with many signature projects for local and national clients. After merging her company into a regional architectural firm in 1997 and establishing its commercial design department, she left in 1999 to pursue her life-long interest in fine art.

During the next decade she worked as a sculptor, creating 3-D mixed media works anchored by the gourd. Her award-winning gourd works were featured in many juried exhibits, shows and galleries. She has since transitioned to painting in oil and her works have been exhibited in numerous national and regional juried exhibitions. She had her first solo exhibition in 2022 at the Lightner Museum of Art in St. Augustine and has another solo exhibition opening in February 2025 at the St. Johns County Administration Building. In 2023, Gail was the local artist invited to exhibit her work at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in connection with the its traveling exhibition, American Made: Paintings & Sculpture from the Demell Jacobsen Collection. Much of Gail's work celebrates the natural world in and around northeast Florida as well as the individuals interacting with that environment. Many of her paintings start with plein air studies done on-site in various locations throughout the region. Through her work, Gail's goal is to be an advocate for these special places and their importance to our wellbeing and that of our planet, in the hope that viewers will come to appreciate and experience them firsthand.

Beveridge has also been involved in the arts as a docent at MOCA Jacksonville, a volunteer on the installation team at the St. Augustine Art Association, and as former chairman of A Brush with Nature, a plein air painting event at the Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens. She is an associate member of Oil Painters of America, the National Oil & Acrylic Painters of America, Florida Artists Group (FLAG), St. Augustine Art Association, and First Coast Plein Air Painters. After living in Jacksonville for almost 40 years, Gail moved to St. Augustine in 2018 — but considers both places her inspirational backyard. 

HOLLY BLANTON

 Holly Blanton is a sixth-generation Florida Native, born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1973. The artist is based in the Mayport area. Holly left Jacksonville for many years and travelled the globe, learning about other cultures and immersing herself in art. She uses heavy body paints and mediums to create thick layers, producing heavy texture artwork with a dimensional effect. Most pieces are largely abstractions designed to evoke serene emotions. Subjects of her work include places around Jacksonville and the beaches. Her art career was established in 2006, and she has continued evolving and growing as an artist over time. Art has allowed her to be self-employed as she raised her two children. Currently, Holly Blanton has permanent exhibitions at the PGA Tour Global Home in Ponte Vedra, CSI Companies in Jacksonville, the Country Club of Hilton Head, Salt Air Wealth Management, Pinnacle Financial Partners, all locations of Southern Grounds, and two locations in the Jacksonville Airport. The trowelling of medium across the canvas with suggestions of a scene, is her main focus in current work. "It's our obligation as artists to put our own personal spin on the work."

DESHONNA BUCHANAN

Hey! My name is Deshonna Buchanan, but my artist’s name is Sunflower Soul. I am the owner and photographer of Sunflower Soul Studios. As a self-taught artist, I find joy in creating and discovering beauty in the small things. In my art, just as in life, I embrace my mistakes as opportunities to grow and enhance the beauty in my art. My artist story originates in my teen years, but after being introduced to trauma and life, it stopped for some time. After beginning my healing journey in 2020, I was reintroduced to my artist side. This began my faith walk into my true self, a creator. I do multiple forms of creating: photography, videography, writing, music, painting, film, and even culinary art. I have so much that I want to share with others. I also use my art to bring awareness to certain situations that I care about, to spread love, and even more importantly, self-love. I believe that’s where healing in the world starts, with yourself. Self-love is the cure. Be on the lookout for so much coming your way. Take a look at my website www.sunflowersoulstudios.com for more info. Blessings to you all. Stay Soulful!

CHRIS CLARK

Clark (b. 1987) is a self-taught visual artist, illustrator, and muralist based in Jacksonville, FL. Specializing in Black portraiture and figurative works, his art reflects the rich culture, history and resilience of the Black community across the diaspora. For Clark, art is a form of journalism— a powerful tool to explore social issues and celebrate Black life in America through his personal lens as a Black man, husband, and father. He believes representation matters, stating, “By telling my story, I want to help the viewer rediscover theirs.” Deeply rooted in personal experience and cultural heritage, Clark’s work is shaped by his early introduction to the Rastafarian lifestyle and his journey with dreadlocks— a symbol of individuality and pride. His current series offers an emotional dialogue with his younger self, encouraging the celebration of uniqueness. Recurring themes, such as sunglasses, represent a duality: a shield for vulnerability and a statement of inherent coolness. His vision is to create spaces where young Black kids embrace their natural hair and authentic selves without hesitation. Clark’s portraits blend imagination and reality, often featuring composite characters inspired by family, friends, and everyday encounters. Drawing from old family photos and daily interactions, his work captures the essence, spirit, and soul of his subjects—reaching beyond mere likeness. His creative inspiration flows from Black culture and heritage, with Black hair and dreadlocks serving as recurring cultural symbols of strength and beauty. Clark’s eclectic technique incorporates acrylics, oils, oil sticks, spray paint and ink, often blending collage elements for added depth and dimension. This dynamic mix brings vibrancy, texture and a narrative of individuality and cultural pride to each piece. His artwork has been exhibited in the U.S. and abroad, including his solo show New Growth at Kent Gallery FSCJ in Jacksonville, FL, and Through Our Eyes: Journey to South Africa at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Clark has earned multiple awards and grants and has been selected for prestigious residencies, including the House of Sedulo Artist Residency in London and the Chateau Orquevaux Artist Residency in France (2022–2023). He has also completed the DEAR (Digital Evolution Artist Retention) fellowship with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute in New York City.

LAURA COLOMB

Laura Colomb is a painter who currently works from the land surrounding Jacksonville, Florida. She holds an MFA from Boston University and a BFA from the College of Saint Rose, NY. Awards include a South Arts Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant, a Community Foundation of Northeast Florida Art Ventures Grant and a Starr Foundation Fellowship Grant. Residency awards include the Royal Academy of the Arts, UK; Golden Foundation, NY; Jentel Arts, WY; Monson Arts, ME; Wildacres Retreat, NC; and Salem Art Works, NY. Her solo exhibition The End of Eden at Lake George Arts Project, NY, was reviewed in Whitehot Magazine, NYC. She has curated and organized exhibitions for various galleries including Saratoga Arts and North Main Gallery in upstate NY, for which she was recognized by Metroland Magazine, NY, with the Best Emerging Regional Curator award. Laura has also spent time working with Albany Mural on murals in Albany, NY, including the Hudson Riverfront Mural, Excavate Mural, and within the New York State Assembly Chamber. She has lived in Jacksonville since 2011.

JOSHUA COOPER

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1996, Joshua Cooper developed an interest in art at a young age. He pursued art education throughout both primary and secondary school. In 2014, he discovered his passion for realist portraiture and the human figure after experiencing the works of John Singer Sargent at the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts. After graduating from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Cooper went on to earn a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree with a minor in Art History from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. Upon graduation, Cooper joined the Portrait Society of America. After speaking with the organization’s founder, Edward Jonas, he was inspired to pursue a career as a full-time painter. In August 2020, Cooper completed the winning mural concept for the Music Room at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, Florida, which has been featured on NPR’s First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross. Continuing to refine his artistic skills, Cooper has sought out instruction in classical techniques. In 2021, he moved to Florence, Italy, to attend the Florence Academy of Art. The Florence Academy has digitally exhibited six of Cooper’s pieces on their website in the student section, representing accomplished student work. Cooper graduated from the Florence Academy in 2024. He is currently living and working in Jacksonville, Florida.

ADELL COULLIETTE

Adell Coulliette III is the son-of-the-son-of-a preacher’s daughter based in Jacksonville, FL, known for his powerful and emotionally charged works that explore the complexities of trauma, anxiety, identity, and male fragility. With a background in art installation in museums and galleries, Adell has a unique understanding of how to transform spaces to express a theme or emotion. Adell earned his BFA at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, where he honed his skills in various mediums, including painting, sculpture, and installation art. Growing up in the American South, he is acutely aware of the growing tensions in politics and religious beliefs, and how these issues influence the anxieties within his work. Through his art, Adell aims to provoke thought and spark conversation about the difficult and uncomfortable topics that we face in our society. 

MARK CREEGAN

Mark Creegan was born in Tampa, Florida in 1971. He received his BFA from Jacksonville University in 1995 and his MFA from Florida State University in 2005. Creegan has exhibited throughout the US including a solo exhibit in Los Angeles and group shows in New York, Miami, and Phoenix, AZ. His work has been featured at the Art Miami Art Fair and Untitled Art Fair. As a Florida native, he currently lives and works in Jacksonville, FL. Alternating between painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, installation, and performance, Mark Creegan’s art practice explores a diverse array of formal material and conceptual positions. Tennis racquets, used watercolor sets, and hair combs are just some of the disparate objects Creegan factors into paintings, minimalist wall arrangements, or large-scale installations. This multi-faceted approach is unified by a thoughtful probing of abstract and painting discourse, of personal and cultural attitudes about color, and of the effect of “the multiple” deployment of the found object.

SARAH CROOKS

Nurturing belonging, multidisciplinary eco-feminist artist Sarah Crooks blends art with environmental science, reimagining our relationship with the flora and fauna of home. Traditional art forms and embodied practices, like walking and deep listening, create biophilic installations, stories, and community, while dissolving boundaries between Self and Other. Rooted in reciprocity and creative play, her work has been exhibited and collected by healing centers, public libraries, and private individuals for more than 30 years. A creative placemaking leader, her collaborations include Cathedral Arts Project, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, the Museum of Science and History, the East Coast Greenway Alliance, and presentations at the Bioneers, the Association for Literature and the Environment, and Children’s Nature Network conferences. Reminding us of our interdependence based on the gift of water, her Home is Here project received major funding from the State of Florida in 2019 to enliven public spaces throughout the watershed of the St. Johns. A BFA honors graduate (UNF,1989), Crooks trained as a Botanical Illustrator (NYBG, 1999), is certified as a Florida Master Naturalist (UF/IFAS, 2014), and earned her MA in Arts in Medicine (UF, 2022). Crooks was honored by The Community Foundation Ann McDonald Baker Art Ventures Award for 2023 in recognition of her career serving Northeast Florida through the arts. Her current research centers on ritual and re-membrance, the sense of touch, dis/placement and attachment. A show of new works The Long Wayt Home will open at the Jessie Ball DuPont Center Corner Gallery this May. www.artistsarahcrooks.com

Artist Statement: Means of Attachment Series 

The objects in this series incorporate scavenged home building supplies alongside organic elements reflective of walks at various sites. We develop attachment styles with our primary caregivers as infants which have been classified as secure, insecure, and disorganized. Primarily experienced through the skin sense of touch, these patterns inform all other relationships throughout our lives. What we hold on to defines our future as much as what we let go of. 

Walking, collecting, and sewing are very calming to my nervous system, and develop a sense of place while embodying a secure relationship with my environment. When practiced as a form of mindfulness these gifts of discovery become my medicine. Unfortunately, many wander like untouchable Hungry Ghosts searching for relationships, substances, ideas, and items to quench their unmet need for belonging. On a macro level, addictions represent an imbalanced human culture and often prey upon societies’ most vulnerable individuals.

YNA CRUZ

ALEXANDER DIAZ

Alexander Diaz is an Associate Professor of Photography at the University of North Florida. Diaz’s artwork is a marriage of documentary photography and conceptual art. He utilizes photography to express his concerns and to comment on environmental issues, consumerism, religion, and the particulars of place. His work has been exhibited at many institutions such as the Norton Museum of Art, Mobile Museum of Art and Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville.

KEITH DOLES

Keith Doles is an Abstract Expressionist painter and Florida native who graduated from the University of North Florida with a BFA degree in Graphic Design in 2001. In 2005, he earned a Master of Arts degree in Business from Webster University. His style combines influences from Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. In 2006, Doles began producing commercial art for web designers and small businesses from Florida to Wisconsin. Projects included prototype drawings, logos and illustrations for children's books and magazines. In 2016, Doles became a resident artist at the CoRK Arts District in Jacksonville’s Riverside neighborhood. His abstract work developed after a period of physical and emotional trauma and recovery. He was a fine arts instructor for UNF Continuing Education and the founder of the award-winning public art team, Bridge Muralists. "I create with a childlike, energetic spirit. I use geometric shapes and organic forms and merge them into work that feeds the mind with wonder, reflection, and question. My fascination with architecture began very early in life, and construction sites symbolize rebuilding myself from the ground up. I was a full-time caregiver for my mother and recovery after a collapse provided an opportunity to reevaluate everything, I believed was necessary. Infrastructure is the underlying framework essential to make a society functional. The work illustrates my personal infrastructure - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual." Doles’ work has been featured in exhibitions at the Ritz Theatre & Museum, Haskell Gallery at Jacksonville International Airport, MOCA Jacksonville, LeMoyne Arts in Tallahassee, and HMVC Gallery online in New York City. Keith is a graphic designer and artist for interior designers and commissions public art projects. His work can be found in several private and public art collections.

OVERSTREET DUCASSE

Overstreet Ducasse is a Haitian artist based in Jacksonville, Florida. After moving to the United States at age six and feeling disconnected with his new environment, Ducasse found solace— and a way of expressing himself through art. His work stands out due to its hidden depths; clever symbolism, metaphors and irony lay just beneath the surface for viewers to explore as they attempt to decipher what statement he is trying best to convey.

DOUGLAS ENG

Doug Eng is a photographer and installation artist who has dedicated his career to raising awareness of the beauty of the Florida landscape, and the environmental threats it faces. His recent projects have also focused on Jacksonville’s urban landscape. He has an educational and professional background as an engineer and software programmer. A Jacksonville native, Eng received his BS and MEng in Structural Engineering and architecture from Cornell University. His technical science background provides him with a unique skill set that he utilizes in his photographs. Eng ultimately decided photography would be the main medium in which he could fully capture and communicate his ideas to the world and, since then, has established his reputation for unique imagery and meaningful public projects. Structure of Nature|Nature of Structure, a retrospective of his work took place at MOCA Jacksonville in 2021. Other recent exhibitions include Southland 2024, at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; American Made 2022, organized by the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, traveling to the Mint Museum, Charlotte NC; Dixon Gallery & Gardens. Memphis, TN; San Antonio Museum of Art, and Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL.

DAVID ENGDAHL

An architect by education and vocation, Dave has been working in sculpture since 1971, has exhibited works in twenty states and has had 11 solo shows. His work is included in numerous corporate and individual collections as well as permanent collections of the Orlando Museum of Art in Florida, the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama, and Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan, Alabama. He has completed over twenty public and private commissions. A recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Engdahl has exhibited his works in U.S. embassies in Bahrain, Latvia, Angola, and Zimbabwe. He received the Innovator Award from the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and the Ann McDonald Baker Art Ventures Award from the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida. Engdahl is included in the book “Florida Sculptors and Their Work 1880-2020.”

CRYSTAL FLOYD

Crystal Floyd's artistic practice examines the intersections of art, science, and nature. Celebrating the deep relationships between living beings and the natural world, her work emphasizes themes of conservation and environmentalism. Translating emotions and complex ideas, Floyd uses her collections to craft narratives that invite reflection on our relationship with the environment. Crystal serves as Studio Director and works from her art space at CoRK Arts District, a large warehouse facility that houses gallery & workspaces for over sixty artists. Her work was featured at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens during the Community Foundation of Northeast Florida Art Ventures Anniversary Exhibition. She recently had a solo exhibition in the East Room & Gallery at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine from October 2024 through January 2025. Crystal will be the artist-in-residence for the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve during the Fall of 2025.

LENNY FOSTER 

Lenny works and lives in St. Augustine, FL were he owns and operates gallery One Forty-Four; exploring, creating, and showcasing inspiring imagergy from St. Augustine. For twenty years, Lenny had the good fortune of owning and operating The Living Light Photography Gallery in Taos, New Mexico. His work is on view in prominent institutions in New Mexico such as: the Harwood Museum, the Albuquerque Museum, and the Hubbard Museum of the American West. His work is also part of permanent collections in the Muhammed Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, the Ross Museum at Ohio Wesleyan University, Oklahoma University’s College of Allied Health, and the Snite Museum at the University of Notre Dame. In addition, he is honored to have his work in many private collections worldwide. In the fall of 2013, Lenny published his first fine art book, Healing Hands, and in the summer of 2016 he published, Enchanted Land: A Taos Twenty Year Retrospective (Art book winner for the 2016 New Mexico /Arizona book awards). Lenny began 2017 by publishing Winter at Mabel’s, with haikus and imagery inspired by his last month in Taos at the Historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House. In the Fall of 2023 Lenny self-published El Último Ańo, about his last year in Taos and Reflections of Spirit, A Sojourn in Senegal, which chronicles his experiences during the week-long Coumba Lamba healing ceremony in Africa. As a resident of St. Augustine, Lenny is redefining his unique and spiritual vision. A community with such a rich, deep, and diverse history and culture, coupled with its varied and fascinating architecture, has given him inspiration to create for quite some time. His ethereal and meditative Seascapes series and evocative The Magnolia Season botanical imagery, (7-year project), speak to that. In another new body of work, the Where We Stand series, Lenny turns his inspired and unique eye towards the history of the African American experience in St. Augustine. This series uses shoes he’s positioned and photographed in places of historical significance representing historical figures in the African American Civil Rights Movement. Lenny’s images and narratives shed light on an important and often neglected part of St. Augustine’s African American history. In November 2023, the Crisp Ellert Museum at Flagler College hosted Lenny’s The Spirit of Lincolnville exhibition, which included the Where We Stand series. New works include his Lincolnville Porch Portraits and When Dreams Became Memories, featuring historic Lincolnville buildings and churches photographed at night. Lenny has recently completed his Street Saints series, inspired by his discovery of the Catholic Saints of color from Africa. During Covid, the less fortunate, homeless population has become more visible. The unexpected result of that visibility is instead of focusing on their physical appearance or perceived moral depravity or prejudging them based on their circumstances, Lenny has turned his camera on their inner divinity or “Saintliness,” traits inherent in us all, and has used these Street Saints as models for the African saints.

MICO FUENTES

Mico A. Fuentes is a visual artist living and working in Jacksonville, FL, who holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Jacksonville University. Mico has a background in printmaking and utilizes the principles of printmaking towards the creation of an object. His work employs semiotics and discarded materials to communicate the concepts of value, consumerism, and the witness of the natural world. Mico refers to his process as Conceptual Objectification. By creating next generation artifacts, his work uses place and time to reflect on the fallible nature of humanity and its tendency to evolve. Mico has produced many works for public consumption including commissions, collaborations, and as an artist in residences. His 2D and 3D work predominantly exist in the Southeastern United States but have also been featured in exhibitions and stage performances throughout the country including New York, California, Chicago, Seattle, and internationally, in Mexico. Mico is deeply connected to his community and actively promotes visual arts, dance, and music. He views the arts as an abstract tool for contextualizing the human experience. 

CAMILLE GARZON

Camille is a Brazilian-American commercial and street photographer, originally from Rio de Janeiro. After years of living between Boston and New York City, she is now based in Jacksonville, Florida. Her work embraces a natural, photojournalistic style, capturing everyday moments with an artistic eye. Inspired by the dynamic energy of big cities and the tranquility of seaside life, she explores colors, contrasts, and the cultural diversity that shape the world around her.

MARK GEORGE

Mark George's (b.1970) paintings of love, anguish, and anxiety spare no emotion, and bear no subliminal message.  Self-taught, and native of Jacksonville FL, George’s work demonstrates his commercial art background, graphic design, and the idea of painting. With no visible brushstrokes, the pieces have a flat color quality seen primarily in printed work. The paintings on the torn, oversized, poly vinyl chloride panels are an attempt to embody an era of mid-century Americana in advertising. The material gives the work an abandoned quality that suggests the piece is not a painting per say, but a relic or illustrative portion of an old billboard or advertisement. More dadist than pop, the look created is genre crossing.  

KAROLINA GIRCIENE

Karolina Girciene is a global citizen with a deep passion for art and a drive fueled by travel. Originally from Lithuania, she pursued her studies in Belgium before immersing herself in diverse cultures while living in Australia. Now, she divides her time between the USA and Europe, constantly seeking inspiration from the world around her. For Karolina, travel is more than just exploration; it is a way to connect with diverse cultures, because art serves as a universal language that brings people together. Her artistic journey took a transformative turn after visiting Art Basel in Miami in December 2024, an experience that fueled her creativity and strengthened her desire to share her work with the world. In a fast-paced world, Karolina sees art as a bridge between people — a medium through which she can foster deeper connections and understanding across cultures. She believes that every piece of art has the power to inspire, connect, and create a lasting impact.

SHEILA GOLOBOROTKO

Sheila Goloborotko (b. 1958, São Paulo, Brazil) is a professor of printmaking at the Department of Art, Art History & Design at the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Florida. Recent presentations of her work include the Florida Prize for Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art (2024), the Florida Biennial at the Art and Culture Center in Hollywood, FL (2022), the International Print Center New York (2022), and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, FL (2020). Her work has also been exhibited at the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA (2020); Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY (2020); Harnett Museum of Art, Richmond, VA (2019); Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ (2018); Museu da Diversidade, São Paulo, Brazil (2017); Centro Cultural Atarazanas, Veracruz, Mexico (2016); Museus Castro Maya, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2006); and the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2004). Her work is part of numerous permanent collections, including the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art at Kennesaw State University, GA; the Florean Museum in Baia Mare, Romania; the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts in Tokyo, Japan; the Museo del Grabado in Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Museu do Douro in Peso da Régua, Portugal; Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY; the Port Authority of New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD; the Brooklyn Museum, NY; the New York Public Library, NY; and the University of Sharjah Collection, UAE. Her work is also held at the Yale Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library in New Haven, CT, as well as in additional museum collections internationally and across Brazil. Goloborotko is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including an Art Ventures Community Foundation Grant (2022), an International Fine Art Print Dealers Association Grant (2021), and a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant (2012). She has been an artist-in-residence at Moving the Margins in Jacksonville (2021) and the Tamarind Institute (2015). In 2023, she was nominated for a Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship. Goloborotko earned her MFA from Brooklyn College in 1985.

JORDAN GROFF

Jordan Groff is a Jacksonville-based oil painter whose work exhibits the relation between everyday life observations, and spontaneous imagery contrived via the subconscious, then transferred to canvas. His process typically begins with a thumbnail sketch, but unlike tradition, Groff prefers to work without reference, as he finds it easier to manipulate typical subject matter to depict his vision of how he wants the viewer to understand his feelings toward what is displayed. A Florida native his whole life, Groff's’ work often layers commonly seen elements indigenous to his surroundings, such as landscape, culture, etc. As a first-generation U.S. citizen, born of a native Cuban mother, Groff had been immersed in the Cuban Latin lifestyle throughout his childhood and had, growing up, a fascination and respect for different worldwide cultures because of being raised around customs that differed from those found in America. His work regularly includes global imagery and events, which inspires with his inherent a way of seeing, the comparison or contrast with his life and that of others, to create something aesthetically cohesive. In his own expression, his work is made through mathematical chaos to mimic the contrast of structure and disorder observed both internationally and domestically.

JENNY HAGER

Jenny K. Hager is Chair of the Department of Art, Art History and Design and a Professor of Sculpture at the University of North Florida. She received her MFA in Sculpture and Digital Media from San Jose State University in San Jose, CA. Interested in a variety of processes and materials, she finds inspiration in dreams, objects from her childhood, gadgets, sea life and other curiosities. She is also extremely interested in collaboration, the spirit of community important in both her teaching practice and in her own work. Her work has been exhibited across the country and abroad, including the “Du Bist Eine Kartoffel” performance at the Industriemuseum in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, the ”Fe” exhibition at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, Poland,  the “Elysium Project” in Dresden, Germany, the “Cymru Ironstone Castle Exhibition” in Kidwelly, Wales, the “Uguns Zimedams: Drawing Fire” exhibition in Talsi, Latvia, and the “Volcano Furnace + Flight of the Phoenix Project” at Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri in Seggiano, Italy. Hager’s most recent national projects include several collaborative large-scale outdoor sculptures for her hometown of Shelbyville, KY, including a full-scale forged bronze horse, a collaboration with Lance Vickery. Hager also created a twenty-foot-tall giraffe sculpture for the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. Additionally, she co-curated/facilitated a major Pandemic project, “the ArtWork(ers) United Project, a socio-political response/digital film project/drive-in movie experience with over one hundred international artists.Hager’s vision and mission is to bring Jacksonville to life with sculpture, beginning with UNF’s campus and extending to the community of Jacksonville and beyond. Since moving to Jacksonville in 2006, Hager and her partner, Lance Vickery, have installed over one hundred pieces of large-scale sculpture in the area (some permanent and some temporary). In 2014, Hager created Sculpture Walk Jax, a registered 501(c)3 with the mission of bringing outdoor sculpture to the city of Jacksonville. Sculpture Walk, Inc., has hosted over thirty-six outdoor sculptures, bike racks and sculptural benches by international, national, and local artists in Jacksonville at Main Street Park, Klutho Park, James Weldon Johnson Park and the Jax Chamber of Commerce. Hager and Vickery also oversee the UNF Seaside Sculpture Park in Jacksonville Beach, which hosts five large scale sculptures annually by UNF undergraduate students.

DUSTIN HAREWOOD

Dustin Harewood was born and grew up in New York City and became a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum at seven years old. His family later moved back to Barbados where he attended high school. He later moved back to the U.S where he attended the HBCU- North Carolina Central University (BA) and then the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (MFA). Dustin has been twice recognized with a Distinguished Faculty Award from Florida State College at Jacksonville. In 2017 the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville awarded him the prize of ‘Arts Educator of the Year.’ Harewood draws inspiration from his familial lineage and the 21st century world of desire for immediacy in all aspects of life. He seeks to find nuance within vanishing moments. The content of his work and life is reflected in his projects between three specific locations— Jacksonville Florida, Christ Church Barbados, and Aomori Japan.

SANDY HARRINGTON

Sandy Harrington is a native Floridian and has painted as long as she can remember. Her background as an artist began in illustration and advertising for the Daytona Beach News Journal and Hurd Moss Advertising in Daytona Beach, Florida. Her clients included Fairgreen Golf and Country Club, Old Salty's Inn Daytona, the Daytona Inn, I-Care Child Abuse Campaign, PineTrail Elementary School, O’Connell’s Restaurant, New Smyrna Beach, Bentwood Subdivision and Port Orange, Florida. After raising a family, Sandy worked with Volusia County School’s theatre departments. She produced large-scale murals, costumes, and scenic designs for the Children's Musical Theatre in Ormond Beach, Mainland High School, and Seabreeze High School in Daytona Beach. Since retiring to Jacksonville in 2014, Sandy has pursued her art making, experimenting with inks.

Artist statement: The focus of my work is watercolor and ink. I am attracted to the vivid color and the unpredictable way it moves around on the paper. I use acrylic inks on canvas or panel and synthetic papers for my alcohol ink work. I like Grafix, Revlar, and Yupo paper for all my work under plexiglass. I cannot replicate the delicate fades and bleeds on regular canvas, so I use watercolor canvas and acrylic ink for my very large work. My artwork style is wet on wet. Dripping wet color onto wet paper to create soft, washy effects. There is little control using this medium, so I let the ink do unpredictable things.

MARSHA HATCHER

A South Georgia born artist has lived and created art in Jacksonville, Florida for the past 35 years. A military wife for many years, Marsha has traveled around the world and most of her art captures these experiences and the people she has met. Marsha is an artist who loves creating art and her artwork defines who she is and what she is passionate about. The vast majority of her art is painting, and people of color are her subject matters. Acrylic, oils, and sometimes wood are her preferred mediums.Marsha has a variety of techniques when it comes to creating art. She is an artist whose work is in many private collections and who enjoys experimenting with colors and different mediums to keep her viewers excited. Her work often incorporates elements from the African diaspora and her own experiences within the Black community. Many of her works reflect her strong commitment to social justice and cultural identity, highlighting historical figures and important ideologies in her pieces. She often uses vibrant colors and bold shapes to create powerful messages that speak to the struggles of marginalized communities. Marsha has often competed in art contests where she has placed in multiple categories. She has been awarded her second Art Venture Grant from the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida. Marsha Hatcher is a renowned artist who has dedicated her life to creating works that not only inspire viewers but also challenge them to think critically about the world around them.

Marsha received her Bachelors of Art degree from Albany State University. She is a member of Hopewell, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc, a. founding and current board member of Jacksonville Cultural Development Corporation, formerly (JCAAA), the Art Center Cooperative, Inc. and the Jacksonville Artists Guild.

ETHAN HELOW

Duality and fluidity are terms that resonated with Ethan Helow (b. 1997) since the beginning. As an emerging queer artist, Ethan resurfaces childhood escapist techniques to define and illustrate his own identity. His process begins with muting the chaos and stepping into a moment of introspection. Ethan's goal is to captivate the average audience and reintroduce the meditative practice of daydreaming. Since graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2020, Ethan's work has been featured in PDN, Aint–Bad and Pamplemousse Magazine.

STEPHEN HEYWOOD

Stephen Heywood is a ceramic artist whose work focuses on wheel-thrown and hand-built mechanical forms that relate to function. His work is influenced by architectural structures including barns, factories, smokestacks, silos and water towers. His pieces are often composed of many wheel-thrown and hand-built parts and take their shape as small ‘functional sculpture’. Heywood has been a visiting artist/lecturer at a number of colleges and universities throughout the country. He exhibits his work extensively and has been in over 300 national juried shows and invitationals. In 2004, Heywood was selected to represent the United States in the First International, Ceramics Journal Editors Symposium and Emerging Artist exhibition in Xian China. In 2013, he was awarded an Honorable Mention at the 8th Cheongju International Craft Biennale in Cheongju, Korea. In 2019, Heywood was awarded the Form and Function award at the Strictly Functional Pottery National Exhibition at the Lancaster Museum of Art, and in 2022, he participated in and won the Craft Award in the Westmoreland Arts National in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania. Most recently, Heywood won First Place in the Center for Contemporary Arts National juried exhibition in Abilene, Texas. His work has been published in a number of books and periodicals including: 500 Cups, 500 Bowls, The Best of 500 Ceramics, Image Transfer on Clay, Printing on Clay, Clay Times and Ceramics Monthly. He is currently a Professor of Ceramics at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

MARY JOAN HINSON

I have worked in many paint mediums my entire life from oils to acrylics, from watercolors to paint markers, even encaustic to gouache; I kept returning to my oils. I love the way that pigments change the feel of a flat canvas, turning it into a world that seems to only exist in my dreams. My subjects are elements that are close to my heart; nature and animals are my favorites, but I also relish pure design, often using Fibonacci sequences to create bright and joyful experiences. It is the momentary effects of light, air, and water movement that I use to develop my compositions. Without a preconceived notion of color or design, I allow natural rhythms to take over. Strokes and hues become defined as deconstruction turns into form. Contemplation gives birth to concrete images and unification of chaos is the matter of course. Formalist attitudes give way to images of our ever-changing environment through visions reflecting its ebbs and flows. I have the expectation that my viewers will join in the organic celebration of movement and life, filling their soul with energy and happiness. The bold colors create an air of excitement and delight in the natural and flowing forms. “This work changed my life,” are words that come from patrons that have shared my artistic journey, their view of art enriched and joy-filled!

Artist Manifesto: Art reflects society and must be addressed thusly. Twenty-first century societal ideology lends itself to a narcissistic trend breeding selfishness and a lack of empathy. Artists fight social tendencies toward narcissism and strive to ensure a renaissance of empathetic views. An artist can be singular, yet encompassing, unique, yet conform, and free, yet restrained. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the artist to achieve and set standards in accordance with their own wants and desires. Society's requisite to change or fit in should be met with debate to demolish ideals of accepted behavior, fanatical politics, or demanding administrations. Those approaching life with the spineless worship of the afore mentioned will be met with both internal and external rebellion. Contempt for difference is criminal. Being trapped by conventional thoughts is reckoned to riding an eternal rollercoaster, going around but nowhere. Throw away files of the mind promoting participation for its own sake. Maintain a poetic journey of positivity, a rhetoric of well-being, love of humanity, and well wishes for those who disagree. Demoralization runs rampant through today's culture. Harmony with individuality must be celebrated, uniqueness accepted, and understanding met with applause for variation. Critics abound. Cognitive visions enhanced by imagination cannot be judged and are criticized by unknowing or prejudicial minds seeking affirmation for personal desires, tastes, or a weak need to be a part. Criticism is a singular discourse, devoid of the universality sought by every artist and their desire for independence and uniqueness. In artists, there is an innate distrust for sameness, disdain for unity, and a perseverance seeking freedom. Critics liken their word to the word of God believing they have the power to determine quality by a mere wave of approval. They generally have no real qualifications other than a piece of paper or a boisterous pied piper voice beckoning willing ears. In my mind, art should be beautiful, bring happiness, harkening memories of good times with positivity and love. To me, it is no more complicated. It is without judgement or malice toward ANYTHING or ANYONE. Following the formalist teachings and organization of art historian Clement Greenberg, I would like to discuss some of the aspects of art that are important to me: form and the pure visual aspects, which includes color, technique, and craftsmanship. I look for the brightest, purest colors that I can find and do not own a tube of ivory black, mars black, lamp black or even Payne's grey. Multiple tubes of magenta, scarlet lake, cobalt turquoise, and French ultramarine are included in a palette that applauds a joy of life, nature, and love! Technique is critical, and how an artist performs a task is often imperative to the success or failure of a work. A piece may fail strictly because the technique was faulty. Close attention must be made that every step … every specific step is executed with only the best technique. When technique fails, more education can glean better results and should be addressed. In today's world, there is no excuse for poor technique. There are too many resources available at the click of a mouse to educate the artist. The technical aspect of art is often underrated and not acknowledged by patrons and critics alike, but to the quintessential professional artist, it is second only to craftsmanship. Craftsmanship is by far the most important aspect of creating a work that will stand the test of time. The integrity of the craftsmanship can never go unnoticed or unacknowledged as it goes to the longevity and respectability of the work. In a painting, for instance, the wood of the stretchers is straight and clean from splinters, the canvas is of appropriate weight and tooth, the canvas is assembled, accurately measured, squared, or shaped, the surface is well gessoed and prepared by sanding and/or color priming, the under-drawing, as applicable, is accurate using appropriate medium, the pigments are the purest and most color fast available, the application is clean, noting attention to detail, and the final presentation is professionally complete. It should further be noted that unimportant to me are subject matter or my work's relationship to the seen world. What I paint is not as important as how I paint. Iconography may not be relative to identity, but form is. I agree with Greenberg that painting, and in my mind, all art, can only be critiqued by addressing the formal aspects of the work. A critic can only judge a work regarding form and its historical nature. My goal, as an artist, is to present work that is pleasing to the eye and formally executed with perfected elements of art.

Mary Joan Hinson, PhD

brushandoil@gmail.com

brushandoil.com

HILLARY HOGUE

The rich, storied surfaces of Hillary Hogue’s dedicated drawing practice are informed by up-close observations and wide, expansive dreaming. Driven by her love of Florida’s plants and wildlife, she sees her native environment as a starting place for her imagination. Her dedication to craft, and joyful media exploration and her drawings invite viewers to see a world beyond our own.

Influenced by previous explorations with large charcoal drawings where digital collage was a starting point and by mixed-media demonstrations with her students, her recent works are becoming more improvisational, emerging from a place of playful experimentation that is responsive to both material interactions and her recollections of stories emerging from them. In her work, Hogue aims to listen to the medium instead of trying to force it into a preconceived result. While playing with inks on wet paper, she started to see another world peeking back at her, like a world coming out of a sea of chaos. It made her think of the Ocean of Milk, one of the seven oceans from Hindu scriptures. Devas and Asuras churned the Ocean of Milk to acquire the elixir of immortal life. These processes brought forth both positive and negative results, creating all kinds of chaos and gifts. Hogue’s drawings similarly showcase a mix of energies in flux as she embraces the unpredictable. As Hogue works, she lets the additive and subtractive qualities of mediums on paper guide the fate of each work. She never knows exactly how she will navigate the twists and turns of her invented surfaces, but works+ to remain open, embracing a process that is continuously generative and freeing. She loves the sense of wonder, surprise and playfulness that comes through her art making. The joy of something coming together is a kind of transcendence from real time and space, even if only for a short while. Hillary Rumpel Hogue, from Jacksonville, Florida, earned her BFA in drawing from the University of Florida and her MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. Currently she teaches drawing and painting at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

ANA ION

Ana Ion Leonte is a Romanian-American artist who works in Florida currently. Originally from Bucharest Romania, Ana found her passion in ceramic sculptural arts at Episcopal School of Jacksonville and furthered her formal training in art at Paris College of Art, Paris, France and at the renowned ceramics institution Alfred University College of Ceramics, Alfred, NY where she earned a BFA degree in Art and Design, dedicating her time to mixed media sculpture with a concentration in Ceramic sculpture. Some of her work has been exhibited at the Turner Gallery, Alfred, NY , Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, New York, Ritz Museum and Theatre, Jacksonville, Florida, Artsafe, Bucharest, Romania, Galeriile FormArt, Bucharest, Romania, Mint gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, and The International Drawing Biennial, Arad, Romania. She has been an Artist in Residence at Red lodge Clay Center, Red Lodge, Montana and attended the Terra symposium, Kikinda, Serbia. Ana’s artistic practice is rooted in a mixture of organic and sometimes mechanical abstract ceramic forms, often allegories for the human condition originating from conceptual ideals. She draws her inspiration from personal experiences with nature, cultures and anthropological matters between Eastern European cultural values and modern society. Her paintings and sculptures are defined by compositions of shapes and colors that emerge from experiences that spark questions and curiosities about challenging social conformity and examining the toxicity of value, all while allowing formalism and material intuition to guide the creative process.

JASON JOHN

Born in 1980 in Detroit, Michigan, Jason John grew up in Northeastern Pennsylvania. He received a BFA in painting from Kutztown University and an MFA in painting and drawing from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Jason has been affiliated with Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA and Arcadia Gallery in New York and Los Angeles. He is currently represented by Florida Mining Gallery in Jacksonville, FL and 33 Contemporary Gallery in Miami, FL. Jason’s work has been on the front covers of Blue Canvas Magazine, Art Calendar, Poets and Artists Magazine, Visual Arts Overture Magazine, and Weave Magazine. Jason’s work has been featured in American Arts Quarterly, American Art Collector Magazine, Manifest Gallery’s International Painting books 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, Studio Visit Magazine, Creative Quarterly Magazine, Create Magazine, and Aesthetica Magazine. Jason participated in the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville’s exhibition, ‘Get Real’, curated by Ben Thompson, and was included in the Huntsville Museum of Art’s exhibition, Red Clay Survey. In 2024, Jason won first prize in the Alexandria Museum of Art’s Annual Juried Competition. Jason has participated in 100 exhibitions throughout the world in the last 10 years. Jason is now Associate Professor at University of North Florida.

ERIN KENDRICK

Erin Kendrick is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and educator based in Jacksonville, Florida. Her color-rich portraiture and immersive installations explore the lived experiences of Black women and girls, addressing themes of space, selfhood, and safety. Transforming galleries into sanctuaries, her fluid acrylic paintings and installations invite viewers to contemplate their role in the visual narrative, blurring the lines between spectator and spectacle. Inspired by artists such as Ebony G. Patterson, Ghada Amer and Simone Leigh, Kendrick’s work engages viewers in an oppositional gaze that fosters introspection and connection. Holding a BFA from Florida State University and an MFA from Georgia State University, Kendrick serves as the Director of Education at Jacksonville Arts & Music School and teaches as an adjunct professor at Flagler College. Her accolades include the 2019 Art Educator of the Year award from the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and numerous grants, fellowships, and residencies. Kendrick embodies the belief that "Art is not a thing. It is a way," amplifying the voices of Black women and girls.

Artist Statement about Coyote: Coyote, captures the moment a child realizes the great American hero isn’t coming to save her. Wearing her Uvalde Robb Elementary mascot t-shirt, she sees imminent danger and takes on a fighting stance. The mask and cape, no longer for play; become her armor. She understands now that survival is in her own hands. Rendered in acrylic, gouache, and charcoal on Arches paper, the layered, fractured color reflects both her innocence and the chaos she is enduring. Her skin vibrates with energy-fear, strength, urgency-because she is still just a child, yet she understands what’s at stake. Coyote. is about resilience, reckoning, and the stories we tell children about safety and heroism- stories that, for too many, unravel far too soon.

AMER KOBASLIJA

Originally from Banja Luka in Bosnia, Amer Kobaslija (b. 1975) fled his war-ravaged homeland in 1993 to a refugee camp in Nuremberg, Germany. Later he traveled to Düsseldorf, where he attended the Kunst Akademie as a Guest Student. In 1997, Kobaslija was offered asylum by the United States and immigrated to Florida. There in Sarasota, he completed his BFA at the Ringling College of Art and Design. In 2005 he completed an MFA degree at the Montclair State University in New Jersey. He is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2005) and the Pollock-Krasner Award (2007). A 2013 Guggenheim Fellow for painting, Kobaslija has had numerous one-person exhibitions in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, Miami, Paris and Switzerland. His work is in the collection of the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies Program, the Consulate General of Japan in NYC, De Saisset Museum, Hunter Museum of American Art, Greenville County Museum of Art, G.U.C. Collection, Middlebury Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Rollins Museum of Art, Stadt Sammlung Brig, Staten Island Museum, and the Flag Art Foundation, among others. His works have been reviewed in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Art in America, ArtNews, Art & Antiques, the Village Voice, New York Time Out, New York Magazine, the New York Sun, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Florida Times Union and the Japan Times, Kobaslija lives in the Springfield neighborhood in Jacksonville and the professor of studio art at the University of Central Florida, Orlando.

LILY KUONEN

Lily Kuonen has exhibited artwork in 3 continents, 4 countries, and 20+ U.S. states. She has been an artist in residence at multiple venues nationally, and abroad in Lacoste, France. Her work is included in numerous private, corporate, and civic collections. Her growing collector base includes Bard College, NY; Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, Flagler College; Deutsche Bank, NY; Judge Realty Corporate Collection, Savannah, GA; Historic Arkansas Museum, Little Rock, AR; Iowa Print Archive at the University of Iowa; Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, Jacksonville, FL; Savannah College of Art and Design and University of Central Arkansas. She regularly collaborates on large-scale public art projects with her spouse and partner, Jim Benedict. Together they have produced numerous sculpture projects for communities, working with civic, educational, and cultural organizations. Their current public art projects include a 13’ bronze and weathering steel trailhead sculpture for the Firefly Rail Trail in Athens, GA, and they are producing a 16’ bronze and stainless steel Forget-Me-Not landmark sculpture for a Covid-19 Memorial at Meadowbrook Park in Howard County, MD. Kuonen also collaborates on paintings, drawings and various multi-process works with her colleagues, fellow artists and teachers at The Bolles School. She contributes regional exhibition reviews for BurnAway magazine based out of Atlanta, GA. Lily Kuonen holds an MFA in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Central Arkansas; currently she owns and operates a studio in Jacksonville, FL. She has an extensive background in art education, painting, drawing and sculpture.

JAN MASTER

Jan Tomlinson Master is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in St. Augustine and Welaka, Florida. Born in Franklin, Pennsylvania, she moved to Florida with her family as a child. She studied architecture and sociology at Clemson University before earning a Bachelor of Arts from Stetson University and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Delaware. Master has collaborated on public projects regionally for Art in Public Places Jacksonville at PAL, Bird Island Park in Ponte Vedra and the Map of Olde Saint Augustine, which fronts the Visitors Information Center in St. Augustine. In 2015 she was included in the Compassionate St. Augustine Obelisk Art 450 as one of 25 artists to embellish a commemorative obelisk and was chosen to travel to Aviles, Spain to represent OA450 in the event Noche Blanca. Her obelisk in St. Augustine has been donated to the new tag Children’s Museum. Master has shown regionally at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, MOCA Jacksonville, DeLand Museum of Art, Appleton Museum in Ocala, Florida School of the Arts and nationally at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia, Valdosta State University in Georgia, Yavapai College in Arizona and ArtFields in South Carolina. A one-person show is slated for 2025 at the Natural History Institute in Prescott, Arizona. Arts on Douglas in New Smyrna represents her in Florida. Referencing her studies in both architecture and sociology, Master builds site-specific installations that are balanced, held by tension, hung or stacked to form groupings as an allegory for ‘delicately balanced’ relationships in the natural and human world. Her installations are configured with components from nature (charred branches, wheat and barley, leaves, bark) and secured with man made components (iron armatures, chain, zip ties, caution tape, ribbon, shoelaces). In recent years her work has been based on personal memory and reflection, being tied with objects and experiences in the natural world.

BRANDON MATA

Brandon Mata, born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1980, earned his BFA from the University of North Florida in 2002. His first significant show was in 2008 at Takashi Murakami’s Geisai Miami Art Fair. His work explores themes of mental health, generations of lost family members at an early age and the loss of life’s hopes and dreams. Initially focusing on graphite portraits, his recent works have transitioned to wood portrait sculptures. His work is included in the private collections of Takashi Murakami and Leslie Jackson (Dale) Chihuly. Brandon lives in Orange Park, FL.

KAZ MCCUE

Artistically, I am a storyteller. I focus on personal expression and the translation of ideas through an interdisciplinary attitude, and I use the creative process to study cultural ideas. My aggressive approach towards my work helps me to bring my personality and my attitude into the commentaries I create and to more personally narrate, satirize, question, and comment on aspects of my physical and psychological environment. By manipulating contents and contexts, each piece becomes an abstraction of things we know, see and understand as a society, and tells of our contemporary culture through my own search for meaning. Through my installation work I can introduce, incorporate, and recombine a multitude of ideas as expressed through images, objects and materials. This gives me a platform to tell stories of my own relationship with time and place, politics, religion, class, gender roles, personal relationships and other aspects of how I fit into the world around me. 

With an understanding of material culture, I work with objects and images as a means of translating ideas, values and meanings. My attraction to objects is due to their inherent or attached connection to culture and I enjoy drawing the viewer in when the elements are recognizable and familiar. Photographic images, on the other hand, have always been of interest to me because of their power to convey information and to work as cultural objects in themselves. I use materials in this manner because they can relate insights into our culture or society that cannot be expressed through verbal or written languages, and I feel this practice helps to draw the viewer into the work so they can interact with the work in a personal way and decipher some of the latent meanings buried within each story. Throughout my career I have maintained an interdisciplinary attitude towards my work and have utilized a variety of media to relate my stories. This approach allows me to use a diverse and eclectic visual vocabulary in the creation of work that explores the intellectual and aesthetic potential of objects and images. The ultimate goal of my creative activity is to reflect on the world around me and to divulge my connection to my own environment.

J. ADAM MCGALLIARD

PAM MEYER

Pam Meyer is a mixed media artist that produces expressive yet structured compositions. She explores themes of memory, human emotion and nature, drawing viewers into layered worlds of color, texture and movement. Having moved to Florida in 1989 from Atlanta, Georgia, Pam appreciates the distinctive charm of Fernandina Beach, where the ocean's beauty blends with the tranquility of maritime forests. Her practice integrates intuitive spontaneity, texture and color. Her artistic voice is influenced by the freedom of Cy Twombly, the structured elegance of Richard Diebenkorn, and the vibrant brushwork of Pierre Bonnard. Pam’s artistic path began when she earned her BFA from Augusta College, Georgia. This foundational period laid the groundwork for her distinctive mixed media approach. Further studies at Georgia State University, along with recent courses under Nicholas Wilton and Pamela Caughey, have kept her work evolving and expanding. Her process is rooted in the use of various mark-making tools and collages, allowing her to layer textures and colors into dynamic visual experiences. Pam’s work strikes a balance between spontaneity and careful construction, exploring themes of memory, emotion, and the natural world. Over the years, Pam has exhibited in a wide array of venues, from galleries and museums to public and corporate collections. Notable exhibitions include the Decatur Fine Arts Exhibition, the Orlando Museum of Art Annual Juried Exhibition, and the LaGrange National XV. Her work is also part of private and corporate collections, including King & Spalding Law Firm in Atlanta and Alabama Power Company in Birmingham. Pam has appreciated favorable reviews by Art Critics like Jan Avgikos. After a health scare, Pam made the difficult decision to focus on financial security and chose a path to meet those needs. Happy to be back to painting after this extended period, Pam focuses on personal creative exploration. Her work continues to evolve as she experiments with materials and techniques, delving deeper into the expressive possibilities of color, marks, form, and texture. This ongoing journey reflects her personal growth as an artist and invites viewers to engage with the complex interplay of spontaneity and structure within her pieces.

HIROMI MONEYHUN

Hiromi Mizugai Moneyhun, a native of Kyoto, Japan, is a self-taught papercut artist based in Florida. With no formal art training, she has developed a style that seamlessly merges traditional Japanese art forms with the contemporary sensibilities found in Japan's bustling metropolises. Hiromi's art is renowned for its intricacy and unwavering commitment to exacting standards. Her creations, often taking weeks or even months to complete, stand as a testament to her extraordinary skill and mastery of the papercut medium. She has exhibited widely in museums in Florida, including MOCA Jacksonville’s Project Atrium in 2023. Her talent captured the spotlight when she was included in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's prestigious 2014-15 show, "State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now," leading to a feature article in the Huffington Post alongside three other artists from across the nation. She also garnered attention in her homeland when she became the subject of a syndicated Japanese television show. Hiromi's work has been showcased in both group and solo exhibitions internationally, including New York and London. Notably, she received the People's Choice Award during the Florida Prize exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art in 2022. Her artistic contributions extend beyond galleries, as her work is collected by museums and cherished by numerous private collectors worldwide. Hiromi's art continues to bridge the gap between tradition and contemporary innovation, forging a path that resonates with art enthusiasts around the globe.

LAURA MONGIOVI

Laura Mongiovi is a Professor of Visual Art at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. She has an MFA from CU Boulder and a BFA from Florida State University. Mongiovi teaches across the curriculum, presents pedagogical approaches at national conferences, and exhibits her work nationally. She initiated and co-organized the Deeper Than Indigo: Southeast Textile Symposium and is a recipient of two artist grants from the Community Foundation of Northeast Florida. Mongiovi’s work has been featured in Surface Design Journal, New American Paintings and Number Inc, and she was invited to attend the Arrowmont Pentaculum residency. Mongiovi initiated and leads a digital documentation project for historic textiles in St. Augustine, providing a public resource for this form of material culture.

DAWN INGLIS MONTGOMERY

Dawn Inglis Montgomery is a fine art painter living and working in Jacksonville, Florida. She brings a regionalism to her work, focusing on southeastern manufacturing industries and the skilled laborer behind the scenes. Highlighting the overlooked and hidden corners that may pass by, her paintings juxtapose resilience and decay, nature and industry, to find beauty. Montgomery took drawing and painting courses while studying architecture and city planning at the University of Virginia. After completing her master's degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology, she worked for seven years in the city planning field. Informed by this background, she is drawn to strong perspective lines found in the urban and natural landscape. The workers and architecture of her family’s century-old manufacturing business located in the historic Springfield neighborhood are her sources of inspiration. Montgomery is artistically influenced by George Bellows, Edward Hopper and the American Realism Movement. The feeling of isolation that Hopper captured in the mid-20th century is now echoed in our post-pandemic and increasingly digital world. Her paintings have been shown at ArtFields, the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, the Jacksonville International Airport, the University of Southern Mississippi Art Museum, the LaGrange Art Museum, the Lamar Dodd Art Center, Florida State College of Jacksonville, Martin Arts, and the Fort Myers Alliance for the Arts.

SUSAN OBER

A native of Tidewater Virginia, Susan Davenport Ober lived in South Carolina, northern Virginia, and the Pacific Northwest before moving to the Jacksonville area in 1987. She earned a BS degree in art education at Longwood College, did post-graduate study in art education at Virginia Commonwealth University, and earned a BFA degree at University of North Florida.

“Squash blossoms have a few hours in their prime. It is long enough to serve, and be served, by pollinators. Then they lose turgor. They curl, wrinkle, and restate their shapes. Each one becomes uniquely different from another. Even as they all continue to have much in common, it is these differences that make me want to paint them.

My non-objective work—made with marble dust, earth pigments, and acrylic medium—has no direct connection to my representational painting (except for the common ground of stretched linen). It is a swing of the pendulum.

Inspired by the narrative and work of artist Marcia Myers and her dedication to fresco as a medium, I find these materials useful in my explorative pursuit of paying homage to textures and colors that result on surfaces through exposure and time.”

Squash Blossom Poem:

The blossoms are closing.

They’ve had their moment in the sun

of perfect prime, petals open

to give or receive

for the next continuation.

But they are not finished with

what they have to say.

They say

look at the light shining on me.

Look at the colors through my skin.

Look at my shadow,

how it fits on my surroundings

echoing a softness of my colors and

tracing at the edges all the differences

that say:  I am ME.

The blossoms are closing,    

but they say

take a closer look

at how the light, within

depends upon the light without.

Take a closer look

at how,

with wrinkled and restated shape,

I am not the flower that once

looked like the others.

Take a closer look

for my essence speaks of more.

The blossoms are closing,    

but no way are they finished

with what they have to say…

_____________________________

Susan Davenport Ober, on squash blossoms

ELANA ØHLANDER

Elena Øhlander (b. 1988) is a visual artist and muralist working in the medium of mixed media illustration, currently residing in Jacksonville, Florida. She obtained her BFA in Photography from the Art Institute of Jacksonville in 2014. Academics and research laid the foundation for her career as a visual artist, art advocate/curator and non-profit/city municipality collaborator — facilitating public art projects throughout the southeast region of the United States. She is an accomplished artist, exploring various mediums to express her inner dialogue. Her paintings, murals, and installation work — often inspired by the intersection of culture and identity — have been featured in several exhibitions, showcasing her ability to merge traditional artistic forms with contemporary themes. Her insightful analysis and thought-provoking commentary on cultural preservation and historical memory, particularly in relation to community, is imbued in all the work that she either creates or curates.

TANNER PLETZKE

Raised in South Florida, Tanner Pletzke attended engineering school in Boston before briefly living in Jacksonville, Florida, with his sister. Fascinated by the revelations of nature that an engineering degree brings but disillusioned by job prospects in defense or mass production, he started a career shortly thereafter in Los Angeles as a video producer. Creative ambitions always brewed beneath the surface, and the relative silent existence borne out of the pandemic of 2020 allowed Pletzke to explore the film photography medium and visual art unencumbered. It was not until his move to New York City in 2021 to freelance in the creative field that his explicitly artistic craft gained traction in earnest. Memories of the lonely, primordial biomes of Florida and California sublimated with the human frenzy of New York post-pandemic in Pletzke's visual contributions to musical performances at EMPAC in Rensselaer, New York. Frequent cross-country road travel begat frenetic photographic collages from the interior, which sparkled in photo-sculptural solo shows in Brooklyn. Increasing connections to artists from the East Coast scene spun into avant-garde photo gigs in Berlin and travels across greater Europe. These frequent travels allowed Pletzke to produce his largest pieces, his "parabolas:" curved, backlit gossamer panoramic photographic collages which invite the viewer to step inside and share the same viewpoint as the artist in the moment of creation. Now, re-settled in Jacksonville permanently, Pletzke has focused on percolating new ideas borne out of the North Florida social-biological environment and its constituent artists at CoRK and beyond. Recent works skew towards the grungy, revealing the process of creation as well as the viewpoint. Works have changed in scale from region-spanning panoramas of cities to the smaller, micro-world of endemic flowers and insects blown up to massive proportions. His practice features home-processed film and prints as a foundation, but increasingly encroaches into sculpture, with a focus on the written word as tactile object and direct connection to memory - a transcendent piece of Pletzke's artistic puzzle being his years-spanning memoirs, often used as a backdrop and context to photographic pieces on display. Pletzke types these stream-of-consciousness recollections onto rolls of butcher paper, hanging works from the ceiling and inviting audiences to make of one man's life what they will.

ZAKRIYA RABANI

Zakriya Rabani is a first-generation human. Given a different last name than both of his parents, he has grown as a Southwest Floridian with influences consisting of the relentless repetitive nature of the blue-green crashing waves, the push for strategic explosions of energy in the world of sport and competition, as well as an obsession of contending with present-day educational/institutional structures. Rabani challenges the patterns of man by using his own absurd past experiences to fuel his storytelling desires. Exhibited nationwide in galleries, museums, competitions and public art spaces, Rabani has shown at Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO; Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO; ArtFields, Lake City, SC; Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL; Franconia Sculpture Park, Shafer, MN; Foundry Art Center, St. Charles, MO; Indianapolis Art Centre, Indianapolis, IN; Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL and JAX International Airport;. He has been a resident at the Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, MN, was ArtFields 2019 Best Installation Performance Winner and was Studio Coordinator of Sculpture at Anderson Ranch Arts Center 2019-2022. By the age of 24, Zakriya Rabani achieved national rankings in both the sports of Tennis and Beach Volleyball, an MFA from the University of South Florida and a BFA from the University of Florida. He coached tennis and volleyball professionally, was the founder of two separate collegiate beach volleyball organizations and is currently the Alexander Brest Gallery Director at Jacksonville University, FL.

MICHAEL RAKIM

Michael Rakim is a soulful lifestyle photographer based in Jacksonville, Florida, whose work delves into themes of spirituality, nostalgia, and the human experience. Rooted in a deep appreciation for jazz-like rhythms and storytelling, Rakim’s images capture raw emotions and the quiet intimacy of everyday moments.His latest project, Flawda Water, is a submersive memoir that weaves together collective experiences of growing up in Florida. Through cinematic portraits and immersive set design, the series reflects on memory, culture, and the soul of the South— transporting viewers into spaces that feel both personal and familiar, like your grandmother's living room.

PRINCESS SIMPSON RASHID

Princess Simpson Rashid is an American multidisciplinary artist whose practice is deeply rooted in exploring color, visual perception and symbolism while investigating the role the brain plays in shaping our experiences of reality. Rashid’s academic foundation lies in the sciences. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Georgia State University and assisted in fundamental research in the synthesis and analysis of nanoparticles at the Georgia Tech Research Institute as a Ronald E. McNair Scholar. This early work in physics and chemistry continues to inform her artistic practice, particularly in her ongoing examination of nonlinear systems and patterns found in nature. Later, she pursued formal art education at the School of Plastic Arts and Design in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she developed her skills in painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Her dual background in science and art shapes her unique perspective and has become a cornerstone of her art practice. In her current body of work, Rashid emphasizes the importance of process-oriented experimentation, where the “doodle” and “squiggle” serve as critical exploratory elements for idea generation, memory encoding and recall. Rashid’s work has been exhibited in museums, art centers and galleries across the United States. Among her most notable accomplishments is her monoprint, Monoliths, winning Best in Show at the 2022 Stand Out Prints international biennial at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The exhibition was juried by William Villalongo, a 2022 Rome Prize awardee. And most recently, an essay about her art practice was included in the forthcoming book entitled, ‘Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50,’ edited by Sharon Louden, published by Intellect Books, and distributed by University of Chicago Press. Rashid is currently a Studio Resident Artist at CoRK Arts District in Jacksonville, FL.

STORM ROWLAND

Storm Rowland is a multidisciplinary artist who hijacks religious iconography to create an introspective look at queer themes and bring positive representation to queer identity. He graduated from the University of North Florida with his Bachelor of Fine Arts, concentrating in Painting, Drawing and Printmaking in the Spring of 2022. Storm focuses on queer activism as both a source of pride and the core message of his work. His goal is to help break down barriers toward the queer community, creating spaces of love and acceptance. 

RUSSELL SATTERTHWAITE

Russell Satterthwaite is a resident of Georgetown in Putman Co. and a nationally and internationally recognized award-winning nature and wildlife photographer. His images are bold, clean and capture the ever-changing landscapes and underwater beauty of nature.

SUSANNE SCHUENKE

Born in Germany to parents who were professional painters and graphic designers, I grew up in a world of art — making art and appreciating art. I literally began to draw when the little fist could grab a marker — and never stopped. After my high school diploma my education continued at the University of Cologne. I completed my university studies with a Ph.D. in art history. Simultaneously, during academic vacations, I attended courses offered by a private institution, finishing 500 hours of life class studies. My university years included a stipend year at the University of London. After my final exams, I was self-employed in the field of art with commercial designs but commenced exclusively painting in the medias of watercolor and oil, which I presented internationally in exhibitions and galleries over three decades, in Germany, England, France, Lebanon, South Africa and the United States. In the 1990s, I moved to the USA and continued my artistic career — including a two-year college teaching experience. On the side I was actively involved in research about the role of the unconscious in painting with a scientific researcher. Together, we published the results of the analysis of one of my masterworks (a 14-foot mural in the Mayo Clinic); the book won two awards. I continue with my life’s calling, my artistic profession, and look at a solid body of works in oil paintings with exhibitions worldwide (solo and group shows) in galleries and museums, award-winning, with works represented in private and public collections, cultural and governmental, in the USA and Germany, with two published books.

CHIP SOUTHWORTH

Chip Southworth grew up drawing Star Wars scenes and uniforms. At thirteen his father recognized that Chip had an eye for composition; he started setting type (the old-fashioned way) for his father’s billboard company. He soon began designing elements of billboards, then whole presentation pieces, then he progressed to painting the bulletins in the shop. Chip Studied Art in high school and in college at Gulf Coast College, FSU and UNF. His Major was political science, and he minored in Studio Arts. After building a successful graphic design practice, serving in the Navy, and having three kids, Chip got back into painting. In 2010 a friend offered him a show at a small local gallery and soon Jacksonville's art community discovered his work. He experienced an incredible boom of sales and popularity, affording him the opportunity to live exclusively off his work and spend most of his time in his studio creating. His work evolved dramatically into large scale abstract figure studies and portraiture with a heavy emphasis on painting freely. "My work represents the solitude and pain of struggle and the power of the fight for survival. Whether that is a civil rights issue, cancer or an issue of humanity.” Chip believes his privilege is for his subjects’ exploitation. These days Chip works almost exclusively on wood panels and pushes boundaries by exploring mediums that include wood, paint, fire, spray paint and graphite. He also utilizes scale. Rarely will you find a small work in his repertoire, but when you do, its notions are still large. In mid-2013 Chip took his message to the streets and started painting walls, windows and utility boxes in the Jacksonville Urban core. He did it anonymously under the secrecy of the dark early morning hours as Keith Haring’s Ghost. Putting over thirty Keith Haring inspired pieces that dealt with issues of police brutality and racism on the street, Chip’s project garnered national attention. Over a dozen police raided Chip's home on an early February morning in 2014 while he and his family were still sleeping, taking him into custody and seizing his art materials, drawings and phone. The sheriff's office boasted and plastered Keith Haring's Ghost's mug shot all over their social media. The effect was the art community came together in a big way to show support for Chip and his family. The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville worked with Chip to draft a piece of artist-friendly legislation that changed eighteen laws in Duval County. It passed unanimously and allowed the painting of utility boxes, as well as wall murals on any urban facade; and today Jacksonville has over 350 murals. In 2016, Hank Willis Thomas Jr. reached out to Chip and invited him to join the ForFreedoms PAC. Hank selected six of Chip’s pieces to exhibit in a super show in Los Angeles in 2017 and has kept him in the pipeline for over eight years. His most recent show with ForFreedoms and Task Force PR was in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention in August. Always hopeful, and with a new vision of mortality and struggle, Chip's work has found new fuel and is driving faster into the future than ever before, bringing out his best work to date by his own admission. "I hope to complete a good deal of work both in the streets and in the studio this year. I am switching up my subject matter slightly to avoid continued censorship; digging into Americana, the flag, the revolution, and Dazzle Camouflage.” Chip Southworth is a visual artist at large, with work held in the permanent collections of Museums, Universities, and many private collections across the United States. He Graduated from the University of North Florida in 1999, has had several solo shows and been part of substantial group shows on both coasts. He has given a TED Talk, TED Salons, and was selected for the New American Paintings Exhibitions in 2017. Chip continues to make art and push commentary in North Florida.

SHAUN THURSTON

Shaun Thurston, a Jacksonville native, began his artistic journey at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, graduating in the 1990s as a visual arts major. With roots in street art and graffiti, he expanded his formal training at Florida School of the Arts before briefly attending Savannah College of Art and Design in 2000. Choosing to step away from academia, Thurston embarked on a 20-year career defined by his dynamic blend of fine art and public murals. His career gained momentum in Atlanta, where he immersed himself in contemporary mural painting, achieving critical success. Collaborating with organizations like Living Walls, Forward Warrior and galleries throughout Atlanta, Thurston became recognized as a prominent emerging artist. His works were featured in numerous art and culture publications, solidifying his reputation as a powerful voice in large-scale public art. In 2011, Thurston returned to Jacksonville to be closer to family, while continuing to travel for projects. Since then, his influence on the city’s cultural landscape has been profound. He has worked with major institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA), the Museum of Science and History (MOSH), the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Art in Public Places, and the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. His clients also include organizations like the PGA Tour, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Jacksonville Port Authority, as well as countless public and private patrons. Thurston’s work has become a ubiquitous part of Jacksonville’s visual identity, recognizable to anyone familiar with Duval County. Beyond his murals, Thurston maintains a prolific studio practice at the CoRK Arts District, creating commissioned and personal works that often culminate in solo and group exhibitions. His paintings are held in museum and private collections across the country, and his evolving body of work continues to explore the intersection of imagination, organic forms, and the human experience.

D. LANCE VICKERY

Lance Vickery is a Professor of Sculpture in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at the University of North Florida where he leads the sculpture program and coordinates curricular changes, ensuring that course offerings align with contemporary art practices and student needs. Lance has completed numerous large-scale public art projects, showcasing his expertise in outdoor installations and community-driven works. Recently, Lance created a twenty-seven-foot sculpture at the Jesse Ball Dupont Center in downtown Jacksonville. The sculpture was commissioned to honor the recently retired president. His work is now part of the iconic building and part of Jacksonville's visual history fabric. Lance has a collaborative studio practice (Havic Studios) with his partner in all things, Jenny K. Hager. Team Havic ethos is a synergistic creative practice. Jenny and Lance inform each other in design and execution, playing off each other's strengths and passions. This has produced a diverse aesthetic and skill set that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Z (JACOB) WAN

Jacob (Z). Wan is a contemporary bookbinder who creates mixed-media conceptual books to celebrate the importance of oneself. Through his conceptual books and drawings/paintings, he explores the identity, sexuality and human relationships of the LGBTQ community in both traditional craft and innovative forms. Wan moved to the USA from China in 2014, and currently, he teaches at the University of North Florida.

JEFF WHIPPLE

Since 1980, Jeff Whipple has had 86 solo exhibitions in galleries, colleges and museums including the Tampa Museum of Art, the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, the Museum of Art, DeLand and the Boca Raton Museum of Art. His art has been in dozens of group exhibitions across the USA and has received 51 top awards in competitions. Whipple will have a 50-year retrospective at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs, Florida in the fall of 2025. The show will travel to the Spartanburg Museum of Art in South Carolina in 2026. As a playwright, Whipple has had 22 productions since the mid-1980s, mostly in Chicago and Florida. He has won several playwriting awards including five Florida statewide playwriting competitions. Whipple won Florida Individual Artist Fellowships four times from 1982 to 2014. He won the same type of state grant in Illinois in 1985 and 1990 when he lived in Chicago. In 2001, he won the $10,000 Fulton Ross Artist Grant. In 2018, he won a $25,000 artist grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. The Tampa Museum of Art commissioned Whipple to create a large-scale outdoor video and art installation in Miami Beach during the week of Art Basel Miami in 2006. He has had two dozen other major public art commissions since 1998. In the early 1980s, Whipple co-directed a printmaking atelier in Tampa, Florida where he collaborated with many renown artists including Jim Dine, Alice Aycock, James Rosenquist and Robert Rauschenberg. Whipple’s artwork is in two dozen corporate, municipal, college and museum collections. He received an MFA in Painting from the University of South Florida in 1980. He has taught at several colleges including Arizona State University, Florida State University and Northern Illinois University.

EDISON WILLIAM 

Edison William (b.1983 in Edison, New Jersey) is a photographic collage artist based in Atlantic Beach, FL. He studied art and photography at the University of North Florida in 2006, where he was introduced to color slide reversal film. The depth of saturation absolutely transcended photographic capture, and the desire to explore deeper into the possibilities of what can be done AFTER the image took his priority. Over time, hundreds of rolls of film were overexposed and overdeveloped, and he began mingling these thinned-out little worlds of landscapes with common objects, people and contrasting seasons. Rather than utilizing digital manipulations, the transparencies were combined by hand, taped together, and scanned. In 2009, William began a series titled, “A Travelogue for Sleepwalkers,” a collection of work that layers living memories by weaving them into real but impossible perspectives. Hallucinatory and sometimes hypnotic scenes of minimalistic dreamscapes set the stage for the characters to wander arbitrarily throughout a somnambulist’s daydream, where figures are reduced to phantom-like phenomena. The cooler tonalities found within Fujichrome film seems to lend to an atmosphere of quiet tranquility but encourages a creeping melancholia as well. In 2016, William began utilizing the digital practices within photography, shooting the same, everyday subjects (clouds, moons, people, mountains, and beaches) but with a heightened sense of awareness to detail. The tedious process of selecting and cutting out individual elements became the long and time-consuming journey to re-imagining them into believable places with narratives hidden in their own quixotic arrangements. He continued to reassemble straightforward elements into heavily detailed collages, some of which contain up to 200 of his own photographs. Figures exist in both complex and minimal spaces, while the biorhythms of nature cycle around them. William’s deep and personal connection to the lunar cycle aims to highlight an illusionary technique in compounding moonlight and sunlight to create luminescence. This technique has allowed for a surreal and romanticized approach to portraying naturalism. In his own attempts at paying homage to John James Audubon’s paintings of birds, Edison works to show a living theater in nature by glorifying local flora and fauna. His experience with bending shapes, perspectives and color has allowed him to depict an Egret or an Ibis as something stylish and regal. The cast of characters are scattered throughout these collages, each one silently telling their own stories, some with loss, confusion and despondency, others with love, lust, and wonder. The night scenes come alive in the forest and agave fields with blooming plants, creatures, and waterfalls, while the daytime tends to depict tension and confusion, worry and ambiguity. His work centers around the duality of human nature and furthering an appreciation of the beauty and fragility of our environment during the relentless encroachment of human interaction.

LARRY WILSON

Larry Wilson received his Bachelor of Design Degree from the University of Florida in 1976. After practicing in Houston, Washington, DC, and New York City, Wilson relocated to Jacksonville, Florida. Wilson has exhibited in national museums and galleries including the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, the Fine Art Museum of the South, Montgomery, Alabama, the Alexander Breast Museum at Jacksonville University, the Boca Museum, Boca Raton, Florida, Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, Alabama, the Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida and the Nathan Wilson Gallery at Florida Community College in Jacksonville. Appointed by the Mayor, he served as the Chair for the Art in Public Places Committee, he also served on the board of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and currently sits on the Jacksonville International Airport Art Commission. Wilson has served as a Trustee on the board of the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art. Larry maintains a sculptural studio at the CoRK Arts District in Jacksonville, Florida.

VIVIEN ZINK

Vivien Zink grew up in Yorkshire, England and studied Foundation Art at Manchester College, Fine Art at Newcastle University and Art Teaching at Goldsmith's College, London University. She has taught in the UK and the US and now works from her studio in NE Florida. Early influences include a variety of teaching legacies at Newcastle including those of Victor Pasmore, Richard Hamilton, Lawrence Gowing and Kenneth Rowntree as well as the cultural relevance of the school's Hatton Gallery and Kurt Schwitter’s Merz Barn Wall installation, all of which encouraged the foundational flexibility of a wide visual language. A later, profound influence has been the spiritual teaching of psychiatrist Dr. David Hawkins. Her main media is drawing and painting, but she also works with found objects and mixed media. She has exhibited in venues in the Southeastern US and her work has been used in illustration and music album formats. Her principal themes are spiritual; the work explores the sacred underpinnings of our existence in an unfolding relationship with creation and the cosmos.