Guest contributor Kurt Piazza provides this review of artist Allen Hampton’s latest work. -MV >>

Installation view of work by Allen Hampton.
“I feel like I’m not able to connect to most people. Eventually they disappoint you,” says Allen Hampton. I met up with Hampton recently to talk about his new work, which deals primarily with [...]

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Andy Warhol. Flowers (1970), screenprint. ©The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/ARS, NY. On Loan from Bank of America’s Art in Our Communities Program.
At the outset of writing anything about Andy Warhol, it seems like a sure bet that nothing new can be said. Nothing, anyway, that hasn’t already been better articulated by scholars, [...]

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Jeremy Chandler. Couple at the Fair. Image courtesy of the artist.
First there was Beth Reynolds’ documentation of Tampa life in heterogeneous form—from the flamenco dancer to the crab fisherman. Then came Suzanne Camp Crosby’s more surreal take on the city’s character—think headless mannequins in period costume arranged on the veranda of Plant Hall. Next, [...]

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Ruud Van Empel. World #1. 2005, cibachrome/dibond/plexiglass. Copyright Ruud Van Empel, courtesy George Eastman House.
Given the breezy brightness of this spring’s weather, you could be forgiven for imagining that west central Florida constitutes a little slice of paradise — especially in the manicured gardens outside the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in [...]

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Roger Chamieh. Eventually You Will Say Something of Interest (detail). PVC tubing, paper, and Plexiglass.
[This review of Chamieh’s solo exhibition at Three04 in West Tampa is by guest contributor Kurt Piazza. - MV]
Roger Chamieh: New Work
Closing reception Fri., May 22, 7-9 p.m.
Three04
1906 N. Armenia Ave., #211, Tampa
813-260-0130
Roger Chamieh’s sculptures defy the laws of gravity, [...]

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Pan Yue. Time Transfixed. 2008, digital print. Image courtesy Eli Klein Fine Art, New York.
[This is a great little show that I could visit again and again (and probably will before it closes in early May). -MV]
Though the recent frenzy to acquire Chinese contemporary art has cooled with the global recession, the 21st century [...]

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Gregory Barsamian, Untitled, 1999, 4’h x 7’ dia., Courtesy of the Artist.
Visitors to artist Gregory Barsamian’s exhibition at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland will likely notice something remarkable even before they set foot in a gallery. To host Unbelievable Transformations, an unusual showcase of kinetic sculpture, the museum’s airy exhibition spaces have been [...]

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Us I abús (Use and abuse, 1990) by Pere Noguera with texts by Carles Hac Mor. Tin box containing two glass bottles with stoppers and an instruction manual.
When does a “book” consist of a pair of vials in a metal tin, a triptych of glass “pages” or a cardboard box filled with pamphlets, drawings [...]

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The University of Tampa’s digital art biennial Electronics Alive closes Mar. 24. Check out the exhibit– and a screening of award-winning 3D animations that takes place at UT’s Reeves Theater tomorrow night.

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Cone of the past, point of the present. Diran Lyons’ Goodbye Victoria Artifact 5: Notes Written In Gilles Deleuze Text, a photographic print from Five + 5. To watch scenes from Lyons’ Deleuze-influenced movie, to go http://www.youtube.com/user/LYONSPOTTER.
Good things are afoot at [5]art.
The West Tampa exhibition space — synonymous with the quintet of artists who [...]

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Jamey Grimes. Merge IV, 2007. Mylar, acetate, transparency film, thread. Courtesy DFAC.
This week in Creative Loafing:
These days, it’s hardly an exaggeration to call the evening news the stuff of nightmares. Between the implosion of Wall Street and the prospect of the other guy winning the election, the current state of national affairs might be enough [...]

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I did something this week that I rarely do and which gives me absolutely no pleasure (in fact, it makes me feel like I’m getting an ulcer): I went to see a show and I didn’t like some things about it—and I wrote an article that said so.
Critical Reaction in this week’s Creative Loafing
At least [...]

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