Check out Creative Loafing’s cover story for your guide to Lights On Tampa action this weekend. Drop in on tomorrow’s symposium at 4 p.m. at Tampa Theatre. Listen to CL’s ArtsSpeak podcast on LOT (below). And—if you’re really a glutton for punishment—tune in to see me and Casa Magica artists Sabine Weissinger and Friedrich Foerster [...]

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A daylight shot shows the effects of a dozen mirror balls hanging from the Tampa Convention Center’s entrance portico, part of Chris Doyle’s Ecstatic City (Tampa).
Happy New Year, art lovers! What better way to ring in 2009 than by taking part in an event I think we can safely call, even at this early [...]

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Passersby in downtown Tampa - or anyone with a view of the waterfront just north of the Platt Street Bridge - may have been wondering about the giant, red steel sculpture sprouting up in MacDill Park this week. It’s part of Chattanooga-based artist John Henry’s Peninsula Project, which brings his monumental sculptures to seven Florida [...]

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Flocas 2008 opens tonight in Tampa, and I’ll tell you—my reaction to this project (the consortium of Florida university masters degree programs) is like, why didn’t someone think of this sooner? Best. Idea. Ever.
We have some really talented graduate students in the state, and it breaks my heart when they leave after graduation. We need [...]

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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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The folks at Flight 19 have announced a closing reception date for Bob Wysocki’s Post-Metal: Sat., Nov. 8, 7-11 p.m. If you haven’t seen this installation yet, it’s one of the most exciting projects to take place in Tampa this fall (or year…perhaps even in recent memory). Check out the video above to see my [...]

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Chris Parks, The Fleet of Doom, digital illustration, 2008
Saturday night marks the return of The Exhibitionists (the TMA young members group formerly known as Avant Garde) to downtown Tampa. Their show, Brand New Day, staged in the ground floor of Skypoint, aims to be an art party with a curatorial premise that actually holds some [...]

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A wall-mounted sculpture made of vynil records by Susan Janvrin of Papergeist.
Sooo… This is just a little recap of some things I saw last night for your reading pleasure.
I stopped by Art After Dark, the third Friday party-exhibit at the Tampa Museum of Art, to check out Sound Effects, an exhibit of music-related art [...]

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C. Wade Brickhouse, Paper Vessels, 2008. Courtesy Florida Craftsmen.
Most of you probably know the artists’ studios housed above Florida Craftsmen in downtown St. Petersburg as Artspace. I’m told by staff at FC, which owns the building, that a slight reorganization has taken place. The studios will be known as ArtLofts going forward, and the artists– [...]

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Inside ArtHouse3. Courtesy Katherine Gibson.
For those who don’t know, South Tampa resident Katherine Gibson has periodically transformed her home into a temporary gallery space for the past few years. Add friends and neighbors, guest artists, hors d’oeuvres and … you get the picture.
From Kathy’s email about the latest installment of ArtHouse3:
Come see a [...]

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Allen Hampton, Counting Centuries, 2008, mixed media. Detail views. Courtesy the artist’s Flickr page.
And in Sketchbook for Creative Loafing, here’s a bit about a show over at [5]art that’s worth checking out. Gotta marvel at the work put into this exhibit by Allen Hampton - whose disturbing visions are always welcomed by this viewer [...]

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Becky Flanders, “Untitled (from the Archetype series),” 2007, archival inkjet print. Courtesy of the artist.

Last week in Creative Loafing, I wrote about the work of Becky Flanders, a USF MFA student, whose work I just think is incredibly promising. One of the joys of encountering her photographs - and sculptural pieces as well as [...]

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