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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Customers browse at the Tampa Artist Emporium in South Tampa. Pictured below: Boggs stands behind the Emporium’s front desk.
Two years ago, Tampa photographer Shelby Boggs took a gamble. Inspired by the Kress Emporium, an historic building in Asheville, NC, that serves as a marketplace for more than 80 regional artists and craftspeople, she set [...]

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Bruce Marsh, Riverwall (detail). Photo by Megan Voeller.
Downtown Tampa’s Riverwalk gained a public art cornerstone recently with the installation of Bruce Marsh’s Riverwall– a 40-foot long mural composed of photographic images of the Hillsborough River. Fired into porcelain enamel on steel plates, the images show the river– a 54-mile long waterway integral to the region’s [...]

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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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Photos by Megan Voeller
The new Tampa Museum of Art, now slated to open to the public in early 2010, inches closer toward completion each day on downtown Tampa’s riverfront. Close observers will note that the building’s distinctive cladding—a double layer of perforated metal sheets offset to create a moiré pattern on the structure’s surface—has begun [...]

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Restrooms at Nova 535, left, and Tampa Theatre.
(Via Tampa Downtown Partnership)
Strange but true: two Tampa Bay area arts venues - downtown Tampa’s iconic Tampa Theatre and downtown St. Petersburg’s Nova 535 - are in the running for Cintas Corporation’s annual America’s Best Restroom contest.

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Seth Pevnick of the J. Paul Getty Museum will oversee the museum’s Greek and Roman art collection.

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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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Tampa Theatre begins screening Little Ashes, a film about the more-than-friendship between surrealist painter Salvador Dali and poet Federico Garcia Lorca, this weekend. Showtimes tonight, Saturday and Sunday are preceeded by talks by Dali Museum staffers, including director Hank Hine (Saturday). Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson plays Dali, and the film’s trailer promises a titillating mix [...]

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Artist Brandon Dunlap at REAX Space.
The historic district’s visual arts cred just went up a notch, thanks to the launch of two new art venues: REAX Space, a boutique for artists’ prints, t-shirts and other products that also houses offices for the popular music magazine, and Arts On Ninth, a nacent community arts center. [...]

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Dominique Labauvie, Firecloud, 2009, Steel, 21 X 21 X 5 in. Courtesy Blue Acier.

Bleu Acier announced last night that French sculptor Dominique Labauvie has received a Gottlieb Foundation grant for 2009. Labauvie, who lives in Tampa, will be featured in an exhibit at the gallery opening May 23.

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Oil painting by Kimberly Adams
The University of South Florida’s MFA grads are having an End of the Semester Studio Sale in anticipation of summer vacation. Snag affordable art by up-and-coming artists. Facebook users, click here to find out more and peruse pics.
Wed., Apr. 29, 2-5 p.m.
FAS Grad Studios (Located in the small building just north [...]

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