Snap! Downtown Opening.

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Snap! Orlando has opened a new gallery downtown at 420 E Church St, Orlando, FL. The opening exhibit featured g artists in z galleries.  As part of our ongoing mission to boldly increase the visibility and appreciation of art in our community and beyond, Snap has expanding to the Downtown / Thornton Park neighborhoods.

The largest gallery featured Mark Gmehling, ‘Nu Werks’ – Exhibit curated by Holly and Patrick Kahn. Mark is a German artist who has an elastic view on life. He makes fine art prints from 3D renderings of abstract characters and bizarre scenarios, all illustrated in a playfully fluid manner. The aesthetics of each of his figures are highly polished though and resemble beautiful, glossy ceramic pieces. Gmehling was introduced to the US by Snap! in 2014, and has garnered international press including the cover of Orlando Weekly, front page of Orlando Sentinel, Hi Fructose Magazine, and Der Spiegel in Germany.

Also in the front gallery, were sculpted rings by Rebecca Rose, ‘New Sculpturings,’ which are beautifully created pieces redefined beyond their traditional sense, each piece with unique form and storytelling, blending luxury with urban activism relevant to current social issues. Rebecca sketches, assembles, carves, invests, kiln fires, and casts her own work in her studio.

In the middle gallery was work by Chris Robb, ‘Continuum’. Coming from a background of graphics and printing, Robb’s work has evolved over the past 30 years into an expressionistic abstraction. Color is central to his dynamic compositions. His grasp of the formal properties of color––hue, value, intensity, and temperature, permits him to layer multiple colors without overpowering the structure of his compositions.

The back gallery featured the edgy urban work of Earl Funk, ‘Seasons Change’ This exhibit was curated by Gina Bernadini. Orlando illustrator and tattoo artist new works are inspired by the changing of the seasons, as well as the idea of being open to changing ourselves.

Artists were present on opening night. Catering, craft cocktails by The Courtesy Bar, music by DJ Nigel John and DJ Ken Sherry.

Snap! Space presents : ‘WILD IS THE WIND’.

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On Friday November 20, Snap! Orlando (1013 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, Florida) presented ‘Wild Is The Wind,’ an unconventional visual exploration of freedom and innocence by selected international photographers and contemporary artists. The exhibition captures an ethereal sense of the interaction between humankind, native environments, and the creatures that inhabit them, through the inspired work of celebrated international artists. Many artists were present on opening night. Craft cocktails by The Courtesy Bar and music by DJ Nigel John.

This multimedia exhibit, including photography, digital art, projection, oil painting, and water color, curated by Holly and Patrick Kahn, features works by:

• Julien Nonnon (France. Works from series ‘Urban Safari’)

• Tom Chambers (USA. Works from series ’To The Edge’)

• Heather Evans Smith (USA. Works from series ’Seen Not Heard’)

• Cameron Bloom (Australia. Works from series ‘Penguin the Magpie’)

• Elicia Edijanto (Indonesia. Works from series ‘Natural Connections’)

• David Olivera (USA. Works from series ‘Duality’)

• Martin Stranka (Czech Republic. Works from series ‘I Found The Silence’)

On the evenings following the opening night, Snap! invited guests to join artist Julien Nonnon, as they will traveled with him to produce new digital projections in specific architectural locations throughout Orlando. Locations were be announced through social media prior to the evening of the event. This was the premiere behind the scenes of the making of his new “Urban Wild‘ series, created for the first time in the US. Details to follow!

The exhibition will be on view through January 16th, 2016 during gallery hours Thursday – Saturday, 11 AM – 4 PM, and by appointment contact: info@snaporlando.com

Beatrice Carmen Miranda was wearing a hat that resembled high tech Mickey Mouse ears. She explained the she ran across this unique hat in Brooklyn NY and she simply had to have it. It seems to be made from the support wires found in bras, but its inner structure is covered with a black felt fabric. I couldn’t stop looking at her so the hat certainly attracts attention. Her friend Richard Wahl was surprised to find that he was also in the sketch. We exchanged business cards. He is the coo and principle at Findsome and Winmore, a digital marketing agency. Sketching digitally, kind of blows my cover.   When I work in a sketchbook, I’m usually ignored. But when I work on a tablet everyone wants to know who kind of tablet I’m using, and what software is creating the art. I want to reply “The medium isn’t the message, it is just a tool like a pencil.” People seem l be attracted to The ghost in the machine, like moths to a flame.

After the sketch was complete, I had a stiff drink and then sat down with Swami World Traveler and got to see a 3D rendering program that he is writing code for that creates 3D representations of mathematical equations. The sample he showed me featured pyramids built from just a few block and then progressing to thousands of blocks. Had there been programs like this when I was a kid I might have had more interest in math.

Bring Your Own Beamer at the Maitland Art Center

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Bring Your Own Beamer Orlando was a one night gallery exhibition featuring explosions of light and movement by local and world renowned digital artists, designers and filmmakers.

This is pop up projected experience included animated GIFs, motion graphics, interactive installations, video shorts, and more.

BYOB Orlando is a collaborative effort by Snap! Orlando, and the Art and History Museum with Nathan Selikoff and Michael Forrest as the curators.It took place in the Germain Marvel Building, Art and History Museum campus (231 East Packwood Avenue, Maitland, FL).

Even more more important, the exhibit fell on my birthday, so I treated myself to a unique sketching experience. Since the show was all about high tech projections, I decided to execute my sketch on my tablet. I figured that way I would sort of blend in. It was tricking finding a spot where I wasn’t blocking a projection beam. I sat right next to the projector that threw an animation of a view that looked like the camera was flying over a city of colorful cubes. I was most intrigued by Ivan Depeña‘s piece which consisted of a blue screen that would explode like colorful fireworks when people walked in front of it. All evening children and adults moved in front of the screen to watch the color dance. On the floor was a tiny TV. I couldn’t make out what was being shown but later when i got a drink, I met Carl Kickerbocker and he explained that the TV was showing one off his animated shorts. I decided to go back and I sat down in front of the TV to watch. Another projection was sampling colors from around the room and vibrations from a pan of water drove the image frequencies projected. I’m probably explaining that wrong, but it looked cool. This really was a world class exhibit. Exhibitions like this have occurred all around the world in cities like Moscow, Begota, Firenza,  NYC and Copenhagen to name a few. It is good to see Orlando catching up to the World art scene.

Artists in the Orlando BYOB exhibit included,

Snap offered an Artist Panel Discussion.

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On March 28th I went to an Artist Panel Discussion at Snap! Orlando (1013 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, FL). The exhibit at the time was called Structure and Perspective.  Structure and Perspective examined the intersection of organic and
man made forms such as those found in the distinction of body forms and
building forms.The artists were Christoph Morlinghaus in the black shirt, Ryan Buyssens in the green stripes, Dan L. Hess in a military shirt and Juan Travieso in the white tee shirt.

Amazingly Dan went to the School of Visual Arts in NYC around the same time I did. He pointed out that the school stressed the importance and rich history of drawing. Children today aren’t taught to draw. If they want to make something, they assume there is an application that can do it for them. When Dan starts a drawing, he has no idea where it will go. He has no set final destination. For a long time he has been avoiding painting, so all his works are on paper. Dan and I have much in common.

The large format photos behind the artists were by Christoph. All of his photos are analog taken with a large format camera. He joked, “I wouldn’t be a good German if I didn’t look for order and structure.” The photos were of computer circuitry and the resembled cityscapes. He has been using x-ray film the last 2 years which results in bleak intimate images. He mentioned that social media is resulting in the death of photography. Art has become disposable. He feels that there is an existential crisis due to the overload of images. There is so much to assimilate at the large art fairs like Art Basel in Miami. Art Basel is all about consumption.

Ryan creates animated organic flapping birds wings, crafted from 3D printed, machined and laser-cut parts; “Resistance”
is time-based, interactive, mechatronic sculpture that emulates the
articulated flapping of bird’s wings. Several sets of these mechanical
birds are mounted to a wall and, through various intensities of
flapping, respond to the viewer’s movements within the space.

Juan related his childhood memory of fleeing Cuba. Seventy or more people were killed at sea. He watched a man cut in half when he got caught between boats. Because of these memories, Juan paints endangered species. He feels that art is a language and we as artists have a responsibility to carry on the conversation. Art is about how you relate to another human being. The person viewing the art has to want that relationship. Juan taught teachers how to teach art. Line work is the framework for everything. Many students lack an ability to be present in the moment. They don’t have the ability to trust the beauty in front of them. To compensate they might take a picture with their phone and work from that. Juan likes to create a body of work over the course of a year without showing anyone. Creating art is like raising dysfunctional children, you want to get them strong enough to kick them out of the house. A piece isn’t finished until it goes out into the world.

Smaller cities are where artists can flourish today. NYC isn’t the mecca it used to be except for the blue chip artists. You can produce art anywhere and find alternate venues to show it in like Art in Empty Spaces and Pop Up Shops. This artist panel discussion was one of the most enlightening experiences I’ve had. Snap continues to give the city beautiful a much needed pulse.

The Cameo vintage sign is burning bright again.

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A small black and white photo framed on the back wall of Snap! Orlando shows the historic Cameo Theater with its original signage. Building owner Jorge Boone applied to the Orlando City Counsel to have a replica of the original Cameo
sign put back on top of the building “to re-establish the identity of the
building and bring a sense of history and place to the area.” The
project is expected to cost around $29,000 and the city agreed to
Boone’s request for $14,000 through the facade program. The new
18-foot-long sign will use the same retro font as the original, and it
will be lit with more than 300 LED bulbs.

The Cameo Theater first opened opened on Christmas Day, 1940. It was a latecomer in Orlando’s movie theaters, and was located just a block west of the Vogue Theater. Open for only a few years (maybe less than five), the Cameo sat abandoned for years, save for an occasional booking by a evangelical group.

The building was remodeled and occupied for years by IBM. Since then it has had many occupants, and has often been vacant. The marquee still stands.

In October 2008, it was in use as a live performance space, but had closed by Summer of 2009. By early-2010, it had reopened and was available ‘For Rent’, and several groups had regular performances, primarily live music.

Today the Cameo Theater is home to Snap! Orlando, a hip gallery that is bringing cutting edge exhibits to Orlando. The owners, Patrick and Holly Kahn  also have expanded Snap into a gallery space in Miami and they seem to have finally created a gallery worthy of a top class city here in Orlando.  Nearly 1200 people came to
celebrate Snaps one year anniversary, and the lighting of the Cameo
sign on January 23, 2015. As Patrick said “Thank you to all of our partners, supporters, Snap! team members
and friends who joined us last night! Our deepest appreciation and love
to the exceptional Jorge Boone and Magdalena Dalsjo for reviving the
Cameo sign, and sponsoring the public art fence, created by Chris Scala. In 2015 Snap is planning a citywide event with pop-up art
exhibits, lectures with guest speakers, workshops, and other educational
and cultural events. Announcements soon.”