By Sandra Schulman Artists make art in a search for self. Eye to I: Self-Portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, a stunning show at the Boca Museum of Art, now being exhibited through June 14 on online and digital programs, brings solo works together of major artists of the 20th and 21st centuries and dating from 1901 to 2015. There are treasures large and small … [Read more...]
Delray author’s debut thriller aims for ‘Homeland’ territory
By Sharon Geltner Goodbye, Homeland. Hello, Sandblast. Showtime’s hit series Homeland ends in May. But covert ops fans can now turn to Sandblast, the first book in an action, adventure and suspense trilogy by Al Pessin, a local author who has covered the world’s hot spots from Afghanistan to Washington, D.C. The plot: after terrorists blow up a plane carrying the … [Read more...]
What we’re missing: Critics reflect on an arts-less season
The coronavirus pandemic, coming as it did in the heart of the arts season in South Florida, almost literally stopped Palm Beach ArtsPaper critics in their tracks. And it’s not just the arts events themselves that they miss. Here’s a roundup of mini-essays from some of our critics as they take a look at a season that stopped: * Camaraderie vanished, too, as theaters … [Read more...]
Kravis Center’s only CEO to retire after 30 years at top
By Dale King Judith Mitchell was hired as fundraising director for the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in 1989 when the 10.5-acre venture was simply an under-construction dream of local philanthropists intent on creating a major performance venue in downtown West Palm Beach. A bit more than 30 years later, inside the elegant showplace that now stands on … [Read more...]
Postmodern Jukebox warms up chilly Boca Fest finale
By Dale King The final evening of this year’s Festival of the Arts Boca at the Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton on March 8 was damn cold, with a biting wind that made ambient temperatures in the 60s feel even frostier. Still, the not-too-comfortable folding chairs on the amphitheater lawn were nearly filled, thanks, in large part, to the appearance of Postmodern … [Read more...]
The blues haunts Zwilich’s fine new cello concerto
By Dennis D. Rooney Two world premieres opened the third program of the South Florida Symphony Orchestra’s 22nd season. Zuill Bailey was soloist in the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by Ellen Taafe Zwilich, one of two premieres on the program, both dedicated to founding Music Director Sebrina María Alfonso. Zwilich (b. 1939), a native Floridian, is a distinguished … [Read more...]
ACO, soloist get mixed Beethoven results; Stravinsky, Higdon sparkle
By Dennis D. Rooney Dance music dominated the first half of the second Masterworks Series program of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra’s 30th season Wednesday at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens. Dance Card by Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) was the opener. Written in 2016, the five-movement work, for string orchestra, explores different aspects of dance rhythms. … [Read more...]
Splendid ‘Acis and Galatea’ closes Seraphic Fire’s Enlightenment Festival
By Robert Croan “Happy we!”/”Wretched lovers!”/”Galatea, dry they tears!” That’s the plot, in a nutshell, of Acis and Galatea, Handel’s pastorale opera, first performed in London in 1718, given a rare (and splendidly realized) revival by Seraphic Fire to conclude the group’s two-week Enlightenment Festival in South Florida. The shepherd Acis and the sea nymph … [Read more...]
Norton opens a fresh look at Rauschenberg
By Sandra Schulman Bicycles, T-shirts, tin cans – everything was fodder for art materials for Robert Rauschenberg, the radical 1950s artist who used the beauty and detritus of the world as his aesthetic. For the next major show in its newly expanded gallery space, the Norton Museum of Art is presenting a large survey of the work of Rauschenberg (1925-2008), tracing the … [Read more...]
Palm Beach Show offers floors full of riches
By Myles Ludwig The shiny story is at the Convention Center, where the Palm Beach Show of glittering jewelry, particularly fine antiques, interesting artifacts and wonderful paintings is on display. Opening night was a grand affair with an invitation-only VIP vernissage benefitting the Cancer Alliance of Help and Hope followed by a special preview opening party. The … [Read more...]