Pink flamingos, those graceful pink birds and the unofficial kitschy symbol of Florida, have landed in the Main Gallery at the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County as part of the new exhibit titled Whimsy & Wonder, on view through Jan. 13.
Flamingo photographs, flamingos on one leg, surreal flamingos and flamingos splashing in the fountains. In Kasha McKee’s conceptual photograph of the birds at the Palm Beach Zoo, flamingos have made a comeback in Florida, in more ways than one.
While flamingos are the main motif, whimsy is evident in many of the creations, from Nickie Hennevelt’s series of Tiny Welcome Doors or self-described developing artist Haydee Ullfig’s acrylic painting titled Cat Selfie, to ceramicist Karla Walter’s mixed media and Swarovski crystals black crows titled Dressed to Kill.
Wonder is also on view on select Saturdays when artist Dave Blair demonstrates his kinetic sculpture, The God Machine.
“Our mission is to nurture, promote, and support a healthy, diverse, and inclusive culture sector,” said Dave Lawrence, the Cultural Council’s CEO. “This exhibition affords all of us an opportunity to smile and maybe even laugh. It is a joyful exhibition, and we could use a bit of whimsy and wonder in our lives.”
The exhibit features 45 Palm Beach County artists, with 30 of the artists included for the first time in an exhibit at the Cultural Council. There is even a painting created with animal-safe paint by Francesca, a resident flamingo at the Palm Beach Zoo, titled Hope for Florida Flamingos.
On a lighter note than many of their typical exhibits, Jessica Ransom, the Cultural Council’s director of artist services who curated the exhibition, says more than 300 people RSVP’d for the opening preview Nov. 16.
“I wanted to bring laughter, joy, and enthusiasm to the start of our new season by showcasing the diverse media and high-quality work of the many artists who call Palm Beach County home,” Ransom says.
“Who doesn’t want to be happy and smile,” she asks rhetorically.
Boca Raton-based artist Ted Shaine, 76, works exclusively in linoleum prints and woodcuts. His 12-by-9-inch woodcut in the exhibit features a detailed close-up of a flamingo, its neck craned, head turned to the side, one eye visible.
Shaine learned woodcutting at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., and credits his teacher and mentor, Leon Friend, for his lifelong love of the art.
“He was a true guiding light in my life,” remembers Shaine, who has since set up a scholarship fund for other art students and donates the proceeds from the sale of his works to fund the scholarship. “It’s good to work hard,” says Shaine, “but a bit of luck helps as well.”
Shaine, who studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, went on to have a successful career as creative director in advertising, working for many of the large ad agencies in New York City, including BBDO and Doyle Dane Bernbach.
In 1998, after perestroika came to the Soviet Union, he created the landmark television ad for Pizza Hut featuring then-Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his granddaughter sharing a pizza at the first Pizza Hut in Moscow.
A poster he designed in 1967 with the famous quote by Timothy Leary to “Tune In, Turn On and Drop Out,” hangs next to a Toulouse-Lautrec print at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
These days, Shaine is retired and concentrating on his art. Concerned with the environment, he is creating a series of woodcuts and prints of pollinators – rabbits, moths, sunflowers and ladybugs.
He uses high-quality, handmade Japanese tools and a Japanese baren, a disc-shaped tool used to transfer the ink from the woodcut to the paper.
“It’s a time-consuming and physical process,” Shaine says, “but, when it comes out right, it feels great.”
Also concerned with pollinators and the environment is Delray Beach-based artist, Amy Gross, 58, whose mixed media piece, Silver Bees, explores the wonder of bees.
“Having my work on display here at the Cultural Council is a great honor and a great joy,” Gross says. “And having my work shown alongside those of friends just adds to the happiness of the experience.”
Inspired by French-American sculptor Louise Bourgeois (“the greatest fiber artist”) and her walks at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Gross says: “It is my love poem, my deepest wish, for all the smallest things that combine to hold up this great big wide world.”
Composed of velvet, beads, embroidery thread, yarn, paper, plastic, foam and wire, the piece turns from green, to silver, to black, and back to green again, depicting the ability of bees to adapt to their changing environment.
Gross’s intent is for people to think about all the elements that have to work together in nature for our species and the earth to thrive.
“I want people to fall in love with nature,” she says. “If you feel you have a stake in it, you will care more for it when you realize you are a part of a greater system.”
With elements of both whimsy and gravitas, feminist artist Quimetta Perle’s papier-mâché mermaid, Sea Witchy, floats above the room.
Referencing Diana, goddess of fertility and the moon, the green sea witch has a teardrop hanging from a tentacle, a crown resembling teeth on her head and other creatures such as a jellyfish and dragonfly attached to her.
“Women are the central characters in my work,” Perle, 68, writes in her artistic statement. “Heroic and archetypal, trying to emerge from the background, lost in thought or consumed by fire.”
Her women subjects include mermaids, demon slayers and warrior goddesses.
Using luminous beads, reflective sequins, and embellished fabrics, Perle chooses decorative mediums to explore the themes in women’s lives such as women’s empowerment, issues of violence and reproductive rights.
Inspired by the works of Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse and Mary Beth Edelson, a multi-disciplinary artist and one of the first-generation feminist artists, Perle is also influenced by Haitian textile artist, Myrland Constant and multimedia artist, Marielle Plaisir.
She studied at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and earned her MFA in computer arts at the School of Visual Art in 1997. Having taught art and design at Pratt Institute, developed arts programs for elders, students and people with disabilities, Perle is now devoting herself full-time to her art.
And, like the mythological mermaids she creates representing the female experience, she, like they, is straddling two worlds – the rational and the irrational.
Finding inspiration in mythical images, goddess images and in real women, Perle explores both women’s anger and women’s celebration.
“The work comes from the work,” Perle likes to say. “I feel like I’m finally reaching my stride – this is my moment.”
For a full list of artists included in the show, please visit palmbeachculture.com. Whimsy & Wonder is free and open to the through January 13, 2024. Exhibition hours are Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. (not including holidays). The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County is located at 601 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach.