On Friday, November 12, Polk Museum of Art will host another installment of View & Review, an informal art critique for emerging artists. This View and Review will be led by Rocky Bridges and Leslie Neumann, two of the artists who have work on display in the exhibition Visual Unity 2. The event starts at 6:00pm. Artists who wish to have their work critiqued by Bridges and Neumann must pre-register, but the event is also open to people who are interested in simply hearing what is said.
View & Review is one of Polk Museum of Art’s occasional programs, the goal of which is to bring local artists and art lovers together to discuss art. Artists are invited to bring one or more pieces of artwork for feedback from a guest critic. In the spirit of the Visual Unity 2 exhibition, collaborative pieces created by two artists are encouraged. Art lovers are welcome to come listen to and join in the discussion.
Admission is $15 per piece for artists who are presenting artwork, and $5 for the audience. A cash bar will also be available. Artists must pre-register by calling 863-688-5423 by November 9.
Rocky Bridges is a regionally recognized mixed media artist, the guest Co-Curator of the exhibition Visual Unity 2, and one of the participating artists in the exhibition. He is a Florida native, currently residing in Tarpon Springs. In 1991, he received his degree in art from New York City’s Cooper Union. Bridges has taught at Harrison School for the Arts since 1992, and has also served as an adjunct professor of art at both St. Petersburg College and University of South Florida. He has received several fellowships, including the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts Residency Fellowship, which enabled him to live and create artwork in Miami Beach during the three summers from 2000 – 2003. This residency culminated in an exhibition of his work at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. His most recent fellowship, the Surdna Foundation Arts Teachers Fellowship, allowed him to study in China in 2009.
Leslie Neumann received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, in 1974, and a Master’s Degree in painting from New York University in Manhattan in 1980. After living in New York City for 14 years and teaching art at St. John’s University in Queens for 6 years, she moved to Aripeka, Florida, in 1991. Neumann’s encaustic paintings are in collections across the United States. Neumann is a recipient of a 1993 Adolph and Ester Gottleib Foundation Grant for Painting, and a 1989 Fellowship from the New York State Foundation for the Arts, as well as an Individual Artist Fellowship from the State of Florida in 2001. In 1995, she was among the 50 artists selected by Jack Cowart, Deputy Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. to be included in the Open Studios book New American Paintings. In 2005, Neumann was honored with a 15 year retrospective of her work at the Vero Beach Art Museum.
