The Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach will present Penumbra: The Space between Light and Dark at 6 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach.
The exhibition features work by Jullianne French, Masha Sardari, and Debra Mixon Holliday. The three artists span a vast range of mediums, specifically photography, monochrome transfers and print making. The exhibition promises to be deeply emotional and meditative. The works come together as they explore humanity, nature, and architecture.
The three artists share much in common from Gothic influences to visceral subject matter. Each woman interprets the concept of time through her own lens but the messages are similar. The tensions are apparent in the emotional and coloristic explosions. The images are not unfocused but strategically concentrated on fragments of time, space and memory.
The exhibition is free and open to the public. The opening reception will offer visitors an opportunity to meet the artists and enjoy live music. A concurrent exhibition of works by local artists’ group JCVA (Jacksonville Coalition of Visual Artists) will be opening at the same time. The works from each exhibition will be available for viewing and purchase until Nov. 3.
A look at the three featured artists:
■ Jullianne French describes her works of monochrome as “explosions of images and drippings of ink ... mirroring, doubling, repeating.” Her transfers exist somewhere in between past and present. They often depict ancient structures such as the Colosseum or enchanting Gothic cathedrals, buildings living in the past. Presently, French relates human forms to the aged relics as she sees them from a modern perspective. “Some of these pieces have a haunting quality to them that ties in with the history of cultures and structures,” French said. Her work focuses on architecture but it is not independent of the human presence. She views architecture as if it is the human body with scaled-up proportions. View her work at www.juliannefrench.com.
■ Masha Sardari focuses on the folklore of the past, rather than the physical. Her photography plays with a similarly Gothic atmosphere as French’s, but it views the natural environment and architecture as a place for the story. The Grimm’s Fairy Tales serve as a thematic thread throughout her series, as she selects one line in each tale and expands it into a visual orchestra. “My photographs are scenes of human struggles, cultural complexities, and the nature's rule over our souls,” Masha said. The series is yet another attempt at bringing to life her childhood memories in Eastern Europe and the importance of learning from the past. Her work pulls on the Gothic and Romantic periods, both visually and thematically. The images she produces are snippets of memory seen through the veiled eye, almost dream-like. “I want the viewer to lose themselves in the story and really see the narrative,” she said. Her work is mainly created in Northeast Florida with scenes almost unimaginable in the tropical environment. View her work at www.mashasardari.com.
■ Debra Mixon Holliday is an artist contributing yet another medium to the show. Her printmaking technique is fluid and organic. She focuses on the rich tangles of weeds, flowers, murky water and a vast variety of Northeast Florida vegetation. Holliday dives deep into an exploration of nature and human relationship to nature through boundaries, time, memory and identity. “I feel a calling to bear witness to the native environment of the region that I know and love,” Holliday said. To create her images, Holliday explores the forests and backwaters of Northeast Florida as she searches for textures, patterns and obscured forms. Her work closely focuses on the wild and untamed with her use of agitated lines and dim lighting. To view her work, visit her www.debramixonholliday.com.
The Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to bring the arts into the life of the community through arts education, exhibition and outreach.
