Floridians

Floridians
May 4 — June 15 2012
Opening reception:
Friday, May 4, 7 PM

Florida Mining Gallery continues its first season with Floridians, opening on May 4th and continuing through June 15th. The gallery will be presenting new work by 8 Florida artists; Mark Creegan, Lily Kuonen, Rachel Rossin, Jessica Borusky, and artist collective The Church of Holy Colors (Joey Fillastre, Felici Asteinza,
Evan Galbicka).

Featuring painting as well as installation, the work engages the space within the gallery, transforming it. Chromatically driven, this group of work is a playful and exuberant look at innovative art making, exploring the  dichotomy between traditional and experimental forms through sculptural, illustrative, and conceptual means.

Mark Creegan is a Jacksonville based installation artist, Visiting Instructor of Art at UNF, and a Tampa native. Creegan holds a BFA from Jacksonville University and an MFA from Florida State University. Most recently Creegan’s work has been on view at Vault Gallery, CoRK, and MOCA Jacksonville. Says Creegan, “I make intuitive and improvisatory works that may take the form of sculpture and installations, performances, and web-based works. Involved in all is a consideration and manipulation of seemingly banal materials, images, sounds, and objects in order to reveal some innate formal aspect or cultural meaning. Works are often contingent and site-responsive … I am interested in creating a degree of emotional charge by combining the abject with the elegant, and by reusing the neglected discard. ”

Another Jacksonville based artist, Lily Kuonen was born in Arkansas, where she received her BFA in painting from the University of Central Arkansas. She holds an MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design, and is an Assistant Professor at Jacksonville University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with recent solo shows at the Fahm Gallery (SCAD, Savannha, GA), the Bogard Storefront (Charleston, SC), and the Historic Arkansas Museum (Little Rock, AR). Kuonen describes her process as an exploration of materials, stating, “My practice is not a closed loop. It is a chain, linking materials from process to process. In this chain, I re-purpose works back into raw materials, re-using the waste and by-products. My work can only be completed through renewal. As materials reveal their limits they also create possibilites.”

Rachel Rossin is a Florida native currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Rossin received her BFA from Florida State University before moving to New York to work as an artist. A painter and multimedia artist, Rossin describes her work as  ”deliberately skirt[ing] realism in favor of scenic symbolism. She employs pastiche with a personal vocabulary that comes out of a fascination with religion, mythopoeia and modern-day rituals in order to represent allegories on being.Her cut wood panel installations are meant to reflect illusory ideas of 3dimensional space as we relate to ideas of 2d in the digital age.” Recently Rossin’s work has been exhibited in the highly acclaimed Brucennial 2012 as well as at the Charles Banks Gallery in New York, NY.

Jessica Borusky is a Florida performance and video artist with a BFA from New College of  Florida.  She is currently living and art-making in Boston, MA while seeking her MFA at the School of the Musuem of Fine Arts.  Borusky on her art practice: “I draw from my own position as a Pilates and Movement instructor- the conversations and work I do (and make) with my clients informs how language concerning the ‘perfect’ body is a problem we all face. This process often leads to interesting, and usually humorous, ways in which we can envision alternative interactions with the mainstream fitness, reproductive, and militaristic industries that frequently dictate personal bodily awareness.”

The Church of Holy Colors artist collective is the work of three Gainesville-based artists; Joey Fillastre, Felici Asteinza, and Evan Galbicka. Their space in Gainesville has become a hotbed of artistic activity, engaging the community through concerts and art openings. At the heart of their work lies colorful, jubilant murals, often paired with installations and collage.  Next month the collective will be taking their unique style and grassroots mission on a mural tour of the south.

May 4 - June 15 2012

For further information, please contact the gallery at info@floridamining.com or 904.425.2845

For directions:
5300 Shad Road
Jacksonville, FL
32257