Art Exhibit

Fall brings a new group of talented artists to Amiro Art + Design that will carry through the holidays. MATTHREW S. BENNETT  returns to the North Florida art scene debuting his body of work – “Drawing is Dead”- created while living in Japan. Prior to moving to Japan in 2010, Matthew was a prominent North Florida artist integral to the Downtown Vision revitalization of Jacksonville through the arts and a longtime member of the Butterfield Garage cooperative and the Art Association in St. Augustine. His Off the Grid studio on Bay Street in Jacksonville was a favorite location for art lovers during Art Walk and the venue for his figure drawing events where artists gathered to study and draw from life. Matthew is an award-winning artist who has shown his work locally at the Cummer Museum of Art, R. Roberts Gallery, the Butterfield Garage Gallery, the Haydon Burns Library, St. Augustine Art Association, as well as in Virginia, and internationally in Tokyo, Japan, and London, England. JIM MACBETH initially came to Saint Augustine to curate for the Lightner Museum- after 11 years he retired in 2000, where he then began to pursue his art.  He has developed a particular style utilizing the method of placing real objects on a scanner to create unique compositions, called scanography. His fascination with technology led him to explore art production on his iPad where he doodles characters he calls “Whimsy Birds”. He will also be presenting paper pulp cast reproductions of fossils he obtained while working at the Smithsonian. NANCY HAMLIN – VOGLER is a diverse 2D artist who has been with Amiro since it’s inception. A skilled silk screen artist who owns an award winning print studio, Eastern Sun Printworks, Hamlin- Vogler will be showing large, intuitive mixed media works on paper with a theme that concentrates on temporary beauty, a contrast from her meticulous prints work. She recently won Best of Show at the 2015 Spring Arts Festival in Gainesville, FL.  DEANE KELLOGG is a self taught artist. Her 3D works are composed of found and fabricated objects, both old and new for a sculptural merging of the decades.  TRASEA WOMACK is a glass artist with more than thirty years of experience in working with molten glass. Each piece is hand formed through lampwork from solid rods of glass which are heated in a torch flame until molten, and shaped into the desired form. Tracy makes her own colored rods from clear rods, glass powders, and frit (ground up glass), which provide her with a broad and unique color palette.  Tracy’s exquisite use of color and her expert rendering of form is what sets her work apart in the world of art glass. Her love of the ocean shows in her marine-life pieces as well as in her seascape pendants and earrings. GABRRIELLE GOULD Gabrielle is a Flagler College alumni and independent jeweler whose work incorporates feathers, shells, fine metals and enamel. Her intricate and colorful bird and fish motifs have a personality of their own and give you a feel for the nature and environment of Florida. Estella Fransbergen is showing a grouping of her raku female forms that incorporate mixed media including: glass beads, wires, organic matter and natural/semi precious stones. Her work is a celebration of mother nature and the human form.