The closing reception for the summer exhibition “Swamp Reclaims the Pool” by Alumni Artists-in-Residence Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 12, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Deering Estate.
An artist-led tour with Blazejack and Levenson will be offered at 7:30 p.m. Reservations required on Eventbrite or RSVP by email to DeeringArts@gmail.com.
The closing reception is open free to the public. Light refreshments and a cash bar will be available.
Through their collaboratively created paintings, the artists reveal their fascination with sci-fi narratives and invite the viewer to encounter unfamiliar backyard landscapes. In the exhibit, works like Naming the Mouth and New Way of the Wilderness build a new mythology of South Florida waters as swimmers bodies merge with alligator heads on the water’s surface. Other works like Midnight Poolside and UFO POV (Unidentified Flying Object, Point of View) share odd scenarios of nighttime swims and secret gatherings.
Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson are collaborative artists who work freely in many media. Their practice is anchored in painting, but they turn to dyed textile, sculpture, book binding, video, installation and performance in pursuit of the unknown.
Their work is the product of two imaginations and consequently deals in juxtapositions and multiple meanings.
Is that a brushstroke or a star? Is that an arch or a portal? What is the reflection and what is the original? For this exhibition, they imagined sci-fi alternate realities and constructed glimpses of these unfamiliar elements overtaking their back yard.
Levenson and Blazejack both graduated from Brown University where they majored in visual art. Blazejack received her MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/ Tufts University in 2013, and Levenson received her MFA from Pratt University in 2014. Levenson and Blazejack have both been Artists-in-Residence at The Deering Estate (2008), at White Page in Minneapolis, and at MN and 77Art in Rutland, VT.
Their exhibition history includes solo shows at the Art and Culture Center in Hollywood; Coconut Grove Art Gallery; Placeholder Gallery, Miami, and White Page Gallery in Minneapolis, MN, as well as group shows at Howard Art Projects, Boston, MA; YoungArts, Miami; Camel Art Space, Brooklyn, NY, and Norte Maar Art Space in Brooklyn, NY.
Cultural Arts Programming at the Deering Estate is made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, and the Deering Estate Foundation Inc.
