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Art

An emerging enclave

Greene Contemporary is just one sign that Sarasota is taking steps to revive its identity as an artists colony.

By TRAVIS WILDS
Published August 17, 2006

Taste teams with variety North side, south side, all around downtown. The artistry that has come to symbolize the city's own style is inspiring new dining adventures and late-night amiability that often reflect a neighborhood's personality. New on Sarasota's menu Here are some of the newest restaurants in Sarasota, many of them open less than a year. Please call for days and hours of operation. Sarasota by night After exploring the attractions and dining, what's the rush to go home? Designate a driver or book a room and check out these popular hangouts. You'll find something fun here for liquor lovers, coffee drinkers, winers and, dare we say it, teetotalers.

SARASOTA

When Jonathan Greene opened an art gallery last year, he decided to call it Metamorphosis.

The name hinted at Greene's personal transformation. His father's death and the task of raising two small kids prompted Greene to re-examine his choices. He decided to ditch his successful career as an attorney in favor of a far more speculative venture.

As Greene's first shows arrived and impressed, the gallery's name also came to sound like a promise that changes were afoot in the Sarasota art scene. Metamorphosis' lineup of high-quality shows won it a quick following, and several Sarasota artists who had long labored without representation had a place to show the public what they'd been up to.

In February, Greene closed that gallery and opened another, Greene Contemporary. It's a sleek and airy space where Greene hopes to show that a Sarasota gallery can compete with the very best.

"Our focus is on people who want to collect emerging artists," says Greene, "a good level, so that if people come anywhere near Sarasota or come to Florida, they say, 'Oh, I have to go over there to see what's going on.' "

This summer Greene traveled to New York to the Scope Hamptons art fair, a branch of the largest "alternative" art fair organizer in the country. Like other alternative fairs, Scope Art takes advantage of established events like New York's Armory Show and Miami's Art Basel to introduce serious collectors to emerging artists and galleries. Greene Contemporary was one of 27 galleries selected from an applicant pool of 250 American, European and Mexican galleries.

It was a coup for a year-old gallery, not to mention a way for Greene to gauge where he stands in the art market. "We're not looking to super expand because most of the people that I have, I'm very committed to," he says. "But there's a couple of people I wouldn't mind bringing to this area that you have to show them you can sell their work here."

Greene's gallery is next door to Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art, a standout among Sarasota galleries since opening in 1991. "Aside from Allyn Gallup (and Greene Contemporary), I don't think anyone in Sarasota is doing anything legitimate in the arts scene right now," says Carol King, who owned Bleushift, a contemporary design and collaborative arts firm, before moving to Austin, Texas, earlier this year.

King also excepts a few independent collaborations, like the occasional shows at design company Digital Three Studios. But her frustration - and her departure - are common in a town where Ringling School of Art & Design professors and grads, among other artists, far outnumber serious venues for their work.

"When I started writing in '85," says Kevin Dean, an artist and former art critic, "there were half a dozen viable galleries with constant shows, who weren't just rearranging stuff on the walls. That changed a lot over the years, because it's difficult for them to survive."

Yet Dean, who now directs the Ringling School's Selby Gallery, is encouraged by Greene's success. "The bottom line is he's doing some good shows. The fact that a couple of galleries have opened that specialize in contemporary art is maybe a sign that Sarasota's coming back."

Dean also cites mack b, a gallery founded last September by Margaret Barnes and Tobey Albright, two 2004 Ringling graduates. Where Greene tends to show artists in their 30s, and Gallup artists from a generation before, mack b includes pieces from the just-graduated set with works by established artists. Barnes emphasizes that her gallery aims to instigate discussions and projects with the wider community, including students at Ringling and New College.

In a similar way, Greene is working at developing a culture of artists around his gallery, pulling artists into a community where they can "hang out together, work together, collaborate, learn things from each other."

It has been about 40 years since Sarasota's days as a famous art colony. But that period is still the benchmark for the contemporary art scene. "When you look at these old pictures of Syd (Solomon) and James Brooks, Philip Guston, Jim Dine," says Greene, "they're all laughing, hanging out, having fun, and they all painted all the time."

GET AN EYEFUL

Greene Contemporary, 556 S Pineapple Ave., Suite B, Sarasota; (941) 365-9406; www.greenecontemporary.com. August hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Beginning Sept. 1, hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Allyn Gallup Contemporary Art, 556 S Pineapple Ave., Sarasota; (941) 366-2093; www.miramararts.com. Summer hours are noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Beginning in October, hours return to 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

mack b, 711 S Osprey Ave., Suite 4, Sarasota; (941) 363-9025; www.mackbgallery.com. Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment.

[Last modified August 16, 2006, 10:56:50]