EXHIBITION RECORD

Traditional or Not, It’s Still Life

Saturday, April 17, 2004 through Sunday, June 6, 2004

Opening April 17 and complementing 'Feast the Eye, Fool the Eye' is the exhibition, ‘Traditional or Not It’s Still Life’, focusing on contemporary photography’s interpretation of the genre of still life painting. Three Florida artists, Suzanne Crosby, Barbra Oosting, and Maggie Taylor will display traditional still-life concepts in not-so-traditional ways.

Suzanne Camp Crosby is a full-time faculty member of the art department at the University of South Florida. In addition to her teaching profession, she is a highly regarded artist whose work has been exhibited and collected across the United States. As an exhibiting and working artist/photographer for over 20 years in the Tampa Bay area, she has received honors such as the Florida Fine Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Her unique photography includes such titles as “What to Wear in Florida” and “Homage to Wyeth.” Her photography is represented by Julie Saul Gallery in New York City..

Barbra Oosting of Tampa notes that she is “enamored with the 20- by 24-inch Polaroid camera. This six-foot, 300 pound behemoth can take trivial flotsam and jetsam and impress an importance in meaning that is lost on the smaller scale. In addition, it offers an immediacy of result that is sometimes lost in my black-and-white photographic work. It is like taking a picture of my soul.” One critic called Oosting “one of the area’s most talked-about young artists.”.

Maggie Taylor of Gainesville graduated from Yale and later received an MFA in photography from the University of Florida. Her work has evolved from black-and-white suburban landscapes to more personal and narrative color still life imagery. Using an old 4x5 view camera and natural light, she photographed bits and pieces of everyday life: old toys, broken bottles and animals from the garden. Her current images explore the use of a computer and a flatbed scanner in place of a camera. Her work is in collections both in the U.S and in Belgium and Denmark..

Traditional Or Not, It’s Still Life promises visitors to the Appleton an engaging insight into an unusual interpretation of art. The show runs until June 6.