Meshullemet & Menashshe

 A 1994 work at Artis Naples by Boaz Vaadia.

Keith Haring

Last Monday Naples Art opened a good exhibition of works by and about Keith Haring.  

Keith Haring's figures are easily recognized by many people, even those who don't consider themselves knowledgeable about contemporary art.  

Haring's output was prolific and so omnipresent that it hard to believe he had only a 10-year career before dying at 31 in 1990 of AIDS-related complications. 

  

Follow the Leader

 An immature white ibis in the lead, with a pair of roseate spoonbills behind.

Red Reeds

The Chihuly studio's 6 to 10 foot tall red glass spires were installed last year in Artis Naples' courtyard between the concert hall and the Baker Museum.  They were a part of a dazzling Chihuly exhibition at the museum.  When the show ended, two couples bought them and donated them to the permanent collection.

 

The installation is nice during the day but breathtaking when lighted at night.

As an aside, the concert hall reopened last weekend with its first symphonic concert since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.  I attended with a mask.  For me, the highlight was Dvorak's New World Symphony, a familiar piece.  It was cozy, like reuniting with a long-separated friend.

Gonzalo Fuenmayor

 Over the winter season, Artis Naples will be displaying the work of living Florida-based artists in its exhibition rooms.  The first such artist is Gonzalo Fuenmayor, a Colombian artist working in Miami.  His large scale black and white charcoal and/or photographic works are on display now.

I liked the look and feel of the works, and I loved the contrast between the black and white canvases, walls, floors and the extravagant red Chihuly chandelier, but I thought Fuenmayor's mixing of elegant-feeling room scenes with seals and bananas was kind of trivial.  Then again, I'm not an art critic.

Louise Nevelson

 

In the second half of the 20th century, Ukraine-born Louise Nevelson was a noted creator of huge, complex, environmental sculptures, usually black.  She built Dawn's Forest, a massive (and white) composition for Georgia Pacific.  It has found its way to the interior public areas of Artis Naples.

Halloween on Fifth

 From noon to 3 o'clock yesterday, everyone walked Fifth Avenue South in costume.

Based on my unscientific 45 minute observation, it appears that Hispanic families are the demographic that most like (a) dressing up, (b) costumes, (c) Halloween or (d) all of the above.  Good for them.