September Arts Roundup: Lenticular experiences, a pop-up, and more

Just as the temperature begins to slightly cool down in the Fall, the Florida art scene is heating up with great venues to explore across the Tampa Bay Area.
 
If you haven’t been in Tarpon Springs lately to get your Greek food fix, plan on going and stopping by the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art to check out Louis Markoya: A Deeper Understanding, a solo show of works by the protégé of Salvador Dalí, who worked for the famous painter for 6 years. You’ll want to come for his immaculate oil paintings but stay for his engaging 3D lenticular works.
 
“What attracts people the most are the 3D works, which started when I was working with Dalí. His goal was to try to recreate the 3D world on flat surfaces. Renaissance artists used perspective to try to do this. Dalí used holography, but never really worked out the way he planned without using 3D glasses or lasers or anything else. Lenticular technology made that possible now and it’s quite dramatic. It immerses the viewer into the picture because it looks like things are floating in space,” explains Markoya.
 
While you can see the ties between the two artists, Markoya is more interested in the mathematic and scientific side of the artistic process, with many elements of fractal geometry throughout the show. In addition to individual 3D works, a 3D film will be played continuously in the gallery to make it a truly immersive exhibition. 
 
“I think the viewers are in for a treat because they’re going to see something they’ve never seen before. Art has potential to really mold and change a person, and I think some of the subject matter, technology, and experiences in the show lends to the possibility of that happening,” Markoya says.
 
Louis Markoya: A Deeper Understanding is open now through Feb. 6, 2022.
 
What else is going on in the local art world this September?
 
Get more Dalí at the Michael Murphy Gallery in South Tampa with their exhibition Salvador Dali: The Argillet Collection, featuring a collection of Dalí from Christine Argillet, the daughter of Dalí 's legendary publisher and confidante Pierre Argillet. The exhibition will be open Sept. 16-26. RSVPs are recommended. 
 
Just a short drive away from Michael Murphy Gallery, pop in to artist Britt Ford’s pop-up exhibition at Hyde Park Village on Sept. 24 from 5-8 p.m. Using nature as her inspiration, the artist will be showing works from thermographic embossing to prints and other art gifts.
 
Kind of like a theme park for art, Fairgrounds -- the Meow-Wolf-like art experience in St. Pete -- is now open! Reserve your tickets in advance, and make sure to set aside an hour or two to explore this artist-made, Florida-inspired environment!

Also in St. Petersburg, Florida CraftArt on Central Ave. is offering “Environmentally Engaged,” an exhibition and programming in which artists express ideas about the environment, the impending effects of climate change, and how humans relate with the natural world. “The quality of work of the 84 pieces in the show is outstanding,’’ the show’s judge Howard Rutherford, Senior Director of Development at the USF Foundation. “The artists are from Florida and beyond … They have expressed ideas of how we can be more aware of the changes needed to create a sustainable environment.’’ On Sept. 21, Paige Landsky of Tampa Bay Watch will talk about Bay Grass restoration and oyster reef installations, which are oyster balls and bags of oyster shells used to restore shorelines. The Coral Reef Foundation will lead the discussion on restoring coral reefs. Dr. Kristin Frazer, a USF Marine Scientist, will also partake in these discussions and moderate the panel.
 
Head south of Tampa to the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers for the show William WEGMAN & Jack MASSING: TWO CLEVER BY HALF – A Call & Response Project, an experimental, site-specific installation that will change over the course of the exhibition during this artist pair’s residency at the college.

The latest work of Tampa Bay Area Photographer Rebecca Sexton Larson is on display in “Man Made Cloud,’’ a collection of poetic images, at the Dunedin Fine Art Center now through Oct. 17. The Center also features “Spirit Animals’’ and “Zoo-Topia’’ this month.

And plan now to visit USF Contemporary Art Museum starting Sept. 24 when “Constant Storm: Art From Puerto Rico and the Diaspora’’ opens on the Tampa campus. “Through artworks and their narratives and socially engaged initiatives, voices from the island and Puerto Rican communities in New York and Florida will materialize a synoptic view of Puerto Rico’s fragile recovery from Hurricane Maria as part of an evolving, 121-year-old historical crisis.