Dunedin art exhibit trying to break down stigma by highlighting addicts' stories

A new exhibition at the Dunedin Fine Art Center, ‘Faces of Addiction,’ hopes to eliminate the stigma and misconceptions associated with addiction

Artwork that is part of the ‘Faces of Addiction’ exhibit at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center.

Artwork that is part of the ‘Faces of Addiction’ exhibit at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center.

"The faces of addiction aren't always what you think they are. It can be anybody. Anybody in your life might be struggling with it. You might not know it," exhibit creator Nick Reale said. "So, the faces are truly all of us, and that's what this represents."

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Meet Nick Reale

The backstory:

Reale has faced addiction within his family for his entire life, first losing his brother to the disease. His niece has also had her own battles. 

"It got to be so much, this addiction in my life constantly," Reale said. "I started carving heads, I think, to deal with it. I started carving and carving and going to my studio and making more heads and more heads." 

Pictures of Reale working on artwork.

Pictures of Reale working on artwork.

Reale, a woodturning artist, was learning to carve faces into wood. After carving around 50 heads, he had to give them to fellow artists for a project.

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"I handed them out to artists that were interested, and the goal was to return them back as a piece of art that represented their own honest interpretation of addiction," Reale said.

Reale’s ‘Faces of Addiction’ project

What we know:

The year-long project culminated with the exhibit that opened this month, featuring 36 different pieces of art.

"You're going to see every type of addiction here. You're going to see the hard ones, the opioids, alcohol abuse, but you're going to see stories, technology, sugar," exhibit curator Liliana Beltran said.

Elements of ‘Faces of Addiction’

Dig deeper:

The technology piece is presented as a pinball machine, highlighting the many problems from electronics, specifically social media

The technology piece that is part of the ‘Faces of Addiction’ exhibit at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center.

The technology piece that is part of the ‘Faces of Addiction’ exhibit at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center.

Reale says it’s a prime example of how addiction comes in many forms.

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"I think a greater number of people can actually relate to it, and it's real. It's still an addiction," Reale said.

About the other artists

For the exhibit, some of the artists dealt with addiction personally, while some had family members battling it. Some have recovered and even moved past it.

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Artwork that is part of the ‘Faces of Addiction’ exhibit at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center.

"It makes us look to ourselves and think, what is the addiction that surrounded? They are telling us how addiction affected their lives, and that affected in several levels," Beltran said.

‘Faces of Addictions' goal

Why you should care:

While the exhibit brings addiction out into the open, Reale hopes it inspires hope as much as it destroys stigma.

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'Faces of Addiction' art exhibit at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center.

'Faces of Addiction' art exhibit at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center.

"They were very emotional because they really represented a lot of people's pain, but it also represented a lot of these people's hopes," Reale said. "A lot of these came back, and people were in recovery. I just hope that this whole exhibit and all of this effort can change one person's path forward. If it does that, it's a win."

More information on ‘Faces of Addiction’

What's next:

‘Faces of Addiction’ will be on display until Feb. 9th. 

For more information on the exhibit, click here

The Source: All of the information for this story was gathered by FOX 13 Photojournalist Barry Wong, and the pictures are courtesy of Nick Reale and the Dunedin Fine Arts Center.

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