Lakeland Art Association Fine Art Exhibition highlights Central Florida artists
Lakeland Art Association Fine Art Exhibition highlights Central Florida artists
The 53rd annual Lakeland Arts Association Fine Art Exhibition aims to highlight some of the best art by Central Florida artists.
LAKELAND, Fla. - Since 1972, the annual Lakeland Arts Association Fine Art Exhibition hopes to highlight some of the best art from Central Florida artists.
Big picture view:
"The purpose of the show is to give area artists a place to display their work and provide a prestigious art competition," exhibition chair Sharon Surrency said.
The 53rd annual exhibition received 217 submissions from 83 different artists. Florida Southern College's Melvin Gallery, home to the exhibition, has 117 pieces on display.
What they're saying:
"I think anytime you paint with the energy and blankness that I do, you hope someone takes it in with emotion," painter Tony Agnello said.
The owner of a local air conditioning company spent 90 minutes creating his piece, starting with what he describes as "chaos." He manipulates the "chaos" until seeing some kind of composition. In this case, he saw the figures of a man and woman.
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"It allows you to kind of go blank. Most people are stuck in the past or thinking about the future, and because of that, it's hard to have that joy, so if you can be precisely in the present, the whole world kind of melts away," Agnello said.
Danielle Klonecki, who works for a local car dealership, recently got back into painting after meeting her fiancé. Her piece features various materials in addition to paint.
"It represents myself and my fiancé meeting, our two worlds colliding. We both are very engrossed in our careers, very demanding careers and looking for soul, and I think we found it together," Klonecki.
Like her fellow artists, she hopes her work inspires viewers to stop and interpret what the piece means to them. Husband and wife team, James and Sally Parziale, both have multiple pieces in the show. One focuses on sculpture, and one focuses on geometric paintings.
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"I like them to appreciate it and to feel good when they see it," Sally Parziale said. "When we see other people's art, we feel happy. I would like them feel good, have a nice feeling."
Professional painter Sienna Sanchez won "Best In Show" with her piece "Daydream."
"This painting reminds me so much of how we can still have traditional art, but have that contemporary twist to it, and you kind of do that with the hair," Sanchez said.
Dig deeper:
Surrency said having a mix of artists, hobbyists and professionals, is a strength of the exhibition.
"We're always wanting to uplift the importance of art to the area, how important art is in our communities," Surrency said. "Having this exhibition, particularly in this setting on a college campus, gives us that connection to the community, to just bring forward how important the arts are."
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13 Photojournalist Barry Wong.