Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Opening November 1st Stephen Gray Blancett, Michael Pohlman and Bill Hofer at ACT Gallery

Join Arts for ACT Gallery, located at 2265 First Street in downtown Fort Myers on Friday, November 1, 2013 from 6 to 10 pm for the opening reception and art walk for November 2013.  This month, ACT Gallery will feature “Expanding the Palette” by Mixed Media Artist Stephen Gray-Blancett, Photography by Bill Hofer and “Patterns of the Land” by Michael Pohlman.  Come downtown to view great art and support ACT Gallery and Boutique. 
Beach Boy - Stephen Gray Blancett



Stephen Gray Blancett

Born in Southeastern Ohio, Blancett moved to South Florida in 1982 and studied advertising design at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and business at Nova University. For the past 25 years, he has worked two sides of the advertising and publishing businesses, as a creative/art director and model for clients ranging from Citi Corp to Jockey Underwear. Stephen said: “I love the business, but find creativity is sometimes limited by a market or product. My fine art gives me the fuel and freedom to express myself, my feelings and my individuality. It allows me to be me.”

Blancett started painting and winning awards for his work at the young age of seven. He painted portraits and pastoral scenes in watercolor almost exclusively until the mid 90’s. “I enjoyed working in watercolors, but felt no ownership of a style. I tried many approaches, but it always looked like someone else’s work. The results were okay, but too wholesome for me. I like things that are bright, colorful and sometimes sexy. It may have taken me a long time, but I have discovered my own style – my own way,” says Stephen.

Stephen Gray Blancett's works are in the collection of many notable celebrities, and in corporate and private collections around the world. His work has been featured in numerous publications and is exhibited in galleries across the country and in the UK.  He was honored in 2011 as the Visual Artists of the Year, by Lee County Alliance of the Arts.

Stephen's work are fun, contemporary and colorful.
Artist statement:
The art I create allows me the fuel and freedom to express myself, my feelings and my individuality.
 
Promises for the Future by Michael Pohlman

Michael Pohlman will be exhibiting off the main gallery

Michael Pohlman studied Art at Bradley University, Prairie State College, and Calumet College with professors from the Art Institute of Chicago.  In 1995, he was juried into the inaugural show at the Union Street Gallery in Chicago Heights, Illinois.  After this exhibit, he accepted a Union Street offer of a Resident Artist studio. For the next ten years, his abstract and sports paintings were shown in multiple venues in Chicago.  In 2005, he moved to Fort Myers and opened his Gulf Breeze Studio.  Michael has had two individual and a two person exhibit at Arts for ACT Gallery in Fort Myers.  He has been juried into various shows at ACT Gallery, as well as, the Alliance for Arts, daas Gallery, Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center and the von Liebig Center in Naples.  His work is in collections in  China, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United states.

Michael was a recipient 2013 City of Fort Myers Art and Cultural Grant.  “Patterns of the Land” A City of Fort Myers Art and Cultural Grant Exhibition

Using the principles of Gottlieb, Braque, Hofman, Rothko, and Hodgkins,  Pohlman started this series on small surfaces by exploring Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Hex symbols and Antique quilt patterns as muses.  He moved on to larger format landscapes and blending them towards abstraction with line and color value.  This provided an intriguing juxtaposition of real symbols to abstract canvases of color and line patterns. It is his hope that this will become a catalyst for new thinking about our land and its beauty for all who encounter these images.


These exhibits continue through Monday, November 26, 2013.