On view April 7-28, the April exhibition lineup at The Studios of Key West, 533 Eaton Street, features local and national artists including William Rhodes, Heidi Theissen, Amanda Burnham and Kevin Assam.
Trained as a furniture maker by master craftsmen, and as a folk quilter by his grandmother and other artists, San Francisco-based artist William Rhodes uses his talents and empathy to give voice to African American histories and communities before they are lost to time. His exquisite wooden sculptures incorporate neon slogans, historic photos, and other ephemera. His fiber works include a pair of quilts made in Fall 2021 with members of Key West’s Bahama Village community.
In the XOJ Gallery, German artist Heidi Theissen presents a tender series of dreamlike paintings on found wood pieces – mostly of people and scenes from Bahama Village – which combine the virtuosity of a renaissance artist with the strange directness of folk art.
In the Zabar Project Gallery, visitors will encounter the work of Maryland-based artist Amanda Burnham, whose maximalist installation of folded, layered and intertwined drawings is like stepping into a pop-up comic book that’s as disorienting as it is exhilarating.
The Zabar Lobby Gallery explodes with the work of writer, comic, fashionista and stealth tricyclist Kevin Assam. Assam takes phrases overheard at parties, gay bars and dubious back alleys, then prints them in neon colors like a modern-day Warhol, finding poetry in the absurd.
April exhibitions can be seen April 7-28. Gallery hours are Tue-Sat, 10am-4pm. More information on the current exhibitions can be found at www.tskw.org, or by calling 305-296-0458.
William Rhodes’ exhibition is made possible by the Tom Majors Fund for Wood Artists, Community Foundation of the Florida Keys and Florida Keys Arts Council. April exhibitions at The Studios are sponsored Preferred Properties, First State Bank, Keys Wealth Management, and Douglas House.
Image above by artist Amanda Burnham.