2024 Programs will be announced next January
Bruce Helander
Presented by Paul Fisher Gallery
Booth 1101
Florida Artists Hall of Famer Bruce Helander will debut his new collection of colorful collages and paintings from his “Billboard Series” that explores the aesthetic tradition of American billboard imagery and its artistic communicative purpose. Curated by celebrated British art critic Anthony Haden-Guest, Helander’s special exhibit at the Paul Fisher Gallery will feature numerous captivating works that incorporate the tradition of outdoor advertisement depictions, which originally were hand-painted by commercial artists who stood precariously on scaffolding while holding a bucket of paint in one hand and a brush in the other.
Helander had a special introduction to sign painting as a youth in his family’s grocery store, where while he stocked shelves, he often observed billboard painters laboring across the street. In this layout, two workers in white overalls diligently “build” a complicated arrangement from a maquette held by a painter as a guideline for the composition. The unfinished background is a cubist inspired abstract pattern that continues from the top to the bottom as the rope scaffolding is lowered or raised, depending on the area to be painted. The configuration is spatially enhanced further by the three-dimensional juxtaposition of the giant outdoor billboard high above a commercial building in Times Square.
Other works in the exhibit include “Pleasure Bound,” a refurbished billboard painting of a family traveling in a classic convertible car to a drive-in movie, featuring “Palm Beach or Bust!” stenciled on the rear bumper. Other works on view commemorate the American tradition of artists such as Norman Rockwell and Salvador Dali who also created advertising imagery.
Duncan McCormick
Presented by Waterhouse & Dodd
Booth 800
Duncan Robert McCormick is a Shropshire based artist with strong links to Birmingham and London. He has works in both private and corporate collections and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. This includes twelve pieces in the Morgan Stanley collection on long term display at their Canary Wharf premises.
After two decades of working predominantly in oils, McCormick started using acrylic paint as his medium of choice during the lock-down period. At the same time his work saw a shift away from his previous narrative-based work to gentle landscapes and interiors as a means of escapism.
This proved to be very popular with his audiences and a strong personal draw. His work continues to develop the same theme post-lock-down. Some of McCormick’s influences are clear, such as David Hockney and Peter Doig. Other, less direct, influences include Howard Hodgkin, Louis Le Brocquy, and Pierre Bonnard.
McCormick’s palette is heavily influenced by a period living and working in Barcelona. Above all, he views his art as a means to communicate positivity and share in the triumph of color.
Albert Willem
Presented by Waterhouse & Dodd
Booth 808
Albert Willem is a contemporary figurative artist who lives and works in Brussels. He is best known for his naïve-styled paintings, rich with wit and humour, with a folksy and infantile element to their composition. His subjects are generally light-hearted, deliberately avoiding profound themes, with twists of the humour that is integral to Willem’s practice.
Circus
Presented by Cavalier Gallery
Booth 334
In Bjørn Okholm Skaarup’s grand “Circus” installation, the animals themselves are running the show.
Comprised of 33 sculptures, the installation is inspired by the late-nineteenth century circus where costumes, banners, and colors created a neo-baroque symphony of larger-than-life forms and displays. Each sculpture within the installation highlights the spectacle of color and movement celebrated by a menagerie several years in the making.
In the artist’s contemporary bestiary, or classical book of animals in bronze, each sculpture presents a whimsical story or allegory to decipher, with sources ranging from ancient fables and art history to music and modern animation.
The Rock J. Walker M.C. Escher Collection
Presented by Walker Fine Art
Booth 1106
The late Dutch artist, M.C. Escher (1898 to 1972) is well-known for his woodcuts and lithographs such as Day and Night, Sky and Water I, Drawing Hands, Waterfall, Hand with Reflecting Sphere, and Puddle.
Such images adorn the walls of college dormitories and of major museum exhibitions, and are familiar to collectors of all ages. However, largely unknown are his drawings and watercolors, and the original woodblocks used for printing. He never offered these unique works for sale and it was only when select works from his estate were made available that they came to light.
This curated selection of the total collection consists of over 400 original works by the artist acquired over four decades. The Rock J. Walker collection is the second largest of the three comprehensive Escher collections that remain in private hands, it has been exhibited in a number of United States cities and Europe during the past three decades, most recently in New York at Industry City. It comprises works in all mediums and from all periods of the artist’s career, it is especially strong in unique works.
Above all, this assemblage contains an abundance of what made Escher famous. Tessellations, geometric figures, and impossible structures were the recurring themes in Escher’s oeuvre.
All M.C. Escher’s Works and Text © The M.C. Escher Company, Baarn, The Netherlands. All Rights Reserved. M.C. Escher ® is a Registered Trademark.
Raintype by Lorenzo Marini
Presented by Evan Lurie Gallery
Booth 206/307
This immersive installation, by Lorenzo Marini, is inspired by a rainy day. Only here the drops of rain never fall, but remain suspended in a linguistic universe waiting to be discovered. Letters only become such when joined with other letters and take the form of the word. They acquire meaning in their linear composition. In this work of art, the letters never touch land, but remain in the world of ideas, of the possible, of the potential. They are in no hurry to touch the ground, they are in no hurry to become a word, a sentence, a discourse. They love the freedom of space and the suspension of time. They aspire to become fragments of eternity.
Moss Giants
Presented by Galerie Fledermaus
In the 2022 edition of Utopia, Lille’s culture and arts triennial, Kim Simonsson’s famed Moss People re-emerged as Giants and transformed the city-center of Lille, France into a breath-taking work of public art for the 6th grand thematic edition of lille3000.
Now, for the very first time, two Moss Giants will be exhibited stateside at Art Palm Beach.
As they were initially conceived by Kim Simonsson, the Moss People are wanderers from the Nordic forests. They are gatherers wearing foraged clothes and footwear meant to protect them from the elements and hide them in the woods. Like migratory birds, they move from one place to another, each with a drive to find their own purpose. Through a narrative that weaves between the real world and the supernatural, these strange and rare elves draw us into the heart of the Taiga— those dense northern forests rich in tales of the imagination.
The narrative arc of the Moss People is essentially never ending; with each new edition to the series, their story continues— now, it’s scaled up.
The Doctor
Booth 218/319
The Philosopher
Booth 212/313