Outlook Art Show, August 1st 2009

posted by: Tony Krol

Cafe’s are conversational, and perceptual; ideas fly around them, and people are in and out. Using a public independent business to showcase local independent artists, the Outlook Art show is an event which will hopefully broaden the outlook of the community to its local artists. Most of the artists in the show have been active in the community in their creative efforts for a long time, so the show will just re-engage the community to their new work, and hopefully by using a public business, engage new people to learn a bit more about the artists involved as well.

The show.
Art is just a documentation of a thought process, displayed, and perceived by the viewer from their perspective, so art in itself is an outlook of opinion. The show provides an opportunity to showcase some of Tampa’s most talented artists in a public place. Taking into consideration this communities’ diversity and history, it most definitely embraces art. Cafe Hey has had some very successful art shows in the past with great turnout. The artwork in the space will contribute to the experience of visiting the cafe, and what goes on inside a cafe directly.

Here, people have to reach out for the talent that surrounds them, rather than constantly soaking it in through their surroundings. Tampa is the largest small town, with its concentrated population one three separate land masses divided by water, I’d personally like to see more of St. Pete, Clearwater, and Tampa engaging in local talent collectively. Of course I know this takes time but with the addition of a new museum and other changes throughout the community, I’m sure there will be a stronger collective of bad ass work to come out of this place that is going to gain momentum from what is already in place.

This show as a marketing experiment. By utilizing a public space as a retail outlet for art, and as a gallery in a downtown area, there are opportunities to engage individuals who would otherwise not notice original art, or the value in local creative freedom. Having independent artists pair up with an independent business will strengthen the economy of both parties, provided the target audience is interested. The show isn’t just art hung on the wall, and we all hope people know its for sale, or assume people know that its all created from within the local community, but to engage people into becoming interested in why the work is displayed, and where it comes from.

I’m just trying it out, we’ll see how it goes…

The Outlook event, is most definitely based on opinion, which makes it an easily modifiable event for the future. With the website in place, the Outlook Art event, can simply be a way to connect local creative talent with local business, so this could turn into a bi-yearly, or yearly event....

So far the confirmed artists include:

Red Labor: Dave Rau, and Josh Bertrand. (The show will also feature their independent art products of Resist Today), Original Artwork, Merchandise, Tampa
Raven Reda - Independent Fashion Products, Tampa
Angus Shafer - Original Artwork, Tampa
Chad Cardoza - Original Artwork, Tampa
Brandon Dunlap - Original Artwork, Merchandise, Tampa
Anthony Zollo - Original Artwork, Merchandise, Tampa
Tony Krol - Original Artwork, Merchandise, Tampa
Jensen Kitsler - Original Artwork, Tampa
Brandon Mclean - Original Artwork, Orlando