Self: Art exhibit by Michael Williams and Natalie Baldeon

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1310 gallery
1310 SW 2nd CT FT LAUDERDALE, FL 33312
MICHAELWILLIAMSARTIST @ YAHOO.COM
MICHAEL WILLIAMS
NATALIE BALDEON:
SELF
AUGUST 18 – SEPTEMBER 01
OPENING RECEPTION:
SATURDAY AUGUST 18 / 7-10PM
“Self” exhibits the work of Michael Williams and Natalie Baldeon. In the exhibit, these artists display pieces dealing with self identity, discovery, indulgence, and personal realization. The unique and varying ways in which these artists approach the similar subject matter of “self”, expands on their personal experiences in the form of gender, actions, and body image.
Michael Williams is a South Florida born artist specializing in painting. He attended the University of Central Florida, where he received his Bachelors of Fine Arts. After participating in multiple shows in Central Florida, Williams is now exhibiting his work in South Florida where he continues to place emphasis on his own specific male point of view.
In the exhibition, Williams presents a series of large scale work that displays intimate moments between the artist and the mirror. These personal interactions, initially serve to form ones private sense of self awareness, then adapt to a new form on the canvas within a public space.
The installation of Williams’s work drives his intentions.  Each portrait is hung with its identical counterpart across from it; mirroring one another and removing the necessity of the gaze form the outside viewer.  Though the portraits he displays interact with each other, the figurative work instead confronts the viewer through its scale.
While grand, the delicacy in which the pieces are transcribed on to canvas maintains the intimacy of the moment. The watercolor style as well as the way in which the figure is revealed creates the visual depiction of how the pieces observe themselves. Delicate strokes and pooled unfocused areas give way to hints of detail, which act as the points of focus in the observational process. These points of focus are accentuated through the figures emergence from the whiteness of the background, revealing the observation, documentation, and scrutiny of theWilliams’s process.
PictureNatalie Baldeon  is a multidisciplinary artist who currently focuses on portrayals of the self through photography and paint. She received her BFA from the University of Central Floridain 2008, and her MFA from WashingtonUniversity in St Louis in 2012. She currently lives and works out of St Louis.
Her work attempts to expose the complexities of contemporary gendered embodiment, particularly the correlation between body and image. By using herself as the subject in the work, she explores the volatile space of externally constructed corporeal identity, as well as her own personal stance of simultaneous acceptance, and rejection of it.
Through her paintings she present the body in the midst of a questionable act of consumption; varying from the literal consumption of food to the suggestive psychological or sexual consumption. By presenting images of herself as both seductive and repulsive, glamorous and grotesque, aggressive and vulnerable, she attempts to unveil the multifaceted nature of boundaries while question the threshold of acceptability.

 

 

 

 

 

Niki Lopez

Niki Lopez Afro-Latina, Queer, interdisciplinary Visual Artist, Curator, Social Practioner, Cultural Programer, award-winning Graphic Designer and Mom. Lopez is best known for her masks and a collection of works dealing with some of her trauma and healing through the arts which inspired her to create What’s Your Elephant ®. Lopez produces “The Circle”, a bi-weekly Facebook/Youtube live-video podcast sharing stories of our creative community, activists & social entrepreneurs. Niki’s advocacy includes mental health, self-care, and diversity in swimming. Lopez is one of the founding members of the Sailboat Artist Lofts.

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