September 22 – November 7, 1999

The Gallery of Fine Art at Edison Community College is pleased to present Clyde Butcher’s 1995 Limited Edition Collection.  This exhibit features more than 50 black and white photographs of pristine Florida as seen through the lens of visionary photographer Clyde Butcher.  The 1995 Limited Edition Collection, on loan to the Gallery of Fine Art from the Brevard Museum of Art and Science, features photographs of a very small edition, only three of each negative, that range in size from 10”x14” to 40” x 60”.

Butcher, known for his striking black and white imagery, leads us on an excursion of unforgettable beauty and serenity. Taken with large format cameras, 8” x 10”, 11” x 14”, or 12” x 20”, Butcher captures the details and textures that can only be found in Florida. Butcher’s hope is that through the photographic recognition of the beauty of Florida, much of the State will be preserved.

Butcher’s commitment to preservation goes beyond the images he takes.  He is involved in a number of projects that focus attention on conservation in Florida.  In projects such as the Artists Environmental Foundation of the Florida Keys, the book “Southwest Florida’s Wetland Wilderness”, the Biscayne Bay Foundation, the Everglades “Can-Do” Restoration Campaign, the Melaleuca Project, or the images in “Visions for the next Millennium”, Clyde Butcher’s inspiration leads us toward the understanding of humanities profound connection with nature.

Clyde Butcher graduated from the University of California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo, with a degree in architecture. His interest in spatial relationships and architectural design led him to the field of photography.   His stunning black and white photographs can be found in museum exhibits and collections throughout Florida.  In 1998 Clyde was presented the highest award the State of Florida bestows on a private citizen, the Artists Hall of Fame Award.  He was chosen as “Person of the Week” on the ABC Peter Jennings evening news program, and also has received the Heartland Community Service Award.  Public Broadcasting did a documentary on Clyde titled “Visions of Florida”, and several other production videos have been made which focus on Clyde and his work.  Numerous other awards have been bestowed on Clyde for his work in photography, environmental preservation, and education.

The opening reception for the exhibit is Saturday, September 25, from 2 to 4pm.  The exhibit is documented in a book showing each photograph of the 1995 Limited Edition Collection.  Mr. Butcher will be available to sign books and posters at the opening reception.

http://www.clydebutcher.com/

Celebration of the Performing Arts
November 11 – 24, 1999

The Fort Myers law firm of Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt, P.A., is proud to sponsor the 8th Annual Celebration of the Performing Arts visual arts competition.  The competition is open to all fine art students enrolled at Edison Community College with an interest in pursuing a career in the visual arts.  Celebration of the Arts honors the arts and encourages students to pursue artistic professions.

January 21 – March 3, 2000

The Gallery of Fine Art at Edison Community College is pleased to present the exhibition “The Songs of Maybelle Stamper.”  Comprised of nearly 80 works from the estate of Maybelle Stamper the exhibit includes chromo-lithographs, hand-colored lithographs, watercolors and drawings.  The exhibit is on loan to the Gallery of Fine Art from the McKissick Museum of the University of South Carolina.  This exhibition is made possible through the William R. Frizzell Memorial Endowment.

Born in 1907, Maybelle Richardson Stamper was committed to becoming an artist by her teen years.  She studied, initially, in her home town of Dublin, New Hampshire, and continued her education at the New Hampshire State Normal School, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at the Art Students League in New York City.

By the early 1940s Stamper had achieved considerable success as an artist and teacher.  She exhibited at several New York galleries, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired Stamper’s work for their collections.  Karl Zigrosser, Curator of Prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, wrote that Stamper was “one of the most imaginative and technically accomplished printmakers working in America today.”

In 1947, Stamper moved to then little known Captiva Island.  She gave up her academics to pursue the personal and artistic journey that would occupy the rest of her life. In Florida she continued her work – usually in watercolor and lithography – pulling her own prints on the press that dominated her small beach house.  Those prints and paintings are filled with introspective images, and sometimes annotated with diary-like inscriptions.  She called them her “songs.”

Living a frugal and hermit-like existence on Captiva, Stamper continued working through the 70s and 80s, but sold her work only when she needed to buy life’s necessities.  Her focus was her “songs,” and she wanted no exhibitions of her work until after her death.  Maybelle Stamper died on Captivia Island in 1995.

March 10 – April 16, 2000

The Gallery of Fine Art, Edison Community College, is pleased to present the extraordinary exhibit “Robert Rauschenberg: Recent Work.”  Comprised of work completed between 1997 and 1999, the exhibit will open March 10 and close April 16, 2000. 

Robert Rauschenberg, often cited as the most important artist of his generation, did more than any other artist to reach beyond contemporary thinking by challenging limits, perceptions, and every other boundary in sight.  After all, this is the artist who erased a de Kooning drawing, created a tire impression on paper with John Cage, worked extensively with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, ushered in “Happenings” and “Pop Art,” and influenced virtually all artistic thinking since Abstract Expressionism.

A career retrospective was organized by and displayed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Guggenheim Museum, Soho, in late 1997.  The exhibit of more than 400 pieces showed Rauschenberg from 1948 to the present.  In the fifty years of relentless pursuit of imagery, Rauschenberg’s mark of free association and experimentation is seen on painting, performance, collage, sculpture, printmaking, and photography.  It was Rauschenberg’s first retrospective since 1976 and one of the largest exhibitions ever held of work by a living artist.  Following the New York opening the exhibit began touring with stops in Houston, Texas, as well as venues in Germany and Spain.

The exhibit at The Gallery of Fine Art, Edison Community College, is comprised of 13 large format pieces ranging in size from approximately 5’ square to 10’ x 15’, completed between 1997 and 1999.  These works, made with vegetable dye transfers on polylaminate, utilize a highly technical process of computer-driven laser transfers of his photographic images onto the pictorial surface. 

It is a very significant opportunity for Southwest Florida to view these rarely seen pieces selected from Mr. Rauschenberg’s collection.  To make this exhibit more available to the students and faculty at Edison Community College and to the greater Fort Myers area, the normal days of operation are being extended to include Mondays.

Images 2000
April 19 – May 7, 2000

This is the final exhibit of the school year and features work created by Edison art students. 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place awards will be presented in the categories of Photography, Drawing, Ceramics Painting, Design, Ceramics Wheel and Ceramics Hand. In addition, a “Rising Star” award will be awarded to a full time, first year student who shows exceptional promise.

May 19 – June 20, 2000

 More than 50 artists from one of Florida’s most professional art organizations show their works in this 50th anniversary exhibit.

The Florida Artist Group is Florida’s oldest statewide organization of professional artists.  The purpose of the group is to stimulate the attainment of the highest standards of creative art within the state of Florida.

http://www.floridaartistgroup.org/

June 29 – July 9, 2000

This is a preview exhibit of the work of more than 100 artists.  The artwork will be auctioned later this summer to benefit Abuse Counseling and Treatment.

http://www.actabuse.com/