By Nate Jessup: “All Seven,” acrylic on canvas.
Today at 4 p.m., Soft Water Gallery debuts Peonies in Winter: The Long-Awaited Works of Nate Jessup. Now based in Clearwater, the artist has degrees from Yale and Penn State, but life – as it tends to do – got in the way, and this is his first gallery exhibition. Artist reception from 4 to 6 this afternoon.
Soft Water Gallery is on the Arts Xchange campus, in the Warehouse Arts District.
Members of the Massachusetts-based chamber orchestra The Rossini Club have an afternoon performance Sunday at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg, in the Marly Music Room. The concert, Roses of Golestan, is inspired the works of artist Ali Banisadr, now on exhibit. Tickets for Sunday’s 1-3 p.m. concert are at this link.
AT MAACM in June
Opening June 2 at the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement is Faces of Inequality: Depression Era Photography.
It’s an exhibition of 30 American black and white photos, taken in the 1930s, by Dorothea Lange, Eudora Welty, Marion Post Wolcott, Ben Shahn, Walker Evans and others – images that depict resilience and strength alongside unspeakable hardships.
From the museum website: “Lange’s emotionally charged images sought reform and public awareness, while Welty approached photography with the sensitivity of a storyteller. Wolcott examined the realities of race and community in the American South, Evans emphasized structure and vernacular culture, and Shahn infused documentary imagery with social conscience and human empathy.”
The museum’s owner, Rudy Ciccarello, personally curated Faces of Inequality; the prints are recent additions to the collection of his Two Red Roses Foundation.
The exhibit will be ongoing.
Florida photography by Benjamin Dimmitt at Wild Spaces Gallery.
In other news
New at the University of South Florida Contemporary Arts Museum, Breaking Barriers: Gathering Light – Photography by Military Veterans and Their Families debuted Friday and will be on view through July 23. It’s a curated selection of photographs created through the summer 2025 Breaking Barriers workshops. Check the website.
Spanish pianist Raquel Garzás will perform 6-7:30 p.m. June 4 at the Dali Museum. Her recital is presented by the Spanish Young Music Talents (SYMT), a flagship music program of the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Washington, D.C. Garzás is a co-founder member of the Camus Trio, based in the Netherlands. Find details and tickets here.
An Unflinching Look: Elegy for a Landscape, photographs by Benjamin Dimmitt, will open June 13 at Wild Space Gallery, part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation and located at The Factory St. Pete. Dimmitt has photographed the Chassahowitzka River and National Wildlife Refuge, in B&W, for nearly 50 years.
During the open-day artist’s reception, there will be a panel discussion from 6-7 p.m. with Dimmitt; Robin O’Dell, Executive Curator at Florida Museum of Photographic Arts; and Ethan Coyle, Conservation Photographer.
Sure, it’s a ways off, but it’s worth noting that the annual Cool Art Show, from the Professional Association of Visual Artists (PAVA), returns to the St. Petersburg Coliseum Saturday, July 18.
Artists, museums and galleries: Please add the Catalyst to your email lists: bill@stpetecatalyst.com. Thanks!