\u201cEach artist is engaging with a certain system and sending it through their own process. What comes out, you understand the original a little bit, but it\u2019s different,\u201d said Justin Luper<\/a>, the arts and marketing supervisor for the City of Casselberry<\/a>. \u201cThe show involves how we take in our reality, how our reality is constructed, how our reality is filtered through us.\u201d<\/p>\n Tampa-based artist Matthew Wicks takes everyday objects, like dustpans or laundry baskets, and strips them from their context, reorganizing them into a museum setting constructed as ceramics, porcelain or glass. In this show, he also deconstructs woven lawn chairs and reshapes them to the point where they are recognizable but unusable for their original intended purpose. Through this, \u201che reveals that understanding often begins when familiar objects cease to behave as expected,\u201d Luper writes.<\/p>\n Justin Quaid Grubb, an artist and assistant professor of studio art at DeLand\u2019s Stetson University<\/a>, has work centered around \u201cneo-Space Age design aesthetics, American consumer culture and queer theory.\u201d Abstract ceramic shapes shown in the exhibition appear in adjacent video screens in an experimental documentary film that tries to make sense of the \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d from the perspective of the other. In his \u201cautobiographical\u201d work, the ceramic forms operate as an extension of self for the artist.<\/p>\n Hilary White, a Gainesville-based mixed media artist, brings theological themes and pop culture into her colorful collages and prints. 3D works affixed to the gallery walls read like small altars that question our modern idols and faith.<\/p>\n \u201cIdols could be any heroes that you have or any beliefs that you have,\u201d Luper said in discussing White\u2019s work. \u201cIt\u2019s about how we construct different belief systems and why different symbols carry meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n As a former architecture student, the grid was at the center of Cynthia Mason\u2019s education and understanding. Her \u201csoft paintings\u201d are constructed from repurposed bedding, shredded documents, porcelain, plaster, fishing line and other found materials; her works suggest a grid that is deteriorating over time, altered by gravity and time.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my work, I loosen this rigid structure to allow gravity to take over so the work becomes soft, unstructured and sculptural,\u201d she said. \u201cI love seeing what happens when the materials repel or merge, ooze and crack, how they patina and shift to show their existence.\u201d<\/p>\n The work of St. Petersburg-based artist Noelle Mason involves taking surveillance imagery, including X-rays and satellite photography from the border patrol and putting the images through 19th-century processes by creating new cyanotypes and tin types. Her work was informed by growing up on the U.S.-Mexico border, near Tijuana.<\/p>\n \u201cI intend for my work to take a hard look at the aesthetics of contemporary surveillance. What does the image reveal?\u201d she said, \u201cDoes changing the form from the native computer screen to a 19th-century craft process reveal an internal contradiction within the image itself?\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to her photographic works, Noelle Mason\u2019s \u201cGround Control\u201d presents itself as a handwoven wool tapestry depicting a satellite image of the U.S.-Mexico border, made by the Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos tapestry workshop in Guadalajara. The physical presence of the tapestry \u201cengages with the viewer in tactile, visual and performative ways.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the physical works on display in the Casselberry Arts Center, the space will host a companion event that engages guests through sound. On Sept. 26, \u201cConstructing Reality,\u201d by Stetson University professor\u00a0Chaz Underriner,<\/a> examines the perception of sound through the concept of\u00a0the \u201cAudio Reality Effect.\u201d<\/p>\n Luper said these works aim to leave viewers with a new understanding, or perhaps thought-provoking questions, of their own everyday life.<\/p>\n ,The work of artist Matthew Wicks takes objects out of their context and puts them in a museum setting in the \u201cExperience Contemporary: A Wrench in the Gears\u201d exhibition at Casselberry Arts Center. (Patrick Connolly\/Orlando Sentinel)\u201dI\u2019m hoping that people come through and they\u2019re able to interact with these works, to slow down. They see this system. They see how it\u2019s kind of working, and it lets them reconsider those things. And it\u2019s almost like a practice for your reality,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not to dismantle these things. These artists aren\u2019t telling you what to think; they\u2019re just presenting their work and letting you think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Find me\u00a0@PConnPie on Instagram<\/a>\u00a0or send me an email:\u00a0pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Stay up to date with our latest travel, arts and events coverage by subscribing to our newsletters at\u00a0orlandosentinel.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you go<\/p>\n \u201cExperience Contemporary: A Wrench in the Gears\u201d is on display through Nov. 13 at Casselberry Arts Center, 137 Quail Pond Circle in Casselberry. The center is open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. The \u201cConstructing Reality\u201d event, which is free and open to the public, is from 6-9 p.m. Sept. 26. More information: casselberry.org<\/a> or @casselberryarts<\/a> on Instagram<\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"Artist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TOS-L-experience-contemporary-11.jpg\")
Artist Justin Quaid Grubb is photographed next to his sculptural works during opening night of the “Experience Contemporary: A Wrench in the Gears” exhibition at Casselberry Arts Center. (Chelsea Smith\/Courtesy Casselberry Arts)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TOS-L-experience-contemporary-04.jpg\")
The work of Hilary White questions idols and belief systems in the “Experience Contemporary: A Wrench in the Gears” exhibition at Casselberry Arts Center. (Patrick Connolly\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"Artist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TOS-L-experience-contemporary-10.jpg\")
Artist Cynthia Mason is photographed in front of her \u201csoft paintings\u201d during opening night of the \u201cExperience Contemporary: A Wrench in the Gears\u201d exhibition at Casselberry Arts Center. (Chelsea Smith\/Courtesy of Casselberry Arts)<\/p>\n![\"Noelle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TOS-L-experience-contemporary-05.jpg\")
Noelle Mason’s work examines systems of surveillance in modern society in the “Experience Contemporary: A Wrench in the Gears” exhibition at Casselberry Arts Center. (Patrick Connolly\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"Artist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/TOS-L-experience-contemporary-12.jpg\")
Artist Matthew Wicks is pictured in front of one of his deconstructed lawn chairs during opening night of the “Experience Contemporary: A Wrench in the Gears” exhibition at Casselberry Arts Center. (Chelsea Smith\/Courtesy Casselberry Arts)<\/p>\n