The Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts will host a gallery opening reception on Mon., Sept. 23, from 5 to 7 p.m., at 527 N. Patterson Street. The galleries will feature the works of Victor Bokas, “Eye Candy,” Annie B. Campbell, “Degrees of Dissonance,” and the National Association of Women Artist, “By Heart.” Admission is free, and light refreshments will be served.
Victor Bokas grew up against a backdrop of palm trees, beautiful beaches and sunbathers in the Florida Panhandle. These influences surface in his paintings through vibrant colors, tropical icons and a good measure of whimsy. Life’s highway later brought Bokas to Central Florida in 1987 where sun, fun and exuberant energy infused his work. In many of his pieces, he pays homage to his Greek heritage. A self-described “collector of kitsch,” his studio is filled with vintage flea market finds. His collection is a source of inspiration and items from it are often incorporated into his works. Grids, squares and other graphic design elements lend structure and direction, no doubt his long career as a graphic designer ingrained a sense of order to his hyper imaginative settings. Bokas’ paintings are included in corporate and museum collections throughout the South, in addition to numerous solo exhibitions. His career path includes nine years as a Senior Art Director for Sea World and 20 years as a Senior Art Director Tupperware.
Annie B. Campbell is a ceramic and multi-media sculptor and Associate Professor of Ceramics in the Department of Art, and of Art History at Auburn University. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art from the Department of Crafts and Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, with a concentration in ceramics, and her Master of Fine Art in Studio Ceramics from Indiana University, Bloomington. She has completed artist residencies at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Maine, the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in the UK, Studio 550 in New Hampshire, and Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences in Georgia. In 2019, she was awarded a research grant and teaching leave from Auburn, during which she completed a four-month residency at the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in Scotland, culminating in a solo exhibition. There, she embarked on her current body of work inspired by neuroscience and environmental degradation. In July 2021, she returned to Edinburgh to curate a six-person exhibition focused on the climate crisis at the Whitespace Gallery and her artwork was featured on the cover of The Lancet. She maintains an active studio practice and continues to exhibit her work nationally and internationally.
The National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), the first women’s fine art organization in the country, is a vibrant community of professional women artists that strives to support its members and women artists at large through exhibitions, programs and education. Included in this group is Annette Crosby, Valdosta, who was inducted into NAWA in 2023. This juried and judged exhibition is of the art of members of the National Association of Women Artists and was open to signature members of any of NAWA’s three chapters (in FL, SC and MA). “By Heart” is a reference to how these artists produce their works: it comes from a deeper, intuitive, soulful place, something they each know and explore in their practice.
All exhibits will remain open in the galleries for the public’s enjoyment through Wed., Nov. 6, 2024. For more information, call 229.247.2787 or visit turnercenter.org. Patrons who need special assistance may contact the Center to make those arrangements.
