Plays Well with Others

Curated by Jessica Todd (Tampa, FL)

Featuring work by:

• Isabella Baquerizo (NAPLES, FL)

• Amelia Briggs (Nashville, TN)

• Breana Ferrara (Fitchburg, MA)

• Whitney Hackett (Fort Myers, FL)

• Chloe Lewis (New York, NY)

• Alexander Martin (Peoria, IL)

• LeBrie Rich (Portland, OR)

• Asser Saint-Val (Miami, FL)

Alliance for the Arts, Fort Myers, FL

September 11 - October 17, 2020

Isabella Baquerizo (NAPLEs, FL)

Isabella Baquerizo was born and raised in Ecuador and moved to Naples, FL when she was 15 years old. In Ecuador, she attended a school deeply invested in the community and the arts. Isabella was an intern at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, FL, while attending Florida Gulf Coast University, where she graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Art and Graphic Design. She now works as a graphic designer in Naples, FL. Isabella loves being mindful of the little details of the human subconscious and everyday life, creating a bridge between the abstract and the tangible. She is passionate about sustainability, inclusiveness, social justice, and educating herself every day to be a better and kinder human being. @isabellabaquerizo

Amelia Briggs (Nashville, TN)

Amelia Briggs grew up in the rural Midwest. She received her BFA from Herron School of Art and Design at Indiana University and her MFA from the University of Memphis. Her work continues to be exhibited and published extensively, having worked with galleries in Brooklyn, NY, New York City, NY, London, UK, and throughout the United States South. Recent and upcoming publications include New American Paintings, Foundwork, Nashville Scene, and Hyperallergic. She currently lives and works in Nashville, TN. @amelia.projects

Breana Ferrara (Fitchburg, MA)

Breana Ferrara is a jeweler, metalsmith, and maker of excessive body adornment at her home studio in Fitchburg, MA. Breana moved to Fitchburg from Boston after graduating with her BFA in Fine Arts 3D with a concentration in Jewelry/Metalsmithing from the Massachusetts College of Art & Design, where she was nominated for the Windgate Fellowship in 2017. Recently, she was accepted into New York City Jewelry Week's 2019-2020 One for the Future program for emerging jewelers. In her jewelry, Breana uses fiber techniques such as bead embroidery, bead weaving, lace-making, sewing, and crochet along with traditional metalsmithing like repousse, enameling, and stone setting, to make pieces that are gluttonous, decadent, sensual, and excessive all at the same time. Common themes explored in her body of work include shame, hedonism, relationships, sexuality, and connection. When Breana isn't creating her own jewelry, she teaches workshops around New England and works as a studio assistant to other artists. @corpulence_drip

Whitney Hackett (Fort Myers, FL)

Whitney Hackett grew up in Fort Myers, FL, where she currently lives and works as an artist. She has a BFA from the University of Florida. Whitney explores memory and nostalgia through her body of dreamy and celebratory paintings. Her innocent appreciation for everyday life encourages a childlike playfulness in her work. Through the enshrinement of simple things, she elevates the ordinary to the extraordinary. The juxtaposition of her imagery speaks to the interconnectedness of all life, the way we assign meaning to the material world, and the honoring of our existence. @whitneyhackettart

Chloe Lewis (New York, NY)

Chloe Lewis is a freelance illustrator living and working out of New York, NY. She received a BA in Fine Arts from Florida Gulf Coast University. Her intentions with illustration are to make playful, introspective observations of life. Her process through illustration is to focus on ordinary and special moments that give life meaning. @cupthecup

Alexander Martin (Peoria, IL)

Alexander Martin is a multiracial black and queer artist and performer living and working in Peoria, IL. Born in Hurricane, WV, they completed their BFA at West Virginia University in 2010, then went on to receive their MFA in printmaking from Bradley University in 2017.  As a drag queen performing under the name Artemisia VanHo, Alexander was crowned Miss Gay Peoria and Miss Gay Illinois USofA 2019 and often contributes performances to community education events. Their practice is a combination of mixed media work, found objects, performance, ritual, and education. @xander9210

LeBrie Rich (Portland, OR)

LeBrie Rich has been exploring the visual possibilities and emotional resonance of felted wool since 2004. Her work has appeared internationally in a variety of settings, including museums, galleries, storefront windows, and art-vending machines. Venues that have shown her work include the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Project Space in New York, NY; Portland Art Museum and Blackfish Gallery in Portland, OR; and Albus Gallery in Fukuoka, Japan. She has been awarded artist residencies at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, FL (2013/2015), Ucross Foundation in Clearmont, WY (2018), and Kayamori House in the mountains outside of Nara, Japan (2012). LeBrie’s felt sculptures, collages, wearable fiber projects, and workshops for youth have been written about in the New York Times, Hand/Eye Magazine, Make, the Oregonian, and Portland Monthly. @lebrierich

Asser Saint-Val (Miami, FL)

Asser Saint-Val was born in Haiti and moved to south Florida in 1988 in his teens. He earned BFAs in Painting and Graphic Design from the New World School of the Arts. His work has been exhibited throughout the US, South America, and the Caribbean. He has twice received the South Florida Cultural Consortium Award and was granted the Artist Access Grant and the Diaspora Vibe Cultural Incubator grant, which allowed him to complete a month-long artist residency program in Santiago de Cuba. Asser is the founder and artistic director of Art in the Sky project, a series of multi-sensory interactive public art installations in Miami Dade County with supports from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners. In 2016, his installation project was selected to represent Paris Perfume’s new cologne, Pour Un Homme CARON Sport, during Miami Art Week (Art Basel). @asser_saintval

JESSICA TODD (Tampa, FL)

Jessica Todd is a curator, writer, and arts administrator living in Tampa, Florida. She is passionate about building the creative infrastructures that support artists, as well as studying and addressing issues of equity, access, and inclusion in the arts. Through her writing and curatorial work, she seeks to amplify the voices of artists who create work that is fresh, innovative, impactful, interdisciplinary, outside of the mainstream, and engaging new audiences. For nearly six years, before her recent move to Tampa, Jessica was the Residency Manager for the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida, an artists’ community serving over 70 artists per year of all disciplines. Jessica earned an MFA from Kent State University in 2014 and a BA in Art from Penn State University in 2008. @jesstoddstudio

A primary goal of mine was to engage with and benefit the local community through Plays Well with Others. However, it is also now a primary responsibility to keep the community safe and healthy, so those goals must be met from a distance. An artist-made coloring book was in the conversation early on and became the perfect way to do so. Each of the Plays Well with Others artists as well as me (the curator) and Ehren Gerhard (the Gallery Director at the Alliance) contributed pages to create A STRANGE & DELIGHTFUL COLORING BOOK for all ages.

Coloring book pages were free to the public at the Alliance during the exhibition and digitally to educators by request. Finished pages were displayed in the gallery during the exhibition - everyone was invited to play with us!

We also sold print and digital copies as a fundraiser! All proceeds from coloring book sales were donated to Southern Fried Queer Pride (SFQP), an Atlanta-based non-profit organization empowering Black queer and QTPOC centered communities in the South through the arts.

Learn more!

Coloring book artwork donated by Isabella Baquerizo, Amelia Briggs, Breana Ferrara, Ehren Gerhard, Whitney Hackett, Chloe Lewis, Alexander Martin, LeBrie Rich, Asser Saint-Val, Jessica Todd, and Bill Will. Production donated by Jessica Todd. 50 print copies funded through the City of Fort Myers Arts & Culture Grant.

A great big shout out and thank you to the City of Fort Myers for awarding my curatorial project with an Arts & Culture Grant! The grant provides the exhibition with $2500 in funding, which will support artwork shipping, installation needs, marketing materials, an exhibition catalogue, free youth programming, and artist stipends for materials and production of work.

Many people may not realize that artists are often asked to pay for their own shipping of work to and from exhibitions. As a curator, it is my goal to seek out funding so that as many costs as possible are covered. I’m excited that I was also able to provide a small $100 stipend to each artist through this grant, because I believe artists should be PAID!