HC Art Galleries

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: KAITLYNN SHIELDS

Today we’re shining a spotlight on Kaitlynn Shields, whose colored pencil drawing “Beneath the Calm” was accepted into HC Art Galleries' 3rd Annual Juried Members Show.

Using vibrant color and the metaphor of water, the drawing explores the contrast between outward appearances and the emotions, pressures and experiences that often remain unseen.

Artist statement:
"Beneath the Calm is about the difference between how we look on the surface and what we’re actually carrying underneath. Above the water everything looks peaceful, but below there’s all this movement and pressure—some of it good, some of it stressful. I like using really saturated colors to show that contrast and the intensity of what people don’t always see."

📍 See Beneath the Calm at Gallery114@HC Ybor through July 1.

Summer Gallery Hours
Monday–Wednesday: 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Closed Fridays, weekends and holidays

POV: Golden hour is doing the marketing for us

Thanks to all the members, volunteers, and HC students who joined us for our first Fuel for Flight breakfast seminar at Gallery114@HC Ybor City this morning.

A special thank you to Tatiana Mesa Paján for sharing her work and joining us for an engaging morning of conversation. It was wonderful to see students, artists, and arts supporters gathered around the same table, exchanging ideas and asking questions.

We hope we get to do it again soon.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: TONY PALMS

Today we’re shining a spotlight on Tony Palms, whose mixed-media work "Coffee, Tea and Me" received an Honorable Mention in HC Art Galleries' 3rd Annual Juried Members Show.

Inspired by a visit to a coffee plantation in Costa Rica, the work combines coffee grounds, tea leaves, music composition paper, and imagery drawn from the artist's meditation practice.

Artist statement:

"I visited a coffee plantation while in Costa Rica last August and got some of their coffee. While normally a tea drinker, quite enjoyed making coffee with my new French coffee press.

At the same time found the coffee grounds stain quite different from tea leaves stains, so experimented coloring on music compositional paper with the coffee grounds and tea leaves.

As I practice a meditation, I thought it would be interesting incorporating that image with the coffee and tea as each affects the body/mind in their own chemical ways."

📍 See Coffee, Tea and Me at Gallery114@HC Ybor through July 1.

Summer Gallery Hours
Monday–Wednesday: 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Closed Fridays, weekends and holidays

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: TRINITY ORIBIO

Today we’re shining a spotlight on artist Trinity Oribio, whose painting “Origin of the World” received Second Place in HC Art Galleries' 3rd Annual Juried Members Show.

Artist statement:

"This painting portrays my partner asleep in a hotel room. Morning light and a heightened, fluorescent color palette transform the generic space and rumpled sheets into something reverent and transcendent. The work takes its title from Gustave Courbet's “The Origin of the World” (1866), a painting whose legacy is inseparable from the eroticization and objectification of the female body. By invoking that title while depicting a sleeping, n**e male figure, I reconsider the power dynamics of spectatorship through the visual language of worship. The resulting painting treats vulnerability as an act of trust and invites viewers to reflect on the ethics of looking. Constructed on a custom three-sided canvas built by my partner, the work further emphasizes the instability of objectification. Its fractured surface denies any singular, totalizing view, making it impossible to apprehend the entire image from a single vantage point."

📍 See Origin of the World at Gallery114@HC Ybor through July 1.

Summer Gallery Hours:
Monday–Wednesday: 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Closed Fridays, weekends and holidays

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: ERIC ONDINA

Today we’re shining a spotlight on artist Eric Ondina, whose painting “Ceremonia” received an Honorable Mention in HC Art Galleries' 3rd Annual Juried Members Show.

The painting depicts a candlelight vigil somewhere at the edge of a strip mall.
Artist statement:

"The candlelight vigil has become a recurring image in my visual feed and imagination, as it's been a recurring ceremony for our country. I began this work last winter, and I drew on photographs of gatherings following the Charlie Kirk Assassination. As the painting developed, similar images continued to emerge in the news after the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The figures, objects, and rituals are assembled subconsciously or through conscious quotation. It's a pastiche of collective mourning, shaped by the repetition of this very American ceremonial grief ritual. God bless America."

📍 See Ceremonia at Gallery114@HC Ybor through July 1.

Summer Gallery Hours:
Monday–Wednesday: 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Closed Fridays, weekends and holidays

We love this new feature about Kendra Frorup. Come see Healing Properties at Gallery221@HC Dale Mabry this summer, if you haven't yet had the chance. Our summer hours are Mon.-Wed. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Thursday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.

Today, we remember David Hockney through archival objects and artworks featured in "Theo Wujcik: Tempo, Tampa." In 1978, Wujcik created a collage portrait study of Hockney that would later inspire his large-scale painting "California Sun (David Hockney)."

Years after creating the collage, Wujcik rediscovered it and noticed that the rubber cement used in its construction had bled through the paper, creating an unexpected grid-like staining effect. Rather than seeing it as damage, he embraced the transformation, finding echoes of Chuck Close's portraiture and using it as the foundation for a new work that merged chance, memory, and artistic reinvention.

Along with a shared love of experimentation, Hockney and Wujcik shared several artistic touchpoints. Both trained at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop, where they explored the possibilities of printmaking, and both maintained a deep interest in the work of Pablo Picasso. Found among Theo's studio materials was a rare Hanuman Books edition of Hockney's essay on Picasso, while Theo's archive also contains his own portrait drawing of the Spanish master.

Together, these artworks and archival items offer a glimpse into the ideas, influences, and artistic conversations that connected Hockney and Wujcik throughout their careers.

🏆 Gallery's Choice Award Winner: Cortney McNamara

See "Self Portrait" by Cortney McNamara in HC Art Galleries' 3rd Annual Juried Members Show at Gallery114@HC Ybor through July 1.

Artist statement:

"Self Portrait is an unconventional representation that rejects the face as the primary marker of identity. Instead, the work uses a cast of my own hand suspended in a precarious act of support.

Constructed from a cast hand, sugar gum wood, and salvaged industrial materials, the sculpture explores the relationship between strength and fragility. The weight of the chain creates a sense of tension as it hangs just above the floor, seemingly supported by only three fingers.

By combining a direct cast of my body with found materials, the work becomes a portrait assembled through labor and touch rather than physical likeness. The hand serves as both a literal trace of myself and a metaphor for experiences of pressure, balance, and tension."

Summer Gallery Hours:
Monday–Wednesday: 9 a.m.–4 p.m.
Thursday: 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Closed Fridays, weekends and holidays