Florida Artists Group

Gay's Bio:

The paintings and prints of award-winning abstract artist Gay Germain have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States.

While pursuing a successful business career, in which she held management positions at Trans World Airlines and Management Recruiters of New York City, she began formal art studies in New York under the tutelage of the internationally renowned sculptor, Leonda Finke. Eventually gravitating to painting, Gay initially explored watercolor, and gradually incorporated oil, acrylic, and mixed media into her work.

Ongoing education, including study of life drawing at the National Academy of Art and Design and printmaking at the Robert Blackburn Studio, has helped sharpen her artistic sense, and expand both her interests and capabilities. After moving to Sarasota, Florida, in 2002, Gay studied under the guidance of Master Printer, Patrick Lindhardt, at The Ringling College of Art and Design, and most recently with nationally recognized artist Katherine Chang Liu, of Ventura, California.

Gay's Artist Statement:

Painting gives me an opportunity to think about the things that are most important in my life. It allows me to express myself more completely than I can with words.

Although I paint abstractly, content is important to my work. My goal is to reflect human nature and develop universal visual stories from my own experience of life that I can share with others, allowing me to speak more directly to the viewer.

My work often maps a sense of a journey - actual or metaphorical, physical or emotional – through a new landscape. Because nature is so important to our continued existence, I feel the need to incorporate within my “landscapes” a sense of natural order and growth. I believe that this helps me to communicate about the passage of time, our individual and collective growth, and the changes that we all must endure. The consistent contrasts found in my work, for example, the positive and negative space, the hard and soft lines, the seemingly “man-made” structures or the organic, and “found objects” like fragmentary language and numbers, are symbolic of our attempts to both  communicate and understand, and also the resulting conflicts that are inherent to those attempts. In this way I try to capture the personal “conversations” that we each have as we progress through life.

Exhibits:

2011         Florida Artists Group – FLAG – Cornell Museum of Art – Delray Beach FL
2010        Florida Contemporary 2010 Invitational – Naples Museum of Art - Naples, FL
                 Curator: Dr. Michael Culver
2010        Florida Artists Group – FLAG – 60TH Annual Symposium & Exhibition -
                 Big Arts –Sanibel, FL.  Juror: Dan Welden
2009        Florida Artists Group Exhibition – FLAG - Armory Art Center – West Palm Beach, FL                                  Juror: Sique Spence – Director – Nancy Hoffman Gallery – Chelsea, NY
2009       Abecedarian Gallery –  3D Common Box Exhibition – Denver, Colorado
2009        Florida Artists Group Exhibit – FLAG - Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art – Tarpon Springs, FL
                 Juror: Sam Gilliam
2008       Art Modern Gallery – Naples, FL – Director: Robert Fontaine
2008       Lurie-Kavachnina Gallery (Art Rouge Gallery)  - September/October
                 Group Exhibit Miami, FL
2008       Art Center Sarasota – Sarasota, FL – “NFS” Collection of Artist Exhibit Curator: Mark Ormond
2008       State of The Arts Gallery – Sarasota, Florida – Color Field Painters-Digital Art Group Exhibit
2008       Urban Archeology – Sculpture/Collage and Assemblage Group Exhibit2007
                 State of The Arts Gallery – Sarasota, FL
                  “In Bloom” Exhibit
                  “The Art of Romance” Exhibit
                  “Rock/Paper/Scissors” Exhibit
                  “White Hot” Exhibit
                  “New Horizons” Exhibit
                  “The Writing on The Wall” Exhibit
                  “Environmentally Aware” (Organic Interpretations) Exhibit
2007        Florida Artists Group – FLAG - Daytona Beach Museum of Arts & Sciences
                 Daytona Beach, FL. Juror: Dr. Donald Kuspit
2007        The Selby Public Library and Women Contemporary Artist – Sarasota, FL
                 “Narrative Art” Juror: Donn Roll
2006        "Dimensional Drawing” The Arts Center – St. Petersburg , FL
2006        “Go With The Flow” water-media – Art Center Sarasota – Sarasota, FL
2006        State of The Arts Gallery – Sarasota, Florida
                 “Hands-On” Exhibit
                 “White Hot” Exhibit
                 “Spectrum” Exhibit
                 “Leaning Forward/Looking Back” Exhibit
                 “Red Hot” Exhibit
2006        The Selby Gallery – Ringling School of Art & Design – Women Contemporary Artist –
                 Spring Exhibition – Sarasota, FL - Juror: Mark Ormond     
2004       Center for Arts & Humanities – “The Language of Black and White: Three Women Printmakers”
2003-08  Design Impressions Gallery –Sarasota, FL – Solo in house Artist
2002-03   Pineapple House Gallery –Sarasota, FL
2001        Chelsea Art Museum – East Norwich, New York – Juried
2000       Greenwich Arts Council – Greenwich,  Connecticut  –  Juried
1999        Art League of Long Island – Art Invitational – Syosset , Long Island , New York – Juried
                 Long Beach Art League – Art Invitational – Long Beach, Long Island, New York – Juried
                 Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York – Juried
1998         National Art League – Douglaston,  New York - Juried

 

Awards:

Ru Israels Memorial Award, Florida Artists Group Exhibition – FLAG – Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art – Tarpon Springs, FL - Juror: Sam Guilliam
Honorable Mention, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, FL
Best of Show/Peabody Award, Chelsea Art Museum, East Norwich, NY
Honorable Mention, Suburban Art League, Syosset, Long Island, NY
Honorable Mention, Greenwich Arts Council, Greenwich, CT
First Prize, Long Beach Art Society, Long Beach, NY
Second Place, National Art League, Douglaston, NY
First Place, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY

Reviews: 

                  Joan Altabe,  “NFS” Gallery One, Art Center Sarasota, September 2 – October 25.
                Bradenton Hearld, August 31, 2008

               *Mark Ormond, “White Hot” exhibition at State of The Arts Gallery. ‘Germains’
                 new series, ‘Wire As Line’, “are for several reasons, the show stoppers.”
                Pelican Press, June  29, 2006

               *Marty Fugate, “The Language of Black and White: Three Women Printmakers,”
                 Germain’s work shows in her command of abstract form.”
                The Observer, November 18, 2004.

               *Kevin Costello, “Germains’ Paintings balance Content, Expression,”
                Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 11, 2004