All artwork is courtesy of the artist.  

  New York based artist and Tampa-native Josette Urso has created a site-specific 7.5 x 20.0 foot vinyl wall drawing to be shown alongside a selection of her ink drawings and watercolors. Urso also debuts Taking Place, a 6-minute video, where armed with her usual hyper-focused attention and playful sensibility, she stretches our notions about drawing. The video invites us as participants to engage and delight with the unknown as well as the familiar in unforeseen ways.

Urso states: “For me, drawing parallels the act of seeing and is the most direct link to private time with the physical world. Despite the urgency of my process, as I work, time still slows down. My work becomes a record of this exploration and a reflection of my inherent energy and reason for living.”  

The HCC art galleries have hosted several past exhibitions of Urso’s work; the Dale Mabry Art Gallery in 1982 and 2001 and the Ybor Art gallery in 2004. During the gallery reception on September 6, Urso will join R. Lynn Whitelaw, a former director of the HCC Dale Mabry Gallery and curator of her 1982 exhibition, for an informal discussion about the artist’s work and career.  

Josette Urso received BFA and MFA degrees from the University of South Florida and has shown widely in the United States and abroad in galleries, public institutions, and museums including the New York Public Library, the Drawing Center, and the Bronx Museum for the Arts. She has had numerous grants and residencies including those from the NEA, Basil H. Alkazzi and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation as well as the Camargo Foundation, Ucross and Yaddo. 

For additional information, visit the artist's website: www.josetteurso.com 

Taking Place Press Release 08.07.2012

Taking Place Artist Talk and Reception Invitation
Exhibition Reception Photographs
Link to HCC Flickr website

Media Coverage

Creative Loafing 8.16.2012 Megan Voeller 

Tampa Tribune 8.22.2012 Esther Hammer

Tampa Bay Times 8.26.2012 Lennie Bennett

Creative Loafing 8.30.2012 Megan Voeller

Art Taco 9.12.2012 Luis

                                      

CLICK ON LEFT NAVIGATION BAR TO DISCOVER CURRENT & PAST EXHIBITS