GIBBIN HOUSE

ATELIER 1022 Gallery hosts 2^nd Edition of LITERĂ

An evening for independent writers, art, and documentary film

            Miami Beach, March 15, 2012 – ATELIER 1022 Studio and Fine Art Gallery is pleased to announce the 2^nd edition of LITERĂ – an evening of indie book readings, documentary film, video art, and literature-inspired art installations, on April 14^th, 2012, 6-11 PM.   Central to the showcase are Florida indie writers C.T. Douglas, creator of the Lore Trilogy, and Carola Perla, author of the exiled artist novel Gibbin House, both of whom will be on hand to read from their works and offer insights into independent publishing.  Other event highlights include:

·         “Homeless in Los Angeles” (2011) – an independent documentary film by Sergei Zelinsky and Taylor Golonka, exposing untold stories of LA’s itinerant street performers (Florida premiere)

·         Video poetry by award-winning German filmmaker Wolfgang Lehmann (Florida premiere)

·         “Spelling Bee” – a debuting paper art and light installation by plastic artist/author Carola Perla

·         Original illustrations for the children’s book Altavarania, by Ellie Perla

·         LITERĂ photograph series, including “Literary Walk” by New York photographer Susana Perla-Mendoza and “Extinction” by Carlos Rodriguez-Feo

Private reception for the artists to begin at 10 PM on ATELIER 1022’s newly opened terrace.  LITERĂ coincides with the Wynwood Art Walk for the month of April, and is free to the public.  ATELIER 1022 Gallery will also host a separate afternoon kids program – KINDERART – on April 14^th, featuring readings from Ellie Perla’s fairytales, and an interactive art workshop led by the resident artist.  The program kicks off at 2PM.

Featured LITERĂ Indie Authors

C. T. Douglas – Lore Trilogy

This phenomenal young writing talent and full-time undergraduate English major at the University of Florida was most recently honored for his fantasy novels at the 2011 New York Book Festival and the 78th annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition.  Douglas was also a keynote speaker for the Marion County Library’s CREATE program in 2010.  The Lore trilogy is a bold and exciting mesh of fantasy, historical fiction, and science fiction that starts with A Pirate’s Charm – the first volume in the tale of young Molly Bishop and her search across the seven seas for werewolves, vampires, and a magical destiny as the most powerful sorceress in the world.  www.LoreTrilogy.com

Carola Perla – Gibbin House

The Romanian-born author and plastic artist bases her historic novel Gibbin House, which depicts the struggles of exiled artists in 1949 London, on her own extensive immigrant experiences throughout Europe and the Americas.  Ms. Perla, who holds degrees in Art History and German Literature from Florida State University, extends this theme in her multi-lingual word-oriented paper and light installations, like “Off the Page”, which debuted during Art Basel Miami 2011.  Upcoming projects include the installation “Spelling Bee” (April 2012) and the novel Humboldt’s Riches, a semi-autobiographical story set in the Peruvian Amazon at the time of the first Shining Path insurgency.

Join me February 16th, 2012, for an intimate author’s evening, when I’ll be reading from Gibbin House and sharing stories that inspired my debut novel.  Reading starts at 8PM on the terrace of The Hangar, in the Wynwood Art District.

More than a new Art Exhibit – a 2012 Aesthetic Ethos   

           At our ATELIER 1022 Gallery, we are on the verge of introducing “HOPE” to the Wynwood Art District.  Well…rather, it’s an exuberant new multi-media art event on February 11, 2012, 6-11 PM, designed to celebrate beauty, harmony, and artistic fratenity - the gallery’s guiding aesthetic and communal principles for 2012.  These principles will be on joyful display during “HOPE”, with debuting mixed media and photographic works by resident artists Ellie Perla, Carola Perla, Susi Perla-Mendoza, and Carlos Rodriguez-Feo, and the experimental soundscapes of Jimmy Hoffa, Esq.  

Our “HOPE” ethos is also shaping ATELIER 1022’s Exhibit and Events calendar for 2012 (circle us in - we always welcome friends with a drink;).  In addition to resident solo shows, we plan to extend our space for free to emerging artists during the August and September Wynwood Art Walks.  Titled “FRIENDS OF ATELIER 1022”, these special community exhibits will also feature international talent in painting, sculpture, and video art.   The polyglot experiment continues in April and November as art blends with the written word, when ATELIER 1022 stages brand-new editions of its independent writers’ showcase, “LITERĂ”, with host and author Carola Perla (Me!). These evenings will be preceded by KINDERART, afternoon children’s storybook hours and art sessions led by resident artist and children’s book creator Ellie Perla (if you haven’t checked her out, read below).

Here are some “HOPE” EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

Ellie Perla – the ethereal quality of her seemingly inexaustible stream of otherwordly subjects is only heightened by the lattice-like intricacies of Ms. Perla’s polychromatic pencil and ink compositions.   Saturated yet delicate, the new collection for HOPE is equally profuse with her characteristic luxuriant color and micro-designs.  This time around, Ms. Perla references global imagery, nature subjects, and romantic icons, creating her own visual lexicon of peace that is steadily injected with luminosity, love and a dash of humor.  Says Ms. Perla, “as I navigate in my life from pain to peace, from black to lavender…I feel responsible to share with the world something positive.  For me, art is a matter of ethics and integrity, a matter of hope…” 

Susi Perla-Mendoza – a firm believer in the electrifying power of color, this young New York-based fine art photographer uses surreal colorscapes to lift to inspirational what might otherwise dwell in the dire, industrial, and mundane.  Vibrant works like “Didgeridoo” display her characteristic ‘acid impressionism’ style - here a humble street performer is revealed to us as a rainbow of fire.  The EAST BERLIN series, shot in many of the city’s underground locations, further exemplifies Mrs. Perla-Mendoza’s keen eye for profound subject matter and her reconciliatory efforts to cast a fresh spectrum on past wounds. 

Carlos Rodriguez-Feo - the Cuban-born photographer demonstrates his sense of artistic optimism, merging vintage tools and techniques (Victorian cameras, large-format photography, and infra-red) with the latest 21^st Century technology to create a catalog of distinguished South Florida landmarks that possess a reverent historic quality, and yet are captured in a transcendent, never-before light.

Jimmy Hoffa, Esq. – ‘beatific exuberance’ is how one might begin to describe the musical explorations of local indie talents Jimmy Hoffa, Esq., Jose Ignacio Rodriguez, and elegant singer Tash.   The group have tested their mettle in various South Florida bands since their early days in high school, but this one-time only performance at ATELIER 1022 promises to push the boundaries of the trio’s tonal imaginations.  As driving creative force Jimmy Hoffa, Esq. says, “Dreams and art are the same thing.”