After four years on Lake Avenue in downtown Lake Worth, Clay-Glass-Metal-Stone Gallery has moved to 15 South J Street, also in downtown Lake Worth. The gallery will be celebrating this move with a grand opening Friday, May 3 from 6 to 9 p.m., with 32 local artists, most of whom are mainstays of the gallery. Joining them are six new artists with museum-quality works.
Moving from a long, narrow, dark space into a beautiful new, articulated and well-lit gallery, the artists feel like they have emerged from a cocoon, unfurling their butterfly wings. In this space, everything looks new. Traditionally, the gallery celebrates its birthdays by releasing 100 butterflies. This year, the butterflies are scarce and endangered. Instead, there will be 100 beautifully crafted butterflies available to the first 100 visitors to the gallery. In addition, lanterns of peace and good fortune will be launched into the night sky.
Among the gallery’s new artists are Emilio Aponte-Sierra, Steve Brouse and Barbara Schwartz. Each brings a distinctive body of work.
Aponte-Sierra, a transplant from Miami, is a new resident of Palm Beach. His intricate paper sculptures were featured in Designer’s Week in Miami and have graced many of the local and national fashion magazines. Encased in Lucite, they are an imposing presence throughout the gallery. Brouse’s works are eclectic and functional contrasts of bold images painted onto furniture, fronds, cars and tapestries. Originally a 3-D artist who graduated to paintings and murals, he is returning to his roots. Schwartz is a specialist in porcelain works finished with her own exotic glazes and lusters. Her wonderfully formed constructions look like painstaking carvings. Schwartz’s decorative plates are works of image and narrative taking weeks to complete.
CGMS Gallery is sponsored by the Flamingo Clay Studio, a nonprofit arts organization whose mission is to provide affordable studio and gallery space for three-dimensional artists. The gallery is located at 15 South J. Street in downtown Lake Worth. Hours are Sunday through Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Gallery openings are held the first and third Friday of each month from 6 to 9 p.m. with many special events in-between. For information, contact Joyce Brown at (215) 205-9441 or jclay6@aol.com, call the gallery at (561) 588-8344 or visit its web site at www.clayglassmetalstone.com or its blog at cgmsgallery.blogspot.com.
ABOVE: A muraled car painted by Steve Brouse.
