- April 23, 2024
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Painter Bill Mazziotti has been experimenting with a variety of styles over the past couple years. He has dabbled in abstract impressionism and political art, never staying on one style for more than a couple months. But around the time he was asked to be part of a four person show at Hollingsworth Gallery, Mazziotti had begun experimenting with the grid.
Artists typically use a grid to reproduce something in a drawing or painting. Instead of using a grid to create a piece, Mazziotti decided to make the grid the main subject of his pieces. The concept progressed from paper to canvas boards and eventually Mazziotti started working wooden frames into each piece.
“I started saying that if the frame is that important then I incorporated it into the piece; now the frame or the structure holding it is a part of the piece,” Mazziotti said as he sat in his studio. Canvases leaned against every wall. “It was a progression from one to another.”
But it has taken Mazziotti a long time to get to where he is now, as a working artists. He worked full time in various jobs all the while perusing art and going to school.
“I always did art,” Mazziotti said. “So as I was working, I went to school and took a long time to go through that because I’m working – if you enjoy it, you just keep doing it. To keep doing art you have to be a little nuts.”
Although Mazziotti has been making art for decades, he really just started showing his work in the last couple years. Now that he is retired and in Palm Coast, he can devote more time to creating a body of work for show.
His participation in the 4 Artist Exhibition at Hollingsworth Gallery is the most concentrated showing of Mazziotti’s work in his career.
“For me I would say it’s the biggest show,” he said. “I like it, this the four man show, you see four distinct styles in what we do and what direction we’re going.”
Local artists Jan Geyer and Harry Messersmith and New York artist Robert Meilenhausen join Mazziotti to round out the show.
“I think they’re all untied in the aspect that they are all mature as artists, but there is a contrast,” Curater J.J. Graham said. “Bill is working rather conceptually, and playing around with space in a very different way than Jan is.”
Graham said that Meilenhausen and Geyer have a lot in common and that he believes Messersmith’s work will complement Mazziotti’s.
“All artists are different,” Graham said. “I look at what level they are painting on and I think that each one of these artists are developed. With all four of these artists, there is a wealth of appreciation for art itself and you see that in their work.”
The show opens 6-9 p.m. Saturday, April 12 and will be displayed all month.
IF YOU GO:
What: 4 Artists Exhibition opening reception
When: 6-9 p.m. Saturday, April 12
Where: Hollingsworth Gallery, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Unit 209B and 210B
