Forget 'Florida Man,' Meet 'Florida Woman' In Mize Exhibit

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The Mize Gallery's May exhibit, "The Art of all Things Florida," features 44 artists whose work represents Florida.

Some of the works are humorous such as the "Flori-duh" piece by Steve Madden, which is a digital print of a green figure with his face in the shape of Florida picking his nose. Other pieces such as the "No Gods, No Masters, No Scrubs," by Bailey Gumienny shows a woman in a bikini walking an alligator that is enticing and powerful.

"Forget Florida Man, meet Florida woman, a true wild woman fearlessly thriving in the most primal, untamed and archaic landscape," Gumieny said. "The alligator acts as almost an extension of the figure herself, a force of nature to be reckoned with. Despite the dangers of the swamps, the heat, the mosquitos, there's something undeniably dreamlike about a Florida sunset. By combining these elements, I sought to embody the beauty, power and wild abandon that is so quintessentially Florida ."

Florida sunrises are also appreciated by artists from New York City. Alexandria Checa, a Queens resident, artist and architect, spent 23 hours on the road Thursday driving her piece, "Solaris," to the Mize Gallery.

"I wanted to represent the sunrise from the dark with my piece," Checa said in a Patch interview. "If you look at the shards with the different colors I used, such as turquoise, when the sunrise hits these pieces, it illuminates them and creates a colorful explosion."

Checa was born in Gainesville, but grew up in New York where her family lives, but she stays loyal to her birth state through art. Plenty of other colorful Florida pieces are on display in "The Art of All Things Florida."

The exhibit is on display until May 30. Gallery hours are Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., or by appointment. Masks are required, and six people are allowed in the gallery at once. For more information, visit the Mize Gallery. The gallery is located at 689 Dr. MLK Jr. St. N, St. Petersburg.