Jim Salem's one man exhibition of acrylic paintings on canvas, titled "Collections from Nature," opens on Monday Feb. 26, at Gingerbread Square Gallery with a reception from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Salem, a Key West resident, is well known to this area and has had several previous exhibitions at Gingerbread. He is widely collected and considered one of the island's finest artists.
Born in 1948 in Vinco Pennsylvania, he studied at Penn State University and majored in both painting and printmaking. He also studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, England. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1970.
Salem started a professional painting career traveling the arts festival circuit in the Eastern United States and painted in New York City for two years. He later moved to the countryside of Pennsylvania in 1974 and began a serious painting career inspired by the landscape and nature of central Pennsylvania.
His acrylic paintings capture his life-long passion for the world of nature matched by an almost compulsive intensity for detail and color within the framework of lush flora and fauna. His wildlife is painstakingly accurate, although the resulting work is as much the product of his feelings as precise representation.
Salem has just completed a prestigious show at the University of Pennsylvania.
Salem is active with the "Key West Museum of Art & History" and the "Anne McKee Artist Fund." He also has just completed a "Dolphin Sculpture" for the Monroe County Council of the Arts' "Dolphins on Parade."
Gingerbread Square Galley is located "Uptown" at 1207 Duval Street. The Salem exhibit continues through March 4. Info: 296-8900.