Henry La Cagnina's love affair with Key West goes back 60 years. When the Great Depression shook our nation's economy in 1933, Key West was aparticularly hit hard, with 85 percent of its people on relief. Wrecking and cigar making had come to an end. Key West was overpopulated and there as no space for industry or agriculture.
Tourism was gearing up in South Florida but it was focused on the wide white beaches upstate. Enter President Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, or WPA.
To help restore the town's economy, the federal government, via the WPA, turned to a different kind of tourism for the Keys. Thirteen artists were chosen to share their visions of the unique cultural climate of the Keys with the rest of the country.
And it worked. Key West became a showcase for cultural tourism. Today, there are more galleries and artist per capita than anywhere else in the country.
Henry La Cagnina is the only living Key West WPA artist. An exhibit of Henry La Cagnina's work opens at the Gallery on Greene next Friday, Feb. 18, with a reception 6-9 p.m. The show is sponsored by Historic Tours of America.
At the Gallery on Green Show, La Cagnina will be showing a very wide range of works including furniture, stained glass, and vitreous enamels. La Cagnina brings his bredth of experience to a subject often treated mundanely— the marine landscape— and raises it to high art. In La Cagnina's capable hands, these marine tableus become witty essays on cubism, surrealism and abstraction.
The gallery is located at 606 Greene St. Info: 294-1669.