An exhibit of new oil paintings by Key West artist Michael Haykin will open at Gingerbread Square Gallery this Monday, March 13, with a reception 6:30-9 p.m.
Haykin was born and educated in Munich, Germany, while his family was in military service for the U.S. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
His work is influenced by his extensive and ongoing travel throughout the United States, South and Central America and the South Pacific.
Over the past 10 years, in addition to his annual shows here, Haykin's work has been shown at the Holter museum in Helena, Montana, the Montana Artists Refuge in Basin, Montana, and galleries in Massachusetts, New York and Palm Beach. He has also previously exhibited with Holly Soloman Gallery in New York City.
Haykin states, "My painting currently is divided into three areas. The first is a body of figurative work, the "small room series," which exists in the border area between dream and actual time. It is about humanness, particularly fear, anger and beauty braided together and involving magic and personal mythology."
Currently, he is developing a body of portrait work. Faces that are magnified, flattened, lacking in detail and existing in the moment between communication and expression.
Landscape painting on location is the third area his work takes him. He is constantly exploring the similarities that underlie figurative, portrait and landscape work, primarily the essential qualities that exist beneath the skin of the face, the surface of human experience and the atmosphere of landscape, the fundamental ingredients that breathe life into the painted image.
This exhibition, the first for Haykin at Gingerbread Square Gallery, will run through March 20. It will feature a variety of paintings— figurative works, still-lifes, and architectural and marine scenes. Gingerbread Square Gallery is located "Uptown" at 1207 Duval Street. The gallery is open daily. Info: 296-8900.