INITIATION: Inaugural Group Exhibition | Dates to be announced

Darwin Leon, "The Rubenesque of Paradox" | 36 x 36 inches | Oil on Canvas | ©Darwin Leon - Courtesy of Musonium Gallery
Darwin Leon, "The Rubenesque of Paradox" | 36 x 36 inches | Oil on Canvas | ©Darwin Leon - Courtesy of Musonium Gallery
Musonium Gallery is proud to present Initiation, an inaugural group exhibition featuring a sensational selection of national and international contemporary artists. It is with honor to unveil the gallery's four exhibition spaces in a former original Bank of Tampa branch building constructed in the 90's. The stunning mid-century modern architecture of the premise was explicitly preserved, but given a new identity through added textures and color. The central atrium in the heart of the building, once a glowing white portal with views of the sun, now looms as a perpetual nights sky to create a pleasantly inviting ambiance that enhances the art viewing experience. With luxurious custom natural granite and marble flooring throughout, along with exceptional lighting systems in all four exhibition spaces, a sense of grandeur is sure to ensue all who visit. The 5,100 sq. ft. establishment truly highlights the full artistic ventures of all involved with its classic museum qualities and prodigious presentation.
 
Works showcased in this exhibition hail from all across the world including: Spain, Italy, Japan, China, France, England and the United States. With a plethora of diverse styles, varying techniques and mediums, Initiation brings together nuances of cultural influences, personal revelations, and fantastical surreal images in the form of 2D and 3D artworks. Being the first of its kind in the Tampa Bay Area, Musonium Gallery is honored to be presenting and introducing such talent in an increasingly vibrant and growing art scene on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Viewers and art enthusiasts visiting the exhibition can expect to be propelled into alternative realities, visions of unparalleled imagination, and curious juxtapositions of radical exploration and intimate investigations into the minds behind the artworks. Join us for a relentlessly original inception full of eccentricity and elegant materializations that are sure to transport all to an alluring new world of artistic opportunities.
 
The artists featured in Initiation prioritize traditional means like welding metal, sculpting with clay, painting with acrylics and oils, as well as egg tempera to create their artworks. With each artist specializing in a unique medium, this exhibition vows to display how classical techniques used over the course of many centuries continue to be adopted by artists to create contemporary art within the modern world. The elegant yet mysterious sculptures, Cleo and Leonore, by Tim Roosen, feature copper eyes with elaborate forged metal hair along with welded elements creating a satisfyingly streamline appearance. In Darwin Leon's and Bob Doucette's paintings, The Rubenesque Paradox and Musette Takes The Swing, respectively, were inspired by Peter Paul Rubens' The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus and Jean-Honoré Fragonard's The Swing. Alexandra Manukyan's Through the Heart of Grace depicts "a living embodiment of elegance and fortitude" in a magical scene filled with graceful movement, where "the very thing that takes our breath away is the air that we breathe". 
 
Other artists like Mark Mitchell and Arturo Garcia de las Heras explore notions of every day life in The Daily Grind and People At Night, respectively, where the habitual and mundane characteristics of human behavior are playfully interpreted. In Franc Kaiser's surreal painting Pelagica, a majestic feminine sphinx hybridization drifts throughout the dark vastness of the open sea, while encountering curious lifeforms. Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman and Ginger also explore the surreal in The Cat and Don't grow up, It's a trap, respectively, where feline and feminine energies align to create metaphorical depictions of women's empowerment. As the title suggests, Initiation celebrates the inception of Musonium, the gallery's ambitious endeavors ahead, and the induction of numerous first time Tampa exhibitors as well as challenging local art enthusiasts' perceptions of contemporary art.