Art Uptown Gallery to Exhibit 'Ancestral Threads' by Melanie Carlstein and Liz C
Sat Feb 29, 11:00 AM - Fri Mar 27, 5:00 PM

This March Art Uptown Gallery will exhibit Ancestral Threads, featuring sculpture assemblage by Melanie Carlstein and acrylic mixed-media paintings by Liz Cole, paying homage to the artists’ heritage and its influence upon their current work.

Carlstein’s latest pieces incorporate the colors, shapes and textures of Africa, using a variety of mediums like natural wood, paper clay and repurposed objects. “Growing up and traveling around South Africa, I remember seeing the warm colors of the countryside and the many different people and animals who called it home. Once you have lived there, Africa settles inside you and never leaves. These sculptures are attributed to that part of my life.”

Cole’s colorful paintings are inspired by the Hungarian culture that was on the maternal side of her family. “The first artist’s hands that enchanted me were those of my Hungarian grandmother. Her tool was not a paintbrush but a fine needle that could create gardens of beautifully colored threads. Her language was strange to me but we communicated in special ways that built images and sounds that still stir me today. Through her, I imagined her life in a small eastern village of Hungary, the celebration days of her marriage, her love of preparing traditional meals filled with paprika, and her time aboard the Carpathia in the early 1900s as she sailed to a new life away from all she had known.”

Ms. Carlstein’s and Ms. Cole's exhibit opens on February 29 and runs through March 27, and the public is invited to the First Friday reception at the gallery on March 6 from 6-9 PM. Art Uptown welcomes patrons and friends to the Gallery at 1367 Main Street to share in a toast to its fortieth year in downtown Sarasota, where the diverse art works of 28 local artists are shown, Monday-Thursday, 11-5, Friday 11-9, Saturday 11-5, and Sunday 12-5. Telephone: 941-955-5409. www.artuptown.com.