PALM BEACH, FLA.- Now through January 30, The Society of the Four Arts presents two exhibitions, offering members and guests the chance to enjoy a vibrant modern art form and close-up photography of sculptures by two Italian masters.

Both exhibitions are on display in the Esther B. O’Keeffe Building, 102 Four Arts Plaza, Palm Beach.

A Beautiful Mess: Weavers and Knotters of the Vanguard is a contemporary textile exhibition organized by the Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, CA. The Four Arts hosts its debut as a traveling exhibition, featuring a diverse selection of fiber arts including wall-hangings, installations, and monumental pieces.

“We were searching for something contemporary which featured three-dimensional works,” said Rebecca A. Dunham, The Four Arts’ head of fine arts & curator. “Most of the works in this show are huge! I think most people are going to be dumbfounded by the size, by just how large these pieces are.”

The exhibition contains 19 works on display in the O’Keeffe Building’s North, Main, and South galleries from an all-female roster of conceptual artists, showcasing twisted, tied, and braided works made from tactile and utilitarian materials like rope, yarn, clay, and wire.

“Visually, they are great works to look at,” Dunham said, “so the first level is taking in the beauty of the artwork. But they are also examples of conceptual art. Each is accompanied by a description, so the second level is finding all these deeper meanings to their shapes, forms, colors, and materials.”

A complementary local show, Talking Threads: Dialogues with Weavers and Knotters, features artists from Fiber Artists-Miami Association, who employ the same textile processes as the artists in A Beautiful Mess. In addition to 11 selected works, including two on display in the Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden, FAMA contributed educational displays, examples of materials and tools, a loom, videos, and a hands-on interactive art installation.




A Beautiful Mess also includes a postcard souvenir to take home, a personal collectible from the booming world of fiber and textile arts.

“Museums are collecting more of them, showcasing artists who are making this kind of art,” Dunham said. “If you go to art fairs you are seeing a lot more of the fiber arts than you used to. Traditionally people who worked with ropes and fabrics were labeled a craft and not fine art, but this exhibition showcases how these materials can be used to make fine art – and how we should consider textile arts and fiber arts to be a fine art, just like painting or sculpture.”

The Four Arts second exhibition, An Eye on Michelangelo and Bernini: Photographs by Aurelio Amendola gives attendees the chance to view the fine art of sculpting up close in the East Gallery.

Thirty stunning black and white photographs by Aurelio Amendola, a prolific contemporary photographer from Italy, feature details of some of Michelangelo’s most beloved pieces — David, Pietà, Moses, Victory, and figures from the Tombs of Giuliano di Lorenzo de’ Medici and Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici — alongside details of Bernini’s Damned Soul, David, Apollo and Daphne, Rape of Proserpina, and Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius.

“This exhibition is about the two sculptors, the Renaissance Michelangelo and the Baroque Bernini, and Amendola’s ability to capture details of these sculptures,” Dunham said. “The black and white photography of these sculptures is a great exercise playing around with light and shadow.”

Printed in large format on aluminum, the photographs unveil the style and intensity of the Italian masters from the photographer’s personal point of view. This exhibition was organized by The Society of Four Arts in collaboration with Aurelio Amendola and his studio in Pistoia, Italy, and designed by Cesare and Carlotta Mari of Panstudio Architetti Associati, Bologna, Italy. The O’Keeffe Building’s East Gallery has been redesigned with additional interior walls and a new lighting system to display the photographs, chosen from Amendola’s digital collection.

“Frequent visitors will notice that the gallery physically looks different,” Dunham said. “And these artworks didn’t exist in these printed and framed versions until this exhibition – it’s all for The Four Arts! The show is not going to be traveling to any other venues, so this is a one-of-a-kind experience.”

Wall labels will provide context for the works by featuring full-length images of the sculptures and providing background information about the subjects and artists. A free exhibition catalogue is available.