Theater & Arts - southflorida.com

Go eye a kite

By Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

The Cornell Museum's 'Flying High' traces the colorful history of kites.

Frequent visitors to the beaches of Delray and Boca Raton may spot above the coastline the distinct appearance of floating ocean creatures. Drifting high in the daytime breeze are 60-foot-long whales and 90-foot-tall squids. These hand-stitched, inflatable creations are kites, flown on the weekends by a retired math teacher and kite enthusiast known to beachgoing folks as Randy "the Kite Man" Lowe.

Maria Mor's foot pursuits

By Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

FAU senior's photo display studies students' personalities through their shoes.

Somewhere between gathering the guts to ask random Florida Atlantic University students if she could snap pictures of their shoes and flat out chasing down her subjects in the same pursuit, Maria Mor became obsessed with her new photo project.

Artist turns history on its head

By Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

Christy Gast revisits the story of the Barefoot Mailman by burying it.

Buried headfirst in a bed of flowers and mulch across the street from Bal Harbour Shops is a 12-foot-tall sculpture of the Barefoot Mailman, a historical figure who hand-delivered mail sans shoes along the beach between Lake Worth and Miami during the 1880s.

Spady Museum show focuses on the families

By Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

A photography exhibit in Delray Beach looks at the lives and the legacies of the city's pioneers.

On Sunday mornings in 1950s Delray Beach, Lillie Quince Head would follow her summertime gospel choir to street corners and barbershop storefronts and sing uptempo hymns. Her choir consisted of her sisters, Alease and Elizabeth Quince, handling background vocals for the group's more-famous members: their pastor-father Bishop Quince Jr. and his sister, Idell, who performed across the country as the National Gospel Twins.

66 finalists named for lucrative Knight Arts Challenge grants

By Ben Crandell, SouthFlorida.com — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:34:00 EDT

Arts programs from Palm Beach County to Key West are among groups in line for awards.

One of the remarkable things about the 66 finalists announced Monday for the annual Knight Arts Challenge grants is their range, both artistically and geographically.

Art of the slam dunk: Miami Heat-themed works go on display

By Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com — Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

Collage artist Erika King celebrates LeBron, Wade and other Heat stars at Miami Beach gallery.

Collage artist Erika King celebrates LeBron, Wade and other Heat stars at Miami Beach gallery.

Ten days in the 561

By John Tanasychuk, SouthFlorida.com — Thu, 9 May 2013 15:27:00 EDT

Chef-turned-photographer Lindsay Autry offers an 'Unedited' look at life in Palm Beach County.

Lindsay Autry maintains her own website. She also Facebooks, Instagrams and tweets. So she takes many photos with her smartphone.

'All Florida,' all different

By Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 EDT

The 149 works in the latest 'All Florida' exhibition have little in common. And that's a good thing.

Photographer Larry Colby was browsing a street market last November in Cartagena, Colombia, when he spotted an elderly tourist wearing a cowboy hat and a canary-yellow shirt. The man, presumably bored, would toss up his hat with a neat flick and catch it on the descent. On the second throw, Colby snapped a picture.

At the Norton, five easy pieces

By Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com — Thu, 2 May 2013 14:25:00 EDT

The museum introduces its 'Masterpiece of the Month' series.

Starting Thursday, the folks behind the Norton Museum of Art will bulk up the dry summer arts season ahead by showing off at least one masterpiece a month through October.

Flights of fancy at the airport

By Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com — Thu, 2 May 2013 10:07:00 EDT

Tom De Vita's surreal portraits greet travelers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International.

The locals in Tom De Vita's painted pastiche of South Florida life may read like a college sociology class gone hypersurreal. There is "Red Lionfish," his portrait of a Jamaican student assuming a dignified posture, which is undermined by the goofy appearance of the invasive coral-reef fish perched on his head. The lionfish's red-and-white quills take on the shape of the man's dreadlocks. There is also “Bleached White,” De Vita’s painting of a Haitian graffiti artist and Florida International University student who paints with bleach and here sports a protective respirator mask. The artist is oblivious to the small squadron of floating, wind-up chattering-teeth toys that hover around her.