Art Talk

Playwright Albee to give lecture

By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 16, 2003

If playwright Edward Albee were a visual artist, he probably would have been a realist with a dose of expressionism thrown in, sort of like Lucian Freud, whose portraits and nudes are as ghastly as they are beautiful.

Instead, he has created memorable portraits with his words, in plays such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and, most recently, the award-winning The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? that lay lives bare every bit as much as Freud's paintings.

Albee comes to the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs for a lecture, "The Playwright vs. the Theater," at 2 p.m. Feb. 23. Tickets for the museum fundraiser are $12, $10 for members. Seating is limited, and reservations are suggested. The museum is at 600 Klosterman Road. Call (727) 712-5762.

Artists wanted for Tampa show

The Tampa Museum of Art has issued a call to artists for its seventh "underCURRENT/overVIEW" show, which features work created in the past five years by Florida west coast artists. You must reside in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee or Sarasota counties. Curators have kept the bar high in their selection process and say they continue to look for art that is "distinct and original . . . and explores new media." The deadline is March 1. For information about application requirements, call Rebecca Sexton Larson, the museum's administrative assistant, at (813) 274-8748 or e-mail her at Rebecca.Larson@tampagov.net.

Arts Center has new tenant

The Arts Center in St. Petersburg welcomes its first artist in residence, Lawrence Philp, who will stay in the third-floor apartment created for the program and work at the studio through the end of March. He will create work that will be shown at an exhibition opening March 7. (No pressure, Mr. Philp.)

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