University Galleries starts semester with new art exhibits

UF’s University Galleries is launching its Fall season with two solo exhibits from Miami-based artists.

The two shows are from award-winning artists Yolanda Sánchez and Fred Snitzer, said Amy Vigilante, the director of University Galleries.

These shows will be featured in two different galleries. Sánchez’s exhibit will be in University Gallery from Aug. 30 to Oct. 6, and Snitzer’s exhibit will be in the Gary R. Libby Gallery from Aug. 30 to Sept. 30.

The two events to introduce the public to the artists will be an opening reception Sept. 1 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and a Brown Bag Lunch, a new event this year, Sept. 2 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

This new event for UG will occur during show dates on Fridays, Vigilante said. Patrons of the gallery can bring their lunches and participate in activities or meet featured artists. She said all of these events put on by UG are free.

Vigilante said the first two artists to speak in the Brown Bag Lunch will be Sánchez and Snitzer. This event is a way to encourage more foot traffic in the galleries. Patrons are welcome to eat their lunches there, bring their children or even drop by for a quick glance at the artwork.

“It’s not a formal setting,” she said. “We really encourage people to feel like they can drop in.”

Vigilante said that UG wants Thursdays to become visual arts night for Gainesville, with new exhibits opening at the galleries on Thursdays.

“Visual art doesn’t have to be elite or snooty,” she said. “It should be something people just become really comfortable with.”

Snitzer, one of the solo artists, is a Miami legend in the art world and also a teacher at UF’s New World School for the Arts in Miami. Snitzer will showcase his exhibit “Informed Intuition.”

Snitzer said he can’t remember a time before he wasn’t drawing or making things. However, after being an artist for almost 50 years, he said he struggled to find new ways to make art.

A few years ago, Snitzer said he came to the realization after looking at other artists’ works that making art is both the artist’s intuition and learned experiences, which brought about the title of his collection.

The works, all from the last year-and-a-half, are three-dimensional collages that hang on the wall composed of repurposed materials. These repurposed materials, he said, first came from the wood shop of NWSA, where different departments would discard materials.

Snitzer said his work has no overarching social agenda. Although he is recycling discarded materials and using them in his art, he calls his work a “formal investigation” and not a campaign for social justice.

“It’s very much art about art,” he said.

Sánchez, the other featured solo artist, was born in Cuba and raised in Miami. Sánchez wants to bring joy to people’s lives with her exhibit, “Along the Road of Dreams.”

Sánchez earned her doctorate degree in clinical psychology before going back to school 14 years later to study art. After realizing her love for art, she eventually got her MFA from Yale University in painting.

Her exhibit consists of abstract, oil-on-canvas paintings. The largest piece, she said, is a triptych, which consists of one large center canvas and two smaller side canvases.

She said her work is influenced by nature, calligraphy and dance. What they have in common, she said, is their involvement of movement, stillness and energy. Her works are about celebrating nature and uplifting others.

“Because there’s so much sadness in the world,” she said, “what I want to bring forth is more positive emotion in an abstract way.”

Sánchez said her background as a psychologist doesn’t consciously influence her work, but her past experiences collectively determine who she is as an artist.

“Art can make us more tender in that way,” she said.