University Galleries at UF opened its most recent exhibit Monday, showcasing the work of artist Carl Knickerbocker.
“Videos from a Twilight Suburb: Carl Knickerbocker” runs through Feb. 12 in the Gary R. Libby Gallery located on UF’s campus in Fine Arts Building C. A reception will be held for the exhibition from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday.
Alexis Schuman, an art and art history major at UF, helps put the gallery together. She is currently in the museum studies masters program, which involves an assistantship in the gallery.
When Knickerbocker submitted a proposal for the show, Schuman and others reviewed his work and were impressed.
“So we offered him a slot, and after that, we started to plan the show,” Schuman said.
The New York native, now 61, said he moved to Florida in 1970. He later coined himself a self-taught “suburban primitive artist” from Central Florida. The artist said he got started by learning how to draw by himself.
“I don’t have a degree in art; I am a self taught artist,” he said. “I have a sociology degree so it makes sense to become a visual artist.”
The artist got into painting in the early ‘90s after he read a book review from the Orlando Sentinel. It was a how-to book called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.”
“I think I was looking for something to do creatively, and I got the book and that’s how my art journey got going,” Knickerbocker said.
For about three years in the early ‘90s, Knickerbocker held live art shows at Café Tu Tu Tango in Orlando. He later received the Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Grant in 1995 and the United Arts of Central Florida Individual Artist Grant in 1998.
“I was encouraged by a peer to apply for this grant, which I had never heard of before,” he said, “and evidently someone in the panel — or at least one person — thought I was worth awarding their grant.”
It was $5,000.
In the early 2000s, Knickerbocker began making art cars. He is now well known for his Honda Element art cars.
“I had an old pick-up truck and an artist friend said to paint the truck like I did as a painting,” he said, “and someone said to take it to the Houston Art Car Parade.”
Knickerbocker started getting into short films in early 2000s including his piece called “Twilight Suburb,” which will be displayed at the gallery.
In the late ‘90s, the artist had a project in his back pocket. He said he was approached by publishing company Simon & Schuster to write and draw the illustrations for a children’s picture book. Although the company ultimately did not accept the book, Knickerbocker ended up turning it into one of his short films, “A Dog Goes From Here to There.”
The five-minute-long film took two years to make and required a lot of work and help, he said. The final project was picked up and taken to festivals.
Schuman described Knickerbocker’s artistic style as having a folk-art feel but with an underlying trend of fine objects.
“Bright, beautiful colors and hidden iconography,” she said. “It is a very fun, interactive and tangible type of art that he does.”
Knickerbocker’s display is ready for Gainesville, and Schuman expects people are going to have their horizons broadened.
“We haven’t had a show like his in the time that I have been at UF,” Schuman said.
