Pat Collins: Action, Reaction, Interaction
March 4 - April 7, 2022
ArtLab
Artist Talk, 5-7pm, Thursday, March 3, 2022
Pat Collins looks for public art opportunities to create projects involving viewer participation, to expand the visibility of art in the community. Combining the carnivalesque with social commentary, Collins works with stencils, silhouettes and cutouts of varying materials. She layers and juxtaposes these elements to activate the space as a stage for a cast of characters and symbols. The challenges of communication in daily life and the emotions they trigger fill the landscape of images.
Sponsored by Gene and Lee Seidler; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; and WGCU Public Media
Image credit: Pat Collins, Action Reaction Interaction, 2020, Mixed media collage composition designed for projection, 14 x 26 in.
Visual artist Pat Collins creates mixed media works, including painting and printmaking, and in recent years has focused on murals, and interactive mixed media constructions/installations. Born and raised in Massachusetts, she earned a BFA in Communications Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Living and working in New York's Lower East Side, energized by artists, street art and a DIY gallery scene influenced her artistic development, but rising rents forced her to relocate, and Collins moved to Southwest Florida. Since then her work has been exhibited twice at the John & Mable Ringliing Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL; the Florida Museum for Women Artists, Deland, FL; Scope Miami, the Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, and other venues. Solo shows include the Collier County Museum of the Everglades, the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, and Howl Gallery, Fort Myers, FL. Her limited edition artist book, "Urban Anxieties" is in the MoMA Queens Artists' Books collection. Collins' murals for Habitat for Humanity's ReStore, North Fort Myers, FL, and the Kappa Development Foundation, Fort Myers, FL can be found on the cultureNOW website. Collins is active in the arts community, serving on the City of Fort Myers Public Art Committee, and has staged various participatory art projects, most recently to promote voting rights with "Voting Priority 2020."
