Running an art gallery, going to college and trying to expand a personal art portfolio are not very easy things to do all at one time, but UNF senior fine arts student Shea Slemmer, manages to do so.
Slemmer opened Flux art gallery in Jacksonville’s historic Five Points nearly 16 months ago where she sales local contemporary art.
The gallery features her art and the art of other local contemporary artists.
Slemmer said opening the gallery was more spur of the moment than anything else. It was all about a space becoming available.
Slemmer said the Five Points area was great for her gallery because of its “eclectic, diverse and exciting atmosphere.”
Flux sponsors a booth every Saturday at the Riverside Arts Market that features works from the gallery.
Recently, Flux hosted an art auction to raise money for Brian Hicks, a local artist battling cancer.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, a new affiliate of UNF, also included Flux in an artist studio tour May 30-31. The tour was hosted by MOCA and participants were allowed to visit the studios on their own, or be transported from studio to studio on a tour bus, depending which level ticket purchased.
Jim Draper, a UNF fine arts professor, said Slemmer was one of his best students in his Figurative Painting class.
Draper said he was very impressed with Flux and with Slemmer.
“The gallery is a nice little space with good lighting,” he said. “Shea has got a good body of work and a good grasp of where she is in her career.”
Slemmer said on her personal Web site, studios-shea.com, that her current art series is “an attempt to negotiate a gap existing between the digital and analog art-world.”
Slemmer’s paintings range from $250 to $5,000, depending on the size of the piece and the materials used, she said.
About 30 percent of artwork displayed at Flux is from local students, mostly from UNF, while the other 70 percent of the art is from local professional artists, Slemmer said.
Slemmer said she enjoys showing student work because of how innovative students’ work tends to be.
“[Flux] is a great professional space for up and coming contemporary artists,” Slemmer said. “There is nothing like it.”
