One Green Planet

The First Friday Art Opening will be on Nov. 1st, from 5-8pm.
The exhibition will be open from Nov. 1st – Dec. 14th, on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, from 2-6 pm.

Mark Messersmith has always been the greenest of Florida artists. His paintings explore a dense and tangled world that shows the beauty of the natural environment, and also highlights its fragility and vulnerability. Each painting develops an inventive narrative that strives to be eternal in scope and suggests we are witnessing the ruin of mankind. At times like this, when the news is filled with images of the Amazon burning, Mark draws on our protective instincts by presenting our own North Florida’s plants and animals threatened by the encroachment of human development on their environment.

Messersmith teaches painting and drawing at Florida State University. He has mentored countless students who have gone on to make a mark in the art world and the education of artists. Mark received a Joan Mitchel Award in 2006, and a purchase award at Le Grand Prix XXXIII Festival International de la Peinture, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, Numerous Florida Individual Artist Fellowships, and two Southern Arts Federation, Regional Fellowships. He has a long solo exhibition record in addition to the recent Beauty and Vulnerability at Venvi Gallery.