Press
Allison Massari
On Exhibit at the Morean Arts Center
Allison Massari, “The Healer”, Collage, 2008, 30" x 40"
Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts,
St. Petersburg and the artist
St. Petersburg native Allison Massari still remembers the role the Arts Center (renamed the Morean Arts Center earlier this year) played in her journey to becoming an artist.
“My art teacher in the first grade came to my parents and said, ‘Your daughter has a gift for art,’ ” said Massari. “They took me down to the Arts Center, and I took classes there from then on.”
Now, as she prepares for a solo exhibition at the Morean that opens in October, the California resident waxes enthusiasticly about a homecoming that also marks a high point in her career as an adult artist. While she’s in town, visitors will have a chance to enjoy a series of her figurative collage works—the product of a labor-intensive process that results in ethereally beautiful depictions of the female form—and to hear Massari speak about a life’s journey that has made her a force of positive energy.
Given Massari’s successes as an artist (one of her collages was recently acquired for the permanent collection of St. Petersburg’s Museum of Fine Arts), it’s hard to believe that her career almost ended 11 years ago when she was nearly burned alive in a head-on car collision. She survived, thanks to the heroic efforts of a passer-by, and went on to create a camp for child burn victims while pursuing her art and occasional motivational speaking engagements.
Her art bears witness to the healing process, celebrating regenerative feminine power. Lately, her expression has found a new medium: the written word. When Massari holds a public talk on Oct. 10 in St. Petersburg (for location information, visit the Morean’s website, listed below), she’ll be drawing from her unpublished memoirs to offer advice about overcoming life’s obstacles—advice she hopes will be relevant for people struggling both with personal tragedy and the challenges of living and working in today's difficult economy.
An exhibition of Allison Massari’s work runs from Oct. 9 through Nov. 7 with an opening reception Fri., Oct. 9, at the Morean Arts Center, 719 Central Ave., St. Petersburg.
—Megan Voeller
For more exhibit information, visit
moreanartscenter.org. For more information
about the artist, go to allisonmassari.com.
Marin Independent Journal
BY LENNIE BENNETT
Times Art Critic
ST. PETERSBURG
October 22, 2009
“Massari is an immensely talented artist...(I’m) a longtime admirer of her prodigious gifts”
“Massari deserves to create in whatever manner brings her inspiration.”
• • •
Also at the Morean Arts Center is "Allison Massari: Pyrotechnic Luminescence." Massari is an immensely talented artist whose career — not to mention her life — was nearly destroyed in 1998 by a horrific car accident that left her with severe burns. Over a decade, she has recovered her health so that her talent, which never left her, has continued to blossom.
Eight of her collages are in the show, virtuoso turns in which she replaces paint with small pieces of paper arranged in elaborate mosaics. Massari has always favored a representational style, especially portraiture, and here she has created a gallery of beautiful, partly clothed women surrounded by aureoles in dense, bright patterns.
After what she has been through and continues to achieve, Massari deserves to create in whatever manner brings her inspiration. As a longtime admirer of her prodigious gifts, I wish for more emotional complexity.
Lennie Bennett can be reached at lenniesptimes.com or (727) 893-8293.
