For Immediate Release-Central Florida
COMMA Gallery813 Virginia Drive,
Orlando Fl. 32803
www.commagallery.com
407 376-1400
CELEBRATING CITRUS: Florida Style
Florida citrus is a $9 billion industry and leads the world in grapefruit production. Florida Department of Citrus provides that:
12,000 Florida citrus growers cultivate approximately 100 million citrus trees on more than 748,000 acres of land. More than 90,000 other people also work in the citrus industry or in related businesses.
COMMA GALLERY is Celebrating Citrus, Florida Style by inviting some of Florida’s finest Florida artists to serve up the results of their citrus inspired art. All manner of landscape, still life and conceptual citrus related art will be shown in three consecutive but changing exhibits March 10th through June 5th.
A Taste of Citrus Art opens March 10th. The abundance of the crop of art available surprised gallery owner and curator Kim Sumner. “As we started looking we realized there was more Citrus art than we imagined. So we split the show into three parts in order to showcase as much talent as possible.” The gallery scrambled to pick what was ripe and save more for later. By a bit of ingenious maneuvering also know as making lemonade from lemons, COMMA came up with a recipe for sweet citrus success.
Celebrating Citrus: Still Life will showcase interpretations of Citrus not in the landscape. COMMA Gallery will host an opening Still Life artists reception April 10th 6:30-9pm. (I will be there. Please join us if you are in Orlando.)
Celebrating Citrus: The Landscape May 12th begins an exhibit featuring Citrus in the Landscapes. Landscape Artist Reception will be held 6:30-9pm. 2nd Tuesday. The exhibit ends June 5th.
For over six years COMMA has shown and sold hundreds of artist works from emerging artists to international artists collected by Museums. “We have a community of collectors with diverse taste in art” co- owner Karen Carasik ( who is also an artist) explains. “Although taste is subjective we are betting that everyone loves the taste of citrus! Now we are offering it for the eyes……….”
Citrus has been a symbol in many cultures.
In ancient writings, Alexander the Great brought citrus from India into Greece, Turkey, and North Africa in the late 4th century BC. The most ancient citrus was called ‘citron.’ There are ancient clues from wall paintings in the Egyptian temple at Karnak that citrus trees had been growing there. Citrus appears in other art from the ruins of Pompeii as well as Carthage in North Africa. Greek and Romans as well as early Christian tile mosaics from Istanbul shows various citrus.
It appears established that Christopher Columbus introduced citrus on the island of Haiti in 1493 There are records that citrus trees were well established in the American colonies in about 1565 at Saint Augustine, Florida, and in coastal South Carolina.
While traveling down the Saint John’s River in Florida the early American explorer, William Bartram, in his 1773 book Travels mistakenly thought orange trees were native to Florida; however, they were established centuries earlier by the Spanish explorers.
Grapefruit was a relative late-comer, arriving in Florida in 1806 courtesy of the French Count, Odet. After the Spanish gave up their territories and its many orange groves to the United States the citrus industry rapidly developed. In the 1880’s shipments of oranges, grapefruit, limes, and lemons that were sent to Philadelphia and New York by railway and ships Orange juice was even traded on the Commodities Exchange in NYC.
The Florida freezes in 1894 and 1899, wiped out Satsuma orange trees. More acreage was destroyed in the hard freeze of 1916. Some citrus production moved further south and also shifted from Florida to California.
COMMA GALLERY believes in celebrating our Florida artists whose talent is remarkable and citrus represents one facet of the beauty and elegance of Florida Art.
Contact:
Karen Carasik 407 376-1400 www.commagallery.com
carasikart@msn.com
