Marina Brown Special to the Tallahassee Democrat
Published 5:06 a.m. ET Sept. 14, 2023 Updated 5:06 a.m. ET Sept. 14, 2023
Just because you were gifted with talents in science and math does not mean you were short-changed in the arts and cultural department. Indeed, for endocrinologist, Dr. Celeste Brickler Hart, part of the storied Brickler family of African American physicians who have so
positively impacted Tallahassee for generations, her belief is that both a “STEM” mentality and a love of the arts grow from the same source.
“I have been interested in art since high school,” she says. “And when I was at Howard University in Washington, D.C., I found that museums, galleries — art in general was everywhere around me — and filled with pieces at the time when the Black Arts Movement was peaking.”
Hart never lost her love of art and when she had returned to open her practice in Tallahassee and the perfect space became available in 2017, she, with the assistance of Senior Curator, Kabuya Owens-Saffo, opened the Anderson Brickler Gallery.
“This year, in October, we celebrate our sixth anniversary,” says Hart. “And we’re doing it with a wonderful exhibition by three Black male artists whom Tallahassee knows well: Joe Roache, Paul Houzell, and Joseph Pearson.”
Hart explains that, “The idea for this exhibit evolved spontaneously as we sat talking in the gallery and I began to muse about the influences and relationships that African American men experience with the women in their lives. Whether romantic, a mentoring, as collaborators, or as teachers, I wondered how these three artists would depict in portraits or figurative form those experiences. And thus, was born, ‘“’Her Blood Runs Through My Veins,’ which is to say that the image of that woman truly became a part of you.”
Joe Roache was a long-time professor at FAMU and has taught in the School of Journalism and Graphic Design. His work hangs in private collections and museums around the country. 11/1/23, 12:55 PM Tallahassee’s Anderson Brickler Gallery opens ‘Her Blood’ exhibit
Paul Houzell is the current artist in residence at the ABG and is known for his interest in arts education. Joseph Pearson’s work is in galleries and collections across Noth Carolina.
There are over 20 paintings in the exhibition depicting women in poetic, revered, or dynamic forms, each work filled with color and movement in several media representations. In oil, watercolor, pastel, and graphic design, each of the artists demonstrates a catholic skill-set, able to paint in a vernacular style, a highly realistic rendering, or in the case of Roache, his blend of digital and painted canvases. The large exhibition feels as if there are more than three master painters on display!
The opening reception is from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15. The show will run through December. Hart invites attendees to try the provided Bourbon cake and carrot cake direct from Bill’s Sweetz of Charlotte, North Carolina.
If you go
What: New painting exhibition: “Her Blood Runs Through My Veins.”
Where: Anderson Brickler Gallery, 1747 S. Adams St.
When: 5-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15
