February 26, 5PM – 7PM • Seaside Institute, Seaside, FL | Benefiting Alaqua Animal Refuge
Jamie Zimchek: Narrative Abstracts
On Sunday, February 26, please join us from 5PM – 7PM at the Seaside Institute to view the NARRATIVE ABSTRACTS series by artist Jamie Zimchek, benefiting Alaqua Animal Refuge. As part of the evening, Andrès Duany, founder of New Urbanism, will speak about the imminent challenges and prospects of an authentic, non-commercial arts culture along Scenic Highway 30A.
A community affair in support of the arts and new urbanism, Dan Bailey, owner of Amavida Coffee will serve his traditional community paella alongside Jenifer Kuntz, owner of Raw & Juicy, who is baking up and bringing guilt-free Mudslide Pie and vegan chocolate chip cookies. Frasier Hansen owner of Idyll Hounds Brewery will be serving his locally brewed beer. Lyndon Jackson, son of local singer-songwriting legend, Tim Jackson, will be photographing the evening. Kristeena Gearheart is bringing in the sounds as DJ Lady Muse. There will also be wine, water and good times for all.
Works of art from Jamie’s NARRATIVE ABSTRACTS series range from $200 to $4,000 and will include paintings of Scenic Highway 30A and the new urbanist towns of Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach. Proceeds benefit the artist, the event, and Alaqua Animal Refuge – a private, nonprofit animal sanctuary committed to serving the Emerald Coast as the premier no-kill refuge, providing protection, shelter and care to animals in need; a full-service animal adoption center; and a peaceful, proactive animal welfare advocate through educational outreach and community programs.
The Seaside Institute is dedicated to engagement, arts, education, and innovation and serves as the center of civic debate, creative expression, intellectual nourishment, and advanced thinking along Scenic Highway 30A, as well as serving as a national platform for education in New Urbanism.
The Seaside Institute is located at 138 Smolian Circle at Assembly Hall, on the north side of the Lyceum – across the green from the Seaside School. Text or call Anne Hunter at 214-641-1048 for directions or more information.
About the Artist:
Jamie Zimchek was born near Sacramento, California in 1978. She received a BA in Humanities at Newbold College in the UK in 1998, and her MA in Middle East & Mediterranean Studies from King’s College London in 1999. She worked as a freelance photographer, journalist, and college lecturer in both the U.S. and the U.K., supplemented by extensive solo travels through Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and Europe, before returning to the United States nearly a decade later. Her travel photography and writing have appeared in international magazines, newspapers, and online travel guides; her graphic design work included commissions from the Ethiopian Ambassador to the US. She has painted in oil since her late teens, but it wasn’t until 2008 that she truly transitioned to fine art alone, with work exhibited at Gallery 5 in Richmond, VA and the Baron & Ellie Gordon Galleries in Norfolk, VA, as well as private collections world-wide. Her nomadic instincts, love for design, and history-oriented background heavily inform a multi-media approach that seeks to provide fresh perspective on traditional ideas of beauty and truth. Zimchek’s fine art focus could be described as a mélange of minimalist landscapes and mixed media abstracts that explore the interplay of ideas as they impact the context of memory, time, and place. Her accessory line includes hand painted silk scarves and minimalist jewelry designs in fine metals, both heavily influenced by art and architecture. Her works are collected internationally and locally represented by the Newbill Collection off Ruskin Place in Seaside.
Pulling from her experiences as an academic, traveler and writer, Jamie Zimchek’s artworks are a cerebral synthesis of ideas and social constructs. Her mixed media paintings, or “narrative abstracts” are a form of story-telling, weaving together hints of urban spaces and colorful landscapes from remembered places. On a subtle level, her paintings present visual clues that ask necessary questions – often playfully – about identity of place. More overtly they’re a bold arrangement of colors and arranged spaces punctuated with words and mark making.
