Please join us for a conversation between multidisciplinary artist Gregg Perkins and Curator of Contemporary Art Katherine Pill.

Driven by historical research, Gregg Perkins uses the mediums of film, video and photography to explore the fluidity of cultural narratives. For his exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Perkins was inspired by a 1930s E.G. Barnhill postcard depicting the skyline of St. Petersburg, with the now-demolished Hotel Soreno standing at center. Barnhill was known for his atmospheric, hand-colored photographs that established a unique type of tourist art celebrating the luscious colors of Florida. Sunshine City includes the original Barnhill postcard, as well as a photograph by Perkins depicting the same vista of St. Petersburg in the present day. Using animation and digital photography programs, Perkins updates the tourist postcard to reflect the changing skyline of our city as well as developments in technology.

Perkins earned his BA in philosophy and an MFA in painting from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He taught studio art and art history at the University of Wisconsin, and was guest faculty in the graduate painting division at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Currently he is Chair and Associate Professor of Film, Animation and New Media at The University of Tampa. Perkins’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Image: Gregg Perkins, Sunshine City, 2018. Inkjet print. Courtesy of the Artist.

FREE with General Admission