Sculpture Key West. An Interview with Vera Vasek

Every winter, Key West’s beaches, gardens and historic monuments become the headquarters of Sculpture Key West, an annual event that brings hundreds of contemporary artists from around the world to Florida. ARTDISTRICTS sat down with its executive director, Vera Vasek, to talk about this event, which is celebrating its 17th anniversary and will remain open to the public until March 23rd.

By Ashley Knight

Artist Vera Vasek, Sculptor Key West executive director. All images are courtesy of Sculpture Key West 2012/2013.

Ashley Knight - Sculpture Key West was founded in 1995 by local sculptor Jim Racchi. Tell us how this initiative has evolved from an annual local show called “Art in the Park“ to the major international project that is today. When did you get involved?

Vera Vasek - I have known Jim since the early 1990s, when the days were not as quick paced, when there was more time to relax at the beach at Fort Zach [Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park], take a swim and read a book under the pines and attend drawing sessions at mutual friends’ homes. I recall our discussions of how Key West could be a potential venue for something like the Venice Biennale or Germany’s Documenta. The Island City’s stunning outdoor marine environment and historic red-brick fort ruins already provided the basis for a thriving tourist industry. With established world-class hotels and restaurants, why not bring the art world here, especially during the winter season? One day while biking out of Ft. Zach, Jim, who was working the front admissions gate, mentioned that he was starting a small sculpture show in the field and wondered if I wanted to participate. Local sculptors and their friends and colleagues from out of town also joined in, and it soon became an annual event. In 2000, Jim gathered a group of concerned Art in the Park supporters to assist in producing the show and take it to the next level. The Committee for Art in the Park was formed, and through a lot of community support and hard work, became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, eventually changing the name to Sculpture Key West in the spring of 2004. During these formative years I found myself, as a board member, totally immersed in the administrative duties of the organization. I eventually departed to pursue personal projects, only to find myself return to the board in 2008 during the economic meltdown and became exhibition chair. I’ve been actively engaged in my role as executive director, on a volunteer basis, since 2009.

Jim Racchi, Monolith, 2012, metal, 5'h x 2' x 1'. Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. Photo: Emily Sorkin. All images are courtesy of Sculpture Key West 2012/2013.

A.K. - What venues are being featured this year?

V.V. - Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, West Martello Tower -home of the Key West Garden Club-and, for the first time, on the sands of Higgs Beach. We also have a year-round sculpture exhibition titled “Sculpture on the Island.”

Tebelio Diaz, Flotilla, 2012, wood, plastic bottles, rope, wire, canvas, paper. Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. Photo: Vera Vasek.

A.K. - Which artists are participating?

V.V. - The jury for this year’s exhibition was headed by SKW exhibition chair Emily Sorkin [past owner of the Emily Sorkin Gallery in Tribeca, N.Y.]. This year we have 23 artists providing 22 installations and two community performances: eight local, 13 national and two international artists. Ten artists are associated with teaching positions at colleges and universities around the country, and German artist Gereon Krebber teaches in Cologne. His 10-ton concrete work was poured during installation week on Ramrod Key in the sand mounds at Rudy Krause Construction site. Jim Racchi is one of the local artists, showing one of his welded-steel compositions that he created at Florida Keys Community College, where he teaches creative welding. Titled Monolith, Jim continues his “Drawing in Space” series. Miami’s Tebelio Diaz’s Flotilla is based on his experience as an immigrant from Cuba and the magnitude of the mass migration that took place in the Mariel boatlift of the 1980s, unfortunately continuing with the countless rafters trying to arrive to this day. Thea Lanzisero of Huntington, N.Y., created a site-specific installation for Fort Zach’s field, comprised of five red, knitted-cloth hammock’s ends joining at the center, titled Starfish.

Robert Hickman and Keith Nelson. Overseas Heritage Trail Unicycle Tour (from Key Largo to Key West). SKW 2012/2013

On the performance side, Hunter College adjunct sculpture professor Robert Hickman partnered with circus performer Keith Nelson to traverse the Florida Keys in their Overseas Heritage Trail Unicycle Tour -a true community performance spanning the islands and bridges of the Keys, combining physical endurance and a good sense of humor. Marek Ranis, sculpture professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, created a community-performance work comprised of a series of postcards juxtaposing African taxidermied animals against a backdrop of polar landscapes, commenting on climate change, for distribution at various tourist locations in Key West. Bonnie Rychlak, a past assistant to the legendary Isamu Noguchi and currently an adjunct professor at Pratt University, has installed five hand-carved, cast-wax drain covers on the field of Fort Zach. Titled Down the Drain, Bonnie addresses shifts in time, where decay and change evolve the work throughout the exhibition.

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Jiwan Noah Singh, Home, 2012, wood pole construction, 10'h x 7' w x 7' d. Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. Photo: Vera Vasek.

A.K. - I know that you have organized different activities and programs for children, families and Key West visitors. Tell me briefly about these programs.

V.V. - We provide artist lectures, school tours and private tours of the exhibition. For this year, we are working on an event in March designed to engage the community in the development of an art form.

Gereon Krebber, Untitled (Analogue), cast concrete, 9' h x 13' w x 4 1/2' d. Higgs Beach (by West Martello). Photo: Vera Vasek.

A.K. - What is the impact of SKW on the daily life and economy of the island?

V.V. - We are living our mission of providing a significant platform for contemporary sculpture, where we aim to inspire and educate the community of the Florida Keys and its visitors while offering opportunities for emerging and established artists. Living in a global community, we would like to think that we engage the creative side in all who walk about the island, or surf the links on our website, to experience what we offer.

Marek Ranis, Romantic Key West, 2012. Performance: Postcard distribution (free) throughout tourist shops in Key West. SKW 2012/2013

A.K. - You are exhibiting your work this year. Tell us about it.

V.V. - My project is a seven-foot-tall assemblage of abstract forms inspired by my experience in the backcountry, or littoral zone, of the Lower Keys, composed of plaster-based material, glass fiber and metal.

A.K. - What is the process to exhibit in the next edition of Sculpture Key West?

V.V. - The 2013/14 exhibition application is due to be released toward the end of February and will be posted on the website for downloading at that time.

Sculpture Key West is on view through March 23rd, 2013. This year event has been dedicated to the spirit, vision and memory of Sculpture Key West’s major patron, Susan Mesker. For more information about venues and events, visit sculpturekeywest.org.

Ashley Knight is an arts writer based in Miami.