Every year, the Zodiac Membership Committee invites 12 local emerging artists to exhibit at the Museum during The Dalí Dozen, a special one-night event. The Zodiacs are an all-volunteer group that supports the mission of The Dalí Museum by building meaningful relationships with members and helping to strengthen the ties between the Museum and the arts community. For more information about the Zodiacs, please contact membership@thedali.org.
This year, The Dalí Dozen are:
Tricia Sham
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Brett Holden
Tricia Sham amplifies life’s deflating and elating experiences by conducting hyper-focused observations of insects and plants. Her creative process revolves around actively viewing her surroundings puzzled together by abstract shapes. With the emphasis on translating this ambiguous lens onto surfaces ranging from matboard to canvas, Sham’s work has been described as an endless void of vulnerable interpretations. Most known for discovering links between insects’ actions and human emotions, she has occupied a number of physical spaces including Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg as a part of the 2023 Rays Artist Series. Sham hopes to increase or revive others’ excitement for nature and for viewers to feel the beauty in vulnerability; to finally feel what they could never describe.
Kelsey Floyd
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Britt Hayes
Kelsey Floyd is a ceramic artist based in Tampa, Florida. Starting pottery in early 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, pottery was a way to connect with the peace and harmony within during a very trying time personally and worldly. An autodidact, Kelsey curated a studio space in her home and got lost, or more-so found, in the endless self-discovery of this art. She believes art and creation are intrinsically woven in the deepest and oldest parts of our humanity and can be tapped into when we come across the right muses to envision it and mediums to release it.
Sonny Cole
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Dacota Maphis
Forever a maker, my artistic soul has danced through paint, baskets, quilts, and sun-kissed pottery. After Lyme’s whisper, I surrendered to the allure of the fine silver. For over 17 years, I’ve woven my love for nature’s whispers into intricate dances of silver. Creatures both grand and small – the fleeting flutter of a dragonfly’s wing, the delicate touch of a weed hidden amidst tall grass – all find their voice in my wearable art. A Victorian flourish here, a whimsical twist there, each piece whispers a story in silver, echoing childhood summers spent with my beloved horse, Silver. In every curl and glimmer, I invite you to join me on this journey of lifelong wonder, where nature’s secrets bloom in unexpected places.
Harley Van Hyning
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Frances Recheungel
Growing up with a mother who first attended the Brighton School of Art in England followed by the British Royal Academy, local artist Harley Van Hyning was inherently interested in artistic endeavors. He took classes throughout childhood and high school but was deterred from pursuing an artistic career. He’s since come full circle, having always kept his creative mindset, eventually finding an outlet in the century-old Japanese art form of Gyotaku. Harley has a non traditional approach in the art form using color acrylics and canvas. He also does additional detail work to the print that is an accurate depiction of the life form which is his way of honoring the creatures of the seas. Harley has painted some of the biggest fish species ever recorded and traveled internationally to places like the Maldives in the Indian Ocean to paint fish. He is gaining both national and international attention for his work and is passionate about taking the art form to new realms that he wants to introduce to the fine art world.
Dominice Gilbert
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Harvey Drouillard
Dominice Gilbert received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduation she completed an artist residency at Crab Tree Farm and was artist in residence at The National Ornamental Metal Museum. She creates abstract organic sculptures by hand cutting, shaping and welding individual pieces of sheet metal together to create hollow forms. This labor intensive process requires a great deal of pattern making, precision and finish work. After fabrication is completed she utilizes a variety of patina techniques that complement her natural aesthetic. Dominice’s work is constantly evolving, as every new sculpture design progresses from the last. Her work creates tension between forms, mixing opposing textures and shapes in harmony, creating balance in opposition. Her sculptures are a replication of her emotions, but also serve as a reflection of the viewer. Dominice’s work is featured in private, public and museum collections around the world.
Calan Ree
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Janna Kennedy Hyten
Originally from New York, Calan Ree has called St. Petersburg, FL home for over 20 years. Her ceramic and mixed media figurative sculptures have been shown in group exhibitions and solo shows and can be found in the homes of collectors in the United States and abroad. Her work can be described as haunting and sweet, macabre yet humorous. Ree uses dichotomy to reach the viewer on a subconscious level. “I am always striving to create work that will gently tug at the viewer’s heart strings. By creating work that moves me in some way I can often create a similar experience in others. Whether it brings to mind a personal memory, a deep emotion or a simple smile, the art’s ability to stir something in the viewer is evidence of a human connection we all share…a connection that is undeniably beautiful.” Calan also works as a teaching artist with NOMAD Studio which brings art engagements to underserved populations. She teaches ceramic sculpture / hand-building at the HIVE St. Pete and at the Tampa Museum of Art summer camp.
Nneka Jones
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Jessica Hall
Nneka Jones is a Trinidadian-born multidisciplinary artist currently living and working in Tampa, FL. Her astounding love for color as influenced by her Caribbean background and ability to push the traditional boundaries of textiles and fiber are vividly evident in her contemporary hand embroidery work. Her practice explores innovative embroidery techniques to produce striking visual dialogues that expose the outdated perception of the limitations of textile art. Jones advocates for elevating textile art to exist in fine art spaces beyond being labeled as domestic hobbies. Using portraiture and symbolism she captures emotions and creates narratives that advocate for the protection and celebration of women and young girls.
Christopher Figueroa
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Kisha Linebaugh
Christopher Figueroa is a passionate glass artist from Los Angeles, California. His work delves into the social issues he faced during his adolescence, offering viewers an approachable insight into his upbringing.
Figueroa was first introduced to the medium of hot glass in Phoenix, Arizona as a protégé of the esteemed glass artist Jason Chakravarty in 2016. Over the past nine years, he has immersed himself in the mesmerizing craft of glassblowing, leading workshops, assisting in residencies, and teaching alongside renowned artists such as Therman Statom, Scott Darlington, and Jamex & Einar De la Torre. In April 2024, Figueroa accepted the role of Education Coordinator for the DMG School Project in St. Petersburg, Florida—a non-profit organization founded by Duncan McClellan dedicated to “educating and inspiring personal growth through glass art.”
Xan Peters
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Laura Bethea
Xan Peters grew up in Clearwater, FL in his mother’s art gallery and studio. Always drawing dinosaurs and other extinct animals as a child, he moved to Bozeman, MT to study fine art and museum studies at MSU. His knowledge of paleontology brought him to work as the resident artist for the Carter County Museum in Ekalaka, MT. He received his MFA from the SMFA at Tufts University where he has taught as a teaching fellow. He now practices art in St. Petersburg, FL while teaching at SPC and UT.
Scott Causey
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Pamela Joy Trow
I was anxious to get away from the potter’s wheel and vessel form so I returned to what I had been doing as a child – making animals. The only necessary difference was that my new animals had to be large and hollow. I knew that any armature I used would have to be removable. I came up with a technique of building a rigid skeleton with tin foil and vermiculite, as well as large amounts of masking tape. The armature is covered with white earthenware and the animal’s features are sculpted. After drying to a leather hard state, the animal is then cut in half and the entire armature is removed. The two halves are then carefully rejoined and bisque fired. Generally, this part of the process takes 1 to 3 weeks. The animal is then broken into pieces using the wooden handle of a hammer. Then each piece is glazed seperately and fired. Some of the pieces are fired a second time with lusters or another layer of glaze in a different color to create depth and design. When the firing process is complete, I use a paste epoxy to reconstruct the animal creating the finished product.
Janelle Marie Kelley
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Patti Siltala
Janelle Marie Kelley is a visual artist specializing in 3d mixed media, using acrylic and resin as her main mediums. Her realistic characters manifest themselves in vivid colors and other media to add depth and contrast evoking a multidimensional perspective. She is best known for her custom combination of photo realism and fluid art as well as exotic sea life pieces. Her signature style consists of integrating digitally manipulated images, merging with tangible objects that leap from the surface. Janelle’s art is meant to transplant the viewer into a mind space of wonder, beauty, and escape in an otherwise strange and unpredictable universe. Born and raised in Florida she is a self taught artist legitimizing what once was a hobby into a career. Her work can be found in Tampa, St. Pete, Miami, Key West and throughout the state of Florida. She has recently shown in renowned art shows such as Art Expo, NY and Art Basel, Miami.
Gordon Cousino
Sponsored by Dalí Museum Zodiac Member Whitney Lynch
To the best of my knowledge, my birthplace is Ann Arbor, Michigan. A few years later, my family relocated to Colorado, where I grew up surrounded by the skateboarding, music, and art scenes of Boulder and Denver, which greatly inspired me. I discovered artists like Charles Burns, Jeremy Fish, Evan Hecox, and Chuck Close, spending countless hours at the Clyfford Still Museum. After spending over a decade in New York City, I found a sunny home in St. Petersburg, Florida, where I have lived for the past four years. Skateboarding and the dynamic art it inspired led me to create logos, letters, characters, and cartoons. I developed a technique in pointillism, which sparked the idea of turning each pen stroke into a tangible object. The photos I captured over the years, which I altered and layered, are encased in resin, allowing them to shift slightly if they choose to do so.