MANDEM Artist Residency, Exhibits in Florence, Italy

MANDEM (Maize Arendsee, MFA Studio Art ’15) is an artist in residence at the Associazione Culturale Il Palmerino in Florence, Italy.

As the winner of the FSU Florence Teaching Award, Maize is teaching Drawing and Photography with FSU’s International Program in Florence, Italy this semester. Separately, MANDEM was awarded a concurrent artist residency with The Palmerino Association for the duration of their stay in Italy. Il Palmerino has a rich artistic history dating back to the beginning of the 15th century and it remains an active part of the Florentine artist community.

During MANDEM’s residency, they are creating a new body of paintings, the “Hypermobility” series. Progress on this series is being documented at http://MANDEMart.com/hypermobility.

MANDEM has been able to maintain their studio practice while in Florence thanks in part to the funding from the Exceptional Opportunities Award from the FSU Department of Art. Maize explained, “The additional funding from the Exceptional Opportunities Award allowed me to immediately invest in quality supplies as soon as I arrived in Florence. Without this gift from generous FSU donors, I would not have a complete body of work to exhibit here in Europe.”

MANDEM is participating in a group exhibit with other artists in residence at Il Palmerino on March 28, and having a solo exhibit and artist talk at Il Palmerino on April 20. In addition to also having several exhibition opportunities through the FSU Study Center in Florence, MANDEM is arranging other group and solo exhibits in Italy and England for the following months.

Learn more about Associazione Culturale Il Palmerino at http://palmerino.it, and the FSU Florence program at http://florence.fsu.edu.

Follow MANDEM’s current project at http://MANDEMart.com/hypermobility.