WHAT: Contemporary Art Lounge Opening
WHO: Nationally acclaimed environmental artist JEFRË and performance art by DRIP.
WHERE: 201 East Central Boulevard, Orlando FL 32801, Downtown Orlando next to Lake Eola and the Public Library
WHY: Downtown Arts District Third Thursday Venue
WHEN: Grand Opening October 15th, 16th and 17th with performance art by DRIP at 8pm and 10pm.
TICKETS: $10 online at www.ILoveDRIP.com or $15 at the door. (Special Grand Opening Pricing)
WEBSITES: www.BlankSpaceArt.net, www.facebook.com/ILoveDRIP

Emerging Artist JEFRË to launch new downtown contemporary art house and announces the signing of DRIP to produce monthly performance art events.

After a year at the City Arts Factory and winning several international public art competitions, JEFRE will open a new innovative gallery and lounge called “Blank Space”. Located at Lake Eola on the corner of Roseland and Central Avenue, Blank Space will be an experimental art and coffee lounge within the heart of the Downtown Arts District. The new Third Thursday Venue will feature contemporary art, installations, digital media, and interactive performances. DRIP will be producing monthly performance art events every Third Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening. DRIP is a performance art company that combines performing and visual arts. During performances, dancers create and often become visual art themselves by blending movement, artistic mediums and art installations. DRIP is a resident at The Center For Contemporary Dance (www.TheCenterForDance.com) in Winter Park and has created original performances for WWE Wrestlemania, Red Chair Affair, Nude Nite Orlando, Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival as well as creative conferences and private events.

Each month will feature a new DRIP experience. Patrons will witness the premiere of new performance art experiments, performance installations, interactive art, paint flying inside of Plexiglas boxes and DRIPPIES (DRIP performers) playfully making a colorful mess.

”I have always thought the missing element of Third Thursday was a venue that specifically honored both contemporary and performance art,” says JEFRE. “I am excited to collaborate with DRIP visionary Jessica ‘Mariko’ and her team of art directors to create the fusion of both art and performance that is currently missing downtown. My goal is to help elevate the arts in Orlando and draw a new audience that has not typically been a part of Third Thursdays.”

JEFRË is an internationally acclaimed public artist based at Blank Space Gallery in downtown Orlando. Having earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Landscape Architecture from Ohio State University, subsequent to attending the Art Institute of Chicago for Fine Arts, JEFRË has gone on to receive numerous awards for his innovative designs. He has been showcased in publications such as Miami Home and Design and ELLE Magazine, and was named one of the seven “Faces of Design” by Florida InsideOut architectural magazine. After ten years working with such notable international firms as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Edward D Stone and Associates and Glatting Jackson, JEFRË launched his own couture public art studio in 2008 with a focus on environmental art, green roofs, boutique plazas, parks, and public art master plans. In his first year, he has been selected for six national blind public art competitions in New Orleans, Washington D.C., Toledo, Palm Beach, Miami, Portland, Orlando, Kissimmee and Philadelphia

DRIP TRANSFORMS CONFERENCE ATMOSPHERE
WITH A PERFORMANCE ART INSTALLATION AND CREATIVE INTERACTIVITY
October, 13, 2008

The Create Chaos 2008 conference for the creative industry is coming to Orlando, FL on Oct. 13-17 and DRIP will be headlining the entertainment at their Opening Night Party on Oct. 13.

Create Chaos 2008 serves to connect, inform, inspire and educate creative professionals with 50+ expert speakers, a 40+ exhibitor Expo Hall centered around a Medici Garden Intersection with inspirational and educational stage presentations, a Job Fair specifically geared toward creative professionals and students, and unique networking parties/events throughout the week.

DRIP has created a customized performance art installation as well as interactive creative areas. The Opening Night Party will be held by the pool at the Orlando World Center Marriott. DRIP is creating a water inspired installation that will come to life when a dancer performs infront of a blowing device that wisps her plastic watery dress into the air as she moves. Water is poured into the stream of air and then blown onto a large framed canvas. As more and more water is sprayed, a beautiful watercolor painting is revealed.

Guests will also be able to play in plastic wrapped outdoor cubicals with electric spinning frames. These fun and unique areas enable art to be created by dripping paint onto the moving canvas. Guests are able to take their pieces of art home with them.

For more information on Create Chaos, visit www.createchaos.com.

DRIP PERFORMS ALONGSIDE CIRQUE DU SOLIEL AND BLUE MAN GROUP
September 7, 2008

Sold Out Audience Celebrates Central Florida Arts & Culture at the Red Chair Affair

The 4th Annual Red Chair Affair kicked-off Central Florida's cultural season on Sunday, September 7, 2008 at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre with topnotch performances from over 20 cultural organizations. Over 1,800 people attended the event and sampled Central Florida's cultural offerings with performances by Cirque du Soleil, Orlando Opera Company, Mad Cow Theatre, Orlando Ballet, Orlando Philharmonic, VarieTEASE, DRIP, and many more, including a surprise performance by Blue Man Group.

While this year's event was the first to offer general admission to the performance, the Red Chair Affair also included 200 Red Carpet patrons who sampled fine dining from select Orlando Magical Dining restaurants and purchased Red Chair themed visual art provided by Florida Artists Registry. The Red Carpet guests were also served dessert provided by Arthur's Catering backstage and had the chance to bid on auction items packaged with decorated IKEA Red Chairs that were turned into pieces of art by local cultural organizations and arts supporters. Over $8,000 was raised with the IKEA Red Chair silent auction and the entire event raised over $23,000, all to support the Red Chair Project and the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Central Florida whose mission is to spread awareness of arts and culture in Central Florida.

"We are thrilled that so many residents and visitors came out to celebrate the kick-off to the cultural season" said Autumn Schaefer, Executive Director of the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Central Florida. "We hope that those who attended continue to visit RedChairProject.com and participate in the arts year round."

The Red Chair Affair also kicked of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau's Orlando Magical Dining Program that features more than 50 Central Florida restaurants with three-course, prix-fixe dinners, at an exceptional value of $19 or $29 during the month of September.

The Red Chair Affair was presented by the Red Chair Project and was sponsored by Florida Travel and Life Magazine, IKEA, Central Florida Press, and the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau's Magical Dining Program.

(DRIPPIE above: Elaine "Lanie" Hoxie) Photography by TisseART.com

ORLANDO SENTINEL REVIEW - "Wet" at the Fringe Festival
May 20, 2008

'Wet' - Drip
By Dewayne Bevil
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

Wet is a performance-art show that's both drippy and trippy.

Dance is at the forefront of the intriguing act, but it's in dim lighting, black lighting, behind screens with psychedelic liquid light projections, with Day-Glo paint smeared on the skin and to the tune of a live, glow-in-the-dark electric guitar player. Rock on! You know when there's black tarp spread over the seats that no tutu will be involved, right?

The colorful, creative show probably will gain a lot of notice for its paint routines, which culminate with a suspended, rapidly spinning dancer inside a large shower-like contraption. I liked the optical illusions/tricks of scale behind the screen, but my favorite part was early on: One dancer in front of a screen, performing a paus de deux with a circle of lights.

Unlike many, many Fringe shows, I didn't leave Wet thinking it was too long or too padded. It clocks in at 35 minutes. By the time the Slip 'n Slide curtain call arrived, I felt neither restless or ripped off. Good show.

WET
performing at the 2008 Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival
May 17-25, 2008

WET, the newest piece by performance art company DRIP will be debuted at the 2008 Orlando International Fringe Festival. The Orlando Fringe is the oldest un-juried theatre festival in the United States, taking place over a period of twelve days where you can enjoy art, theatre, music and dance. Visit www.orlandofringe.org for more festival information.

WET is an innovative, spectacular experience and one of the must-sees at this year' Orlando Fringe Festival. WET will incorporate dance, liquid light projections and black light body painting fusing together rock ‘n roll, art and performance. DRIP encourages you to expect the unexpected. WET is something you have NEVER seen before. The show includes music, incredible dancing, and unrelenting spirit. DRIP brings performance art to Central Florida' arts and culture scene that is usually only seen in Los Angeles or New York City.

DRIP's founder, artistic director and choreographer Jessica Mariko, takes you on an exhilarating and unexpected trip with visuals by Christie Brock and Evan Miga. The show also features Daytona Beach' liquid light projection artist, Perego. Founding “DRIPPIES, Elaine "Lanie" Hoxie and William Marchante as well as DRIP newcomer, Tymisha Harris, are premiering dance choreography that blends dance, projections and black light paint.

DRIP's performance of WET will be taking place at the Orange Venue. The Orange Venue is located at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater's Margeson Theater at 812 E. Rollins Street in Loch Haven Park. Tickets are just $10, with the purchase of a Fringe Festival button. WET is classified as a mature show. For more information on WET or DRIP's other shows, events, atmosphere or workshops please visit www.ILoveDRIP.com.

WET performance dates and times:

Location: CityArts Factory (29 South Orange Avenue, Orlando, Fl 32801)

DRIP & EMPTY SPACES COLLABORATION
August 9th, 2007
          
A thread of artistic collaborations is happening in Central Florida. This thread started with the Holocaust Memorial Resource Center’s exhibit entitled Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals. Empty Spaces Theatre Co. agreed to produce the play Bent in association with the exhibit. DRIP paint in motion’s director, Jessica Mariko, witnessed Bent's last dress rehearsal and was so moved by the performance that DRIP is creating a movement piece with the situations and emotions of Bent set to the music of Schindler’s List’s Main Theme by John Williams. The piece will be danced by Jessica Mariko and Elaine “Lanie” Hoxie and will feel very empty yet full of emotion. DRIP paint in motion always incorporates visual art into their work and this performance is no different. DRIP’s premiere full-length show was performed at the 2007 Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival and incorporated many gallons of paint and large canvases. This time, the artists will surprise the audience with a new interpretation of visual art.

Bent
Saturday, August 11, 8pm
Sunday, August 12, 2pm
Produced by Empty Spaces Theatre Co.
Location: The Mandell Theater at The John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center in Loch Haven Park

Photo by tisseart.com