flashlight
Misty Bennett, Renee Hanan Plata, Rebecca Tully Fulmer
January 9–25, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 9, 5–7 pm Artist Talk: Saturday, January 25, 3 pm
Ground Floor Contemporary is thrilled to present Flashlight, an exhibition of new works by Misty Bennett, Renee Hanan Plata, and Rebecca Tully Fulmer.
Misty Bennett is a painter and educator whose abstract paintings use playful color choices and thick, impasto paint, contrasted with delicate line work and ethereal spray paint. These images serve as metaphor for our emotional states of being, while the materials of the painting itself ground the viewer in its physical, sensory presence. Bennett teaches at the University of Montevallo and serves as Chair of the Department of Art. She holds a BFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design and an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Georgia. Her work has been exhibited across the southeast, most recently in the Alabama State Council for the Arts Gallery in Montgomery, the Red Clay Survey at the Huntsville Museum of Art, and the Tennessee Valley Art Museum.
Renee Hanan Plata is a painter and sculptor who uses the repetition of single units to explore the illusion of space and color. She challenges the viewer not to size up the painting at first glance but to allow the painting to reveal itself over time. Hanan Plata maintains an active studio in Birmingham, Alabama and recent exhibitions include a solo show at Scott Miller Projects and group exhibitions at Space One Eleven and the Alabama School of Fine Arts. She lived and worked in NYC for twenty years and in 1976, was awarded Yale University’s Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship. Hanan Plata received her BFA from Atlanta College of Art, MFA from Tyler School of Art, and MSEd from Bankstreet College.
Rebecca Tully Fulmer is a visual artist based in Birmingham, Alabama, whose interdisciplinary practice fuses lens-based media, collage, and fiber processes. Her studio work primarily focuses on how an image functions when it departs from the specific and becomes merely a material for exploration and expression. Inviting the viewer to sit inside each piece through transparent and reflective media, the experience creates a dialectical process with the eye as the shift and shimmer of light becomes a collaborator in the work. Tully Fulmer graduated with an MFA from Lesley University Art + Design in Boston, Massachusetts, and a BA in Interior Design from Auburn University's School of Architecture. Light in Tandem, her recent solo exhibition, was held at the Gadsden Museum of Art in Gadsden, Alabama.
Image: Renee Hanan Plata, Flashlight, 2024, 30x24 inches (detail)
GALLERY HOURS
Saturdays 1-4 pm during exhibitions and by appointment
Check announcements for details. Opening receptions vary between Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and artist talks are typically on Saturdays. The gallery is closed on the Saturday of an opening date, except during the reception.