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This week's best art: Performance art with honey, video montage of old motels

 
Selina Rom?n, That Liminal Space, 2015, archival inkjet print.
Selina Rom?n, That Liminal Space, 2015, archival inkjet print.
Published July 19, 2017

Micheal Hooker: (100 Pitchers) of Honey

You can easily apply the label "Renaissance woman" to Micheal Hooker. Maybe you know her as lead singer of a number of local bands, including Dear Old Liar, or as the owner of Lector Literary Wine Bar. Well, she's also a psychology writer and a performance artist, connecting polarity and somatic therapy to her work. Much of this expertise informs her multimedia exhibition (100 Pitchers) of Honey, opening Saturday at Tampa gallery Cunsthaus.

In this exhibit, she uses her voice and body in live performances, film installations and mixed-media collages, which explore bees' fatal colony collapse disorder and the effects of alcoholism. The title comes from a poem by Jack Gilbert that says, "My love is a hundred pitchers of honey." She actually bathes in honey in the videos, a sticky endeavor, undoubtedly, but also an exploration of rituals.

The free opening reception will feature a participatory performance by Hooker, and happens from 7-9 p.m. at 4634 N Florida Ave. The exhibit runs through Aug. 19.

Motel Montage: Please Disturb

There's something romantic about old school motels, even for all their shabbiness. Perhaps they evoke the nostalgia of vacation culture that is steadily being replaced by massive hotels and condos, or even Airbnb. Selina Román explores this notion in her Please Disturb series of photographs, shot inside old motel rooms. Her subjects are dressed in outlandish outfits or staged with whimsical props, and are the point of departure for her video montage Please Disturb: LRMA Edition, which will be presented at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at 3 p.m. Saturday. Román will also discuss her photograph Lean, which is part of the museum's collection and is on display in its "Paradise Found" exhibition. Admission is $7, $6 seniors, free children/active military. 600 E Klosterman Road, Tarpon Springs. l eeparattner.org.