A Rare Opportunity to See an Anna Maria Artist’s Significant Body of Work
(Update: Helen passed away January 27, 2015 at her Anna Maria home.)
Anna Maria Island prides itself on its art community, which holds frequent exhibits and fairs at various venues. But not all of the island’s artists focus on showing their work. Some are more involved in their inner journey, and their painting process, without allowing the requirements of showing and selling their work to influence these priorities. The result can be work that has a great deal of integrity, and personal meaning.
Such is the case with Anna Maria artist Helen Romeike-Wisniewski, who, at 87, is still involved in her paintings every day. Her body of work is substantial, spanning the past six decades. Much of it never has been shown.
The opening of a large exhibit of her paintings, at the Palmetto Art Center (PAC) on Saturday, March 3, [ed. 2012] from 5 to 8 pm, promises to be an unusually interesting event. This relatively new art gallery and community center is a beautiful location for the serious presentation of art. The entire facility is being dedicated to the best possible presentation of Romeike-Wisniewski’s bold abstract paintings. The pieces to be shown have been selected by PAC director Gretchen LeClezio and the artist, to represent her work from various eras, including her time in Germany, in Austin, Texas, and on Anna Maria Island. Very large works on unstretched canvas will be hung, as well as more recent geometrical abstract acrylic paintings on paper, most of them unframed. The pieces are so strong that the frame is not missed. There will be some framed pieces, including an intriguing ink portrait of the artist’s brother, whom she credits with suggesting she enter the field of art.
“Hocus-Pocus” is how Helen Romeike-Wisniewski describes her work. “Now you see it, now you don’t,” she explains in her artist statement (shown in full, below). “We get glimpses of what’s out there or glimpses of what’s within…” The richness of both her inner and outer life are evident in this stunning exhibition spanning six decades of her journey to self knowledge through painting.
Helen Romeike-Wisniewski’s roots on Anna Maria Island run deep. Her parents, German immigrants, built the 1950s island home where she currently resides and still spends time creating. Her life, much like her canvas, is rich in experiences. Helen grew up in a family that followed her father’s petroleum engineering work assignments. During her married life, Helen continued to move often, this time following her then-husband’s military assignments. In the years after, Romeike-Wisniewski’s independent streak became as vibrant as the colors reflected in many of her paintings.
More abstract presentations are included in the exhibition that challenge the mind to think beyond the literal. The blending of real and fantastic scenes draw the observer in to the perspective of near, far and infinite.
