Fort Myers residents and visitors remember Marylyn Dintenfass as the New York abstract expressionist who authored the 30,000-square-foot public art installation,Parallel Park, that has converted the 5-story concrete Lee County Justice Center Parking Garage from an eyesore into a work of fine art. So fine, in fact, that several newcomers have mistaken the parking facility for the fine art museum.
The artist has recently installed a work from her new series in the West 25th Street window of Driscoll Babcock Gallery, the Chelsea “art shop” that represents her work. The series features neon three-letter words that define life’s essentials: art, eat, sex, die. Using vintage letters obtained from a salvage shop in South Carolina, the series combines the sensibility of popular culture with reclaimed object upcycling.
Dintenfass continues to draw attention to Fort Myers through the sale of her monograph on the making ofParallel Park. It is one of three books that the artist is promoting on her website, along with Drop Dead Gorgeous and Paintings.
Drop Dead Gorgeous is Dintenfass’ body of large-scale chromatic abstractions of stunningly beautiful, but poisonous flowers, which evoke a representational narrative about nature’s fatally duplicitous markers. Embodying the theme of “things are not what they seem,” these works draw their inspiration from some of nature’s most beautiful, yet dangerous plants. The 64-page hardcover book with full-color plate is published byDriscoll Babcock Galleries, and authored by Scott Indrisek, Executive Editor of Modern Painters magazine.
Paintings is one of the most complete presentations published on Dintenfass’ paintings. Her work has long been rooted in minimalism’s modular grid, yet supersedes it through her inspired abstract imagery. Enigmatic and hypnotic, her images often interweave contradictory or even symbiotic dualities that are the essence of life’s experiences. This 144 page monograph, with 76 color plates, is authored by New York-based independent curator, critic, and essayist Lilly Wei.
Marilyn Dintenfass: Parallel Park is the first book to document Dintenfass’ life-long love affair with automobiles, especially the culturally iconic high-powered, sporty, sexy muscle cars that streamed out of Detroit from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s. Authored by Aliza Edelman, PhD., the book critically explores how Dintenfass’ drawings, monotypes and paintings are the genesis for Parallel Park -a 30,000 square foot, site-specific installation in Fort Myers, Florida which just celebrated its third anniversary. Parallel Parkis one of the largest and most transformative art installations in the United States over the past decade, and is illustrated with more than 175 full-color plates.
To order, please email [email protected].
Dedicated on December 9, 2010, Parallel Park consists of 23 open-weave Kevlar and fiberglass fabric panels that have been attached to the exterior of the Lee County Justice Center Parking Garage by aluminum tubes. An enlargement of a 35-square-inch painting rendered by Dintenfass in her atelier, each panel stands an astounding 33 feet tall by 22 feet wide and the images change right before the viewer’s eyes as the sun carves its daily arc and clouds scurry across the bright blue Florida sky. The Lee County Justice Center parking garage is located at the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Monroe Street on the southern border of the downtown Fort Myers River District.
Located at 2116 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, Fort Myers, FL 33901, Parallel Park is one of the artworks discussed during True Tours’ 90-minute walking tour of the public artworks located in thedowntown Fort Myers River District. For days, times and reservations, please call 239-945-0405 or visitwww.TrueTours.net.
