Showtel Time

Last year, South Florida artists Denise Tackley and Bradley Lezo sunk a bedroom into the pool to make a statement about global warming at Showtel at Hotel Biba in West Palm Beach.
(Credit: Denise Tackley and Bradley Lezo)

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How do you get 22 artists to spend weeks or months pouring their hearts and souls into art that will be on display for just six hours? Ask Kara Walker-Tome, who has been organizing Showtel for seven years. Each year, artists submit proposals for how they would transform one of the rooms of West Palm Beach’s Hotel Biba into a work of art. The selected artists then spend weeks, maybe months, planning out their projects. In the end, they all descend upon Hotel Biba and spend about 24 hours creating exhibits that may entertain, surprise or disturb.

This year’s artist lineup includes AdrienneRose Gionta, who curated the recent Designing Intelligence show at Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt Center Gallery, Palm Beach Community College art instructor Kristin Miller Hopkins, Showtel veteran Carolyn Sickles and Sue Stevens. I recall Stevens' exhibit from last year because it was so darned disturbing. I despise waking up to the sound of an alarm, so to walk into a dark hotel room full of bedside alarms all going off at once was sensory overload. Here’s a link to the video of her alarming exhibit. Somewhere close to the beginning, you can hear someone saying “Look at all of them … It’s horrible!” I think that might have been me.

Also exhibiting this year is Ryan Toth, who will create an installation based on life-size animal skeletons, and Showtel newcomer Jessica Weber, who explores family dynamics and human interaction in her imaginary world of creatures. You can read my story about Weber here.

Showtel is 5-11 p.m. Saturday at Hotel Biba, 320 Belvedere Road, West Palm Beach. Cost: $8 includes drink. Call 561-832-0094.