Fresh Squeezed 8: Emerging Artists in Florida
Exhibition: April 13 – June 27
Opening Reception: April 13, 5-8pm
The Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg, FL, invited emerging artists currently residing in Florida to submit entries for possible exhibition in the eighth annual Fresh Squeezed: Emerging Artists in Florida. The exhibition has been held at the Morean Arts Center every spring since 2017. The purpose of this exhibition is to nurture and advance the careers of emerging visual artists while also giving our community the opportunity to discover exciting new art being made in our region.
The Morean Galleries are divided into six spaces for the purposes of this show, giving each selected artist a solo exhibition. Our Fresh Squeezed program aims to provide emerging artists with resources needed to develop a sustainable artistic practice.
Meet the six artists that were selected from nearly 200 applicants this year!
Check out past Fresh Squeezed Artists here
Hear the radio coverage of Fresh Squeezed 8 by clicking below:
Sponsored by:
Jayde Archbold
Jayde was born in Tampa, FL in 1994, and grew up there until she moved to Dade City, a small town north of Tampa, in 2007. She attended USF and received her BFA in Studio Art in 2016. Following graduation, she completed dual artist residencies in Texas, then returned to Florida after landing a position at a public library. Libraries became her way of both helping the community and continuing her passion for the arts, so she went on to pursue a master’s in library science and received her MA in 2019. She became a Librarian in 2023 and works in adult services for Pasco County Library System.
“Drawing on the design elements used in various cultures around the world, my work explores the concepts of culture and identity through the synthesis of patterns, colors, and motifs that are present in primarily indigenous communities throughout the globe. Botanical references of petals, plants, and flowers also adorn the colorful surfaces I work on to balance the structure of pattern with the fluidity of organic shapes. Colorful patterns and motifs sourced from traditional textiles, clothing, and adornment come to life in the vivid acrylic pigments I utilize on both two- and three-dimensional wooden surfaces. The work has become not only a celebration and exploration of world cultures, but a search in the discovery for my own as a mixed-race individual influenced by both my family culture but also that of where I grew up, visited, and lived in the United States.”
Brittani Brown
Brittani Brown is an artist born and raised in Mossy Head, FL and based in Orlando, FL. She received her BFA in Studio Art in 2021 and is in the process of obtaining her MFA in Emerging Media: Studio Art and Design in 2025 – both from the University of Central Florida. Brittani has participated in several group art exhibitions including First Thursdays at Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando Film Photography Association’s annual Film Photography Exhibition, and the Juried Graduate Exhibition at the University of Mississippi.
“I find myself in a state of tension-ridden nostalgia for the place where I played part-time parent to my siblings, and felt emotional neglect coupled with church-induced self-doubt. This is the same place where I picked wild blackberries, ate lunch in fellowship with the congregation, and learned how to drive in a pickup truck. These perspectives exist in my work to reconcile with myself what I and many other rural individuals have lived through to build bridges of humanity, familiarity, and connection with the American Southeast.
“To this day, I cannot find myself wholly represented in the visual arts, and I wonder how my growth as an artist and as a person might have improved if I had seen a reflection of myself. By working in the cornerstone historical art forms of Southern artwork like photography, printmaking, and embroidery, I facilitate representation to open a window to unseen identities in rural, low-income, Southern communities by referencing my own experiences from Northwest Florida.”
Camilla Byrd
Camilla Byrd is an artist known for her bold oil paintings that seamlessly blend figurative and abstract elements. Her introspective works reveal an exploration of the tensions between youthful innocence and the anxieties of growing up. Byrd’s art intertwines enigmatic narratives infused with themes of ambivalence and connection, pulsating with vibrant energy. Drawing inspiration from the late Alice Neel for the rendering of figures and incorporating Hockney’s vivid color palette, Byrd creates a distinctive artistic language. She is currently pursuing a BFA in studio art with a painting focus at USF.
“My work focuses on portraits, which help me connect with both others and myself. There’s something special about capturing the gaze of a loved one when they agree to be my painting subject – it’s a powerful experience for me. I primarily paint people that I am close to. The subjects in my art reflect a female archetype that I’ve identified with since I was young. Early on, I sensed my childhood and early adolescence would be filled with turmoil but spared by creativity and imagination. In my work, I’m not just celebrating my younger self but also recognizing the uniqueness of each friend I portray. Oftentimes, I use vibrant colors that may appear unnaturalistic. I begin with rich underpaintings and begin layering colors on top, always trying to leave a trace of the original layer. At first the colors draw you in until you begin to see there is much more going on than a pleasing color palette.”
Alexis Childress
Alexis Childress (1993) is a mixed media artist born and raised in Illinois, relocating to Georgia in 2013 and currently residing in Florida since 2021. She received her BFA from Georgia State University in 2020. Alexis has exhibited widely in venues such as MINT Gallery, Good News Arts, Atlanta Photography Group Gallery and the Rhode Island Center of Photographic Arts. A self-published author, her contributions extend to publications like Burnaway Magazine, Create! Magazine and the New York Public Library Zine. Alexis has been recognized with the Red Bull Arts Microgrant, the Georgia Visual Artist Grant from the Judith Alexander Foundation as well as selected to present at the 2021 Society of Photographic Education National Conference.
“Inspired by Afrofuturism, I create surreal, digital collages that explore ideas of autobiography, connection, and our relationship with technology. I use collage to layer and juxtapose images in a way that reflects the complexities and contradictions of the human experience. My use of digital manipulation channels technology to visually represent the manipulation of power and the influence of the past. My work is digitally delicious yet holds incredulous meaning within every mark, inviting viewers to think about their own lives and how we are all connected.”
Emily Martinez
Emily Martinez (b.1999, Queens, NY) received her BFA from the University of Central Florida in 2022 and is currently pursuing an MFA from the University of South Florida. Her work investigates fantasy and myth in religion, fashion, and gender. She is focused on the figure, elevating brown bodies in the tradition of painting through scale and color.
She often creates surreal landscapes and warped domestic interiors for the figures to inhabit, creating new narratives for the figures or ‘characters’ in the painting centered around the idea of spectacle. She often draws from Renaissance paintings or Mexican murals that depict Christian beliefs subverting the motifs of these periods by using those themes to develop new worlds around extravagance, sexuality, womanhood, and magic.
Karina Yanes
Karina Yanes is a ceramic artist who was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. She received her undergraduate degree in Studio Art from Denison University and is currently a graduate student in Ceramics at the University of Florida. Karina has participated in the Open Studio Residency at Haystack School of Craft and the CIRCA Graduate Residency Exchange. She is a 2024 recipient of the NCECA Graduate Fellowship.
“Existing at the intersection of three cultures as a Puerto Rican-Palestinian-Midwesterner has left me unable to fully identify with one culture. My work explores how living between cultures impacts a person’s development of identity and understanding of belonging. The process of researching and incorporating relevant objects, traditions, motifs, and familial stories helps me connect to my Puerto Rican and Palestinian cultures to which I have sought to belong. Like many other multicultural people, I exist within a new, blended culture. Through my work, I visually represent this new culture while acknowledging the ways that cultures naturally shift and change through generations and diaspora.”
