The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and Jacksonville Jaguars announce artists selected for Miller Electric Center. Work by artists from Northeast Florida and beyond will adorn the team’s new sports performance center.
Here’s an update for our 1st DownTown Jacksonville supporters:
Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and Jacksonville Jaguars Announce Artists Selected for Miller Electric Center
March 28, 2023 — JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville today and Jacksonville Jaguars today announced the selection of six artists to produce public art for the Miller Electric Center. The artists are:
- Aisling Millar McDonald of Jacksonville will produce a 16’ tall powder-coated, mild steel sculpture, representing various aspects of a community stepping up and coming together to support and elevate its future. The artwork will be located outside the team entry lobby.
- Casto Solano of Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain will create an eight-foot-wide illuminated sculpture of a jaguar head that will be installed on a pedestal south of the public lobby.
- Will DuBois of Missouri will produce four sculptural goal post-shaped bike racks for fan use.
- Timothy R. Smith of California will produce a monumental mural for the north exterior facade of Miller Electric Center’s indoor practice field, measuring over 400’ wide, celebrating all that makes Northeast Florida unique.
- Arlin Graff of Ohio will design two murals on vinyl for the fan amenity grandstand area that celebrate football in #DUUUVAL.
- DAAS of North Carolina will produce an additional mural on vinyl for the amenity grandstand area that highlights the athlete.
“The Jacksonville Jaguars investment into public art demonstrates an intentional elevation of Northeast Regional, national and international creative talent,” said Diana Donovan, executive director of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. “As Jacksonville’s leading arts and culture agency, we are honored to partner in igniting our creative economy through this dynamic project and seek to inspire other NFL teams to integrate the arts into their infrastructure and quality of life.”
Miller Electric Center artist team
Miller Electric Center will be the new home of the Jaguars football operations and is currently under construction adjacent to TIAA Bank Field. The variety of media will range from complex sculptures that will be shipped internationally to digital murals printed locally by Fastsigns. Installation of the artwork is anticipated to be completed before the 2023 Jaguars football season begins, in alignment with the opening of the facility this summer.
The partnership with the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville to infuse public art into the design was announced in September 2022. More than 150 artists from around the world answered the calls to artists (CTAs) put forth by the Cultural Council. Submissions were received from artists representing 25 states and nine countries.
The addition of public art to the 125,000-square-foot Miller Electric Center was fully funded by the Jaguars.
“We were truly inspired by all the submissions from artists around the world,” said Jaguars President Mark Lamping. “The art selected captured the spirit of our team and the identity of the Jacksonville community in unique ways. It’s our hope this investment in public art brings our fans a feeling of team pride and gives our corner of downtown a sense of place. Whether you’re visiting training camp or passing by on the highway, you’ll know you’re in Northeast Florida.”
Artist bios and quotes:
Aisling Millar McDonald
Aisling Millar was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1982 and immigrated to the Vero Beach, FL in August 1994. She moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 2000 to attend the University of North Florida. In 2005 she graduated with Bachelors of Arts in Education and in 2011 she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics and Sculpture. She received her MFA in Sculpture from East Carolina University in 2014. Aisling was the Instructor of Record at East Carolina University while working towards her MFA. She is currently an Adjunct Professor of 3-D Design, 2-D Design and Drawing I at the University of North Florida. She has worked for many arts organizations within the Jacksonville community including: Duval County Public Schools, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Cathedral Arts Project, the Ponte Vedra Cultural Center, and Art with a Heart at WolfSon Children’s Hospital.
Aisling has completed public sculpture commissions locally for the City of Amelia Island, the City of Atlantic beach and for the Jax Chamber. Her work is also in public collections in Greenville, NC and Macon, GA. She recently received an Art Ventures Grant from the Community Foundation of North Florida to create a large outdoor sculpture. She creates outdoor steel sculpture that is exhibited throughout the eastern United States. Currently, her work is exhibited in Chattanooga, TN, Roswell, GA and Winter Haven, FL.
Along with sculpture, Aisling also creates ceramic sculptures, wall-hangings, and mosaics for both public and private commissions. She recently completed a commissioned ceramic wall hanging for the permanent collection of the Community Hospice and Palliative Care, Alice and T. O’Neal Douglas Center for Caring, in Downtown Baptist Jacksonville, Fl.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aisling.millar.mcdonald
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashmcart/
“There is a unique dialogue between a community and its public art that continues to grow and change with time,” said Jacksonville-based artist Aisling Millar McDonald. “I sincerely hope that the public will enjoy my piece, Rising Coalescence, at the Miller Electric Center and I look forward to the future of Jacksonville and its public art.”
Casto Solano
Casto Solano is an award winning sculptural and structural artist, native of the Basque Country in northern Spain. Dedicated to public spaces, with an outstanding international reputation for quality and a unique creative vision, over the last thirty years he has produced artworks for richly diverse environments and communities around the world, and is a leading figure in his field. He works in high-grade, permanent and sustainable materials, fusing traditional techniques and the latest technology to create luminous and visually iconic artworks, which actively invite interaction and participation from the general public. Casto’s design philosophy is to create artworks that connect us though our shared space and culture. A key part of this is keeping visual and physical transits open for exploration. As he explains: “… a good artwork must draw people to it, not just locally, but from far and wide. It must create a community space and a natural gathering point that simultaneously refocuses our attention out into the surrounding area, the heritage, amenities and ecosystems that compose it.”
Whether for exterior or interior spaces, Casto’s sculptures are designed and fabricated for longevity and durability, projected in terms of generations rather than decades. This for Casto determines the true value of a public artwork to its community and environment; an installation that will age with grace and form an organic part of its surrounds, without depending on systems prone to degradation and obsolescence, or impractical maintenance routines. His oeuvre is art truly made to last, and hence, each of his signature artworks remains in place, welcoming visitors new and old, to this day.
The quality and flair of his work has led to international recognition, awards for his services to the public realm, and a series of commissions that are as diverse as the spaces for which they have been created. Current and past projects include artworks installed across the globe, from the Pacific Northwest in Vancouver BC, to the heart of Dallas Texas; from lake country in Saint Joseph Michigan, to the tropical coasts of Sarasota Florida; from Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland to France’s wild Atlantic coast. Each created with deep-felt love for the themes of community, ecology, technology and discovery that constitute the living heart of Casto’s work.
Since 2012 Casto has built a small and dedicated studio around his practice. This multilingual team collaborates with Casto on each and every project, working with cutting-edge 3D modeling techniques, design tools, research, and development. This capacity is somewhat unique for an independent artist, and allows Casto to dedicate his time to creating and sculpting his artworks, whilst SolArt oversee the professional management and coordination of the project, all the way from preliminary design through to the installation of the artwork in the space and the handover to its owners.
Will DuBois
Will DuBois is an architect living and working in Kansas City, Missouri. His architecture background influences his graphic compositions and his interest in graphic design and illustration similarly influence his architectural designs. He believes that design can have a profound impact on our everyday lives and frame of mind, which is why it is important to design joy into the world when possible.
Timothy R. Smith
Timothy Robert Smith is a Los Angeles oil painter, muralist and multi-media artist, using observational techniques to investigate the nature of perception. His work fuses together multiple perspectives into a kaleidoscopic vision, playing with our understanding of time and space, and blurring the line between personal and collective experience. His art has shown in solo exhibitions at museums, TEDx conferences and several galleries; being featured in media outlets that include Juxtapoz, Artillery, NBC and KCRW. He has created a plethora of public work around Southern California, Florida and Japan, including an interactive installation at the Museum of Art and History, Lancaster (May 2018) that combined oil painting with lights, sounds, 3-D sculpted figures and video projections.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tumblevision
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timothyrobertsmith
“It’s every public artist’s dream to connect with large audiences on a large scale,” said Timothy R. Smith. “I wanted my mural to feel like it’s moving like rapidly flowing river water of the St. Johns. My design is based in a reality where time and space are fluid, made of intersecting spherical grids and overlapping scenes that bend around characters and objects –– like the stadium, players and seats. I aim to have viewers walk away with a feeling of childlike wonder, remembering how the world looked when everything was enormous, magical and full of infinite possibilities.”
Arlin Graff
Arlin is Brazilian, based in the United States. He is 36 years old and was born in the city of Tatuí, in the countryside of São Paulo, Brazil. As a child, he loved to play with wood blocks, putting things together and then dismantling them again in a small woodshed where his father passed his time making birdcages and other small objects with wood.
As a teenager, specifically at the end of 1999, Arlin began with graffiti, painting trains in his neighborhood. In 2007, he graduated with a degree in industrial design. A year later, when he moved to São Paulo, he combined this passion for art with design, while he worked as an art director in various advertising agencies.
Quickly, Arlin began to piece together a type of deconstructionism, inspired by his childhood in the little woodshed. He created a very distinct style, giving life to his abstract creations that seem to be emerging from a digital work.
Beyond just painting in the streets, the artist moved toward fine arts and began to study new possibilities. Each time in a more elaborate form, animals are Arlin’s principal theme, creating a species of synthetic nature fragmented by the influence of the modern technological world.
Today, in addition to canvases, his elaborate paintings are executed in large scale around the world, bringing a little more of color to city walls.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arlingraffiti/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arlin_graff/
DAAS
DAAS is a contemporary artist, internationally recognized for his vibrant, engaging paintings and murals.
Based in the US and working globally, DAAS’ artwork utilizes a combination of abstract and representational imagery, driven by a distinct color palette and design aesthetic which incorporates bold shapes and organic forms saturated in vivid colors, to create larger-than-life artworks focused on bringing a sense of beauty and inspiration into the surrounding space.
As an international working artist for over 20 years, I am deeply inspired by the vibrant and dynamic world of large-scale murals and public art seen around the world. To me, there is something truly magical about creating a piece of public art that is not only visible to a select few in a gallery, but is accessible to and enjoyed by anyone who passes by it in their daily lives.
In my work, I strive to capture the beauty and complexity of the natural world, often incorporating modern abstract floral designs into my compositions. Through the use of bold colors and intricate detailing, I aim to create a sense of wonder in the viewer, inviting them to pause and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.
In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, I believe that large-scale murals and public art have the power to bring people together and inspire a sense of community. As such, I strive to create art that not only catches the eye, but also evokes a sense of connection and belonging.
Overall, my goal as an artist is to create artworks that are both aesthetically striking and emotionally resonant, inviting the viewer to engage with the world around them in a deeper and more meaningful way.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daas/
“As an artist originally from Jacksonville, I was immediately drawn to this incredible project at the Miller Electric Center,” said DAAS. “The idea of contributing to the city’s vibrant public art scene and creating a unique work in the town I was born was thrilling –– I want the public to enjoy my artwork and the energy, movement and excitement it aims to convey.”