VISUAL ARTS

Janet Onofrey’s artwork will be on display in an exhibition entitled Unseen, at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The exhibition, at the Lee Wagener Art Gallery, Terminal 2, Departures Level, will run through July 8, 2012.

A resident of South Florida since 1995, Janet Onofrey was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and today lives in Fort Lauderdale. As a child, she began studying art in the Tam O'Shanter art program offered at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, where she was exposed to the masters of art. This exposure at a young age fueled her passion, stirring a pursuit to create, and inspires her artistic vision today.

“We live in a time and culture where millions of images bombard our senses at incredible speeds relentlessly. There are things we don’t see, even when we are looking straight at them, and other things we stare at obsessively, so that we are blind to everything else. Such is human nature,” says Onofrey. “My Unseen body of work questions what we prefer to see, that which is taken for granted, and the passage of time.”

Onofrey received training at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh and Point Park College which led to a commercial art career over fifteen years. Moving to South Florida allowed the artist to use her graphic design and illustration skills in commercial work, but it was the sunlight and mild weather that beckoned her to work outdoors, en plein air.

After a decade of doing commercial work, Onofrey decided to focus on her own art by attending Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia for her MFA in painting. This led to a painting residency in Provence, France and time spent in Barcelona and Paris. As an adjunct professor, she teaches art at Broward College and Nova Southeastern University as well as private lessons. Her work has been juried into national exhibitions such as the American Impressionist Society and American Women Artists and is a member of the Oil Painters of America and Plein Air Florida. She was featured in “New American Paintings, Juried Exhibitions-In-Print” and her paintings reside in both public and private collections from Pennsylvania to Colorado.

The Lee Wagener Art Gallery, supported by Broward Cultural Division’s Public Art & Design Program and the Broward County Aviation Department, offers Broward artists an opportunity to exhibit their work in a prominent, high traffic area. Artists are selected through the Public Art & Design Program. Exhibits are changed every three months. Also on view in the gallery is the public art video, Tree-Rain, a permanent artwork by Broward-based artists Suzanne Scherer and Pavel Ouporov.

For more information, contact Christina Roldan, Public Art & Design project manager at 954-357-8542.