The Meridian Art Experience Comes to Delray Beach's Pineapple Grove

James Blumenfeld and Susan Romaine, the principals behind The Meridian Art Experience - or the mAe - will host a Grand Opening for their new fine art gallery representing emerging and mid-career artists on Thursday, February 2, from 6 to 9 pm. Located at 170 NE 2nd Avenue in Delray Beach's bustling Pineapple Grove Arts District, the new gallery is aimed at making the middle art market approachable, affordable and experiential.

"At the mAe, we believe there is a vibrant, but under-served community of art enthusiasts who are interested in fine art that isn't homogenized," says Blumenfeld. "They are seeking to learn more and are hungry for experiential ways to do so. In fact, they are eager to engage in the fine art of living with art."

"We believe our clients are interested in how art fits into their personal design aesthetic rather than in designer art," adds Romaine. "the mAe is the perfect place for them to experience the mid-career and emerging art community and to participate not only in its evolution but also in the evolution of their own art collections."

Opening Exhibition

Janet Siegel Rogers - One Woman Show

For its first monthly exhibition, the mAe is featuring oil encaustic painter Janet Siegel Rogers, a resident of Palm Beach county who has a studio in Artist Alley in Delray Beach. In her exploration of pure color, Rogers' luminous, glowing paintings are energized by a technique original in its application and ancient in its origins called encaustic. Oil paint is suspended in beeswax, allowing layers of pigments and light into the surface of each painting. Her process holds the impression of her brushstrokes and allows the artist to weave over the surface of her layered colors giving them a rhythmic movement and a delicate tapestry of texture.

"As the observer changes positions or the room light changes, so do the paintings, creating images that feel as if they are live participants in their environment," says Blumenfeld.

As for the artist, she attributes the effects of light on water and its visually powerful meeting of the sky in the line of the horizon. "The Everglades, the skies and the waters all influence my work," says Rogers.

mAe Professional Services

A full range of professional artistic services are being offered at the Meridian Art Experience including:

· the mAe Gallery: Space for contemporary and emerging artists across diverse media.

· the mAe Group: How to buy, collect, hang and consign art.

· the mAe Art Services: Framing, Installation and curating existing collections.

· the mAe Space: Event space rental for parties and events.

About the Principals:

James Blumenfeld is a strategic marketer, who has worked with such iconic brands as Hostess, Wonder, Nabisco, Coca Cola, Citibank, Ameritrade and for numerous nonprofit organizations focused on autism, education, equality, fighting AIDS and the fine arts. After earning a degree in art history, he embarked on a lifelong appreciation of the arts and is a collector of emerging and contemporary art.

Susan Romaine had a successful career in finance, where she worked with Irving Trust, Institutional Investor Magazine, Smith Barney, Equitable Life Assurance Society and more. She began a professional art career in 2000 and her work can be found in numerous private and corporate art collections, as well as at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston, SC. She partnered with Jack Alterman to publish Cornices of Charleston, a book of her painting and his photographs. She is a producer and a collector of fine art.

For more information about the mAe, please call 407-921-6931 or visit www.maefineart.com.

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