BIO AND CV
I Create Art Because I Must
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Born in Panama, Rene grew up in a small coastal Florida town where her parents owned and operated a gas station next to their home on a dirt road outside of town. She and her 7 siblings had to work the gas station after school each day and during the summer months. It was this experience and living in the days when each car manufacturer designed distinctive cars, that she became enamored with the cars of the 1950's and 60's. Her love of cars is sometimes reflected in her present day artwork!
After high school she married, later divorced, and raised three children while working for the phone company and attending college at night. After achieving her college degrees, Rene moved to California in the mid 1990’s, where she secured an art studio at Hunter’s Point Shipyard in San Francisco so that she could pursue her dream of becoming an artist. The preponderance of museums and galleries available in the city was new to her and exposed her to dozens of established and emerging artists. Living in San Francisco afforded Rene an unparalleled opportunity to enrich her understanding of art, learn new techniques, and expand her talents. Over the next 10 years Rene immersed herself in her artwork exploring photography, life drawing, painting, and collage.
Rene Griffith is an artist and visual storyteller who creates images that evoke memories, feelings, and the appreciation of beauty found everywhere. Inspired by a lifelong fascination with abstract shapes such as cast shadows, reflections, silhouettes, clouds, and colors, she creates art that captures the essence of a locale and the embodiment of her thoughts, memories, and feelings onto canvas. To read more about her creative processes, click here.
Since returning to Florida in 2006, Rene has worked out of her home studio in Indialantic where she continues to study and grow as an artist. She has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions and in galleries in California, South Carolina, and Florida. She has been featured in numerous local magazines and Florida Today newspaper articles. Click here to read more about her exhibitions.
Rene’s art is included in many private and corporate collections and is licensed to art publishers and product manufacturers worldwide. Her stylized Polaroid photographs are sold through fine art publishers, online galleries, and her website. Her original abstract and mixed-media work is currently shown at Steve Koman Fine Art in Vero Beach, FL, Plum Art Gallery in St. Augustine, FL, as well as her own Home Gallery in Indialantic and several online art galleries.
CURRICULUM VITAE
RENE GRIFFITH
(b. Panama Canal Zone, Republic of Panama
EDUCATION
Florida Institute of Technology, B. S., Technical Communications, Melbourne, FL
University of Miami, M. O. T. , Management of Technology (summa cum laude), Coral Gables, FL
ART STUDIES
San Francisco City College:
Holman Turner, photography, San Francisco, CA
Gillian Goldman, alternative photography techniques, San Francisco, CA
Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, studies in fine art, Gatlinburg, TN
Kanuga Watermedia Workshops:
Lana Grow, acrylic abstract painting, Hendersonville, NC
Maureen Brioullette, mixed media, Hendersonville, NC
Carrie Burns Brown, collage, Hendersonville, NC
Online Workshops:
Nicholas Wilton, creative visionary program (CVP)
Louise Fletcher, finding your joy
Melinda Tidwell, abstract book collage
Lisa Call, working in a series
Private Lessons:
Charles Velek, watercolor painting, Melbourne, FL
Michael Markowitz, life drawing, San Francisco, CA
Bonita Springs Center for the Arts and Private Studios:
Theresa Girard, abstract painting, Bonita Springs, FL
Kevin Gilmore, collage, Bonita Springs, FL
Theresa Girard, advanced abstract painting, Bonita Springs, FL
Cat Tesla, advanced abstract composition and color, North Port, FL
SELECT EXHIBITIONS and GALLERY REPRESENTATION
2023 Plum Art Gallery, Gallery representation, St. Augustine, FL
2022—2023 Gallery representation, Sweet Art Gallery, Naples, FL
2021 NOMA Fine Arts Gallery, solo show, Ocala, FL
2021 Group exhibition, Bonita Springs Performing Art Center, Bonita Springs, FL
2020 Big Art Now Gallery, Gallery representation, West Palm Beach, FL
2020 ABSTRACTION: RETROSPECTIVE MEMORIES, Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, FL
2019 Steve Koman Fine Art Gallery, Gallery representation, Vero Beach, FL
2019—2020 Jane's Art Center & Gallery, Gallery representation, New Smyrna Beach, FL
2019 LASTING MEMORIES: FLORIDA REVISITED, Jane's Art Center & Gallery, New Smyrna Beach, FL
2019 100% Pure Florida, Fifth Avenue Art Gallery, Melbourne, FL
2019 LOCAL MOTION, (2nd Place Award) Studios of Cocoa Beach, Cocoa Beach, FL
2019 Members Show, Center for Visual Arts, Bonita Springs, FL
2014—2019 Brevard Cultural Alliance rotating art displays throughout Brevard County
2018 Photography, Studios of Cocoa Beach, Cocoa Beach, FL
2015—2018 Clay Stephens Lifestyles Gallery, EGAD, Melbourne, FL
2015—2017 Thibault Art Gallery, gallery representation, Beaufort, SC
2015 FROM ABSTRACT TO REALITY, Clay Stephens Lifestyles Gallery, Cocoa, FL
2014 CLASSIC CARS, Clay Stephens Lifestyles Gallery, Cocoa, FL
2014 PHOTOGRAPHY: FROM POLAROID TO DIGITAL ART, Clay Stephens Lifestyles, Melbourne, FL
2013 ARTIST: RENE GRIFFITH, Clay Stephens Lifestyles Gallery, Melbourne, FL
2012—2015 Fifth Avenue Art Gallery, Melbourne, FL
2005 Clay Stephens Lifestyles Gallery, Cocoa Beach, FL
2004 RENE GRIFFITH: POLAROID PHOTOGRAPHY, Bennett Gallery, Placerville, CA
2003 PARIS, ModernPast Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 Judith Litvich Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2000 IZ IT . . . PHOTOGRAPHY? 3, Calumet Photographic Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 CLICK!, Hollis Street Project, Emeryville, CA
2000 New Gallery Group Show, Hunters Point Shipyard Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1999 BEHIND THE MASK, San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998—2005 Open Studios, Hunters Point Shipyard, San Francisco, CA
1998—2002 Open Studios, SomArts Gallery, San Francisco, CA
MEDIA AND PUBLICATIONS
Panzarino, Sue, Indialantic Select Magazine, Artist of the Month, November 10, 2020, p. 10
Desena-McFarland, Jamie, Local Artist's Work Installed in Orlando, Hometown News, Feb 27, 2015, p. 8
Classic Cars: An Artist's Interpretation, Hometown News, Apr 11, 2014, p. B4
Sonnenberg, Maria, Artist Shows Off Classic Car Art in Cocoa Village, Florida Today, Apr 9, 2014, p. 2G
Sonnenberg, Maria, 'Fauxtographs' Reach International Media Acclaim, Florida Today, Aug 3, 2014, p.5E
From Abstract to Reality, Hometown News, Oct 7, 2014, p. 3
Sonnenberg, Maria, Florida Artists Show Photography Pieces at Gallery, Florida Today, Jan 1, 2014, p. 2G
Sonnenberg, Maria, Photographer Channels 'Soul of a Painter', Florida Today, Apr 20, 2013, p. 6D
McKee, Cindy (host), Rene Griffith More Polaroid Art, Brighthouse TV Show Focus, Jan 7, 2013
McKee, Cindy (host), Rene Griffith Manipulative Polaroids, Brighthouse TV Show Focus, Nov 19, 2012
McKee, Cindy (host), Rene Griffith Polaroid Artist, Brighthouse TV Show Focus, Oct 8, 2012
Creative Photography with Polaroid Cameras and Films, Florida Today, Feb 10, 2012, p. T21
Rene Griffith: Paris, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 31, 2004, p. 57
Jung, Pam, The Artist: Rene Griffith, Grass Valley, The Union, April, 2003
PUBLISHED WRITING
“An Artist's Road to Licensing Art”, Licensing Art 101 by Michael Woodward, 2007
PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Marshall Field and Company Collection, Chicago, IL
Orlando Regional Medical Center, Orlando, FL
Beaufort Memorial Hospital, Beaufort, SC
Work held in private collections in Canada and the United States.
TEACHING/VOLUNTEER SERVICES
Creative Growth Art Center, Oakland, CA
SomArts Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Creative Uses Consultant for Polaroid Corporation, San Francisco, CA
Renee Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, FL
The Center for Arts and Humanity, Sarasota, FL
Art League of Daytona Beach, Daytona Beach, FL
Thibault Art Gallery, Beaufort, SC
Renee Foosaner Education Center, Melbourne, FL
SAQA Conference, Melbourne, FL
MEMBERSHIPS
Brevard Cultural Alliance, Melbourne, FL
Vero Beach Art Museum, Vero Beach, FL
Orlando Art Museum, Orlandi, FL
Bonita Springs Art Association, Bonita Springs, FL
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
Hunters Point Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Fifth Avenue Art Gallery, Melbourne, FL