Nude Nite Orlando is in their 12th year, but this was my first time attending. I'd never even heard of it before reading about it in the Orlando Weekly last week. I thought it sounded interesting and made plans to go on opening night.
The chilly Orlando weather didn't keep art aficionados from attending what is billed as the country's largest nude art show. The show attracted quite a large crowd.The show takes place in a large warehouse in the antique district near Lake Ivanhoe. A bar was placed in the middle and was surrounded by a series of room dividers on which were hung paintings, photographs, and so on in keeping with the theme of Nude Nite.
Walking around the show and mingling with the crowd were models and performance artists, also in keeping with the theme of the show. This lady was wearing a dress made from balloons.
Like all art shows, there was some good and some bad. Although I'd never hang it on my wall, I enjoyed the Naughty Wizard of Oz series.I guess at this point if I was a real art critic I'd tell you who the artist was and compare their work to other works, but I'm not, I'm an unemployed tree hugger.
I lot of people weren't really looking at the art. They were mostly drinking and mingling. I guess that's to be expected.I noticed that the people in the crowd fell into four neat categories: couples (gay and straight), people cooler than me, people weirder than me, and cougars, lots of cougars. There were no snickering frat boys, which was a plus in my book.
This digital photo was one of my favorites. Like a cross between a Yoda poster made up of screenshots from Emperor Strikes Back and that dead artist guy who paints with dots, this photo was made up of rippings from magazines put together to resemble, well, I'm a little too shy to write out what is going on in the photo.
The bar in the middle of the warehouse stayed busy most of the night and I have to admit I made more than a few trips there myself.
Throughout the night a model would stand behind the bar and, uh, model. I guess that's what you'd say she was doing.The drinks, by the way, were provided by Sip, a bar right down the street on Virginia Drive. Check out their website and follow them on Facebook.
There was more than one display of art in action. One corner of the warehouse was dedicated to body painting and there was also somebody painting henna tattoos; There were also some photo frame boxes with naked dudes posing as if in a living, breathing portrait. The girl in this photo was posing for an artist making a cake sculpture. I asked the artist if he ever watched Cake Boss on TLC. He didn't like the comparison.
There was more than one wire sculpture like this. I published a photo of another one in my post last night. If I had made this I would have called it "Booty Pop." That's just how I roll.
And now for what you've all been waiting for: photos of the body painting. The body painters were the most popular exhibit and these girls had their pictures taken hundreds of times last night.
After they were painted they walked around the art show and mingled with the crowd.
I don't know about you, but they look kind of scary.And to finish this up, I'm not sure if I could pick out the best in show, but I think this sculpture might help Governor Fitial solve his back pain problems:
He's shown that's he's into alternative health remedies, so why not? Let it be, says I.