Tampa, FL

FloridaRAMA Project

Love Birds, Acrylic on Canvas

For FloridaRAMA's experience, Savannah created the painting Love Birds for the Sunnymooners Suite. She was inspired by a hyper-saturated, retro Miami motel vibe which included a love for flamingos. The flowers that make up the background are her interpretation of the contemporary flower icon created by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Savannah’s love for Japanese contemporary art and anatomy intermingled to create a new botanical species – the eyeball flower – who passively observe and greet motel guests. The corkscrew-necked flamingos come from their own whimsical and fantastical world and represent the love felt in the air of the honeymoon suite. This painting was done in the her typical graphic, hard-edge style painted without the aid of tape or stencils.

Bio—
Savannah Magnolia was born in Fort Myers, FL in 1996. From an early age, she developed a passion for the sciences, which influenced her path towards a career in medicine, studying Neuroscience at Boston University. To balance countless hours in the lab, Savannah began taking painting classes where she discovered a secondary love in life for painting. Slowly, her studio practice captivated her completely which brought her to Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL to earn a BFA in Fine Arts. She maintains her passion for medicine by merging the fields of science and art through hyper-saturated, hard-edge paintings influenced by traditional anatomical cross-sections and medical imaging scans. Guided by her personal experiences with deteriorating health and healing, Savannah explores the role that medicine can play in art, and vice versa, by addressing both the positive and negative aspects of health care. Savannah has exhibited in numerous galleries and museums nationally. In addition to other professional development grants and merit awards, Savannah was given the VSA Emerging Artist First Place Award and grant through The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, sponsored by Volkswagen. With this award, one of her paintings acquired for their collection travelled nationally to museums to continue sparking conversations about our collective health. In 2019, Savannah exhibited her work at the Red Dot Fair at Art Basel Miami. Recently, she was awarded a substantial grant from the United States Artists foundation in Chicago. Savannah currently resides and maintains a studio as a full-time artist in Tampa, FL.