T he Bailey Art Gallery in Hobe Sound will unveil an exhibition featuring works from local painter Dan Mackin and photographer M.E. Gruber April 24. In “Dan Mackin and M.E. Gruber,” Mackin’s highly stylized works span mediums and Gruber’s photos of the burgeoning Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast surf scenes come together to express admiration for life on the water.
Dan Mackin
Mackin began documenting his adventurous life through drawing and painting during a 1971 sailing trip along the west coast of Mexico and Central America. He has traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean, South Pacific, Asia, and the Amazon rainforest. A fluent Spanish speaker, Mackin earned a B.A. in Creative Writing and an M.A. in Intercultural Education in Mexico. He spent years living on sailboats and working in advertising and education , before dedicating himself to art in 1989. Mackin’s art combines airbrush and traditional painting techniques to create vividly detailed scenes of idyllic beaches and coastal landscapes.
This exhibition features Mackin’s paintings on canvas, navigation maps, surfboards, and a guitar. It also includes four of Mackin’s collaborations with legendary singer-songwriter Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, as well as serigraphs created using multiple silkscreens for each color .
M.E. Gruber
Gruber, a grandson of early Florida settlers, worked for the U.S. Post Office following his service as a sonarman in the U.S. Navy . He was also a scout leader with the Gulf Stream Council of the Boy Scouts of America. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he began documenting the emerging surf culture and sport along the beaches of Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. Over time, he amassed an archive of more than 5,000 Kodachrome transparencies, which were preserved by his sister, Charlotte Brown. She later donated the collection to the Palm Beach County Surfing History Project . It is now featured at the Surfing Florida Museum, which recently opened its new location in West Palm Beach…