Friday, Jan. 26, brings Café Amici's first Da Da Wine Down of the new year – showcasing the artwork of St. Thomas oil painters Mercedes Berruz and Aphrodite and the French wines of Georges Dubœuf.
The event takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. at the restaurant, located in Riise's Alley in downtown Charlotte Amalie.
Da Da Wine Down, held on the last Friday of the month, is an event that combines opportunities to sample local art and fine wines with traditional end-of-the-work-week socializing. Admission is free. Café Amici owner Rick Kingsland and his staff provide complimentary hors d'oeuvres and there's a cash bar in addition to the featured wines. Toward the end of the eveing, a drawing will be held for door prizes including dining certificates, wine and artwork.
There is a $10 fee for the wine seminar and tasting, which will be conducted by J.P. Montegut of Bellows International. Two red and two white wines will be sampled.
January's featured artists work in oil and are known for their representational imagery. Both will be present Friday evening to discuss their work. The art will be on exhibit only that evening at CafeAmici.
Aphrodite Johnson, who uses just her first name professionally, concentrated on still life, landscape and portraiture in her art studies in New England and New York But she developed her own specialty – commissioned portraits of sports stars, including Kirby Puckett, Mo Vaughn, Drew Bledsoe, Larry Bird, Ray Bourque and Dino Radja. Living and working in the Virgin Islands in the winter months since 1995, she says she has been inspired by "the vivid Caribbean colors that I observe on hand-painted signs, umbrella-covered fruit stands and downtown alleyways."
Mercedes Berruz, a New York native of Spanish decent, has lived on St. Thomas since 1962. She is primarily a self-taught artist but studied under the late Eric Winter. She won first place in oil painting at the 1997 Caribbean Colour exhibition. She has exhibited at the Reichhold Center for the Arts, Tillett Gardens and the Sugar Estate Post Office and was featured at the grand opening of Frenchtown Plaza; her work can currently be seen at the Color of Joy. "I am told that my work is fresh and true," she says, "and I think this is because I believe that artists should paint what they feel at the moment."
Georges Dubœuf is France's largest exporter of Beaujolais Nouveau. Dubœuf wineries are also known for their Maconnais, Rhone Valley and Pays d'Oc wines. For those intersted in doing some homework to prepare for the wine seminar and tasting, a good place to begin is online at the vintner's home page, at www.duboeuf.com.
