Flotsam gifted to Alliance sculpture park

Alliance for the Arts announces its newest addition to the ever evolving sculpture park. Flotsam was gifted thanks to an ArtFest program giving a second life to older pieces of art.
Flotsam was created by artist Donald Gialenalla, an artist specializing in the design and fabrication of public art. Known for his larger-than-life sculptures in public and private collections across the United States, his work is installed in over a dozen cities from California to New York, and now the campus of Alliance for the Arts. His background includes teaching art at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, and 10 years as an Emmy winning television graphics producer in New York City.
Flotsam stands 11 foot tall and 20 long long and was created in the studio and delivered to the site as a finished sculpture. Originally featured in ArtFest’s We Are Overflowing, an art exhibition created to showcase the pollution problem and the beauty created from upcycling discarded materials.
The original installation featured a surrounding 3 foot tall circular low fence approximately 25 feet in diameter into which visitors deposited their empty bottles and cans to fill up the “ocean” around him, covering the wheels and braces with a sea of bottles. Flotsam was made of repurposed plastic and recycled objects firmly attached with stainless hardware to a painted wooden armature.
Flotsam made its way from the ArtFest warehouse to the Alliance for the Arts Sept. 9 thanks to Knox Services, a local roofing contractor, loaning their truck and trailer, and the manpower provided by the Alliance staff and volunteers. The sculpture park is set along McGregor and Royal Palm boulevards in Fort Myers, and is free and open to the public.