Art Center Sarasota’s New Exhibitions:
December 8 – January 13
“Reflections”
Opens December 8
An open, all-media, all-subject, juried exhibit.
Opening reception is Thursday, December 8, 5-7 p.m.
December 15-January 20
“Sea-Change”
Abstract paintings influenced by Florida’s coastal environment by Tom Stephens
“Cracker Politics, The Limit of Colonial Knowledge”
A photographic installation by Michael Adno addressing Florida’s critical societal issues
Art Center Sarasota Instructors Show
Featuring works in 15 mediums by 31 Art Center Sarasota instructors
Opening reception for three exhibits is December 15, 5-7 p.m.
(Sarasota, FL) Art Center Sarasota’s 2016-2017 exhibition season, entitled “Common Ground,” continues with four exhibits, which run December 8 to 13 and December 15 to January 20. “Reflections,” in Gallery Four, is an open, all-media, all-subject exhibition juried by Tom Stephens, a nationally acclaimed, Sarasota-based artist. This exhibit runs December 8-13, with an opening reception on Thursday, December 8, 5-7 p.m. “Sea-Change,” in Gallery One, features abstract paintings influenced by Florida’s coastal environment by Tom Stephens. “Cracker Politics, The Limit of Colonial Knowledge,” in Gallery Two, is a photographic installation by Michael Adno addressing Florida’s critical societal issues. The Art Center Sarasota Instructor Show, in Gallery Three, features works in 15 mediums by 31 Art Center Sarasota instructors. The opening reception for all three exhibits is Thursday, December 15, 5-7 p.m. Art Center Sarasota is located at 707 N. Tamiami Trail, in Sarasota. For more information, call 941-365-2032 or visit www.artsarasota.org.
“Reflections” is an open, all-media, all-subject exhibition juried by Tom Stephens, a nationally acclaimed artist who lives and works in Sarasota. This exhibit runs December 8-13, with an opening reception, Thursday, December 8, 5-7 p.m.
“Sea-Change” features large-scale, abstract paintings influenced by Florida’s coastal environment by Sarasota-based artist Tom Stephens. Through their fusion of tangled underbrush and dense artistic mark-making, Stephens’ paintings are anchored between expressionism’s visceral, roiling brushwork and a romanticist’s passion for the awe-inspiring flora and fauna of Florida’s coastal environments. Caught within this dialectic, “Sea-Change” exemplifies an artist captivated by the competing passions of an intense, unwavering focus and an innate drive to push away from comfort zones and into the terra-incognita. The Florida native says his work is influenced by vivid memories of places visited along the Florida coastal environment. For more information, visit www.tomstephenspaintings.com.
In “Cracker Politics, The Limit of Colonial Knowledge,” Michael Adno says he tries to “to map the inextricable bonds between the colonial past of Florida’s territory and its present state as part of the global entanglement. Interrogating this relationship offers a method to rethink the space between identity and belonging, the distance measured by memory.” Adno, an artist and writer based in New York City, was born in Florida and identifies himself as a first-generation American—born to South African and Austrian immigrants. He writes that, “the places we call home are inextricably bound to our identity, made up of regional, state, and national fault lines. Where we fall within such perimeters and how we generate meaning there tends to be what ties us together. Without that sense of place, heritage, a set of beliefs and conventions, we feel shorn from home.” For the past year, Adno explored secret fraternal organizations that have existed in Florida since the mid-19th century, discovering the “inextricable but hidden ties between the Ku Klux Klan, local politics, and other clandestine white supremacist organizations.” His project-based photography installation comprises more than 50 photographic prints that attempt to shed light on the contemporary manifestations of these groups, their histories, and their increasingly problematic presence in politics, law enforcement, and everyday life. For more information, visit www.michael-adno.com.
The Art Center Sarasota Instructor Show features works in 15 mediums by 31 Art Center Sarasota instructors. According to Elizabeth Goodwill, the education director at Art Center Sarasota, “This annual exhibition gives students and the public the opportunity to see the work of our talented instructors who are all professional artists. Viewers also get to see the amazing diversity of disciplines we offer here.” Goodwill notes that the center offers painting classes in watercolor, acrylic, oil, pastel, ink, mixed media and sumi-e; sculpture classes in tech art, papier mache and new mediums. “We also offer printmaking, papermaking, bookmaking and photography workshops and classes,” she says. “We try to appeal to artists working in a wide variety of mediums. Our instructors teach realistic, impressionistic, abstract, portraiture, and still-life—and we recently added new class instructors and more mixed media workshops.” The exhibit’s featured artists are Anne Abgott, Ann Beckett, Filomena Booth, Liz Davis, Elena De La Ville, Katya De Luisa, Pat Dews, Regine Dossche, Barbara Eisenberg, Sandy Frick, Carol Frye, Ralph Garafola, Sue Garland, Nancy Goff, Elizabeth Goodwill, Dave Gordon, Mike Grecian, Julie Hanson, Margaret Hillman, Tim Jaeger, Judy Just, Jill Krasner, Ali Lambert, Cheryl Martin, Joseph Melancon, Kathryn Morrill, Judy Nadler, Javo, Keiko Romerstein, Linda Sharp, Jane Slivka and Gail White. Goodwill adds that three of the exhibiting artists—Pat Dews, Filomena Booth and Carol Frye—are from out of the region but will be presenting special multi-day workshops at the center in 2017.
Art Center Sarasota’s 2016-2017 exhibition season, entitled “Common Ground,” showcases the works of professional and emerging artists living and working in Florida. According to Lisa Berger, the center’s director, “The season brings recognition to the talented, professional artists of today who are making Sarasota famous as a cultural destination. We want to revitalize the cultural community by bringing back the excitement the local visual artists created when they were drawn to Sarasota in the early and mid-20th centuries. The buzz will prove that Sarasota is a destination for people seriously interested in contemporary visual arts.”
2016-2017 Season: A Quick Glance
Cycle 3 (January 26-March 10) features “Classic Fantastic,” an open, juried exhibit (January 26-February 25); a solo exhibit of work by Dasha Reich; a solo exhibit of work by Robert Burridge; and ASALH Black Muse 2017 (February 2-March 10); and FAB (Fabulous Art Boutique; March 1-4).
Cycle 4 (March 16-April 21) features the “SPECTRUM II” installation; “Beginning to End,” a solo exhibit of work by Peppi Elona; an invitational sculpture exhibit; and “From Within,” an open, juried exhibit.
Cycle 5 (May 18-June 30) features “Unlimited Potential,” a juried, members-only show (May 18-June 23); an exhibit of works by Amy Ernst and Amy Ragus; “MASHterpieces IV”; and a fourth exhibit TBA (May 25-June 30).
Cycle 6 (July 6-August 11) features “Florida’s Finest,” an all-media, all-subject, juried exhibition highlighting the talented artists of the Sunshine State, in all galleries.
Cycle 7 (August 24-September 29) features a solo exhibit entitled “World Without Men” by Lowell Gilbertson; a solo exhibit by Carol Prusa; an exhibit of works by the Sumi-e Society of Sarasota; and “Line, Form and Color,” an open, peer-juried exhibit.
For more information about Art Center Sarasota, call 941-365-2032 or visit www.artsarasota.org.
About Art Center Sarasota
Art Center Sarasota was the first arts and cultural institution in Sarasota. It was founded in 1926 as the “Sarasota Art Association” by Marcia Rader, the art supervisor for the Sarasota County schools district. In the early years, the group met monthly and sponsored exhibits in rented facilities. The Association was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 1943 and has been in its current location in the Sarasota Bayfront Cultural District since 1949. Art Center Sarasota is now a membership-based organization that offers curated and juried exhibitions, adult and youth education programs, outreach initiatives for underserved youth, and culturally related public programming. Art Center Sarasota’s mission is to inspire individual creative expression, nurture artistic talent and provide the community with accessible and diverse visual art opportunities.
Art Center Sarasota
707 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236
Phone: 941-365-2032 § Fax: 941-366-0585
www.artsarasota.org
Gallery Hours:
Free admission
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday
Closed Sunday
