Art Center Sarasota’s New (Virtual) Exhibitions

February 12, 2021 – Sarasota

Art Center Sarasota’s 2021 exhibition season continues with four exhibits, through March 5. “Skins In It: Work by Neil Bender and Cynthia Mason” features an installation of multimedia works that explore the experience of the body. 

“Found Forms: Sculpture by Carl Abbott” features the vibrant sculptures of this renowned architect. The 2021 “Black Muse” exhibition features work from artists of African descent throughout the state of Florida. The 2021 “Student Black Muse Exhibit” features work from students from Booker, Riverview, Sarasota, and Northport high schools and Booker Middle School in commemoration of Black History Month. “Staying Connected” is an open, juried exhibition of work in all media juried by Debra Markley, a photographer and fine arts teacher at Sarasota High School, and Anita Wexler, a painter and teacher at Sarasota High School. All exhibits are available to view online. Personalized docent-led Zoom tours are also available upon request; small groups are encouraged. Art Center Sarasota, 707 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. For information, visit www.artsarasota.org or call 941-365-2032.

Skin’s in It: Cynthia Mason’s low-relief and sculptural wall pieces create abstract forms that riff off of grids and known structures that are uncanny and disarming. Some of the soft sculptures recall solid objects (shelves, windows), but lack rigidity. Some recall the body but lack smooth contours. Sewn from coarse fabrics and stuffed with shredded documents, they bloat and pudge. Gender is rendered in provocative shapes noisily on display, questioning gender performance in politics and how we consume it. Neil Bender’s work explores the complexity of sexuality and the body through paper and paint, making flattened images that play with the shallow spaces of slightly overlapping images, and the shallow spaces of popular cultural vernaculars. Recent images range from small-scale collages and sketchbook drawings to shaped, cut-paper garments, and large, expansive wall murals. Both artists use whimsy and play to make viewers aware of the potency of negotiating and reconciling art amongst other bodies in public spaces. Bender and Mason also collaborated on a site-specific atmospheric wall painting that will serve as a stage for the actors (the paintings, drawings, and sculptures) to have enhanced dialogues This is a kinetic, tactile, and immersive collaborative experience that is sensorily-engaging, ribald, and pleasurable.

Found Forms: Sculpture by Carl Abbott: This exhibition features vibrant sculptures by the internationally acclaimed architect Carl Abbott FAIA. Comprised of reformed metal ductwork and antique, agricultural implements, Abbott’s sculptures are both playful and monumental. Abbott is one of the most highly awarded architects in the Florida/Caribbean region. He received his degree in architecture from University of Florida, and his master’s degree from Yale, studying under Paul Rudolph. For several years, he worked with Mayan archaeologists in Mexico and Central America. “In/Formed By The Land” is a book about Abbott’s architecture. 

The 2021 “Black Muse” exhibition is a collaboration between Art Center Sarasota (ACS), The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), and the Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative (SBAC) and features work from artists of African descent throughout the state of Florida. The exhibit was juried by Elizabeth Goodwill, MFA, education director for Art Center Sarasota; and artist and SBAC board member Alyssia Lazin. The $1,000 first prize award went to Krystle Lemonias, a Jamaican-born artist who lives and works in Tampa. The $750 second prize award was given to Jesse Clark, A Haitian-American photographer and Ringing College of Art and Design student. Honorable mentions went to Cora Marshall of St. Peterburg; Musa Kunene, a Swaziland-born student at Ringling College of Art and Design; and Greg Rumph, vice principal at Riverview High School in Sarasota.

2021 Student Black Muse Exhibit: The Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative and Art Center Sarasota partnered with four Sarasota County high schools and one middle school to offer students of African descent the opportunity to participate in a visual arts exhibition commemorating Black History Month. The works of 20 students are showcased in this exhibit.

“Staying Connected” is an open, juried exhibition of work in all media juried by Debra Markley, a photographer and fine arts teacher at Sarasota High School, and Anita Wexler, a painter and teacher at Sarasota High School. First prize went to Tony Reinemann for “Long Island City” (oil on canvas). Second prize went to Rebecca Witter for “Woman Dressed for a Party” (mixed media).