Art Center Sarasota Promises a "New and Now" Season to Come
Site-specific installations by two artists, drawings and paintings by Ringling College’s Jeff Schwartz, colorful abstractions by Peter Gaztambide, and illustrations by regular Sarasota Magazine contributor John Pirman are among the artworks that will be featured in Art Center’s 2017-18 season.
The season begins in October and runs through early the next fall, with seven exhibition cycles (most encompassing up to four exhibits) filling the center’s galleries. Curators Nathan Skiles and Dustin Juengel are especially looking forward to the installations.
“Abhidyna ‘abhi’ Ghuge [a former dermatologist who draws inspiration from Indian henna designs, among other things] will create thousands of large-scale woodblock prints on paper plates,” according to Skiles. And Juengel adds that Akiko Kotani’s Floating Cubes installation is “simplicity itself—two 48-inch cubes draped in plastic resembling a soft blanket.” The artist crochets the plastic in a tribute to her own mother’s handiwork.
Here’s the line-up for the season.
Oct. 19-Dec. 1 offers Last Stop Before Utopia, a curated exhibit of landscape paintings; Tempus Projects, with guest curators; and Ghuge’s installation. On view Oct. 12 through Dec. 1 will be an open juried exhibit, First Impressions.
Next up, Dec. 14-Jan. 19, viewers will see Jeff Schwartz’s large-scale, black and white interior drawings and paintings, curated by Sarasota Museum of Art director Anne-Marie Russell. Skiles says that Schwartz “evokes a sense of film noir poetry worthy of Edward Hopper.” Also on view for those dates: Kotani’s Floating Cubes and the ASC instructors show. New and Now, another open, juried show, opens Dec. 7 and will run through Jan. 12.
A solo exhibit of work by John Pirman, whose cleanly geometric architectural illustrations are a staple of Sarasota Magazine’s back page, is a highlight of the Feb. 1-March 9 time period at the center, along with a solo exhibit by George Pratt; and ASALH: Black Muse 2018 (a curated exhibit featuring member-artists of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History). Art from the Heart, a juried show, takes place Jan. 25 through March 2.
A group show featuring three artists, Spectrum III, kicks off March 15 and runs through April 20, as does iconcept: a 10-Year Retrospective of the center’s yearly unconventional fashion show. Also for those dates: New Reality, a group show; and Real—Not Real, an open, peer-juried exhibit.
The traditional exhibit of art by students from north Sarasota County schools and Booker High’s visual and performing arts program takes over the galleries April 23 through May 7, followed by Painting as Object, a group show, May 24-June 29; Possibilities, a members-only juried exhibit and a show of works by Puerto Rican-born Gaztambide, both May 17-June 29. The annual Florida’s Finest, all-media, all-subject juried show, runs July 5 through Aug. 10, and the season closes out with Looking Forward Towards the Past, a group exhibit; works by Stephen McMennamy; and a student project, Aug. 30- through Oct. 5. Elsewhere, an open, juried show, runs Aug. 23 through Sept. 28.
For more information about the season, and special events throughout the year, visit artsarasota.org or call (941) 365-2032.