Don’t miss your last opportunity to experience the immersive Salvador Dalí: Gardens of the Mind exhibit at Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus. Extended through July 26, 2020, Salvador Dalí: Gardens of the Mind, in collaboration with The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, includes ten colorful photolithographs by Dalí along with works from American photographer Clyde Butcher’s series, Visions of Dalí’s Spain. This artwork and the Dalí-themed plant displays inspired by them transform Selby Gardens into an evocation of Dalí’s vision.

Salvador Dalí: Gardens of the Mind highlights the artist’s use of botanical imagery alongside a surreal display of plants in Selby Gardens’ Tropical Conservatory and gardens. Within the Museum of Botany & the Arts, the photolithographic series Flordalí, on loan from The Dalí Museum, is the centerpiece of the exhibit, along with photos that put the artist’s life, work, and relationship with nature into context. Photos of Dalí’s beloved Catalonia by renowned nature photographer and local Sarasota County resident Clyde Butcher complement the extraordinary landscapes visible in several Flordalí pieces, and in much of Dalí’s art.

The series Flordalí, 1968, depicts flowers interpreted by Dalí’s vivid imagination: a rose sprouts butterfly wings instead of leaves; a lily’s similarity to a gramophone horn simulates a music-themed composition; a common dahlia morphs into a unicorn-like beast.

Dalí admired the butterfly’s association with change or metamorphosis, both literal—its development from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly—and aesthetic—its rich spectrum of shapes, sizes, colors, and patterns. He likely appreciated the resonance of the Greek word “psyche,” which means both butterfly and soul. Butterflies flit across all mediums of Dalí’s late works. In honor of this, in the Gardens we have erected a butterfly house filled with Florida native butterflies and plants. Garden guests can experience being surrounded by colorful butterflies and their flowers while learning about the life cycle of the butterfly in our “Garden with Wings.”    

Selby Gardens presents a complimentary digital lecture for the exhibit’s final weeks, Dalí's Environment: A Geological Delirium with Peter Tush, Curator of Education, Dalí Museum. The informative lecture touches on Dali's stories and personal memories that influenced his work.

Tickets to Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus can be purchased at the Selby Gardens’ Welcome Center or online. Adults are $25, member adults are free, children 4–17 are $15, and 3 and under are free. Learn about our safety guidelines, and plan for your visit here.

Lead sponsors of Salvador Dalí: Gardens of the Mind are Amicus Foundation, Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Marianne and Bill McComb, and the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.