Director’s Tour – March 2027
Monday, March 29, 2027 | 1 pm
Courtesy of EDP Foundation.
Cardboard, tape, latex paint and glue. Photograph by Filipe Braga. Courtesy of the artist.
Cardboard, tape, latex paint and glue. Photograph by Steve Hall. Courtesy of the artist.
Cardboard, tape and glazings. Photography by Iris Ranzinger. Courtesy of Secession, Wien.
Single channel video, color, sound, loop (1 min 34 sec). Courtesy of the artist.
Photograph by Xavier Cervera. Courtesy of LA VANGUARDIA Magazine.
Cardboard, tape, glazings and container. Photography by Pedro Jafuno. Courtesy of Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian.
Reassembling Spilt Light: An Immersive Installation
by Carlos Bunga
July 23 - October 29, 2023
Carlos Bunga is a multimedia artist internationally renowned for his imposing, site-responsive installations constructed with mundane, everyday materials, such as cardboard and masking tape. Originally trained as a painter, Bunga has developed a signature artistic language, “expanded painting,” which hybridizes and deconstructs the boundaries of painting, sculpture, architecture, and performance. Born into an Angolan refugee family in the Portuguese city of Porto, Bunga draws his inspiration from his makeshift childhood surroundings in deteriorating government housing. Employing a poetic approach across various mediums, he creates emotionally resonant and multivalent works. They not only invite the audience to question their position in the world around them, but also reflect on such timely topics as urban decay, migration, and displacement.
For this solo exhibition, Bunga created a temporary cardboard structure in the 30-foot-high Koski Gallery located on the Museum’s third floor. Beginning and ending as a dialogue with the existing architecture, this installation transforms the gallery’s spatial configuration for the duration of the exhibition. By deploying light as his primary conceptual basis, just as James Turrell has done before him, Bunga explains that he sculpts light, which cannot be touched, but only felt viscerally.
Accompanying Bunga’s site-responsive structure are selected photographs, videos, and paintings that further showcase the notion of light as a physical and phenomenological component, as well as a metaphor for reflection and hope in his own body of work. The exhibition also includes a set of drawings created after completing his onsite work. This post-installation phase of Bunga’s artistic practice allows him to reflect on the physical and spatial constraints that may hinder his creative process and conceptual scope. Bunga’s transformative installation and poetically resonant images invite visitors to consider how we shape and are shaped by our surroundings, to contemplate their ephemerality, and to attend to light in a time of darkness.
Bunga has had numerous solo and group exhibitions at notable art institutions worldwide, including Palacio de Cristal, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain (2022); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2020); Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (2020); and Secession, Vienna (2020), to name only a few. Bunga lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.
This exhibition is organized by Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design and curated by Rangsook Yoon, Ph.D., senior curator, Sarasota Art Museum.
This exhibition is made possible, in part, with generous support from:
Platinum Sponsor
Shari and John Hicks
Shari and John Hicks
Silver Sponsors
Marge and Leon Ellin
Judy and Fred Fiala
Keith Monda and Veronica Brady
Programs
Curator’s Tour – April 2027
Monday, April 5, 2027 | 1 pm
Director’s Tour – April 2027
Monday, April 26, 2027 | 1 pm
Curator’s Tour – May 2027
Monday, May 3, 2027 | 1 pm
Sarasota Art Museum to present exhibition showcasing iconic works by 20th-century photography titans
Photographs are, as the theorist Roland Barthes wrote, “certificates of presence,” verification that a moment, a person or a place existed. From the adoration of a loved one or the wonder felt before nature to the hardship of labor or the devastation of war, photographs can be imprinted with the totality of human experiences.
Japanese American painter Chie Fueki receives first mid-career survey exhibition at Sarasota Art Museum
Visually striking and intricate, Chie Fueki’s paintings capture contemporary life in full motion. Known for her vibrant and densely layered works, Fueki synthesizes Japanese ukiyo-e atmospheric techniques with Western abstraction to transform familiar scenes into luminous“floating worlds.”
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Sarasota Art Museum is a Blue Star Museum
Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design (SAM) is pleased to participate in Blue Star Museums, a program that provides free admission to currently serving U.S. military personnel and their families during the summer. The 2026 program will begin on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 16, 2026, and end on Labor Day, Monday, September 7, 2026.