Guided by the CDC, and in support of our collective efforts to prevent further spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) by mitigating public gathering opportunities that might enhance exposure, the Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College will be temporarily closed effective 5pm March 13th until further notice. We will continue to monitor the situation, and will keep you posted. Please check out our website for further content in the coming weeks. We look forward to seeing you again soon in the Galleries, but meantime, stay safe and remain in contact.

In the Galleries

Color. Theory. & (b/w)

December 2019 - 14 June 2020

This is the first installation of an ongoing investigation into the art and science of color. The subject of color theory allows us to look at wide range of ideas, from cognitive science to philosophy to literature, while marveling at the seductive and confounding ways in which artists wrestle with color. Here, we invite you to pay close attention to the artists’ use of color relative to the medium. What is the relationship of color to material? Is color applied, embedded, reflected, atomized, projected, inferred? How do colors shift in the light? How do colors appear relative to their neighboring works? We invite you to take a closer look on the third floor galleries of the Museum, and then enjoy visiting our Conservatory to learn more about Color. Theory. & (b/w).

Pino Pascali, Bachi de setola (1968)

Upcoming Exhibitions

Harmony Hammond
Material Witness, Five Decades of Art

28 March - 26 July 2020

Harmony Hammond: Material Witness, Five Decades of Art is the first museum survey of the work of Harmony Hammond – subversive artist, feminist and lesbian scholar, author and curator. Through the recontextualization of a wide cast of materials and form, Hammond challenges the historical associations of painting as a male-dominated field, and combats stereotypes of feminist and queer art. Organized by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, this exhibition spans fifty years (1971-2018) of Hammond’s painting-sculpture works, drawings, and ephemera.

Harmony Hammond: Material Witness, Five Decades of Art
is organized by Amy Smith-Stewart, Senior Curator, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.

Generous support for Harmony Hammond: Material Witness, Five Decades of Art is provided by Crozier Fine Arts and Diana Bowes and James Torrey. Media support is provided by Connecticut Cottages & Gardens (CTC&G). Generous support from the Wagner Foundation has helped to make it possible for Material Witness: Five Decades of Art to travel to the Sarasota Art Museum.

Harmony Hammond, Dogon (1978/2015)
Courtesy of the artist and Alexander Gray Associates, New York
Photo: Eric Swanson
© Harmony Hammond / VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Peter Young: Fellow Traveller

25 April – 7 September 2020

Peter Young’s paintings explore the territory beyond pure Minimalism and Abstract Surrealism. Immersed in the New York art scene in the 1960s, both Young and his art were subject to the strict formal criteria of Minimal art that prevailed at the time. Though Young addresses this in his mathematical grids and curvilinear forms, he also surpasses formal boundaries by intertwining organic elements into the geometrically engineered. The merging of mathematics and spontaneity – through color, pattern, and handmade touch – results in a sense of unmatched intimacy and psychedelic other worldliness.

Peter Young, #24-1972 (1972)

On the Grounds

Zen Jail

JPW3

Marcy & Michael Klein Plaza

Zen Jail is an open-ended work in progress, adapting to its new home in Sarasota, after time in a park in Miami. The artist, JPW3, sourced a piece of wood from a tree that grew in Sarasota, and has turned it into a scope for the viewer/participant to meditate—or spy—on passers-by from the sunken bench seat. A tea plant is growing, that will be harvested and brewed in a series of interactive performative events that will riff on tea ceremonies around the world. Passion flower (passiflora) vines will eventually grow onto the framework of Zen Jail, providing a micro-ecosystem for butterflies (especially the endangered Monarch Danaus plexippus) and other pollinators to assist in habitat restoration. Zen Jail will evolve and grow as the site responds to the communities’ engagement. It may be a meditation site, a site for music and performance, a site for reflection, a playspace—how would you like to play with Zen Jail?

JPW3, Zen Jail (2016/2019)

Los Trompos

Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena

Great Lawn

Los Trompos (“The Spinning Tops”), a large-scale, interactive installation designed by award-winning contemporary Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. Inspired by the colorful design of a children’s toy top, the vibrant colors on each are made from fabric that is woven in a traditional style by Mexican artisans. Functioning as both artwork and rotating seating spaces, each sculpture acts as a gathering place for relaxation, social interaction and a meaningful art experience.

Esrawe + Cadena, Los Trompos (2015)

Celadon Landscape

Jean Shin

Marcy & Michael Klein Plaza

Celadon Landscape is constructed from ceramic discards collected from numerous kilns in Korea. These shards are the result of potters destroying finished ceramic vessels with any minor imperfections. Shin views the celadon fragments as a metaphor of the Korean diaspora, vibrant artifacts of the Korean people, their history and culture that are scattered all over the world to form new identities elsewhere. The term celadon also refers to the soft, pale grey-green color achieved by coating the clay with an iron-rich glaze that oxidizes during the heating process.

Jean Shin, Celadon Landscape (2015)

Force Field

Odili Donald Odita

Jan Schmidt Loggia

Odili Donald Odita is well known for his site-specific kaleidoscopic patterns of hard-edge, colorful shapes. Force Field bathes the Museum’s loggia with colorful angular forms arranged in a rhythmic composition, with slivers of white acting as visual ellipses, much like phrasing in a jazz riff.

Odili Donald Odita, Force Field (2019-2020)