Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 13 ½ x 14 ½ in. Courtesy of the artist.
Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 13 x 15 ¾ in. Courtesy of the artist.
Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 7 ½ x 10 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 14 ¼ x 12 ¾ in. Courtesy of the artist.
Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 14 ½ x 13 ½ in. Courtesy of the artist.
Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 11 ½ x 9 ¼ in. Courtesy of the artist.
Joe Fig: Contemplating Vermeer
November 17, 2024–April 13, 2025
A nationally exhibited artist based in Sarasota, Joe Fig is known for his Contemplating series—small, intimate paintings of people looking at artwork in museums and galleries. For nearly a decade, he has depicted exhibitions nationally and internationally, registering not only artists’ techniques and processes but also observers’ interactions with art. Fig contemplates our collective experience of engaging with paintings in public spaces with a painter’s keen interest in distilling what we see. Joe Fig: Contemplating Vermeer records Fig’s encounter with the blockbuster Johannes Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam in 2023. Focusing not only on the gallery space and over a dozen of Vermeer’s canvases but also on the visitors looking at the art, Fig invites viewers to contemplate art and the experience it allows us to share.
Fig’s works have been exhibited nationally and internationally, and are housed in numerous museums, including Fogg Art Museum, Chazen Museum of Art, Norton Museum of Art, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Toledo Museum of Art among others. Author of the acclaimed books Inside the Painter’s Studio and Inside the Artist’s Studio, Fig is the Department Chair of both the Fine Arts and the Visual Studies programs at Ringling College of Art and Design. He earned his BFA and MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York.
This exhibition is organized by Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design, curated by Rangsook Yoon, Ph.D., senior curator, Sarasota Art Museum.
This exhibition at Sarasota Art Museum is made possible, in part, with generous support from:
Silver Sponsors
Keith Monda and Veronica Brady
Janis and Hobart Swan
Gallery Didactics for Picking up the Pieces:
Special thanks to the many generous donors who made gifts in memory of Peppi Elona.