Joe Fig (American, born 1968). Vermeer: The Procuress / Rijksmuseum, 2023. Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 14 ¼ x 12 ¾ in. Courtesy the Artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery.
Joe Fig (American, born 1968). Vermeer: Girl with a Pearl Earring / Mauritshuis, 2023. Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 13 x 15 ¾ in. Courtesy the Artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery.
Joe Fig (American, born 1968). Vermeer: Girl with a Pearl Earring / Mauritshuis, 2023.
Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 13 x 15 ¾ in. Courtesy the Artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery.
Joe Fig (American, born 1968). Vermeer: Woman Holding a Balance / Rijksmuseum, 2023. Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 13 ½ x 14 ½ in. Courtesy the Artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery.
Joe Fig (American, born 1968). Vermeer: Woman Holding a Balance / Rijksmuseum, 2023.
Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 13 ½ x 14 ½ in. Courtesy the Artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery.
Painting of a family looking at a Vermeer painting on a dark grey wall.
Joe Fig (American, born 1968). Vermeer: Mistress and Maid / Rijksmuseum, 2023.
Oil on linen mounted on MDF board, 11 ½ x 9 ¼ in. Courtesy the Artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery.
Painting of a lady looking at a painting of a lacemaker
Joe Fig (American, born 1968). Vermeer: The Lacemaker / Rijksmuseum, 2023. Oil on Linen mounted on MDF Board, 7 ½ x 9 in. Courtesy the Artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery.

Joe Fig: Contemplating Vermeer

November 17, 2024–April 13, 2025

In 2023, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam hosted a monumental exhibition of Johannes Vermeer, showcasing 28 of the 35 masterpieces attributed to the enigmatic Dutch painter. Drawing on his own visit to this historic show, artist Joe Fig created 16 new paintings. In these works premiering in Contemplating Vermeer, Fig not only pays homage to the seventeenth-century painter’s mastery of light, color, and verisimilitude, but also reflects on the aesthetic experience in the Rijksmuseum’s galleries. Expanding on his decade-long Contemplation series, he captures his subjects—artworks and their viewers—and their surroundings, exploring how people engage with or contemplate artworks in public spaces.

Though Fig’s paintings may resemble snapshots of what he observed, they are the result of a layered artistic process involving numerous formal artistic decisions. He begins by studying individual artworks and the viewers who are deeply engrossed in them. He focuses on people’s body language, clothing (particularly colors and patterns), and proximity to the works and each other, as well as the specificities of the space. Fig photographs these moments as source material, then digitally reconfigures the images in his studio—selecting and repositioning figures, adjusting scale, combining different scenes, and fine-tuning lighting and color. The final compositions, meticulously rendered in oil, reflect Fig’s contemplation of the act of looking, both his own and that of others. Each work distills what it means to be a painter.
With a keen eye for detail, Fig both contemplates Vermeer and invites us to see the Dutch master’s legacy through a fresh artistic lens. His work allows us to marvel at his uncanny realism, while prompting us to examine our own act of seeing. It heightens our awareness of our role as viewers—whether we seek to be fooled, enthralled, or carried away by art. Because his paintings serve as a contemplative reflection on how we encounter art, they draw us into a long tradition of those who have stood in awe before Vermeer’s work.
Fig’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is 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, and is represented by Cristin Tierney Gallery, 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:

Platinum Sponsors
Judy and Fred Fiala

Gold Sponsors
Charlotte and John Suhler

Silver Sponsors
The Cowles Charitable Trust
Keith Monda and Veronica Brady
Janis and Hobart Swan
Community Foundation of Sarasota County Logo
TDT

Essay

Programs

Blue Star Museums Program

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.

Skyway 2027 Logo

Call to Artists Announced for Tampa Bay Area Exhibition ‘Skyway 2027: A Contemporary Collaboration’​

Five regional art museums, the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; The John and
Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota;
the Tampa Museum of Art; and the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, are pleased to
announce a call to artists for “Skyway 2027: A Contemporary Collaboration”, the fourth iteration of the exhibition
celebrating the diversity and talent of artistic practices in the Tampa Bay area and beyond.

Sol LeWitt (1928 - 2007) Loopy Doopy, Blue/Red, 2000 Oil-based woodcut 20 5/8 × 28 5/8 in. (52.3 × 72.6 cm) New Britain Museum of American Art, Gift of Sol LeWitt © Estate of Sol LeWitt 2025

Sarasota Art Museum to Present Major Survey of Prints by Conceptual Art Pioneer Sol LeWitt

Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design (SAM) is pleased to present “Beautiful Ideas: The Prints of Sol LeWitt,” on view from May 17 through October 25, 2026. This exhibition explores the extensive printmaking career of Sol LeWitt (1928–2007), a leader of the American Minimalism and Conceptual art movements who famously declared that “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”

Woman at a pool club posing with two men playing pool in the background

Sarasota Art Museum Announces its 2026-2027 Season Exhibition Schedule

Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design (SAM) announces its 2026-2027 season, featuring a lineup of seven exhibitions including works by some of the most beloved and influential photographers of the 20th-century, award-winning glass artists, a father and son artistic lineage, multiple Ringling College of Art and Design talents and more.