Curator’s Tour – April 2027
Monday, April 5, 2027 | 1 pm
Ceramic (bone china porcelain fired at 1234c), 12 x 3 x 4 in. (each). Courtesy of the artist; Photo: Diana Larrea.
Ceramic (bone china porcelain fired at 1234c), 12 x 3 x 4 in. (each). Courtesy of the artist.
Digital print on Arches BFK paper, 36 x 44 in. Edition 7. Courtesy of the artist; Photo: Zachary Balber.
4K video, loop (13:35 min), and shipping palettes. Director and Producer: Juana Valdés; Cinematographer: Lee Burghard (Camera Operator & DP); Editor: Setty McIntosh; Assistant Editor, Sound Editor, Mix Engineer, Sound Design, and Composer: Onel Mulet. Courtesy of the artist; Photo: Zachary Balber.
4K video, loop (13:35 min). Director and Producer: Juana Valdés; Cinematographer: Lee Burghard (Camera Operator & DP); Editor: Setty McIntosh; Assistant Editor, Sound Editor, Mix Engineer, Sound Design, and Composer: Onel Mulet. Courtesy of the artist.
Mixed media (bone china, wood, metal, and sheetrock), 96 x 15 x 144 in.; Framed digital photographs on Hahnemühle paper, 11 x 14 in. (each). Courtesy of the artist.
Installation (ceramic, vinyl, MDF, cyanotype prints, and DNA), Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist; Photo: Zachary Balber.
Installation (ceramic, vinyl, MDF, cyanotype prints, and DNA), Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist; Photo: Zachary Balber.
Installation (ceramic, vinyl, MDF, cyanotype prints, and DNA), Dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist; Photo: Zachary Balber.
Kodak silver halide photographic metallic paper, 14 ¾ x 28 in. (image); 17 x 30 inches (paper). Edition 25 + 2 AP signed and numbered. Produced by Locust Projects. Courtesy of the artist.
Mixed media (ceramic, wood, metal, and sheetrock), 96 x 15 x 144 in. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.
Mixed media (ceramic, wood, metal, and sheetrock), 96 x 15 x 144 in. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.
Screen-print on porcelain bone china fired at 1234c, 12 x 9 in. (each). Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Diana Larrea.
Courtesy of the artist; Photo: Predro Wazzan.
Juana Valdés: Embodied Memories, Ancestral Histories
October 22, 2023 – February 11, 2024
For 30 years, Juana Valdés (b. Cuba, 1963) has transformed ideas, thoughts, and feelings into works of art anchored in stories, many of which are inspired by her personal experiences. The exhibition title, Embodied Memories, Ancestral Histories, encompasses many concepts and complexities. Beginning with Un saco para el Viejo (A Coat for the Old Man, 1993), a suit made from burlap by her mother, the artist addresses her Caribbean identity and introduces two recurrent aspects in her work: her Cuban roots and her African ancestry. With this installation as the prologue, the story Valdés tells unravels as the visitor moves through the galleries and becomes acquainted with three main topics that are not necessarily exclusive: “The History of Migration,” “Representation and Subjectivity,” and “Materiality.”
Since the mid-1990s, Valdés has been interested in history, especially in narratives related to her Afro-Cuban heritage. Through many of the works featured in the exhibition, she has generated a voice and a discourse inspired by themes such as colonization’s history and migration’s impact. Another significant theme is the issue of gender and the representation of the feminine body. Through several works, notably the installation Sweet Honesty-Tender Pink (1997), Valdés invites the public to reflect on the objectification of the female body and the “whitening of race” as a legacy of colonialism. Race is a connecting thread that links the different sections of the exhibition, an issue that she addresses from her experience as a woman of color living in the United States.
Her choice of materials is as important as the themes she conveys. Working in a range of both traditional and non-traditional media—from ceramics, with all its associations of feminine and manual work, to new-media—Valdés communicates ideas of the personal and subjective while at the same time challenging the canon of art. Her audiovisual work highlights her entire oeuvre as an archive through which she analyzes and recodifies topics that include transnationalism, migration, race, gender, and discrimination at work, and the Latinx discourse she deals with from her experience as an Afro-Cuban woman residing in the United States.
Juana Valdés lives and works in Amherst, MA; New York, NY; and Miami, FL.
This exhibition is organized by Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design and curated by Francine Birbragher-Rozencwaig, Ph.D., independent curator.
This exhibition is made possible, in part, with generous support from:
Platinum Sponsor
Shari and John Hicks
Silver Sponsors
Ellen Chapman and Michael Moss
Programs
Director’s Tour – April 2027
Monday, April 26, 2027 | 1 pm
Curator’s Tour – May 2027
Monday, May 3, 2027 | 1 pm
From Avedon to Parks: Masterpieces of 20th-century photography come to Sarasota Art Museum
Experience photographs by some of the 20th century’s most influential photography titans up close and personal in “Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder” on view October 18, 2026–April 4, 2027 at Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design (SAM). As one of only four venues in the country selected to host this prestigious traveling exhibition, Sarasota Art Museum will showcase approximately 100 striking photographs by more than 50 artists, including Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Danny Lyon and Gordon Parks.
Ringling College of Art and Design Alumna Chie Fueki receives first mid-career survey exhibition at Sarasota Art Museum
Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design is proud to present “Painting the Floating World,” the first mid-career survey of works by Japanese American painter Chie Fueki. Running October 18, 2026–April 4, 2027, this exhibition highlights the 25-year trajectory of Fueki’s artistic practice, celebrated for transforming scenes of everyday life into luminous, extraordinary spaces.
World renowned glass artists and designers debut thought-provoking new artworks at Sarasota Art Museum
For over 40 years, internationally acclaimed artists Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin have revolutionized the studio glass movement. Their work has been shown in hundreds of exhibitions worldwide, including a monumental installation in England’s Canterbury Cathedral (2018).
Sarasota Art Museum presents immersive solo exhibition asking visitors to investigate profound questions about life, change and permanent impermanence
Opening October 18, 2026, Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design will debut “Eszter Sziksz: Seeking, I Don’t Know What I’m Looking For (And I Hope I Never Find It).”
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.