Martha Posner (American, born 1956). Lilith, 1993. Mixed media with honeysuckle vines. Photo: Larry Fink. Courtesy of the artist.
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023). George Plimpton and Models at Elaine’s, New York, NY, 1999. Courtesy of the artist's estate.
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023). George Plimpton and Models at Elaine’s, New York, NY, 1999.
©️ Larry Fink/MUUS Collection.
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023). Martha Posner with Coat of My Lost Happiness, 1997. Courtesy of the artist's estate.
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023). Martha Posner with Coat of My Lost Happiness, 1997. ©️ Larry Fink/MUUS Collection.
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023). Blue Horizon, Philadelphia, 1992. Courtesy of the artist's estate.
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023). Blue Horizon, Philadelphia, 1992.
©️ Larry Fink/MUUS Collection.
Beige humanoid sculptures on pedestals in a gallery with photographs framed like polaroids on the walls
Installation view of Larry Fink / Martha Posner: Flesh and Bone at Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida, 2024.
Photo: Ryan Gamma.
Gallery with paintings and sculptures. Red coat hanging on wall.
Installation view of Larry Fink / Martha Posner: Flesh and Bone at Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida, 2024.
Photo: Ryan Gamma.
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023). A Sabatine Christmas, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, 1983. Courtesy of the artist.
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023). A Sabatine Christmas, Martins Creek, Pennsylvania, 1983.
©️ Larry Fink/MUUS Collection.
Martha Posner (American, born 1956). Me Too (detail), 2018. Mixed media installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
Martha Posner (American, born 1956). Me Too (detail), 2018.
Mixed media installation, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
Martha Posner (American, born 1956). Pink Bed Jacket (detail), 2024. Found object, synthetic hair, and hair of the artist. Courtesy of the artist.
Martha Posner (American, born 1956). Pink Bed Jacket (detail), 2024.
Found object, synthetic hair, and hair of the artist. Courtesy of the artist.
Meryl Streep whispering to Natalie Portman
Larry Fink (American, 1941-2023). Meryl Streep and Natalie Portman, Oscar Party, Los Angeles, CA, February 2009, 2009. LFX5, (C)Larry Fink / MUUS Collection.

Larry Fink / Martha Posner: Flesh and Bone

November 17, 2024–April 13, 2025

This exhibition explores the creative dialogue between photographer Larry Fink (1941-2023) and sculptor Martha Posner (born 1956), who were romantic partners for more than 30 years. Radically different artists, their work nonetheless shares common themes of desire, vulnerability, and brutality. Both also explore myth throughout their art: Posner explicitly, through her re-imagining of female subjects from various legends and mythic traditions; Fink implicitly, through his shrewd eye for human impulse, folly, and bravado, qualities he found in almost every scenario no matter how base or exalted.

Both artists embrace the animal world almost as an extension of the human, a reflection of their life on a Pennsylvania farm surrounded by other creatures. Their rural existence brought them close to life cycles and earthy needs. Fink began photographing the farm and neighboring community in the 1970s. Posner arrived in the 1990s and immediately took to her surroundings, finding magic and transfiguration—processes in which she firmly believes—throughout the woods and meadows.

Viewing these artists side by side reveals subtle and surprising qualities in both. The exhibition will broadly survey each of their independent bodies of work, with an eye to how creative partners influence and surprise each other.

This exhibition is organized by Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design and curated by Peter Barberie, the Brodsky Curator of Photographs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

This exhibition is made possible, in part, with generous support from:

Platinum Sponsors
Judy and Fred Fiala

Gold Sponsors
Charlotte and John Suhler

Silver Sponsors
Ginny and Ravi Akhoury
Ellen Chapman and Michael Moss
Carole Crosby and Larry Wickless
Wil and Sally Hergenrader Endowed Fund for Special Exhibitions
The Kretzmer Family Charitable Foundation, in loving memory of Ernest Kretzmer
Amy Carol McGowan

Community Foundation of Sarasota County Logo
TDT

Special thanks to Elizabeth and William Kahane and

MUUS Collection

MUUS Collection is a group of photography archives based in the United States that brings together bodies of work that mark major turning points in history. As a functional archive with nearly half a million images and supporting ephemera, MUUS Collection preserves and promotes invaluable artifacts for generations to come, and is committed to keeping photographic memory alive by showcasing and elevating the works of the artists it represents.  

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.

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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.

© Sarasota Art Museum 2026