Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso is a premier portrait artist whose art historical knowledge is surpassed only by the skill of her brushwork. This exhibition features Dellosso’s tribute paintings to great but often-overlooked female masters of the past.  Looking at women artists from the Renaissance through the modern era, these exquisite academically-rendered paintings are based on in-depth study of artists including Genevieve Estelle Jones, Angelica Kauffman, Sofonisba Anguissola, Remedios Varo, and Sophie Geengembre Anderson. Sadly, these masters have never become mainstream names in the history of art, but they and their stories resonate deeply with Dellosso, who reaffirms their rightful places in art history through her exquisite old master-style paintings.

Sometimes the greatest connections can be made by unexpected juxtapositions. In this installation of works selected from the permanent collection, we seek resonances between works of art of different styles and from across time and media. By inviting visitors to look closely and to think actively about why chosen pieces may have been placed side by side, Juxtapositions proposes no right or wrong answers, initiating instead an open-ended inquiry into the visual and thematic links that connect us and the objects all around us.

Ela’s Forest is a real forest of trees planted in locations around the world. It bears the name of a little girl who loved nature and whose short, beautiful life was radiant. The forest continues to grow as her community plants more trees to honor her memory and keep her light bright. As a member of that community, the Polk Museum of Art adds to Ela’s Forest through this exhibition featuring works by artists close to Ela and her family. It is meant to be an expression of love, support, and comfort to the family as well as a poignant reminder of the importance and power of community. 

— Claire Orologas, Executive Director Emerita and curator of Ela’s Forest

A map of trees and other dedications to Ela can be found here:

Participating Artists

Mike Barickman, Lakeland, FL  |  James Bassham, Lakeland, FL  |  Mary Bassham, Lakeland, FL | Daniel Biferie, Daytona Beach, FL  |  Eric Breitenbach, Ormond Beach, FL  |  Steven Chayt, Winter Haven, FL | Laura Davis, Lakeland, FL  |  Beth Foushee, Lakeland, FL  |  Josh (Bump) Galletta, Lakeland, FL | Victoria Lowe, Lakeland, FL | Csaba Osvath, Tampa, FL | Erika Schmidt, Pawlet, VT | Juliana Capel Velasco, Anchorage, AK

Ela’s Champions in Support of the Exhibition

Anonymous Donors | Irma Cole & Mark Scolnick | Dr. & Mrs. Craig S. Collins | Wes & Liz Craven | The Graces: Nancye Black, Elizabeth Hults, Alice Koehler, Trinity Laurino, Erica Lupercio, Crystal Norman, Jennifer Sabin, Cherish Welch | Ileana Kniss | The Maguires of Lakeland | Jim Malless & Karen Seggerman | April & Matt Mucci | Rita & Don Selvage | Ira & Tammy Serebrin | Sandra & Sam Sheets | Alyssia & Scott Totten | Michael & Lorrie Walker

Over the course of four decades, Dr. Alan and Linda Rich have displayed a passion for helping others, traveling the world and bringing medical care to those in need. With his profession as an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon and hers as an occupational therapist trained to help Alan in clinics and in surgeries, the Riches worked together to transform the lives of many in need of critical eye care. While working in clinics in Papua New Guinea and throughout Africa, the Riches also immersed themselves in the diverse artistic cultures of the countries they visited.  Along the way, they acquired a collection of ritual and ceremonial objects that fill their home today.  In this Polk Museum original exhibition, these artifacts, most of which speak to the close spiritual communion between humans and animals, will be displayed publicly for the first time.

Like his renowned grandfather Henri before him, Pierre Henri Matisse made art — and creativity — his life’s passion. The French-born Pierre moved to Florida in the 1960s, and, before his passing in July at 91 years old, he was excited to bring his adventurous and innovative work to the Polk Museum for the first time. Now, we honor him with an even more timely retrospective exhibition. Ever the experimental artist, Pierre never settled on one style alone, although his unique voice and whimsical nature shine forth in each and every piece he created. Especially in his use of paper cuts as a medium of choice, visitors will see how Pierre and his art were inspired deeply by his grandfather and his legacy, and this exhibition puts a spotlight on the artist’s narrative works and series. One half of a two-site set of Pierre Henri Matisse exhibitions, this original Polk Museum show coincides with an exhibition of the artist’s work in wide-ranging media at the nearby Melvin and Burks Galleries on the Florida Southern College campus. Get ready to discover the joy-filled freedom and love that was Pierre Henri Matisse this Fall.

The Polk Museum of Art is pleased to present A Colored Image of the Sun, a solo exhibition by artist, Kelly Sturhahn. Sturhahn’s work explores notions of the sublime in nature from a contemporary viewpoint, simultaneously considering experience, perception and transformation. Favoring process and experimentation, her practice combines the unconventional with the traditional, incorporating a range of tactile materials to create paintings on cut fabric, ink drawings, and large-scale installations comprised of textiles, such as hand-sewn sequins and painted lace. Drawing on nature’s intricate, ever-changing phenomena, these works translate sensory experience, and often reinterpret nature abstractly as shapes, patterns, color, light, and movement.

Kelly Sturhahn is an Associate Professor of Art and the Director of the Foundations Program at Florida Southern College. Sturhahn holds a BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design and an MFA from Hunter College. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions including Cheryl Hazan Contemporary (NY), Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art (NY), Ann Street Gallery (NY), Times Square Gallery (NY), Skylight Gallery (NY), 6th Street Container (FL), and Boca Raton Museum of Art (FL), among others.   

This two-gallery, two-part installation highlights the important contributions and strides female artists made in the art worlds of the 1980s and 1990s. Selected from the Museum’s permanent collection and situated adjacently in Gallery II and the Perkins Gallery, these thematically related exhibitions present an instructive visual dialogue with one another, allowing viewers to engage with art not merely from two decades but also through an exclusively female lens.

This two-gallery, two-part installation highlights the important contributions and strides female artists made in the art worlds of the 1980s and 1990s. Selected from the Museum’s permanent collection and situated adjacently in Gallery II and the Perkins Gallery, these thematically related exhibitions present an instructive visual dialogue with one another, allowing viewers to engage with art not merely from two decades but also through an exclusively female lens.

My favorite paintings are usually narrative ones – ones in which an artist draws the viewer into a world where a story is occurring. My work aims to invite more than just a quick glance and immediate response. Instead, it asks the viewer to dive a little deeper and identify the underlying message that can only be discovered through closer examination.

 From rising sea levels and climate change to the degradation and loss of natural habitats, my paintings focus on current global issues that impact our society both environmentally and socially. I hope that by weaving illustrative storytelling with aesthetic beauty the narrative will compel viewers to examine my paintings more closely and think about the greater message within each piece.

-Linda Finch

Will Barnet (1911-2012) was an American original. While he may not be a household name today, his nine-decade influence as an artist, teacher, and exemplar of inimitable American modernism was profound. With more than 80 one-man exhibitions at major institutions like the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney, and the Guggenheim and a body of work that, despite its stylistic variety, is always recognizably his own, Barnet achieved wide acclaim during his lifetime. In this installation of 22 recently gifted and loaned works by Barnet from the permanent collection, we can begin to see why.

Indeed, Barnet forged a unique path through 20th century art history. At once a dedicated realist and figurative artist when pure abstraction was the norm and an experimenter in abstraction when other artists renewed their interest in representation, Barnet defied expectations about how modern artists should produce art, refusing to bend to the whims of any contemporary trends.