Cristina Molina and Jonathan Traviesa, Florida Native, 2016, Mixed Media.

A site-specific multimedia installation, Sad Tropics will be produced at and exclusively for the Melvin and Burks Galleries at Florida Southern College by New Orleans artists and Florida natives Cristina Molina and Jonathan Traviesa. Inspired by Claude Levi-Strauss’ book title Tristes Tropiques, this exhibition focuses on the psychological landscape of paradise, the tropics, and the mythology of Florida. Through photographic murals, videos, and a themed gift shop installation at the Polk Museum, the artists will celebrate and critique the eccentricities of their Floridian inspiration.

Florida Southern College, our affiliated partner institution, is located only a short walking distance from the Museum, and Sad Tropics will be our first collaborative Museum-College exhibition and installation to be shown at the historic FSC Frank Lloyd Wright-designed campus, which is ranked as one of the most beautiful campuses in the U.S.

Sad Tropics is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.