Art & Design: Movement

April 24 – August 7, 2010

Ledger & Murray Galleries

This exhibition is part of a series of exhibitions over two years that demonstrates the role of the Principles of Design within artworks from the Museum’s Permanent Collection. This exhibit will focus on movement, which can be defined as the way artists convey motion within the picture plane or the way they compose the image so that the viewer’s eye moves around the piece.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• The Hazelle Paxson Morrison Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Japanese Textiles & Prints

April 10 – June 26, 2010

Dorothy Jenkins Gallery

Polk Museum of Art is home to a small, but beautiful, collection of Japanese textiles and prints, including several kimonos that were donated in 2006. This exhibition will include a few of those, as well as Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s master woodblock print series 32 Aspects of Women.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• The Hazelle Paxson Morrison Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Functional Ceramics

April 10 – June 26, 2010

Emily S. Macey Gallery

The Museum holds an outstanding collection of ceramics from around the world. The exhibition Functional Ceramics features a sampling of these works, all of which were created with forms that are recognizable even if the designs and styles are pure art. From centuries-old wares from Italy and France to the work of 20th century Japanese National Treasures to Pre-Columbian works to modern and contemporary objects created in the United States and Europe, this exhibition will reveal the great traditions that unite cultures across the globe while pointing out unique characteristics of these traditions.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• The Hazelle Paxson Morrison Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Florida Landscapes

March 27 – June 19, 2010

Perkins Gallery

This exhibition will feature artworks from the permanent collection that feature the Florida landscape in either a realistic or abstracted manner.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• The Hazelle Paxson Morrison Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Joseph Raffael

January 23 – April 4, 2010

Dorothy Jenkins Gallery

A rose is a rose is a rose, even if it’s 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide. That’s the way master artist Joseph Raffael likes to paint his watercolor flowers in his studio in France. The American artist has surrounded himself with beauty and color, and as a result of this lifestyle, his garden and his birds are major subjects of his art. His medium, watercolor, allows him the freedom of a wide range of color, yet possesses the unique characteristic of transparency. Both his choice of natural subjects and of a transparent medium reflect Raffael’s interest in the eternal characteristics found in nature. To convey this quality, Raffael paints with the paper scrolled up so that he focuses only on what he is painting at the moment; no one part of any one work is more or less important than another. Only when the piece is nearly finished does he see the entire image. The exquisite detail found in each stroke of Joseph Raffael’s collection of bouquets has stunned people around the world. The paintings go beyond the flowers and demonstrate the power of the unimaginable beauty of nature.

Raffael’s interest in the eternal has probably been influenced by his brush with death many years back. After nearly dying in 1963, the artist’s formerly abstract impressionist approach was replaced with an expressive realism. Now, in more recent years, he has been introduced to meditation and focuses on an appreciation of life. With these new perspectives, Raffael’s style has again been transformed – expressing single, whole images. The monumentality and complexity of his works offer new views of flowers, different from what we are accustomed to in daily life or in typical flower paintings. The size and vibrant color of each element in the images individualizes them, revealing each as a separate, yet integrated, part of the whole image. Raffael looks at the beauty of flowers and expands them to a remarkable scale and fills our vision with these beautiful works.

This national touring project was organized by the Nancy Hoffman Gallery includes Raffael’s recent monumental flower paintings. Raffael was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1933. He studied at Cooper Union, Yale-Norfolk School, Yale School of Fine Arts, and has received a Fulbright Fellowship. While at Yale he studied with artist/teacher and color theorist Josef Albers. Raffael’s work is collected by major institutions throughout the world and was featured on the cover of the June 2007 issue of Watercolor Magic magazine.

Exhibition Sponsored by:

Fields Auto Group

With Additional Support from:

WUSF

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• The Hazelle Paxson Morrison Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Kenneth Treister: The Colors of Nature

January 23 – April 4, 2010

Emily S. Macey Gallery

Complementary to Raffael’s vibrant flowers, famous architect Kenneth Treister’s paintings also reflect the beauty of nature. The two artists, however, approach their subjects from unique angles. While Raffael uses a micro view, emphasizing individual details of his flowers, Treister takes a more minimal approach, while also looking at the beauty of his lushly landscaped Winter Haven home. Instead of focusing on the details, shapes and lines of a landscape, he steps back and allows the forms to dissolve into shimmering silky colors, revealing what the artist calls the “patterns of nature.”

Treister associates this approach with the Japanese concept of Shibui. The term refers to the highest level of beauty — a pure, simple, understated beauty that can easily be missed if one does not search for it. As Shibui relates to his art, Treister describes it as “a hidden art, where its many layers of paint have to be unpeeled over time to reveal its inner soul.” This exhibition will be presented as a single installation, allowing visitors to experience the works as a group, as if walking through a garden. During your visit, we encourage you to contemplate the simplicity and purity of nature as it is revealed through Treister’s pieces.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• The Hazelle Paxson Morrison Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Art & Design: Contrast

December 19, 2009 – April 18, 2010

Ledger & Murray Galleries

This exhibition is the fifth in a series of six exhibitions presented over two years that demonstrates the roles of the Principles of Design through artworks from the Museum’s Permanent Collection. As Edwin Forrest, a famous 19th century American actor, claimed “A passion for the dramatic arts in inherent in the nature of man.” We are irresistibly drawn to drama, conflict, and contrast. It is central to any novel, movie, or play as well as our topics of conversation and daily news. It captivates us. For a similar reason, artists employ contrast in their art works to guide the viewer’s gaze and to set a tone. By juxtaposing opposite or contrasting elements — such as light and dark, rough and smooth, large and small, vertical and horizontal — artists can create drama and visual dynamics. Contrast can also be produced by pairing complementary colors or by breaking repetition. Artists do so to visually enliven and highlight important elements in their works and to communicate meaning to the audience.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Eunice Lee Fuller Fund
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Semi-Natural

December 5, 2009 – March 21, 2010

Perkins Gallery

Abstraction is a challenging concept. Unlike “non-representational” or “non-objective” art, ‘”abstract” art begins with and maintains a connection to nature. Oftentimes, we are so familiar with subjects, particularly natural and man-made elements, we see only banal objects. Through abstraction, one’s attention is focused on the components — the lines, colors, and shapes — that join together to form each subject and image.

Much like the satisfaction of completing a jigsaw puzzle, one can more deeply appreciate a work of art after learning to appreciate each element and the ways in which these elements interact. Artist Ted Waddell shows us cattle in a landscape, not as distinct realist figures but as expressive marks which are part of the landscape; Donald Sultan directs our attention to flowers as shapes in black and white not as a floral bouquet; Henri Matisse draws a face with simple lines expressing what a face is not representing a specific person; sculptor Scott causey shows us a rabbit as a humorous patterned action figure.

This exhibition presents a variety of artwork from the permanent collection that is abstracted from nature in a variety of ways and to different degrees. Each piece challenges you to understand and appreciate the visual language’s expressive potential and variety, not just the final product.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Eunice Lee Fuller Fund
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

The Surreal Photography of Jerry Uelsmann

November 14, 2009 – January 17, 2010

Dorothy Jenkins Gallery

Jerry Uelsmann is arguably the most important photographer working today. Fifty years ago he began creating beautiful montages by hand in the darkroom. When he began combining multiple negatives onto a single print, his work was considered an intense challenge to the world of photographic art. Today, he is understood to be a true visionary and pioneer, paving the way for much of the most daring contemporary photography. Yet the power and beauty of his work is still stunning even in this age of digital cameras, printers and software.

Uelsmann has stated that he tries to create “images that challenge reality and sustain their mystery for a prolonged period of time.” His surreal photographs bring together many of the hopes and questions that occur to us when we let our imaginations wander. Although he is not attempting to illustrate dreams, he does “have a dreamlike sensibility” and looks to create images that encourage his viewers to seek new ways of seeing the real world beyond the expected or answering questions with “stock answers.”

This exhibition is drawn primarily from Polk County collections, including the Museum’s. It presents a wide look at the career of Jerry Uelsmann, beginning with work during his years in graduate school, through his 30-plus years as a professor at University of Florida, all the way through to his 21st century work.

Born in Detroit in 1934, Uelsmann received a BFA degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology and graduate degrees from Indiana University. He joined the faculty of University of Florida in 1960. During his career, Uelsmann has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work has been collected by major museums throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Canada, the National Gallery of Australia, the Bibliotheque National in Paris, the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, and the Museum of Photography in Seoul.

Exhibition Sponsors:
Food Partners — Webb Tanner and Deanna Rhodes-Tanner
Kerry and Buffy Wilson

Additional support provided by:
Polk County Tourism and Sports Marketing
WUSF

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• The Hazelle Paxson Morrison Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Photography from the Permanent Collection

November 14, 2009 – January 17, 2010

Emily S. Macey Gallery

Photography has quickly become one of the strongest collecting areas for Polk Museum of Art. Over the last ten years, seventy outstanding photographs or photogravures have been added to what was already a solid collection. This exhibition includes work by artists of international stature such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Chuck Close, Herman Leonard, and Barbara Morgan, as well as many of the best photographers in Florida and throughout the South such as Clyde Butcher, Birney Imes, Joshua Mann Pailet, and Anna Tomczak.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Eunice Lee Fuller Fund within the Community Foundation of Greater Lakeland
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

The 1970s

August 29 – November 29, 2009

Perkins Gallery

The 1970s. It was a decade that began with the end of the Beatles and the introductions of All My Children and The Gremlin, survived the death of Elvis and the popularity of leisure suits and Charlie’s Angels, and continued through disco, the Walkman, and Space Invaders. It was also a decade unlike any other that preceded it in terms of ideas and styles in the art world. This exhibition of works from the permanent collection presents examples of some of the major trends that were either developed during the 1970s or reached their high point during the decade.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Eunice Lee Fuller Fund
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Art & Design: Rhythm

August 8 – December 13, 2009

Ledger & Murray Galleries

This exhibition is the fourth in a series of exhibitions over two years that demonstrates the role of the Principles of Design within artworks from the Museum’s Permanent Collection. The last two exhibitions will focus on Contrast and Movement. This exhibit will focus on rhythm, which is the alternation or duplication of elements in the artwork to produce movement, pattern and/or texture.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Eunice Lee Fuller Fund
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

Beautiful Things

September 5 – November 8, 2009

Dorothy Jenkins Gallery

Oscar Wilde once wrote that “No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.” Here is your opportunity to explore your own idea of beauty, and, potentially, ugliness. A variety of works from the permanent collection have been selected to represent the many ways in which we might find beauty within an art object. Confucius might have been right when he declared, “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.” Viewers are encouraged to express their thoughts, and some of the most interesting responses will be added to the wall label text as the exhibition remains on display.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Eunice Lee Fuller Fund
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

A Perfect Mesh

September 5 – November 8, 2009

Emily S. Macey Gallery

Though screen printing was invented in China about 1,000 years ago and introduced in Europe more than 200 years ago, only in the last hundred years has it become a popular medium throughout the commercial and art worlds. Since Andy Warhol popularized this technique in the early 1960s, it has been used widely by major and emerging artists. This exhibition from the permanent collection includes works by Robert Indiana, Jacob Lawrence, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Miriam Schapiro, and many others.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Mark & Lynn Hollis
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• The Reitzel Foundation
• BCI Engineers & Scientists
• Eunice Lee Fuller Fund
• Summit Consulting, Inc.

2009 – 2010 Lakeland Sculpture Invitational

September 2009 – August 2010

A Joint Project of Polk Museum of Art and the City of Lakeland
Lemon Street Promenade, Downtown Lakeland

Selected artists:

• Carl Billingsley
• James Oleson
• Hanna Jubran

The Lakeland Sculpture Invitational, showcases four or five works by three artists, instead of the ten artists that were displayed as part of the Sculpture Competition. The sculptures are installed on the three blocks of the Lemon Street Promenade between South Florida and Massachussetts Avenues.

Polk Museum of Art has been working with the City of Lakeland since 1999 to place sculpture on the Lemon Street Promenade. In the past, we’ve presented two one-person exhibitions, and seven years of the Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition. Last year, due to budget concerns, the City of Lakeland decided to try something different. Supporters of recent sculpture projects raised enough private funding to support an invitational exhibition. This year, funds continued to be tight, and the city asked the sculptors who were installed last year if they would be willing to leave their work on display downtown for another year. Happily, two of the three were able to do so! Carl Billingsley and Hanna Jubran both loaned their work to us for 2009-2010.

In the Summer of 2009, the City and Museum staff invited James Oleson, a sculptor from Brooksville, Florida, to install his work on the block between Kentuck and Massachusetts. Carl Billingsley has the block between South Florida and Tennessee, and Hanna Jubran has the block between Tennessee and Kentucky.

Silver Linings: Delicate Drawings by Carol Prusa

June 13 – August 30, 2009

Dorothy Jenkins Gallery

The exhibition consists of seven 2-d works and eight hemispheres which Prusa refers to as “domes.” The domes are clear acrylic hemispheres created by a Canadian company under her direction. She then puts several layers of gesso onto the outsides and then draws on them with a silverpoint tool and graphite, adds titanium white pigment and uses silver leaf to complete her images. Plus she drills tiny holes in the domes and has white LED lights that twinkle from within. Within the largest of these domes is a brief repetitive video that shows the exterior pattern of the dome in motion. The domes play off of the idea of other worlds, other universes, and the potential for things to be nearly identical to what we know while being still distant and different. The domes range in size from 1′ diameter to 5′ diameter and have an incredible presence.

Her 2-d works, which are now as large as 4’x14′ and 8’x8′, present similarly detailed and patterned images that bear much in common with either the structures of the universe or the structures of the most minute features that make up the material world around and within us. For this reason, she conceives her work to have an immediate, big impact while including astonishingly fine detail to lure viewers closer. It’s delicate, beautiful, often suggestive of creative forces either through its floral imagery or the inclusion of Adam and Eve, and spectacular in its scale and drama.

Prusa lives in Boca Raton and is a prior Florida Individual Artist Fellowship recipient.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• Reitzel Foundation
• Swain Companies and Affiliates

All Natural: Organic Forms by Akiko Sugiyama and Jean Yao

June 13 – August 30, 2009

Emily S. Macey Gallery

Akiko Sugiyama and Jean Yao are two of the most widely revered fiber artists in the state. In contrast to Carol Prusa, whose creative energies are directed toward the tiniest and most expansive elements of our world, Akiko Sugiyama and Jean Yao focus on the materials and structures of the natural world in which we live.

Sugiyama uses rice paper to create wonderfully delicate forms in a wide variety of shapes and compositions. She cuts, rolls, coils, and layers the paper, adding just a few touches of other organic materials to enhance her work. Her works are wall-mounted but very definitely three-dimensional, sometimes taking the shapes of house structures or boat forms, but just as often working as purely non-representational sculpture. Her colors are generally muted, allowing viewers the opportunity both to appreciate the natural beauty of the materials and to recognize the painstaking effort and patience required to create her works.

Jean Yao makes baskets. And she makes great baskets. Woven from indigenous Florida materials, her baskets are functional and beautiful recyclings of one of the most recognizable parts of our state’s landscape: its palm trees.

Her forms are influenced by a mix of Asian functional vessels, traditional basketry, and her own sense of what is possible from the challenging toughness of palm fronds and flowers. Though she keeps her works unadorned by artificial color, she is able to create a great range of patterns, colors and textures that allows her work to be appreciated as fine art sculpture.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• Reitzel Foundation
• Swain Companies and Affiliates

Shelter

June 6 – August 23, 2009

Perkins Gallery

The idea of a shelter can be anything from a physical enclosure to emotional security. Sometimes shelter is a state of mind in which one feels safe and protected. Sometimes shelter is simply a physical structure that leads to that state of mind. Shelter brings together diverse works from the Museum’s permanent collection that touch on those concepts in some way. Some of them are serious and poignant; others are more whimsical. All of these artworks point to the fact that art, as an outlet for personal expression, is itself a form of shelter for many artists. The exhibition will include works by artists including Virginia Beth Shields, Hollis Sigler, Suzanne Camp Crosby, and many others.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• Reitzel Foundation
• Swain Companies and Affiliates

Art and Design: Proportion

April 18 – August 2, 2009

Ledger and Murray Galleries

This exhibition is the third in a series of exhibitions over the next two years that will demonstrate the role of the Principles of Design within artworks in the Museum’s Permanent Collection. Upcoming exhibitions will focus on Rhythm, Contrast and Movement. This exhibit will focus on proportion, which is the relationship of the size, location, or amount of an element to another part of the work or to the work as a whole.

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• Reitzel Foundation
• Swain Companies and Affiliates

Unbelievable Transformations: Moving Sculpture by Gregory Barsamian

March 14 – June 7, 2009

Dorothy Jenkins and Emily S. Macey Galleries

WATCH A MOVIE OF THE SCULPTURES IN ACTION.

CLICK HERE to read an article on TheLedger.com about the sculptures and see a video of Gregory Barsamian talking about making money as an artist.

SPECIAL EVENING HOURS:

Thursdays 5:00 – 8:00pm

Members admitted FREE during this time.

In the last ten years, perhaps no other exhibition has excited our community more than Innuendo Non Troppo: The Work of Gregory Barsamian. This nationally touring exhibition that was organized by the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati came to Polk Museum of Art in the spring of 1999. Ten years later, Barsamian’s work is coming back!

This time Polk Museum of Art is taking the lead in the project, working with Barsamian to conceive a major exhibition of his work. Looking at Gregory Barsamian’s artwork is like watching three dimensional stop-motion animation magically take place right in front of your eyes. Barsamian’s unique works combine a series of sculpted images on a rotating framework with a synchronized strobe light. By using elaborate metal structures that support the sculptures and timing the strobe perfectly, viewers experience the illusion that sculptures are transforming right in front of their eyes. His dream-like imagery is enchanting and unforgettable.

Barsamian’s work is based in dream imagery and philosophy. Immediately upon waking, he records his dreams and uses them as a starting point for new sculptures. He is also interested in the concept of time, and feels that sculpture, more than two dimensional art, relies upon time – in the act of viewing – to be fully understood. He has taken this idea further by creating artwork that changes with time.

Gregory Barsamian’s work has been creating animated sculptures for 20 years. His works have been displayed and collected all over the world. In 2007, he won Grand Prix at the Platform International Animation Festival in Portland, Oregon.

SPONSORED BY:
Universal Painting, Lakeland, FL
Porter Paints

ANNUAL EXHIBITION FUND SPONSORS:

• Cowles Charitable Trust
• Dorothy Chao Jenkins
• Ron and Becky Johnson
• Reitzel Foundation
• Swain Companies and Affiliates