Sophie Blackall is a Brooklyn-based Australian artist. She has illustrated over fifty books for children, including the New York Times best-selling Ivy and Bean series, and has twice received the Randolph Caldecott Medal, in 2016 for Finding Winnie and in 2019 for Hello Lighthouse.

In the decades following the Second World War, artists continued developing new stylistic vocabularies, sustaining the Abstract Expressionist movement amid the rise and influence of Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Pop Art. In Color Fields and Inspirations, works by acclaimed artists of the 1960s and 1970s invite an ongoing conversation that embraces intuition, experimentation, and reflection on materiality.

USA 250: 250 Years on the Road to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is an exhibition presented across two galleries. Drawing from the Collection of the Orlando Museum of Art, it is envisioned as a road trip across the United States, trailing significant historical points of view where artists have recognized, responded to, or documented changing human experiences. The earliest painting presented hails from the late 19th-century Hudson River School and is displayed alongside works across media that extend into our contemporary era.

Selected artists have the opportunity to exhibit one contemporary artwork alongside the museum’s Collection for a month, with one or two new artists being presented each month. The exhibition helps to create a fresh dialogue and new perspectives on the art of the region, and these contemporary living artists’ work becomes a bridge between time periods and between cultures.