Orlando Museum of Art Announces its 2018-2019 Season
Orlando Museum of Art Florida Prize in Contemporary Art 2018
On view now through August 19, 2018
The Orlando Museum of Art presents the fifth exhibition of the Orlando Museum of Art Florida Prize in Contemporary Art. This exhibition features 10 of the most progressive and exciting artists working in the State today. Additionally, one of these outstanding artists is selected to receive a significant monetary award. The award and invitational exhibition recognizes the achievement and potential of these artists and encourages their continued innovation and creation of new work. With this initiative, the Orlando Museum of Art underscores its commitment to support talented emerging and mid-career artists, while celebrating the vibrant cultural life of Florida. More information »
Zen Tales: The Art of Jon J Muth
August 4 – October 28, 2018
This exhibition will feature 69 works by Jon J Muth, an American comic book artist and children's book illustrator, known for his painted artwork. Muth studied stone sculpture and shodō (brush calligraphy) in Japan; and studied painting, printmaking, and drawing in England, Austria and Germany. His works include J. M. DeMatteis' graphic novel Moonshadow, Grant Morrison's The Mystery Play, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: The Wake with Michael Zulli and Charles Vess, and Mike Carey's Lucifer: Nirvana and Swamp Thing: Roots. Muth has had an award-winning career as a children's book writer and illustrator. Muth explained that "A sense of joy is what moved me from comics to picture books. My work in children's books grew out of a desire to explore what I was feeling as a new father." He received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators in 1999 for his illustrations in Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse. Muth created a version of the stone soup fable set in China and illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game. More information »
Nick Cave: Feat.
September 14 – December 30, 2018
Nick Cave’s work is a seamless combination of sculpture, dance and fashion, reflecting his experience as a trained visual artist. Cave is best known for his elaborate “soundsuits,” human-shaped, wearable sculptural forms composed of a wide variety of repurposed commonplace materials. His creations, bursting with color and texture, are optical delights that can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages and backgrounds. A deeper look reveals that they speak to issues surrounding identity and social justice, specifically race, gun violence and civic responsibility. The exhibition, a cross-section of Cave’s oeuvre, will begin with a runway of Cave’s signature Soundsuits. The exhibition will feature a large projected video in which the Soundsuits come to life, worn by dancers – often the artist himself – who dance to original music composed for Cave. Visitors will encounter an installation of thousands of hand-painted, almost psychedelically patterned strands of bamboo hanging from the ceiling, evoking an enchanted forest. The exhibition will conclude with densely assembled wall-mounted sculptures dripping with ceramic birds, metal flowers, beads, crystals and even an antique gramophone. This exhibition was organized by the Frist Art Museum, Nashville. More information »
Purvis Young and His Angels
September 14 – January 20, 2019
Purvis Young was a self-taught artist who lived and worked in Overtown, a historically African-American neighborhood adjacent to downtown Miami. Working on materials such as discarded scraps of wood, metal and cardboard found on neighboring streets, Young developed an expressive and visionary style of painting rooted in his experience as an African American living in an economically distressed community. Following a period of incarceration as a teenager, Young began to draw and paint as a way of critiquing the circumstances of life in his impoverished community. By the 1970s, Young began to receive local recognition, exhibiting his paintings by the hundreds in abandoned buildings in Overtown. His local success eventually led to national and international recognition with exhibitions throughout the U.S. and in Europe. The exhibition of 33 works will be the first to feature Young’s work at the Orlando Museum of Art. Included will be 23 works gifted to the Museum as well as loans all from Daniel Aubry, a major collector of Young’s work.
Festival of Trees: It’s the Most Wonderful Times of the Year
November 9 – 18, 2018
The Festival of Trees, presented by the Orlando Museum of Art’s Council of 101, is Central Florida’s premiere holiday event. Now in its thirty-second year, Festival of Trees transforms the Museum into a glittering wonderland filled with sparkling trees and stunning décor for visitors of all ages. This year’s theme will be: “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and will take place the week of November 9-18, 2018. During the Festival of Trees, the Orlando Museum of Art offers daily holiday themed events and entertainment for all ages, showcases designer Christmas trees, custom hand designed wreaths and table décor, a gingerbread village, tabletop displays and more. Each piece is designed by Orlando’s finest designers and is available for purchase with all proceeds benefiting the Orlando Museum of Art. More information »
Winifred Johnson Clive: An Artist at Home and Abroad
March 30 – June 9, 2019
Long-time Orlando resident and arts supporter, Winifred Johnson Clive (1906-2001) was also a notable painter. Born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, Clive arrived in New York City in 1930 to study painting with distinguished American artists of the time such as Cecilia Beaux and Winold Reiss. In 1933, she made her way to Paris where she continued her career until the outbreak of WWII. In 1940, she fled Paris as the German army advanced, traveling through Holland to make her way back to the United States. She was invited to exhibit works recovered from her Paris studio at the venerable Newhouse Galleries in New York, in 1940. Clive spent the war years in Washington DC where she met her husband, Colin Clive, a Royal Air Force wing commander. After the War, the couple settled in Biarritz, France where Clive continued to paint with a circle of French artists led by painter Paul Rambié. The couple also maintained a home in Orlando. Following her husband’s death in 1978, Clive became a full-time Orlando resident and generously supported a wide range of cultural organizations in Central Florida. The exhibition will include approximately 25 paintings selected from collections in Central Florida.
Louis Dewis: A Belgian Post-Impressionist
January 25 – May 5, 2019
Louis Dewis: A Belgian Post-Impressionist will present a selection of over 70 paintings from the artist’s lost body of work, in the artist’s first important museum exhibition. Inspired by such French masters of landscape painting as Corot, Cézanne and Gauguin, Dewis painted scenes of cities, villages and countryside throughout Belgium and France. Working primarily between 1916 and his death in 1946, Dewis was successful during his life, but his career was eclipsed by artistic developments of the post-World War II period in France. His work is now being reevaluated after a trove of paintings were discovered in the attic of a family home. This is the first major exhibition for the artist, which will present landscapes from important periods of the artist’s career following World War I. The years immediately after the Great War were distinctive in French art for a return to the motif of landscape, in part a response to the unprecedented devastation of the country and staggering loss of life, many artists during this time sought to celebrate the “soil” of France in landscape painting. Dewis’ paintings reflect this return to landscape painting with works that captured the scenic qualities of locations from his homeland in the Flemish region of Belgium to the Basque country in southwestern France. More information »
Orlando Museum of Art Florida Prize in Contemporary Art 2019
May 31 – August 18, 2019
The Orlando Museum of Art will present the sixth exhibition of the Orlando Museum of Art Florida Prize in Contemporary Art. This exhibition will feature 10 of the most progressive and exciting artists working in the State today. Additionally, one of these outstanding artists will be selected to receive a significant monetary award. The award and invitational exhibition recognizes the achievement and potential of these artists and encourages their continued innovation and creation of new work. With this initiative, the Orlando Museum of Art underscores its commitment to support talented emerging and mid-career artists, while celebrating the vibrant cultural life of Florida.
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For more information, visit omart.org or contact Michael Caibio at 407.896.4231 ext. 233 or mcaibio@omart.org.
Cover image: Nick Cave, Soundsuit, 2013, mixed media, including vintage bunny, safety pin craft baskets, hot pads, fabric, metal, and mannequin, 111 x 36 x 36 in. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Nick Cave, Soundsuit, 2012, mixed media, including beaded and sequined garments, fabric, metal, and mannequin, 109 ½ x 24 ½ x 12 in. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Nick Cave, Soundsuit, 2011, ceramic birds and figures, metal flowers, gramophone, wig, beads, metal armature, appliquéd, knitted and crocheted fabric on mannequin, 112 ½ in. x 58 in. x 47 ½ in. Purchased with funds provided by the Acquisition Trust.