Durante Gallery

January 18 - March 1

Opening Reception: Friday, January 18

Rsvp required: 941.383.2345 or Ibkca@ringling.edu

5:30 - 7:30 pm

Fifty Highway Men paintings from the Lawrence Helmuth collection will be on display.

ABOUT THE HIGHWAY MEN

The Highway Men were a small group of painters, talented but generally self-taught artists who created Florida landscapes from their imagination and experiences. They only had access to inferior materials and sometimes primitive technical approaches, but they were able to produce a large body of work and a legacy that will be permanently recognized in the history of popular and folk art in Florida and the South. 

Starting in the 1950's and continuing into the 1980's this group of African Americans from the Fort Pierce area began an artistic enterprise of painting Florida landscapes and selling them door to door, town to town. Looking for artistic and financial freedom during the days of "Jim Crow", these artists created paintings not only to capture Florida and its lush landscapes, but also to sell. That in itself is a measure of their success and why today you will find the Highway Men's work in art collections around the globe and not owned by the artists themselves.

In 2004, the Florida Arts Council inducted 26 of the Highway Men painters into its Artist's Hall of Fame. Given the highest cultural honor bestowed by the state, their names went alongside other creatives who at one time called Florida their home: Tennessee Williams, Jimmy Buffet, Ray Charles, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Raushenberg and James Rosenquist to name a few.

Larry Helmuth began collecting the Highway Men paintings after seeing a PBS special in 2000. He traveled much of the East coast searching antique shops, galleries and studios for these paintings that captured his interest. As the collection grew, Larry became more fascinated by the varied stories of these creative men and woman. He has made it his goal to share his collection and his gathered stories so others can come to know and experience this group of Florida artists. Now exhibiting for the 3rd time, Longboat Key is proud to display this collection of these Florida Hall of Fame artists. 

You can learn more about the Highway Men and their art by going to www.npr.org. In the summer of 2012, NPR did a feature story on the life and legacy of these amazing and resilient painters.

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Cultural Media Room
January 18 – March 1

Opening Reception:                       
Friday, January 18                            
5:30 – 7:30 pm

Rsvp required: 941.383.2345 or lbkca@ringling.edu

A small selection of Syd Solomon work from his estate will be exhibited in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Longboat Key Center for the Arts. 

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Syd Solomon was born near Uniontown, Pennsylvania in 1917. From 1935-38 he studied at the Art institute of Chicago.  In 1946, Syd and Annie Solomon settled in Sarasota, Florida, which was home to the Ringling Museum of Art. At the suggestion of Alfred Barr, Solomon’s work was the first by a contemporary artist, to be collected by the Ringling Museum. This began a long association of the artist with the Museum, the Ringling School of Art and nearby New College. He also was one of the first visiting artists to hold painting demonstrations at the emerging Longboat Key Art Center

By 1959 Solomon had developed a lifestyle that split the year, spending winter and spring in Sarasota and summer and fall in the Hamptons. He was to follow this dual location life-style, which greatly influenced his work, for over the next 30 years. During the 1950s Solomon’s paintings were included in numerous national exhibitions. His early and experimental use of acrylics and his expression of the raw forces of nature through gesture caught the attention of the wider art world. Included in shows at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The Smithsonian, The Butler Institute of Art, The National Academy of Design, The High Museum, The Academy of Arts and Letters and many others, Solomon’s work and reputation flourished.

Solomon became an influential artist and personality in the Hamptons and in Florida in the 1960s. He created the Institute of Fine Art at New College in Sarasota and is credited with bringing many nationally known artists to Florida. Larry Rivers, Phil Guston, James Brooks, Conrad Marca-Relli, were among the artists that taught at the Institute. 

In 1970, with architect Gene Leedy, the artist built an award winning house and studio on Siesta Key in Sarasota. In 1975 a retrospective exhibition of Solomon’s work was held at the New York Cultural Center and at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. Writer Kurt Vonnegut Jr. conducted an interview with Solomon for the exhibition catalog. In 1990, the Ringling Museum of Art honored the artist with the one-man exhibition “A Dialog With Nature”. The artist died in Sarasota in January 2004.

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Durante Gallery

April 5 - May 31

Opening Reception: Friday, April 5 5:30 - 7:30 pm

Rsvp required: 941.383.2345 or Ibkca@ringling.edu.  

We are pleased to be hosting an exhibition of images by the faculty of the Photography and Digital Imaging Department of The Ringling College of Art and Design. The work of this group represents a wide cross section of contemporary practice including fashion, interpretive landscape, portraits, staged events, documentary, video and mixed media installations."

The exhibit will be curated by Thomas Carabasi who is currently the Department Head of Photography and Digital Imaging at RCAD.

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Cultural Media Room

April 5 - May 31

Opening Reception: Friday, April 5  5:30 - 7:30 pm

Rsvp required: 941.383.2345 or Ibkca@ringling.edu. 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jim Johnson's former business life included substantial opportunities to travel internationally, facilitating an expanded and intensive exposure to other lands and cultures. Upon early retirement in 1997 he continued these extensive travels. This afforded him the continued opportunity to experience not only unique cultures but also areas of natural beauty throughout the world which is reflected in his photography. He has studied with some of the most prominent photographers in the field today, including Freeman Patterson, Jay Maisel, Bryan Peterson, Elizabeth Opalenik, Clyde Butcher, and noted National Geographic photographers David Alan Harvey and Bob Krist. His work is included in several private collections throughout the USA and Canada. To view more of his photography go to www.fineartofphotography.com. 

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