EXHIBITIONS

Jeff Ware’s own unpredictable journey brought him to woodworking four years ago. In the time that’s followed, he’s excelled at the craft producing numerous freeform sculptures from local and non-local woods.

With his distinctive low-relief paintings on wood depicting old Key West scenes, folk artist Mario Sanchez is not only one of Florida’s cultural treasures, he also passed down a tradition that lives on today. 

One of Cuba’s most beloved artists, Alpízar is a master of his craft at a level that approaches the magical. With the technique of an old master, he combines surreal juxtapositions and razor sharp wit to fashion whole worlds within his paintings and objects.

“Mechanisms of Life” is Heverin’s ode to the amalgam of spiritual and technical ingenuity. He starts with a common object of beauty (a horse, a violin), bringing that object to life with polished brass, woodwork and vintage clock parts.

With almost a quarter century of “artists helping artists” behind them, the Anne McKee Auction returns to The Studios. Collectors and curious souls can preview works by local legends leading up to the March 12 live auction.

After returning to his childhood home in Mississippi several years ago, Michael Ross began a series of handmade fabric quilts that take the shape of houses, which hang and suspend from the ceiling. Each of these hanging quilted houses is designed with cords that can be cinched to transform them into capes or cloaks that can drape over the body. As an installation, they serve as a powerful metaphor for how we alter, affect and influence the places that we call home, just as they do to us, and for how we travel through the world carrying our homes on our shoulders.

Throughout the pandemic, Williams thought critically about all the expressions of love–romantic, familial, spiritual, platonic, self-love. The papercuts she created in this time depict love as a constant and defining element of the human experience.

Stevens invites audiences into the intricate and intimate working of her mind. 30 years worth of doodles explore her experiences with anxiety, depression, motherhood, marriage, and divorce. Funny or grief-stricken, each piece is real and raw.

Ansara creates works reminiscent of the popular psychedelic posters that adorned the walls of stoner basements in the 1970s, but with a modern, tropical twist. Works on paper feature indigenous plants and animals in a dayglo palette.

Twin brothers Leif and Loren, collectively the Ivedson Brothers, create works celebrating the natural and imagined oddities that lurk in mangrove tunnels and in the backyards of conch cottages. The fantastical creatures and scenes they create are influenced by the nature, history and mythology of the Florida Keys.

Artist David Berg has been surrounded by carnival traditions his entire life: first as child soaking up the annual Christmas-season festival, then training to be a Moko Jumbie – one of the carnival’s dramatic, athletic high-stilt walkers – and finally as a photographer and historian, documenting the Moko Jumbies and other festival traditions. 

Teachers Katie Holtkamp and Jennifer Franke gave their students an assignment to depict the diversity of their own school. Young artists, K-8, responded with works that are joyful and insightful.

The pandemic was an isolating experience for most, but people with disabilities were acutely affected. Works created by people with disabilities during the pandemic illuminate the realities of that experience and the resiliency of those creating them.

Bickis started his Key West tenure as a sign painter before briefly moving north. Called back by the unique lighting of the island, he began his second life here, exploring the push-pull of shadow and sunlight.

Vasek responds to the shifting sea levels around Key West in sculptural form through casting in plaster, burlap and bamboo. She’s expanded her creative process to include movement drawings, freestanding abstract sculpture and installation.

While in residency at The Studios, Morehouse became enamored with the Kapok trees dotting the island, leading to further study of the lives of trees. The resulting imagery explores resonance, receptivity and entanglement through the language of landscape.

Once upon a time The Studios had the most glorious mango tree on the island. We shared baskets of its golden bounty with our neighbors across the island and chased interlopers out of our yard who’d been drawn by the tree’s sweetness. Every summer we remember its fruit with an exhibition open to all of our members, who are invited to present a work that captures some of what the mango means to us.