Miami based artist Onajide Shabaka explores ethnobotany, geology and archaeology as they relate to human history, society and culture. Through a combination of abstract, calligraphic works on paper, documentary photographs, sculpture and found objects, Alosúgbe traces Shabaka’s own family history along with the migrations of people and plants from the rice plantations of the Atlantic colonial slave era to 20th century Florida.

From drab backrooms to glittering, mirrored stages, Nadeau’s exquisite watercolor paintings document the strip bars and “gentleman’s” clubs in which she worked for decades. With an insider’s eye, she unpacks the power structures, interpersonal dynamics and financial underpinnings of this little understood world.

A new focus, a new body of work, and a new name. New York artist Josefiná Cavaliná presents still life oil paintings featuring ceramics, fruits and vegetables.

An island mainstay and one of the driving forces behind the dearly missed Sculpture Key West exhibitions, Jim Racchi studied classical stone carving in Florence before settling in the Keys. His welded creations echo that training in their strong lines and impulsive flow. Racchi’s latest work is a series of polychrome welded steel sculptures that illustrate the flow of an eddy—a circular current defined by its movement.

A trio of internationally recognized artists – and former Studios’ Artists in Residence – reflect on the delicate balance of flora, fauna and humanity that share the space where ocean meets land. Mohallem’s yarn drawings of mangrove trees are obsessive metaphors for nature’s connectedness; Hayeur’s large format photos offer split screen images of life over and under water; and Skandali invents maps of underwater spaces and repurposes found beach elements, forming installations of unsettled and endangered beauty.

As a daily practice, Lynne Bentley-Kemp captures the water and sky surrounding her home each morning. Here she presents a carefully curated selection of the thousands of images she’s collected as a photographic installation that forms its own atmosphere.

Pederson’s masterful watercolor and mixed media (oil stick and cold wax) portraits depict people who have impacted her path—either for a moment or a lifetime, and from all walks of life.

The Studios is proud to host the annual Anne McKee Auction now celebrating its 25th year. Join aficionados for one of the most popular art events of the year. Proceeds fund the vital grant program exclusively benefitting Keys artists.

Approximately 100 Key Deer were hurt or killed by cars last year, and are further threatened by loss of habitat, hurricanes, Screwworm disease, and weakening of the Endangered Species Act. Watson has taken their plight to heart, with a series of work made from reclaimed materials depicting the Keys’ native deer and wildscapes.

With his distinctive paintings of old Key West scenes, folk artist Mario Sanchez passed down a tradition that lives on today. Feat. Wayne Garcia, Danny Roberts, Danny Soldano, Andy Thurber.

David Genest’s recent monotonal works are group portraits – rendered in acrylic, ink, charcoal and photo transfer – depicting human moments in the domestic lives of contemporary American LGBT families.

With works ranging from pop-inflected paintings to postmodern ceramics, these five artists all straddle the threshold of abstraction. They also share a common history, with a connection to Bennington College in the 60’s and 70’s, and currently with the national art scene. They ultimately become friends in Islamorada, where the art luminaries Jules Olitski (Lauren Olitski’s father) and Larry Poons (DeLuccia’s husband) lived for many years.

Binard’s portraits combine painting with ceramic and mixed media to comment on the tension between one’s identity in the eyes of others, and the one we choose ourselves. Intensely personal, the pieces touch on Binard’s racial and cultural history.

The dancers in Piscopink’s stunning photographs inhabit an ethereal underwater dream world, offering both an escape from the day to day, and a deep connection to nature, the human form, imagination, and profound spiritual forces.

Katlin Spain pieces shapes of color together into large scale oil paintings. Bright flowers overflow from fenced yards, while palms and poincianas overlap each other, covering the view above with shades of green and vermillion.

Christie Fifer’s paintings and sculptures revolve around books – their history & their contents – all woven together with puns, puzzles, and didactic intent to both amuse and encourage conversation. Still life paintings of precariously stacked first editions are simultaneously realistic and surreal, prompting extended investigation. Leaping from the canvas, Fifer’s sculptures utilize actual books suffering from wear or neglect that have been repurposed to create playful and thoughtful sculptures in search of their own Renaissance.

Culled from her ongoing “Gym Series,” Albritton’s colorful, awkward, and very funny paintings ultimately offer a profound commentary on the lengths people will go to in search of the perfect body.

Caldwell’s mixed media paintings capture the exuberance of an island bursting with color: the endless shades of foliage, the magnificent variety of flowers, the aqua-teal-turquoise water, and the billowing sunsets shifting from peach-pink to the blue-purple-indigo of nightfall.