How are we grappling with climate change on individual and collective levels in a place we are actively still creating? Portable Memories in Rising Seas is an ongoing participatory project about sea level rise that connects lived experience with memory and climate change.
When we meet someone, we create somebody that doesn’t really exist. As we get to know them, our fantasy is challenged and inevitably, that image disappears. Do we keep our creation alive or replace it with reality? I Don’t Want to Lose Her explores this ever-changing perspective.
Sculptor Tom Jorris cast 14 plaster Conch Nutcrackers from the original mold of the nutcracker used in the production Nutcracker Key West. These nutcrackers inspired local artists and artisans who have embellished, painted, and re-imagined them to create one-of-a-kind works of art.
As we prepare for our final push to burst through the roof - and build our long-awaited roof terrace here at The Studios - we find ourselves looking upward quite a bit lately. Whether it’s the endless blue of an ocean-colored tropical sky, the stars overhead as you bicycle home at night, or a spontaneous rainbow after a mid-afternoon shower, we invite artists to consider the simple act of looking up as metaphor for a future filled with creative possibility.
Every April since 2011, the O, Miami Poetry Festival has embraced the goal of each and every person in Greater Miami encountering a poem during the month of April. How to take the words… is O’ Miami’s first-ever public retrospective, documenting the range and depth of their accomplishment with objects, photos, video and audio.
Bristol began her career as a portrait painter before adding clay to her repertoire. These days, she thrives in the dichotomy of the two mediums, imparting elements of West African and Caribbean design.
Presenting portraits in oil of writers when they were young, before they were known for their work, Dillard hopes to show that they were just ordinary people. "My hope is that future young writers will not despair that they look ordinary. Almost everyone does. That’s what ordinary means. Appearance has nothing to do with genius or talent or originality or anything else important. Appearance is misinformation."
Photographer Larry Blackburn has created a body of collaborative works with the help of our local arts community. Artists such as Rick Worth and Pam Hobbs have layered their signature styles onto Blackburn’s photographs, creating dual visions of Key West scenes.
Construction artist and painter Marks presents a breadth of work that synthesizes past and present. The collection of all new work highlights the emotional content of memory while exhibiting a consciousness of current societal issues.
Blind Spots is a multi-media project which creates space for the voiceless and moves communities from awareness to action – from education to engagement. Utilizing the potent language of art, this exhibition aims to inspire social justice.
The history of Key West's charming cottages, historic homes, and island architecture is examined and reimagined in this exhibition. Ruley's revisionist approach to painting our historic jewels blends the before and after with color and whimsy.
With almost a quarter century of “artists helping artists” behind them, The Studios is proud to host the annual Anne McKee auction, where aficionados gather for one of the most popular art events of the year. Proceeds help fund the vital grant program for Keys artists.
In 1980, Mejía fled El Salvador leaving a lifetime of work that would become a casualty of war. He rebuilt his collection, drawing upon his Mayan heritage to create powerful symbolic images exploring the human condition.
The Tom Majors Wood Art Invitational is a month-long, island-wide celebration of the creative potential of wood, and by extension, a statement of faith that the intersection of humankind and nature needn’t be disastrous, but can result in objects and experiences filled with beauty and meaning. The Studios of Key West, in addition to serving as the hub for the invitational, will host With the Grain, an exhibition of contemporary wood artists from across the country.
People have been living on boats off Key West longer than there has been a town called Key West – or even Cayo Hueso. On The Hook is a photo a photo narrative project focussing on this community — a mix of old timers, new comers, and sailors who are here to earn enough money to make it to the next deepwater port — the people who live on the edge of the edge.
After a decade away Emma Starr reconnects with our island through her analogue photographs, seeking peace and beauty within the intimate landscape. Her images explore the native flora, surrounding waters and emotive sky that have, again, become her second homeland. Starr’s deconstructed polaroids are released from their dormant form and transformed into personal narratives.
The rules of the show are simple – nothing more than 10” in any direction – but the possibilities are endless. Since 2005, Lemonade Stand’s annual Small Works Show has become one of the most anticipated exhibitions on the island. Last year, a record number of submissions, from forty-four states and sixteen countries resulted, in nearly two hundred selected works on view.
Stories are at the heart of Zlamany’s project, which explores the positive impact of portraiture. This multimedia exhibition features community portraits she created, and narratives she collected, during her residency.
10,000 Memories Deep consists of mixed media images that, like dreams, are fragmented yet connected, familiar yet uncertain. In Esposito’s work, past meets present, form and color traverse time, and personal narratives prevail.
A true artist of the Keys, Kerry Hoeppner is known for ability to turn palm fronds, coconuts and other natural bits into whimsical sculptural creations.
Delgado works with the idea of experience – mining visual images for their emotional and spiritual content. Never having a preconceived image in mind, he seeks to portray things that are not obvious in reality, focusing instead on the composition and the balance of the work. This amalgamation of uncertainty and confidence brings his work to life in surprising ways.
Alaina Plowdrey explores ideas of physicality, drive and determination in her portraits of active duty service members. Linking her paintings to the ideas of philosopher and poet Lucretuis, Plowdrey delves into the psyche of the soldier.
To create her latest works, a series of digital images on wood, LaRance spent countless hours transferring, burnishing, sanding and varnishing. This hands-on process also ensures “beauty marks” – tiny imperfections that are LaRance’s favorite part of the work.
Every summer, we celebrate slowing down and heating up with a special Members’ Show and party. Mango Madness welcomes paintings, sculptures and assorted art objects that capture the color of Key West (or simply what our talented members are up to lately). Join us for one of Perry Arnold’s famous mango margaritas while checking out the latest works from our family of artists.
