Southwest Florida’s museums regularly curate traveling art exhibitions as well as shows consisting of artworks from their permanent collections. During the month of February, visitors will find the following shows in museums from Sarasota to Naples:
“Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks” [Sarasota Art Museum]: This exhibition explores the intersection between design innovation and technological advancements in footwear. “Future Now” features over 70 futuristic designs from the Bata Shoe Museumʼs holdings as well as loans from other prominent institutions, collectors, designers, and inventors. Presenting digitally designed and 3D-printed shoes, sneakers made from mushroom leather and reclaimed ocean plastics, and footwear created for the metaverse, the exhibition explores how cutting-edge technologies, unexpected materials, and new ideas are transforming footwear today. Featured designers and brands include Salehe Bembury, rtfkt, Mr. Bailey, Zaha Hadid, JEMS by Pensole, Safa Şahin, EKTO VR, Saysh, Benoit Méléard, SCRY, and many more. Runs February 9 to May 4, 2025.
“Larry Fink /Martha Posner: Flesh and Bone” [Sarasota Art Museum]: This exhibition explores the creative dialogue between photographer Larry Fink (1941-2023) and sculptor Martha Posner (born 1956). The two were romantic partners for more than 30 years. Radically different artists, their work nonetheless shares common themes of desire, vulnerability, and brutality. Both also explore myth throughout their art: Posner explicitly, through her re-imagining of female subjects from various legends and mythic traditions; Fink implicitly, through his shrewd eye for human impulse, folly, and bravado, qualities he found in almost every scenario no matter how base or exalted. Runs through April 13, 2025.
“Joe Fig: Contemplating Vermeer” [Sarasota Art Museum]: Sarasota artist Joe Fig traveled to a blockbuster Johannes Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam in 2023 and produced a series of small paintings that focuses not only on the gallery space and over a dozen of Vermeer’s canvases, but also on the visitors looking at the art. Listen to a review of the exhibition on WGCU. Runs through April 13, 2025.
“Molly Hatch: Amalgam” [Sarasota Art Museum]: Hatch created her newly commissioned “plate painting,” Amalgam (2023), specifically for Sarasota Art Museum. Consisting of more than 450 earthenware plates hand-painted in white, blue, and gold luster, the abstract lines and shapes in Amalgam are drawn from a variety of historical ceramics from around the globe. Runs through April 26, 2026.
“Catch of the Day: Flying Fish from Modern Japan” [John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art]: This is a group exhibition of modernist lacquerware, glass, and metalwork objects, textiles, and works on paper and silk that feature the motif of flying fish, which reach speeds of 35 miles per hour and propel themselves meters above the water. Seen only occasionally in Japanese visual culture of earlier eras, images of flying fish began to proliferate in decorative arts during the 1930s and 40s, where they suggested agility, power, and new possibilities. Runs through April 6, 2025.
“Jess T. Dugan: I want you to know my story” [John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art]: St. Louis-based contemporary artist Jess T. Dugan explores facets of identity through their photography, video, and writing. Grounded in their own experience as a queer, nonbinary person, Dugan’s work addresses the universal human need to understand, express oneself, and connect with others. Closes February 22, 2025.
“Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan” [John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art]: This is an exhibition of 41 ceramic sculptures by 36 female contemporary Japanese artists. “Radical Clay” spans veterans of the field to emerging artists. Encompassing a large range of styles, conceptual approaches, and techniques, the exhibition celebrates their individual and collective triumphs and broader impact. This exhibition is drawn from the collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz and curated by Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art, the Art Institute of Chicago. Runs through May 11, 2025.
“Embodied” [John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art]: The figure is one of the oldest records of our existence as a species capable of storytelling; depictions of the human body constitute some of the oldest subjects in art. “Embodied” expands on the definition of the human figure by bringing together diverse representations in painting, sculpture, fiber, video, and mixed media by some of the most exciting artists working in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Runs through September 21, 2025.
“The Greatest Show on Earth” [John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art]: This latest addition to the museum celebrates the era of modern circus that began with Irvin Feld’s purchase of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® in 1967. The Greatest Show On Earth® Gallery modernizes the museum’s expansive history of the circus by exploring the first fifty years of the Feld family’s stewardship during which the spectacle of the show brought the circus experience to new heights. The new exhibit continues the story, found throughout the Circus Museum, of how Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® grew to become one of the most well-recognized brands in the world. The gallery space is designed to evoke the excitement of seeing a live show, while also representing the full spectrum of the production experience from both front- and back-of-house perspectives. Visitors can explore artifacts, costumes, and media footage in an engaging and multisensory experience throughout the exhibition area. This is permanent exhibition that is periodically updated with new artifacts from the Museum’s permanent collection.
“David BRADSHAW & William S. BURROUGHS: Propagation” [Bob Rauschenberg Gallery]: This exhibition examines how ideas are disseminated and transformed through various mediums. The works featured in “Propagation” demonstrate how artists David Bradshaw and William S. Burroughs utilized unconventional tools (including firearms, dynamite and a bowling-ball canon) and chance-based operations to generate new artistic forms – subverting conventional studio practice and standard artmaking processes. Listen to a 2:17 minute summary of the exhibition on WGCU. Listen to a 29:59 minute conversation with artist David Bradshaw about the exhibition on WGCU’s Gulf Coast Life: Arts Edition. Runs through April 12, 2025.
“Florida Contemporary” [The Baker Museum and Hayes Hall Galleries]: This annual exhibition presents three notable artists practicing in Florida. Highlighting the diversity of artistic approaches to personal, local and global themes, the 12th edition of this exhibition invites visitors to celebrate the state’s vibrant art scene. The artists selected for the 12th edition of the exhibition are Amer Kobaslija, Jacksonville; Cynthia Mason, St. Petersburg; and Marielle Plaisir, Miami. Listen on WGCU to an overview of the exhibition. Located in the Kohan, Newell and Friends of Artis—Naples Galleries of Hayes Hall. Runs through June 29, 2025.
“Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Obra Sonora” [The Baker Museum]: For more than three decades, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has integrated art, science, architecture and technology into his trailblazing artistic practice. The internationally celebrated Mexican-Canadian artist is known for his participatory installations, which have been showcased in major solo exhibitions at the Hirshhorn Museum, SFMOMA and Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, among many others. The exhibition features monumental works such “Sphere Packing: Bach,” a 10-foot-diameter sphere that supports 1,128 speakers — each playing a different composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. “Obra Sonora” is the first museum exhibition to explore Lozano-Hemmer’s use of music, voice and sound, and it is the largest-ever museum presentation of his work in the southeastern United States. Located on the third floor of The Baker Museum. Runs through June 15, 2025.
“In the Making: Sketches, Studies and Maquettes from the Permanent Collection” [Baker Museum of Art]: This exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore artists’ creative processes by showcasing over 30 works from The Baker Museum’s permanent collection. Among the featured artists are Olga Costa, Sonia Delaunay, Morgan Russell, Mark di Suvero and Alice Trumbull Mason. The comprehensive exhibition provides a rare chance to witness the evolution of an artwork, from initial sketches to fully realized works of art. Located on the first floor of The Baker Museum. Runs through Fall, 2025.
“Louise Nevelson: Dawn’s Forest” [The Baker Museum and Hayes Hall]: The monumental sculpture “Dawn’s Forest” by preeminent American artist Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) is one of the most iconic works in The Baker Museum’s permanent collection. The work is made of various painted abstract wood elements, some as tall as 25 feet, created by Nevelson in her signature assemblage style over a period of more than a year. This is a permanent exhibit located in the Drackett Gallery and throughout Hayes Hall.
“Art in Balance: Matisse & His Illustrated Works [Naples Art Institute]: This exhibition presents a captivating selection of over 140 works that reveal Henri Matisse's genius as a printmaker and his unique approach to composition, color, and form. Spanning from the late 1930s through his final years, this exhibition highlights Matisse’s mastery in balancing intense colors with bold black contrasts—a technique he admired in Odilon Redon’s lithographs. Printmaking was central to Matisse’s creative journey, serving as an extension of his drawing. Through lithographs, pochoirs, and linocuts, Matisse revealed his working process, creating over 800 engravings that reflect his resilient spirit, especially during the later years when painting grew physically challenging. The exhibition also delves into Matisse’s deeply spiritual final years, during which he designed the chapel in Venice, widely regarded as his artistic testament. Photographs by Hélène Adant provide a rare glimpse into the reflective and practical moments behind this monumental project, revealing Matisse’s creative process and enduring "joie de vivre." Runs through April 13, 2025.
“Reflections of South Florida: A 50-Year Art Adventure” [Marco Island Historical Museum]: Celebrating fifty years of Paul Arsenault living and painting in South Florida, this exhibit conveys the history, soul stirring beauty, and charm of Marco Island, Goodland, and Naples as well as other South Florida locales, including Vero Beach, Key West, Cortez, and others. Arsenault has traveled the world to record breathtaking landscapes, seascapes, seaside villages, and more in his captivating plein air paintings. However, he always returns to his Naples home. Here, he has found a treasure trove of inspiration for his art. Closes February 15, 2025.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.