Thanks to the handful of visual arts people I saw last night at the Creative Loafing Best of the Bay Awards. Personally, I wish the awards ceremony presented an opportunity for each winner to receive their award on stage, but for the two years they’ve been doing the awards show only one visual arts award is given out, and it’s usually a ballot stuffer. (Though this year’s Reader’s Choice Best Art Gallery went to Studio@620, which could hardly be more deserving. Love them!)

It’s never easy for me to pick the exhibits/people/galleries that I think are “the best” - it always seems as though someone has been left out. But hey, that’s what next year is for. So without further ado, here are the visual arts Best of the Bay Awards Critic’s Picks (by me), as opposed to the Readers’ Picks, which can be found here.

BEST EXHIBIT IN A MUSEUM Drawing Beyond the Plane at TMA
BEST EXHIBIT IN A GALLERY Necklust and the Chocolatier at Florida Craftsmen
BEST ART PARTY Retro Perspectives
BEST VENUE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART The Arts Center
BEST FASHION SHOW Wearable Art at Dunedin Fine Arts Center
BEST NEW MUSEUM DESIGN The Salvador Dalí Museum
BEST IN PAINTING Julie Weitz
BEST IN DRAWING Roger Palmer
BEST IN FIBER Laura Militzer Bryant
BEST IN WEARABLE ART (tie) Brandon Dunlap & Ivanka Ska, Frank Strunk III
BEST IN INSTALLATION Experimental Skeleton
BEST IN NEW MEDIA Santiago Echeverry
BEST IN SCULPTURE Roger Chamieh
BEST IN ARTS PATRONAGE William R. and Hazel Hough
BEST COMEBACK Imago artists