Ruud Van Empel. World #1. 2005, cibachrome/dibond/plexiglass. Copyright Ruud Van Empel, courtesy George Eastman House.
Given the breezy brightness of this spring’s weather, you could be forgiven for imagining that west central Florida constitutes a little slice of paradise — especially in the manicured gardens outside the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in [...]

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The lineup for October’s Ringling International Arts Festival features New York cabaret sensation Meow Meow. Meowmeowrevolution.com.
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, in partnership with the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York, announces the first Ringling International Arts Festival, scheduled to take place in Sarasota this October. The festival, which runs Oct. 7-11, features [...]

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This just landed in my inbox this morning:
Ringling Student Art Sale Comes to Campus Saturday, January 31!
On Saturday, January 31 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., Ringling College of Art and Design presents a one-day creative collaboration of emerging artists work along with an art materials showcase featuring top brands.
The art exhibition and sale [...]

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A lot of what I’m doing – and what I assume other people are doing – during the Sarasota International Design Summit is listening for great ideas and thinking about to adopt and adapt them in my own practice. Two of the summit’s late morning panelists today were great sources for inspiration in regards to [...]

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Courtesy Sarasota Int’l Design Summit/Pininfarina
Today and tomorrow, the Sarasota International Design Summit continues. (Click here to read an earlier overview of the event.)
At this point, the ideas start coming fast and furious, which is why the summit’s “visualization maestro,” Tom Wujec of Autodesk, plans to recap yesterday’s big ideas (memes, if you will) in sketches [...]

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Greetings from the Sarasota International Design Summit, where I’m sitting in the ballroom of the Ritz Carlton Sarasota listening to the summit speakers.

Bruce Damer (pictured) just finished discussing his work, including the development of the iDoublet—a renaissance-inspired garment that holds all of your “wearz” or gadgets, like iPods. (In addition to several music players, Damer [...]

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Jeppe Hein
Smoking Bench, 2003
Fog machine, bench (stainless steel and leather), mirror
Courtesy Johann König, Berlin
For most folks, Sarasota’s John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is synonymous with Old Master style: ginormous Rubens tapestries, Italian canvases in dramatic chiaroscuro, twisting Baroque columns. In comparison, the Ringling’s current exhibit of modern art from the mid- to late-20th [...]

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Steven Katzman. Flowers for Gretchen. 1997, 47″ x 38″, Pigment print, ed. 1/5. Image courtesy Greene Contemporary.
Here’s another opening reception I neglected to mention:
Tonight, 6-9 p.m. – Reception for Steven Katzman: Obsessed with the Found at Greene Contemporary, Sarasota
Earlier this week, owner Jonathan Greene announced via email that his Sarasota gallery, Greene Contemporary, is [...]

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A Non Grata performance in Boston last year. Courtesy nongrata.ee
Is it just me—or is the number of art events taking place this weekend insane?
On Friday, it’s a tough call. If you stop by [5]art at the West Tampa Center for the Arts for their Polaroid Show, you can also see the FLOCAS show of [...]

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Image from tomnakashima.com
Tomorrow is the last chance to check out two shows at Ringling College of Art and Design’s Selby Gallery (on the RCAD campus, one-half block east of 2700 N. Tamiami Trail on Dr. Martin Luther King, Sarasota; 941.359.7563).
Tom Nakashima, an internationally-exhibited artist who also happens to be a professor at Augusta State [...]

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Ain Cocke
In the French Forest (2007)
5 1/2″ x 4 1/2″
Oil on birch panel
Sarasota gallerist Jonathan Greene has posted an extensive preview of the works he’ll be taking to Bridge Art Fair and Art Miami during Miami Basel next week. (Go to Greene Contemporary and click on upcoming shows, then on each fair.) I noticed that [...]

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According to the website of the Ringling Museum of Art, this tiny show ought to have come down at the beginning of November, so for the moment I have no idea how much longer it will be up. I drove down to see Goya’s Los Caprichos (about which I’ll post some thoughts shortly) but was [...]

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