Upcoming Exhibitions

  • Living Color: The Art of the Highwaymen

    On View November 19, 2020 through March 28, 2021

    Untitled (Royal Poinciana), n.d.

    Harold Newton (American, 1934-1991), Oil on Upson board. 23 ½ x 29 ¾ inches. Courtesy of the Asselstine Collection. © Harold Newton. Photography by Tariq Gibran.

    The Highwaymen are a group of African American artists celebrated for their distinctive paintings of Florida’s natural environment. Working in and around the Fort Pierce area beginning in the 1950s, these self-taught artists depicted the state’s scenic coastline and wild backcountry, often in dazzling combinations of color and tone. Brilliant tropical sunsets, windblown palms, towering sunlit clouds, and blooming royal poinciana trees are among the many subjects that have become iconic images of Florida, in part because of the paintings that the Highwaymen created.

    Living Color: The Art of the Highwaymen focuses on work produced from the 1950s to the 1980s by a core group of the Highwaymen including Al Black, Mary Ann Carroll, Willie Daniels, Johnny Daniels, James Gibson, Alfred Hair, Roy McLendon, Harold Newton, Sam Newton, Willie Reagan, and Livingston Roberts. The exhibition brings special attention on two key artists, Harold Newton and Alfred Hair, and presents extensive examples of their work. Drawn from five private collections, Living Color also considers the role of collectors in preserving the legacy of these artists and their extraordinary life stories.

     

    The exhibition is organized by the Orlando Museum of Art and curated by Gary Monroe in collaboration with OMA curator Hansen Mulford.

    Untitled (Backcountry with Mighty Oak Tree and Coconut Palm), n.d.

    Willie Daniels (American, b. 1950), Oil on Upson board. 22 ¾ x 34 ¾ inches. Courtesy of the Jacobs Collection. © Willie B. Daniels. Photography by Tariq Gibran.

    Untitled (Backcountry pond at sunset), n.d.

    Roy McLendon (American, b. 1932), Oil on Upson board. 23 x 46 ¾ inches. Courtesy of the Jacobs Collection. © Roy McLendon. Photography by Tariq Gibran.

    Untitled (Moonlit Palms), n.d.

    James Gibson (American, b. 1938), Oil on Upson board. 22 ¾ x 46 ¾ inches. Courtesy of the Jacobs Collection. © James Gibson. Photography by Tariq Gibran.

  • SKYWAY: A Contemporary Collaboration 20/21

    Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration 20/21 celebrates the artists and work created in the Tampa Bay area. Launched as a triennial exhibition in 2017, this survey show is the second presentation of Skyway and is mounted collaboratively by the Tampa Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, and the Contemporary Art Museum at the University of South Florida. Skyway highlights the breadth of artistic practices in the counties served by the organizing museums: Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, and new to the exhibition, Pasco. The exhibition will be on view simultaneously at the four museums.