Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art

Current Exhibition Schedule

"Painting and Sculpture From The Harn Museum Collection"
October 14, 2003 - June 30, 2006
This long-term exhibition of the Harn’s collection of painting and sculpture spans the period from the mid-nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century.
The museum’s collection has been enhanced during the past year by the acquisition of several works, including oil paintings by Fairfield Porter and Carl Holty, to be shown for the first time in this new installation. The installation also offers new perspectives on frequently exhibited works through the generous loan of paintings and works on paper from several local collections.

"Asian Art: Culture and Context"
October 12, 2004 - June 30, 2006
Asian Art: Culture and Context reflects the Harn Museum’s continuing success in building one of the best public collections of Asian art in the southeastern United States. The exhibition is on view for an extended period with regular rotations of new works to ensure the art’s preservation.

"Sense, Style, Presence: African Arts of Personal Adornment"
November 09, 2004 - June 30, 2006
African Arts of Personal Adornment is drawn from the Harn Museum collection and explores
a range of African objects and modes of personal adornment, in both everyday and ritual contexts. “Adorn” refers to what is used for two essential approaches to dressing the body.
It includes both extending the dimensions, color and textures of the body through garments, jewelry and other accoutrements, and modifying the shape and texture of the skin and hair.

"40th Annual Art Faculty Exhibition"
January 25, 2005 - April 17, 2005
The exhibition marks the third time the University of Florida art faculty have held their annual show at the Harn Museum. This year’s exhibition also coincides with a larger series of programs that celebrate the School of Art and Art History's thirtieth anniversary. Twenty faculty members display their work and the disciplines represented include painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, ceramics and digital media.

"Frank Hamilton Taylor: Visions of Florida, Cuba and Mexico"
February 22, 2005 - May 15, 2005
This exhibition features approximately forty pen and ink drawings and watercolors by American artist Frank Hamilton Taylor (1846-1927). The works document General Ulysses S. Grant’s 1880 visit to Florida, Cuba and Mexico and were published in Harper’s Weekly where Taylor worked as a journalist. Taylor’s drawings and watercolors are interpreted with reference to the United States’ post Civil War emergence as a world powerhouse and its role in economic globalization.

"Political Cartoons of Modern Japan (1868-1945)"
March 01, 2005 - April 03, 2005
Political Cartoons of Modern Japan presents twenty-five political cartoons originally published in comic journals, such as Marumaru chinbun, Tokyo puck, Osaka puck and Jiji manga. These cartoons capture the political climate as depicted through contemporary land-mark events. Sometimes employing satire and humor and at other times relentlessly displaying ridicule, the cartoons function both as a vehicle of political critique and also as a means of consolidating a sense of national identity.

Future Exhibition Schedule

Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde
April 12, 2005 - July 03, 2005
Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde includes an outstanding selection of Russian artworks that are seldom seen and little known in the West and offer a rare opportunity to learn about underground culture in Russia during the Soviet era. This exhibition presents a selection of fifty-six paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and mixed media created by “non-conformist” Russian artists between the late 1950s and mid 1990s. All of the works in Forbidden Art: The Postwar Russian Avant-Garde belong to the private collection of Yuri Traisman and is traveling through International Arts and Artists of Washington, D.C.

Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands
May 03, 2005 - July 13, 2005
Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands presents the elaborately decorated and technically sophisticated personal decorative items of the steppe peoples who traveled along the Silk Route across Asia during the late second and first millennia B.C.E. Found in burial sites, the eighty-five objects retain their mystery because of their beauty and remoteness from today’s culture. This renowned collection of the late connoisseur and collector of art, Arthur M. Sackler, M.D., brings to life the complex cultures that flourished across the Asian grasslands from northern China and Mongolia into Eastern Europe and shows how they influenced and were influenced by the ancient culture of dynastic China.

For the Next Life: Pre-Columbian Grave Objects
May 10, 2005 - June 01, 2006
The exhibition is drawn from the Harn’s Pre-Columbian collection and is organized according to the theme of burial goods and art that demonstrates ideas about the afterlife. In addition to showing some of the best of the Harn’s collection, which has not been displayed for some time, the purpose of this exhibition is to display recent (since 1995) acquisitions. This exhibition is curated by Harn Associate Curator of African Art, Susan Cooksey.

The Greatest Show on Earth: Arnold Mesches
May 31, 2005 - August 21, 2005
Highly acclaimed artist, Arnold Mesches, has a critical eye on the social and political events of his time. As an activist, he has engaged issues of history and politics throughout his career. In the tradition of artists such as Bruegel and Goya, he sees the darker and phantasmagoric side of human behavior yet he consistently approaches his subject with humor and pathos.

Florida Museum of Natural History (Powell Hall)

Current Visiting Exhibitions

"Microbes: Invisible Invaders, Amazing Allies"
(Feb. 5th - May 30th)
Discover the hidden world of microbes (bacteria, viruses and others) using video games, computers and other fascinating high-tech, hands-on displays. Battle bacteria and fight infections with computer-assisted artillery. Travel through time to see how diseases have affected civilizations old and new. View virtual viruses as big as life. This exhibit is so awesomely icky, you'll want to go back for more!

Permanent Exhibit Halls

"Butterfly Rainforest: Where Science Takes Flight!"
This new addition to the Florida Museum is dedicated to research and education about butterflies, moths and global bio diversity. The Butterfly Rainforest is a four-story, outdoor screened enclosure with waterfalls, a walking trail, lush subtropical and tropical plants and hundreds of live butterflies. The indoor exhibits feature a spectacular "Wall of Wings" reaching nearly three stories high that contains thousands of scanned and actual Lepidoptera specimens and information about butterfly and moth biology. Visitors also may look into the collections and observe scientists working in laboratories, preparing specimens for the collection and rearing new butterflies.

"Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life & Land"
Drawing upon the Florida Museum's internationally acclaimed fossil collections, this award-winning exhibit describes the last 65 million years of Florida's history. Walk through time beginning with the Eocene, when Florida was underwater, through the Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs when the first humans arrived 14,000 years ago, Florida's first land animals and the land bridge between North and South America that formed about 3 million years ago provide an exciting environment to view the reconstructed specimens. See a 15-foot-tall ground sloth and a two-foot-tall horse. More than 90 percent of the 500 fossils are real and many were found within 100 miles of Gainesville.

"Northwest Florida: Waterways & Wildlife"
This exhibit follows water as it flows through the unique environments of northwest Florida, the most bio diverse region of the state. The hardwood hammock features a life-sized limestone cave and is patterned after the forest at Florida Caverns State Park during early spring. The pitcher plant bog showcases carnivorous plants of the coastal plain, and the Native American trading scene highlights the river gallery. Visitors strolling along the boardwalk of the coastal salt marsh also can see the Eastern monarchs on the barrier island beach. The butterflies visit the northwest Florida coast to consume wildflower nectar before continuing their annual fall migration to Mexico.

"Pearsall Collection of American Indian Art: 40th Anniversary Selections"
(Through Spring 2006)
The mastery of American Indian art comes alive in this exhibit featuring more than 200 of the best objects from the Florida Museum's Leigh Morgan Pearsall collection. On display for the first time since its 1963 acquisition, this world-class collection contains more than 3,000 items. The exhibit is divided into different regions, including the Eastern Woodlands, Great Plains and Plateau, Northwest Coast and Far North, and Far West and Desert West. Archival photography and memorabilia about Pearsall also appears in the exhibit, helping to set the collection in its historical context. Items displayed in the exhibit include argillite, horn and ivory carvings, basketry, beadwork, jewelry, pipes, pottery, quill work, rugs and totems.

"South Florida People & Environments"
This award-winning exhibit celebrates South Florida and the people who have lived here for thousands of years, including the Calusa, Miccosukee and Seminole Indians. Based extensively on the Florida Museum's archaeological and ecological research, this exhibit features exciting new knowledge about the history of these peoples and the environments that supported them. Visitors experience a full-scale mangrove forest, underwater scene and a Calusa leader's house. Also on display are more than 700 objects from the museum's collections, ranging from everyday items such as Calusa shell tools and fishing gear to artistic masterpieces such as a thousand-year-old painting of an ivory-billed woodpecker.

Outside Exhibits

"Fossil Plant Garden"
The garden, located south of the Florida Museum's main entrance, is landscaped with modern species of plants whose ancestors lived millions of years ago and are preserved as fossils in many places around the world. The plants in the garden include mosses, sago and sabal palms, saw palmetto, east and west coast coontie, ginkgo biloba and an 18-million-year-old fossil cypress tree.

Upcoming Exhibits

"Natural Curiosity: Artists Explore Florida"
June 16 – Sept. 11, 2005
From breath-taking seascapes to lush wetlands, Florida's natural environment is nothing short of inspirational. This summer at the Florida Museum, approximately 15 artists express their natural curiosity of Florida's terrain in a visually stunning traveling exhibition. The artists' works of the natural world and their interpretations are as varied as Florida's environment.
Guests will see underwater sketches of the Florida springs by Margaret Ross Tolbert that are used as a basis for her dramatic canvas paintings. Also included is work by Peter Carolin that explores Florida springs and uses sporadic swirls and dashes of paint to portray natural reflections, transparencies and refractions. Heidi Edwards will display canvasses illustrating light that dissolves the boundaries between water, earth and sky in Florida's wetlands. Linda Blondheim's paintings will reveal the breezy coasts of St. Augustine to visitors. Drawings of plants and animals, sculptures of fused glass and constructions made from natural materials found in the woods along the Santa Fe River also will be displayed.

"In Search of Giant Squid"
September 2005
They inhabit all of the world’s oceans, do battle with sperm whales, can be longer than a school bus, and can weigh over 1,000 pounds. Yet, giant squid have never been seen in their natural habitat. "In Search of Giant Squid" explores what is known about these mystifying animals and describes scientists' ongoing efforts to observe them in their undersea environment. This new traveling exhibition is based on the enormously popular permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

"Quilting Natural Florida"
Summer 2006
A quilt exhibit illustrating the natural history of the state of Florida. Quilts must represent and/or illustrate the subjects of nature that are indigenous to Florida. They may be representational or symbolic of its natural flora, fauna and environment.

University Gallery

Exhibitions

"REFLECTIONS ON THE SHALLOW SEA: Visual Culture of Andros Island"
Grinter Gallery
February 4, 2005 – September 16, 2005

MFA I
Mar 15- Mar. 27, 2005, reception, Mar. 18

MFA II
Apr. 5- Apr 17, reception, Apr. 8

JOHN O’CONNOR
University Gallery
Solo exhibition in honor of retirement
Apr. 26- May 27, reception Apr. 29, 2005, 7-9

ALAGARTO PRESS
Selected Prints from the International Visiting Artists Print Program at the University of Florida
April 25 – August 19, 2005
Opening Reception: April 29, 2005 7-9 p.m.
Focus Gallery

THE FBI FILES
August 23 - October 14, 2005
Reception: August 26, 2005 7-9pm
Collages by Arnold Mesches
University Gallery

Matheson Museum (Gainesville)

Permanent Exhibits

Permanent exhibits offer a brief look at area history from the Timucuan Indians to the Spanish occupation of the area to William Bartram's travels and more.

Current Temporary Exhibit

“The Printed Florida: Illustrated Newspaper Images, 1860-1900”
October 26, 2003 – April 30, 2004
During the late 1850s, Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper emerged as leading publishers in American journalism. Specializing in descriptive illustrations and lively stories, these newspapers targeted a growing class of middle-income Americans, eager for information about their rapidly expanding nation. A selection of 25 original prints from the museum's collection of the two publications will be on display through April, showing Florida through the eyes of the traveling artists that documented its early growth and post Civil War reconstruction.

Appleton Museum of Art (Ocala)

Current Temporary Exhibits

"Young in Art and The Sixth District: Congressional Art Show"
Saturday, April 2, 2005 through Monday, April 25, 2005
Both shows are again featured in the Museum’s educational wing. Young in Art is a juried selection of works representing Marion County elementary, middle, and high school student. The Sixth District: Congressional Art Show is a display of works of art by high school students in the Sixth Congressional District. The First Place winning entry will be placed on display in the United States Capitol hallways for a year, along with the First Place winners from Congressional Districts throughout the nation.

Future Exhibits

"In the Studio of Paris: William Bouguereau & His American Students"
Saturday, January 6, 2007 through Friday, March 30, 2007
(Tentative dates for this exhibition)
The Appleton Museum will present In the Studios of Paris: William Bouguereau and his American Students in the winter of 2007. The exhibition was organized by The Philbrook Museum of Art and curated by James F. Peck, Ruth G. Hardman Curator of European and American Art. A fully illustrated color catalogue, including critical essays by Bouguereau expert and scholar Damien Bartoli; leading French academic art scholar Gerald Ackerman; and Elizabeth Gardner Bouguereau specialist Charles Pearo, will accompany the exhibition. The catalogue entries, along with an essay detailing the artistic relationship between Eanger Irving Couse and Bouguereau, will be authored by exhibition curator James Peck.

Museum of Arts & Sciences (Daytona Beach)

Current Exhibitions

"Bodies of Work: The Human Figure in Graphic Art"
Present - October 2005
Prints, drawings, photographs and watercolors by some of the world’s greatest artists have gone on display at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in a new exhibit examining how the human figure has been displayed in art. Some 54 pieces by Salvadore Dali, Frederic Remington, William Hogarth, Rene Magritte, Amedeo Modigliani, Winslow Homer and Henri Matisse, among others, are included in the show, entitled "Bodies of Work: The Human Figure in Graphic Art." All of the works are from the museum’s permanent collection.

"In Flux"
by Margaret Schnebly Hodge
February 5 - May 1, 2005
Margaret Schnebly Hodge, educated at the School of Art at the University of Florida, is an abstract painter whose richly textured and mysterious layered canvases hover between worlds of external matter and form and worlds of internal emotions. Enjoy viewing the physical, spiritual and emotional work of this emerging Florida artist.

"Treasures of Central Florida"
February 5 - May 1, 2005
This exhibit will feature nearly 60 important works from public and private collections throughout Central Florida. Two and three-dimensional objects will be represented in this visually exciting, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary exhibition. Porcelain, silver, jewelry, paintings, drawings and prints record some of the major work in area collections.

"Creating A Community Presence"
September 4, 2004 - July 3, 2005
Volusia County’s Very Special Arts (VSA) program will present the exhibit Creating A Community Presence, a traveling exhibition showcasing the work of 23 artists with personal and developmental challenges whose levels of experience, backgrounds and styles in art range from a life-long career to a newfound joy. All of the artists live in Volusia County. Their mediums include oil, watercolor, acrylics, ceramics, digital art, figurative art, photography, pottery, print making, stippling, wood burning and wood carving.

"The Bronze Age: 200 Years from the Permanent Collection"
(Present through October 2, 2005)
This exhibition of 10 bronze sculptures allows the viewer to experience the artistic movement from ultra-realism to abstraction over a 200-year period, from 1750 to 1950. American, French, Austrian and Russian objects are represented in various sizes ranging from eight inches to three feet. Several different methods which were used to produce and embellish the sculptures are presented.

Future Exhibitions

"Magnificent, Marvelous Martelé American Art Nouveau Silver from the Robert and Jolie Shelton Collection from the New Orleans Museum of Art"
May 14 - July 31, 2005
Martelé is a limited production line of fine silver that was fabricated under the direction of William Christmas Codman in the Gorham Silver Company of Providence, Rhode Island.The line began in the late 19th century, and was continued until the 1930s. Martelé, is arguably the best silver of the 20th century and possibly of all time, marked by numerous international awards. Each piece is unequaled in that they were individually designed, and then hand-raised and chased which by nature produces uniqueness, where no two pieces can be the same. This exhibit, organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art, features virtually every important form in the Martelé line of silver. The collection features nearly 270 examples including tea-and-coffee services, vases, trays, punchbowls, sauceboats, inkstands, candelabras, tankards and presentation cups.

"Audubon Works: From the Permanent Collection"
May 14 through October 2, 2005
John J. Audubon (1785-1851) is regarded as one of the greatest American naturalist and bird painters. Audubon Works, from the museum’s permanent collection, features nine original prints of birds native to North America. The earliest print is dated 1827, and it was the title page for Audubon’s famous book, Birds of America, which took 12 years, from 1826 to 1838, to complete. Two of the displayed prints feature Florida birds with Florida landscapes – the Great White Heron print features Key West in the distance and the Herring Gull includes Fort Matanzas in its background.

Museum of Arts & Sciences - Planetarium (Daytona Beach)

"Clouds of Fire - the Origin of Stars"
April 5 through May 29
"Clouds of Fire - the Origin of Stars" traces our understanding of the nature of the sun and other stars — from the historical insights of Aristotle, Galileo and Herschel to recent discoveries made with the Hubble Space Telescope. Computer animations showing the early Earth from space and the formations of stars of various sizes and multiple star systems will also be featured.

Orlando Museum of Art (Orlando)

Current Temporary Exhibits

"Keeping Shadows: Masterworks of Photography from the Worcester Art Museum"
March 6 - May 22, 2005
This exhibition presents 100 of the most outstanding photographs from the Worcester Art Museum's exceptional collection of photog-raphy. Ranging in date from the earliest days of photography (1840s) to contemporary computer-generated color prints, Keeping Shad-ows features works by innovators and masters of the medium, including Ansel Adams, Cecil Beaton, Margaret Bourke-White, Mathew Brady, Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange,Eadweard Muybridge, Man Ray, Alfred Stieglitz, Charles Sheeler and Carleton Watkins. Organized by the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachussetts.

"Ancestors of the Incas: The Majesty of Ancient Peru"
Selections and Gifts from the Dr. and Mrs. Solomon D. Klotz Collection
July 20, 2002 - July 10, 2005
Works of art by the great ancient cultures of peru such as the Chavin civilization of the first millennium B.C. and the later Moche, Chimu, Paracas, Nazca, Huari, Tiahuanco and Recauy are included in this exquisite exhibition. Although these cultures never developed a formal written language, much of their history, myths and legends were passed down through significant art forms. Some of the highlights include striking ceramic portraits of Moche rulers, gold and silver royal vessels, rare and delicate inlaid wooden boxes and jewelry of turquoise, mother of pearl and shell.

"Treasured Jewelry from the Collections of Dr. and Mrs. Solomon D. Klotz and Norma Canelas and William D. Roth"
December 12, 2004-July 24, 2005
This exhibition highlights more than 70 stunning works by renowned jewelry artists including incredible baroque pearl and colored diamond designs of the late New York designer Arthur King, the precious metal power objects of William Harper, the romantic designs of Albert Paley that recall European Art Nouveau, the intricate beaded designs of Joyce Scott, and rare examples of sculptor John Henry's jewelry designs, as well as magnificent pieces by cultural groups from the American Southwest, Central America, South America, Africa and Asia.

"Al Held: Public Art"
February 26 - October 30, 2005
The U.S. General Services Administration's Art in Architecture Program enthusiastically commissioned internationally renowned, Ameri-can abstract artist Al Held (b. 1928) to create a design for a colossal laminated art glass window, measuring approximately 50 feet high by 20 feet wide, to serve as the focal point in the atrium of the new U.S. Courthouse in Orlando, Fla., which is scheduled to open in 2007. To further support the Program's integration of art and architecture, Held generously contributed designs for five smaller glass works that will be a procession of windows along the side of the atrium leading to the large staircase work. Held is lending his designs to the OMA for this special exhibition, providing the community with a preview of the glass windows for the courthouse.

"Patterns of Life: Bold and Powerful Ndebele Art of South Africa, Selections and Gifts from the Norma Canelas and William D. Roth Collec-tion"
August 21, 2004 - June 4, 2006
This exhibition showcases selections from one of the best collections of Ndebele objects in the United States and is the seventh in a series from the Roth's collection of African art. The Ndebele people of South Africa are renowned for their sophisticated sense of geo-metric design used in many aspects of their lives ranging from objects of adornment to their distinctively painted houses. This exhibition highlights more than 50 objects including blankets beaded with thousands of individual glass beads, elaborate beaded aprons and elegant wedding attire.

Tampa Museum of Art (Tampa)

Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art (Jacksonville)

"Activating Space: Sculpture as Environment"
Friday, April 15, 2005 - Sunday, August 21, 2005
Contemporary artists often defy the traditional “object on pedestal” presentation, choosing instead to create environments that enliven or activate a defined space. Activating Space: Sculpture as Environment showcases a series of new installations in which contemporary sculptors create innovative ways for viewers to experience their work.

Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens (Jacksonville)

Current Exhibitions

"Picturing Jacksonville: 150 Years of Photography"
May 18 through August 14, 2005

"Art of the Ancient Mediterranean world and the Ancient Americas"