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Fall Art Preview: From Kusama to Magritte, the Tampa Bay museum scene is impressive

 
One of Yayoi Kusama\u2019s Infinity Mirror rooms, \u201CLove is Calling,\u201D will be on display at the Tampa Museum of Art in the fall. (Vinik Family Foundation Collection. Image © Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London/Venice; YAYOI KUSAMA Inc.)
One of Yayoi Kusama\u2019s Infinity Mirror rooms, \u201CLove is Calling,\u201D will be on display at the Tampa Museum of Art in the fall. (Vinik Family Foundation Collection. Image © Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London/Venice; YAYOI KUSAMA Inc.)
Published Sept. 6, 2018

A look at what's to come to our museums reveals many opportunities to bask in the creations of some of the world's leading artists. Art lovers are already buzzing about Yayoi Kusama's Love Is Calling Infinity Room, coming to the Tampa Museum of Art on Sept. 28. They'll back that up with a retrospective of iconic Love sculptor, the late Robert Indiana, and later will showcase abstract expressionist stars Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Franz Kline.

The Dalí Museum brings the work of internationally acclaimed surrealist Rene Magritte, exploring the similarities and differences with Dalí's work.

Currently at the Museum of Fine Arts are paintings by Eugene Delacroix and Raoul Dufy, the self-portraits of famous photographers Cindy Sherman and Alfred Stieglitz and a recently acquired piece by Pablo Picasso.

In addition to superstar artists, the season offers more thought-provoking exhibits, fascinating views of ancient life, impactful photography and work from contemporary and local artists, all expanding our view of the world through art.

A great day to visit a museum is Smithsonian magazine's Museum Day, Sept. 22, when a number of museums offer free admission. The Dalí reserves free admission for Pinellas County residents only, but nonresident guests get a voucher for a return visit. To find a complete listing and obtain your pass, visit smithsonianmag.com/museumday.

The streets of St. Petersburg continue to become more colorful with the return of the Shine Mural Festival, Oct. 6-14. This year's roster has six international artists, including England's Nomad Clan and Pakistan's Haider Ali; five national artists, including Georgia's Angela Faustina; and 26 local artists, including Bekky Beukes and the Vitale Bros. Local artists' work will adorn nine walls, five Coast Bike murals and 12 Corner Canvas murals, painted on utility boxes.

Here's a look at what museums are offering this season.

1 Dalí Blvd. (Bayshore Drive and Fifth Avenue SE), St. Petersburg. (727) 823-3767. thedali.org.

Clyde Butcher: Visions of Dalí's Spain through Nov. 25

The acclaimed Florida landscape photographer traveled to Catalonia to capture dramatic images of the rugged coastline that inspired Dalí in many of his paintings.

Watercolors and Drawings From the Vault through February

Twenty-five rarely seen works from the permanent collection, chosen to complement the retrospective of oil paintings within the gallery, range from 1917 to 1968 and highlight Dalí's adept hand at drawing in a number of styles.

Magritte and Dalí Dec. 15-May 19

Explores the similarities and creative divergences between Dalí and his surrealist contemporary, Rene Magritte, through their bodies of work ranging from the late 1920s through the 1940s.

255 Beach Drive NE. (727) 896-2667. mfastpete.org.

Gallery Takeover through March 2020

Eleven paintingsfrom the Mellon Collection on loan from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond represent more than 100 years of art history and include works by Raoul Dufy and Eugene Delacroix.

We Do Not Work Alone through Sept. 23

An intimate selection of contemporary Japanese ceramics.

Keeping Time: The Art of Clocks and Watches through Nov. 18

Drawing from both the museum and local private collections, the exhibit explores the craft of clock- and watchmaking through a variety of timepieces.

This Is Not a Selfie: Photographic Self-Portraits From the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection through Nov. 25

In the age of the selfie, this exhibit delves into the act of photographic self-portraiture, going back 150 years to explore themes of identity and self-reflection, with pieces from artists including Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe. The exhibit encourages people to take selfies through interactive spaces and a selfie wall.

Recent Acquisitions through Dec. 30

New additions to the museum's permanent collection include works by Picasso, Reginald Burton Barber and photographs by Ruth Bernhard and Dianora Niccolini.

Fairyland Lustre: The Darkly Magical World of Daisy Makeig-Jones Nov. 25-March 3

Makeig-Jones was the force behind Wedgwood's Fairyland Lustre porcelain, which featured dragons, pixies, ghosts, goblins and ghouls. The exhibit explores the rise and fall of the line and offers a closer look at Makeig-Jones' designs.

Jewels of the Imagination: Radiant Masterworks by Jean Schlumberger From the Mellon Collection Dec. 15-March 31

A visual feast of the glittering, mid-20th century jewelry designs of Jean Schlumberger from the collection of Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon. Her collection, which she donated to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, is the largest, most comprehensive public collection of Schlumberger's work in the world.

120 Gasparilla Plaza, Tampa. (813) 274-8130. tampamuseum.org.

Vapor and Vibration: The Art of Larry Bell and Jesús Rafael Soto through Sept. 30

Rather than a full survey, select bodies of work from each groundbreaking artist are presented together in three sections: cubes and structures; vapor and vibration; and light and transparency. Take the vibration part seriously; Soto's kinetic sculptures are a neat trick for the senses.

The Classical World through 2019

Travel through time with nearly 200 ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman objects and artifacts from the museum's permanent collection, supplemented with important loans from private collectors.

The Classical World in Focus: Contests, Combat, and Commemoration through 2019

Nearly 80 works of ancient Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Egyptian art from the permanent collection depict historical and mythological events that played important roles in ancient life.

Patricia Cronin, Aphrodite, and the Lure of Antiquity: Conversations With the Collection through Jan. 6

When the museum commissioned the Brooklyn-based sculptor to interpret a piece from the collection, she chose a first century Roman torso of Aphrodite and created Aphrodite Reimagined, a monumental sculpture with a stone torso and translucent arms, legs and head. She's perched on the museum's second floor terrace, gazing over the Hillsborough River. The exhibition also includes paintings and castings that were part of Cronin's process, as well as her revolutionary 2003 funerary sculpture Memorial to a Marriage.

Yayoi Kusama: Love Is Calling Sept. 28-Feb. 14

Expect long lines and timed tickets for this highly anticipated installation, owned by the Vinik Family Foundation, that transforms a gallery into one of the acclaimed artist's mirrored Infinity Rooms. This one includes colorful soft sculptures adorned with Kusama's signature polka dots and will feature a recording of the artist reciting a poem.

Robert Indiana: A Sculpture Retrospective Oct. 25-March 17

Organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., the exhibition is in celebration of Indiana's 90th birthday, although he died this past May. Some never-before-shown pieces from the iconic Love sculpture series will be on display, along with his earliest assemblages from the 1950s and his most recent series of painted bronzes.

Oswaldo Vigas: Transformations Jan. 31-May 27

The first American survey of the Venezuelan artist focuses on works between 1940 and 1980, and his artistic evolution from figurative abstraction, including a series of colorful Bruja paintings, to geometric abstraction, and from studio painter to muralist.

Abstract Expressionism: A Social Revolution April 11-Aug. 11

Twenty-five works from the Preston H. Haskell collection explore how the definitive art form of post-World War II America changed the way artists approached painting by expressing their individual psyches. Highlights artists from the first and second generation of the movement, including Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Franz Kline, as well as later works from Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg.

150 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. (727) 892-4200. thejamesmuseum.org.

Art and the Animal through Oct. 23

A special exhibition from the Society of Animal Artists, whose international members depict animals in a variety of media and expression. This juried show selects the top 125 paintings and sculptures, and some of the pieces can be purchased.

1901 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. (727) 300-1700. imaginemuseum.com.

Paul Stankard: Unseen Worlds through Jan. 13

The acclaimed artist and pioneer of the studio glass movement is considered the living master of the glass paperweight, in which he creates magical, botanical universes.

Chuck Boux: The Boux Effect Sept. 20-Nov. 11

A retrospective of work from St. Petersburg's founding father of studio glass, who was instrumental in perpetuating the movement in the bay area since the 1980s.

400 N Ashley Drive, Tampa. (813) 221-2222. fmopa.org.

Bruce Dale: Beyond the Lens through Sept. 30

A showcase of work from the National Geographic photographer focuses on portraiture and his travels around the world.

Tampa Photo Laureates through Sept. 30

Featuring commissioned photos from the public collection that the City of Tampa's Art Program has amassed for the past 10 years.

Berenice Abbott: North and South Oct. 1-Jan. 11

A visual chronicle of the 1954 road trip that photographer Abbott took up and down Route 1, from New York to Key West and back up to Maine, yielding more than 2,400 photographs.

Day by Day: 1968 Oct. 1-Dec. 30

The exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the most turbulent year in 20th century history through 366 vintage news photographs, one made on each day of 1968.

Physicians Show October

Multitalented local physicians show off their photography skills.

UPA Gallery November

The United Photographic Artists Gallery presents works by emerging photographic artists residing in the USA and Europe.

Annual Photography Benefit Sale December-January

Local artists and museum members get the opportunity to display and sell their work in a museum setting.

Identify January-April 19

The two-person show featuring both photography and installations by Sadie Barnette and Genevieve Gaignard incorporates personal experiences and images, including self-portraits and family snapshots, to explore their own identities, as well as race, femininity, gender, sexual orientation, class and politics.

Modus Operandi: Contemporary Photography From the Collection of BNY Mellon Jan. 15-April 15

Featuring artists who view photography as a sort of performance art by employing a defined action in their process.

Lysis Jan. 26-March 16

Andrea Frank captures the images of minute natural changes in the forest, then digitally composes them as large archival prints that are sometimes scratched or hand-colored.

3821 Holly Drive, Tampa. (813) 974-2849. ira.usf.edu.

Miki Kratsman: People I Met through Dec. 8

Photographer Miki Kratsman has dedicated three decades to chronicling life in Israeli occupied territories, much of which he captured when he was working for the Israeli newspapers Hadashot and Haaretz. He amassed an archive of more than 9,000 portraits of anonymous Palestinians and went on a quest to learn what happened to the people in the photographs. The exhibit includes some identifying commentary, as well as selections from some of his other projects.

Breaking Barriers: Selected Work Dec. 12-13

Over the summer, photographer Jim Reiman gave a series of free photography workshops to local veterans. This exhibit features a selected showing from each participant.

The Visible Turn: Contemporary Artists Confront Political Invisibility Jan. 11-March 2

International artists Jorge Tacla, Karolina Sobecka, Bosco Sodi and Tavares Strachan will create installations that combine objects and performances in response to the phenomenon of social and political invisibility.

5401 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota. (941) 359-5700. ringling.org.

First Five Years of Art of Our Time through Nov. 1

Art of Our Time is the museum's initiative to engage with living visual and performing artists and include their work in the permanent collection, which began in 2011 with the installation of Joseph's Coat, the Skyspace by James Turrell. The overview highlights some of the major projects and acquisitions that happened over the program's first five years.

Storytelling: French Art From the Horvitz Collection Sunday-Dec. 2

Sixty drawings and 10 related prints for book illustration, created between the 16th and 19th centuries, as well as 10 paintings showcase the narrative tradition in French art.

Watercolors From the Permanent Collection Sept. 15-Feb. 3

The selection includes works by Edward Hopper, Charles Burchfield and Childe Hassam, among others.

Coco Fusco — Twilight Oct. 14-Feb. 17

The solo exhibition presenting recent video projects by internationally acclaimed writer and interdisciplinary artist Fusco explores the current political and social climate in Cuba as the Revolution enters its twilight years. She'll also debut her most recent video project and unveil a satirical, interactive sculpture, Tin Trump Man.

Woodblock Prints From Postwar Japan Nov. 18-May 5

Drawing from the museum's extensive holdings of postwar Japanese prints and local collections, the exhibit highlights how woodblock prints emerged as a channel of diplomacy and friendship between Japan and the United States after World War II. Features works by key artists including Onchi Koshiro, Hiratsuka Un'ichi and Hoshi Joshi.

Knights Feb. 3-April 28

In what's sure to be a crowd-pleaser, this exhibition drawn from the collections of the Stibbert Museum in Florence, Italy, explores the knights of the Middle Ages and Renaissance through more than 80 objects, including full suits of armor, helmets, corselets, swords and other weaponry. The exhibition places the objects into historical context, focusing on themes of love and war, jousts and tournaments. A fully illustrated catalog will be available.

600 Klosterman Road, Tarpon Springs. (727) 712-5762. leeparattner.org.

Selina Román: A Liminal State through Sept. 23

Through photographs, digital media, props and installations, Selina Román explores the quickly vanishing glamor of old Florida and the transient nature of our state.

The Museum Project through Sept. 23

The collection of 54 photographs donated by an initiative to perpetuate photography as an art form features works from renowned contemporary photographers including Barry Andersen, Darryl Curran and Bonnie Schiffman.

Rattner and Surrealism through July 7

Through a re-creation of Abraham Rattner's art studio, the work he created while immersed in the surrealist movement in Paris in the 1920s and '30s is shown alongside pieces by Marc Chagall and Joan Miró.

Elemental: Fine Crafts From the Collection through Sept. 15, 2019

Traditional ancient Chinese concepts of the elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water are interpreted by contemporary fine craft artists working in metal, wood, clay, stone and glass.

Made in Florida: The Art of Giving through Aug. 9, 2020

The exhibit highlights recent acquisitions and how the museum has been supported through art donation. Featured artists include Mark Messersmith, Rocky Bridges, Steven Kenny and Josette Urso.

SPC Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition Oct. 7-Dec. 30

A showcase of new work by St. Petersburg College visual arts full-time and adjunct faculty members including Jonathan Barnes, Ya La'ford and Kevin Grass.

Marjorie Greene Graff: 21 Years in Printmaking Oct. 7-Dec. 30

In celebration of Graff's retirement in October from SPC, a selection of the colorful relief block prints she created throughout her 21-year career as a visual arts faculty member will highlight her impact on the school's printmaking program.

Weird Science: Technology and Art Oct. 7-Dec. 30

Photography produced by alternative processes, including X-ray, help explore the interplay between science, technology and art.

44th Annual Miniature Art Society Exhibition
Jan. 20-Feb. 10

Featuring more than 600 miniature works from around the globe.

Unexpected: Art by Alternative Means: Nathan Beard, Akiko Kotani, Rob Tarbell Feb. 24-May 19

The artists use alternative processes to create work based on drawing and memory: Nathan Beard explores his family lineage using tape to create undulating layers of painted patterns; Akiko Kotani creates drawings with silk thread and "melting walls" with crocheted plastic; and Rob Tarbell creates ethereal portraits from smoke.

800 E Palmetto St., Lakeland. (863) 688-7743. polkmuseumofart.org.

The Art of Romaine Brooks through Dec. 9

On loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a collection of works from the American expatriate artist known for her androgynous appearance and challenge of female gender roles.

Sad Tropics Sept. 21-Nov. 2

New Orleans artists and Florida natives Cristina Molina and Jonathan Traviesa's site-specific multimedia installation focuses on the psychological landscape of paradise, the tropics and the mythology of Florida.

Chagall: Stories into Dreams Sept. 29-Jan. 6

The exhibition pairs the modernist's Fables of La Fontaine etchings (1952) with his Story of Exodus lithographs.

Conversing with Reality Sept. 29-Jan. 13

Recent works from contemporary visual artist John Jacopelle.

Degas: The Private Impressionist Dec. 22-March 24

Composed of works from a private collection that sheds light on Edgar Degas' favorite themes, the exhibit also features more than 40 works on paper from his contemporaries, including Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Sun + Light Feb. 2-May 19

A collection of works from the series Everyone Loves the Sunshine by contemporary artist Charles Williams.