Large sculptures will grace Sarasota waterfront through May

By LENNIE BENNETT

Times Art Critic

Big is the common denominator for Season of Sculpture, which opens Saturday. This annual event gathers large-scale works by national and international sculptors and plunks them along the Sarasota waterfront for all to see and enjoy.

This seventh iteration of the outdoor art show, titled "Shared Ground," features 18 works by eight artists offering a lot of variety. Boaz Vaadia, for example, creates figures by carving and stacking stone slabs that give the impression of a statue with grooves formed by centuries of the elements. Jun Kaneko creates astonishingly large ceramic sculptures with smooth glazed surfaces and often abstract patterns. Hans Van de Bovenkamp shapes stainless steel into ribbony configurations. Also exhibiting are Heinz Aeschlimann, Robert Chambers, Richard Herzog, Linda Howard and Jae-Hyo Lee.

The sculptures will be up through May, meant to be enjoyed during our best outdoor months, and there is no charge to view them. Bayfront Park is off Bayfront Drive, which runs parallel with U.S. 41 as it loops around Sarasota Bay. (Marina Jack restaurant is a good marker.) Once you're near, you can't miss it.

Depending on where you live, you can make a day of it. Visit the sculptures, have lunch in nearby downtown or at the beach. Visit the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art (the art museum is free every Monday, by the way) or the many art galleries in the charming historic part of Sarasota.

Lennie Bennett can be reached at lbennett@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8293.