Florida Contemporary

2023-24

On exhibition

October 14, 2023 – June 30, 2024
Located in the Kohan, Newell and Friends of Artis—Naples Galleries of Hayes Hall

This annual exhibition presents a select group of notable visual artists practicing in Florida. Highlighting the breadth of artistic approaches to personal, local and global themes, Florida Contemporary invites visitors to celebrate the state’s vibrant art scene. The artists selected for the 11th edition of the exhibition are Yanira Collado, Miami; Mernet Larsen, Tampa; and Pepe Mar, Miami.

As in the past, the exhibition features artists with diverse artistic interests and backgrounds who hail from a variety of locations throughout Florida. This year, all three artists address themes of construction: Mar and Collado through sculptural accretions and collages, and Larsen through her dazzling explorations of perspectival space. These dynamic artists testify to the creative energies and intellectual vigor present in the state’s visual art world.

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Yanira Collado

Miami-based Yanira Collado (b. 1975) is a conceptual and installation artist. Using found objects, she makes three-dimensional collages that examine the layering processes of memory and history. Combining textiles, paper and construction materials like wood and drywall, she builds new forms from discarded fragments, creating relics of personal and collective experience.

 

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Mernet Larsen

Mernet Larsen (b. 1940) is an artist and professor emerita based in Tampa. For over six decades, she has created narrative paintings depicting hard-edged, enigmatic characters that inhabit uncanny worlds filled with tension and wry humor. Larsen employs various spatial systems that often contradict our experiences of reality, rendering everyday scenarios as playful yet vertigo-inducing versions of the familiar world.

 

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Pepe Mar

Pepe Mar (b. 1977) was born in Mexico and lives and works in Miami. Combining assemblage, collage and painting, his exuberant work explores a broad range of topics, including fashion, LGBTQ history and science fiction. Mar’s installation will feature a combination of existing work and site-specific installation.

 

Associated Events

Panel Discussion

Artists of Florida Contemporary
February 23 at 2pm

More Info

Past Iterations of Florida Contemporary

This presentation of Florida Contemporary is organized by Artis—Naples, The Baker Museum, and is curated by Elizabeth Monti, Ph.D., curatorial research associate, with Courtney McNeil, museum director and chief curator.

This event is part of the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB festival