Panel Discussion

Lecture

The Baker Museum presents Florida Contemporary 2024-25
Panel Discussion

Amer Kobaslija, artist
Cynthia Mason, artist
Marielle Plaisir, artist

Join the artists featured in Florida Contemporary 2024-25 for a lively panel discussion. Florida Contemporary is an annual exhibition presentation of work by 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 12th edition of the exhibition are Amer Kobaslija, Jacksonville; Cynthia Mason, St. Petersburg; and Marielle Plaisir, Miami. As in the past, the exhibition features artists with diverse artistic interests and backgrounds who hail from a variety of locations throughout Florida. These dynamic artists testify to the creative energies and intellectual vigor present in the state’s visual art world.

This presentation is part of the exhibition Florida Contemporary 2024-25.

All exhibition lecture tickets include same-day admission to The Baker Museum.

Amer Kobaslija

Amer Kobaslija

Amer Kobaslija (b. 1975) was born in Bosnia and currently lives in Jacksonville. He received his BFA from Ringling College of Art, and his MFA from Montclair State University. His work is in multiple public collections, including The de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara; the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brussels, Belgium; Staten Island Museum, New York and the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga. He is a recipient of both The Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2005) and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2006). In 2013, he was awarded The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. In 2017, he completed a residency in Brig, Switzerland. Kobaslija is currently a faculty member of the University of Central Florida, teaching painting in the university’s School of Visual Arts and Design.

Cynthia Mason

Cynthia Mason

Cynthia Mason’s (b.1975) artistic practice is based in St. Petersburg, Florida. She received her BFA from Ringling College of Art and received her MFA from the University of South Florida. In addition to a recent residency with the Jentel Artists Residency Program (2024), she has completed residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (2023) and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2023). Her work has been featured in over 50 group exhibitions around the world; recent solo exhibitions include Limp Grid at Parallelogram Gallery, Tampa (2018), and Fragile State at 621 Gallery, Tallahassee (2017). In 2019, she was a recipient of the Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Grant.

Marielle Plaisir

Marielle Plaisir

Marielle Plaisir (b.1978) grew up in Le Havre, France, and Guadeloupe. Today, she lives and works in Miami. She studied at the University of Bordeaux III, France, and the Honors Advanced School of Fine Arts and Decorative Arts of Bordeaux. Throughout her career, she has received several prestigious awards, including the Southern Prize, the Florida Prize, and most recently, the Knight New Work Award in 2022, which supported her exploration of virtual reality in art.

Plaisir has exhibited her work around the world, including in Africa, Europe, and the United States. She is a gold medalist at both the 2004 International Biennial of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and the 2008 International Biennial of São Paulo, Brazil. Her works are part of important collections in renowned institutions such as The Dapper museum and the Museum of le Quai Branly (Paris), the Museum of Aquitaine (Bordeaux), the Mint Museum, the Gregg Museum,  The Virginia Museum of art, among others.

Additionally, she has participated in notable artist residencies at Oolite Arts, The Hambidge Center, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center.