All Florida Exhibition engages viewers in dialogue about world in which we live

The Alliance for the Arts’ annual All Florida juried exhibition is one of Southwest Florida’s most anticipated art shows of the year. This year’s iteration contains 62 pieces in a variety of mediums representing some of Florida’s finest contemporary artists.

Admission into the show is far from automatic. This year, the Alliance received 600 submissions. The show’s juror, Dr. K.C. Williams, winnowed that field to the five dozen works of art that are currently on display in the Alliance’s main gallery.

“[I]t seems as if we are all walking out into a world that is much more precarious than the one we left behind when we closed our doors in March 2020,” Williams states in her formal remarks about the show. “The political and social currents that sweep us forward, the environment that sustains us, and even the very humanity that binds us: all are suspended in a posture of dynamic fragility. Visual art gives us tools to swim against fell currents, to make meaning from environmental vulnerability, and to approach each other from a place of humane discourse. The works chosen for this exhibition variously reflect or challenge our 2022 shared state of being.”

According to Williams, the 62 works in the show share “a high quality standard” with regard to thoughtfulness, craftsmanship and design fundamentals such as color, line, composition and texture. “Some demonstrate a truth to medium that indicates a deep connection between the artist and their materials,” Williams observed, “while others portray an artist’s innovative spirit, willing to push the boundaries of a medium to expand our understanding of what’s possible.”

As Williams was assembling the exhibition, she was struck by the visual and conceptual relationships that she saw between works of disparate medium, style, and subject matter. “These relationships create a clear picture of our current, precarious world,” said Williams. “Dialogues emerge; some works challenge one another, representing different points of view or understanding of the same social, historical, or human phenomena, while others demonstrate clear points of connection in our increasingly fractured world.”

A number of the works that Williams juried into the exhibition continue the conversation about what it means to live in an ecologically distinct and diverse state as Florida, where humanity and the environment each hold the power to destroy the other.

“All works chosen for this show engage us, the viewers, in a dialogue about the world in which we live,” Williams summarized.

Alliance for the Arts Executive Director Molly Deckart was equally impressed with the works that Williams juried into the show.

“I am incredibly impressed by the depth and breadth of the work this year,” said Deckart on opening night. “It’s always fun to see new shows come in, but, wow, this one knocked my socks off for so many reasons.”

Williams selected German/American fine art photographer Hilda Champion’s image Into the Maze as Best in Show.

Martha de la Cruz’s Permutations of Power received second place, Hernan Brito Pena’s oil on canvas, Memories was awarded third place, and Kathy Summer’s mixed media piece, Wuhan Virus, received honorable mention  not only for its timeliness, but because the overall composition reflects the fog of confusion we’ve all been living in. “When you come in close, the mark making is gorgeous,” Williams amplified. “It’s angry, but it’s also intentional. This one built layers of texture and meaning very well.”

The other artists who were accepted into and featured by the 36th Annual All Florida Juried Exhibition include, in alphabetical order: Misao Adachi, Andy Brunhammer, Carol Coates, Joanna Coke, Nargiza Dadabaeva, Gabriele DiTota, Tod Drucker, Dana Enders, Kathryn Erickson, Becky Franco, Ron Garratt, Muffy Clark Gill, Arlet Gomez, Lisa Green, Mikhail Gubin, Stephen Hayford, Kristin Herzog, Sarah Hull, Linda Hunsaker, John Hutson, Carol Imes-Luscombe, Aimee Jones, Shawn Dell Joyce, Ameena Khan, Mary Kay Klein, Mary Klunk, Raymond Locke, Mär Martinez, Alexandra McCurdy, Lois McDougall, Allan Mestel, Katrina Parker, Devora Perez, Gregory Presley, Galal Ramadan, Barbara Redondo, Carol Rosenberg, Cheryl Sattler, Margaret Schnebly Hodge, Leah Schneider, Joel Shapses, Barbara Sheehan, Dale Smith, Jim Smith, Lauren Sopourn, Barbara Sykes, Khaysie Tiburcio, Addison Wolff, Peter Zell and Amanda Zirzow.

The exhibition is on view at the Alliance through March 26.

March 7, 2022.