In keeping with the spirit of the times, the Boca Raton Museum of Art is hosting six new exhibitions, many of them featuring works by women and artists of color. Three exhibits opened in October and the other three will open Jan. 26, 2021.
Two shows were extended beyond the quarantine and will continue through Jan. 3: Edward Steichen: In Exaltation of Flowers, and Works on Paper: Drawn from the Collection.
“This year has been an unprecedented journey for cultural institutions,” says Irvin Lippman, executive director of the museum. “We are fortunate to be able to provide new initiatives and exhibitions and, most importantly, a safe haven for visitors — a place of repose and enjoyment.”
“Our latest exhibits are part of recent acquisitions underscoring that the museum’s collection continues to evolve with new works by women and artists of color who challenge us to see the world anew,” says Lippman.
One of those women is Jamaican-American artist Renee Cox, known for her collection, “Flipping the Script,” which speaks to race, religion, and gender roles.
Cox flips the script again in her new work titled, “The Signing,” part of the Museum’s latest exhibition. The 15-facetime. long photograph reimagines Howard Chandler Christy’s iconic painting, “Scene at The Signing of the Constitution of the United States.”
In Cox’s interpretation, people of color, wearing traditional African clothing and period clothing from the 1700s or contemporary items, stand in for the founding fathers.
Another artist of color – the late Benjamin Patterson, one of the founding members of the Fluxus art movement during the 1960s-70s, which claims Yoko Ono as one of its own, has his work, “My Thirteen Presidents,”showcased at the museum.
Patterson depicts American presidents, along with their astrological signs, who served during his lifetime (1934- 2016) from Roosevelt to Obama.
Also on display and spanning an entire wall in the first floor gallery is Norwegian artist, Trine Lise Nedreaas’s 22-minute three-panel synchronized film, “The Entertainers” featuring the video, “The Mask,” in which a subject, Arthur, transforms himself into his alter-ego, Arthuro the Clown.
On the museum’s second floor, Delray Beach-based ceramicist and steel sculptor, Jeff Whyman’s, “Out of Nature,” features a selection of his one-of-a-kind ceramics using clays from California and Washington, and fabricated in kilns from Illinois, Missouri, and Florida, all yielding different results.
Whyman creates his works all in one moment while the clay is still wet. He uses the wheel to throw his vessels while spontaneously adding a mix of materials: sea glass, Chinese crystals, and mineral oxides.
Coming in January are “Glasstress Boca Raton 2021,” featuring Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei’s Blossom chandelier sculpture, that will travel by boat from Italy to Boca Raton, “An Irresistible Urge to Create: The Monroe Family Collection of Florida Outsider Art,” and “Paul Gervais: Faces and Forms.”
Read more about all of the upcoming shows at bocamuseum.org/art/ upcoming-exhibitions.