Be inspired. Explore curated art and juried shows exhibited in four galleries.

Christina Jensen Vicente: Encoded
In her upcoming exhibition, Encoded, Christina Jensen Vicente will create an immersive installation of handmade textile and mixed media works. Jensen Vicente is a fiber artist and designer. She earned an MFA in interior design from Pratt Institute, followed by a 20-year career with CHANEL in New York, NY.

Jensen Vicente’s experience in design honed her sensibility for the significance of place and the power of materiality, light, texture and movement to elevate how and why we connect with our environment. She later turned to fiber as an artist, drawn to its humanizing qualities and the optimism of collaboration between the natural world and human hands. Today, she creates wall-hangings and sculptural works held in private collections throughout the United States. Jensen Vicente lives in Sarasota, FL, where she maintains her studio.

Bobby Aiosa: Eternal Landscape
Bobby Aiosa presents Eternal Landscape, an exhibition of sculptures that reflect on the relationship society has with the built environment. Our built spaces can have a profound influence on the quality of our lives and how we navigate day-to-day.

Since moving to Florida, Aiosa has found that natural forms are becoming intrinsic to his practice. Aiosa was born in Smithtown, NY and currently lives and works in Orlando, FL. He earned his MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2015. His work has been shown throughout the United States and was included in the Skyway 20/21 exhibition, the 2019 Florida Prize exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art and the 2018 southXeast Contemporary Art Triennial. He is a recipient of many residencies, awards and fellowships, most recently from the Museum for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, PA. Aiosa joined the School of Visual Arts and Design at the University of Central Florida in 2022 as an Assistant Professor of Sculpture in studio arts.

Gale Fulton Ross: Divine Love
In Divine Love, Gale Fulton Ross recalls a genre of images of the Virgin Mary, reinterpreting a visual rhetoric within an African American context. In this work, her notions of race and familial cohesion are up for re-examination.

Fulton Ross started her art career during the Freedom Movement of the 1960s. She has been celebrated with many gallery and museum exhibitions including her solo exhibition My Museum at The Ringling Museum of Fine Art in Sarasota in 1998. Fulton Ross owned two galleries, one in Oakland, CA in the early 1970s, the other in Sarasota, FL in the late 1990s. She founded The Fulton Ross Fund for Visual Artists in Sarasota in 2000 and for five years, the foundation awarded an annual grant of $10,000 to mid-career committed artists. She delivered a TEDX - SRQ Talk in 2016 on “The Creativity Within and Without” and has been featured in two PBS specials and one documentary on powerful women in the arts.

Her art is held in private and corporate collections nationally and internationally including in the permanent collections of Harvard University, The Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit, The Oakland Museum, San Francisco General Hospital, Carillon Imports for Absolut Vodka, NJ, The Maryland Historical Society, North Carolina Central University, Michigan State and West Michigan State Universities, The Seattle Library and The Converse Memorial Museum, Malden, MA. Fulton Ross is currently an Artist in Residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo, CA.

Juried Show - Epoch of Change: Footprints of Humanity

Artists are invited to explore the interconnected relationship between humanity and nature while responding to our shifting earth and climate. The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems enough to constitute a distinct geological change. Possible markers of the Anthropocene include microplastics, heavy metals or radioactive nuclei left by tests from thermonuclear weapons. Epoch of Change calls on artists to pose ethical, political and spiritual questions about the implications of the Anthropocene and the future of our planet.

Juror: Dr. Lydia Wassink
Dr. Lydia Wassink completed a dual PhD in Integrative Biology and Ecology, Evolution and Behavioral Biology at Michigan State University
• Drop Off: Mar 4 & 5 | Pick Up: Apr 21 & 22
• On View: March 13-April 19, 2025
• Opening Night Reception: Thursday, March 13, 5-7 pm

Annual Juried Regional Show: Vice & Virtue

The Annual Juried Regional Show is Art Center Sarasota's largest juried show of the year and encompasses all four of our galleries. This show is open to artists in the southeast region of the United States. This year's show invites artists to explore opposing elements of our human condition. By definition, vice is a practice that is considered morally wrong in society whereas virtue is a trait of excellence. Vice & Virtue asks artists to define their perception of these “rights” and “wrongs” in our contemporary society. Cultural norms, religious beliefs and our political climate all play a role in the artist's assertion of what is good or evil. Is there a gray area in between?

Meet the Juror, Jessica Todd

Jessica Todd is a curator, writer and artist. She is passionate about building the creative infrastructures that support artists as well as studying and addressing issues of equity, access and inclusion in the arts. Todd has worked with a number of arts organizations, including Tempus Projects, Artspace Tampa Initiative, Crab Devil and the Morean Arts Center. In 2022, Todd opened Parachute Gallery in Ybor City, first serving as an exhibition space for national artists and later a retail gallery representing local artists. Todd has published articles, curated exhibitions, and exhibited her own artwork locally and nationally. She holds a BA in Art from Penn State University, a Diploma in Hispanic Studies from the University of Barcelona and an MFA in Jewelry/Metals/Enameling from Kent State University.

• Online Submission Dates: Tue, Feb 18 - Sun, Apr 27, 2025
• Drop Off: May 13 & 14 | Pick Up: Aug 4 & 5
• On View: May 22 - Aug 2, 2025
• Opening Night Reception: Thursday, May 22, 5-7 pm

Juried Show: Self Portrait
Self Portrait invites artists to look inward and create work in which they are the subject. This exhibition asks artists to consider what they want to reveal about their inner narrative, their role as an artist, their hopes and fears. Self portraits provide viewers a window into the soul of the artist, highlighting their cultural reference points and their place in that moment of time. Whether created for self promotion, personal discovery, validation of the artist title or simply just for fun, self portraits act as a portal into the shared human existence of each generation.

Meet Juror Odeta Xheka
Odeta Xheka makes art to claim her voice as a woman artist because art is the opposite of speechlessness. Her work has been juried into prestigious national and international competitions and has been featured in art magazines and literary journals.

Born in the UNESCO heritage site of Berat, Albania, Xheka currently lives in Tampa, FL where she is the founder/director of OXH Gallery. OXH is focused on a cross-generational, multi-medium approach to exhibiting which goes beyond the conventional white cube paradigm with the goal to evolve into a lasting hub for culture and community.

• Online Submission Dates: Tue, Apr 29 - Sun, Jul 20, 2025
• Drop Off: Aug 5 & 6 | Pick Up: Sep 29 & 30
• On View: Aug 21 - Sept 27, 2025
• Opening Reception: Thu, Aug 21, 2025, 5-7 pm