The first thing visitors see in a new exhibition at the Boca Raton Museum of Art is a striking red oil painting by Miami artist Donna Torres. I have the time. So look up at the Flowers and Sky is one of only 60 works selected from 1,260 submissions for the 58th annual All Florida Juried Competition and Exhibition.

``This is my most Florida painting,'' says Torres, who teaches painting at Florida International University and botanical art at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. The composition developed from her back yard, Torres says, calling attention to the brugmansia (angel's trumpet) tree with its perching orioles and to Miami blue and zebra long-wing butterflies.

``My work reflects my interest in the artist as traveler,'' Torres says. ``My narrative explores places and their stories around the world. I explore my subjects from the smallest detail to large landscape views.''

That focus dovetails with exhibition juror Roy Slade's observation that ``the works reflect the colors and vitality of Florida, a state of color and contrasts, sunshine and water, flower and fauna. Whether realist or abstract, these elements may seem apparent in many works.''

Slade, director emeritus of the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and former director of Washington, D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery of Art, now lives in Clearwater. The subject matter and styles of the works he selected for the exhibition vary widely, as do the media, which range from Jacksonville artist Michael Hursty's Parabola Cloud, a multimedia installation of rip-stop nylon, a couch and video projection, to an engraving, Street Performers' Surprise, by another Miami artist, Alberto Meza.

Meza, who teaches drawing, printmaking and color composition at Miami Dade College, says that he was surprised that his entry -- the only engraving in the show -- was selected.

``It validates what I do,'' he says. ``My imagery is based on my experiences with art performers in a timeless era and indefinite space.''

Torres and Meza, who in 2003 was named Florida's college professor of the year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, are among the handful of Miami-Dade artists selected for the exhibition.

Also included:

• Nancie Serpico of Key Biscayne. She says her oil painting, September Everglades, is part of a ``body of work committed to the vast beauty of the Everglades and its dwindling wildlife population.''

• Valeria Yamamoto of Bay Harbor Islands. Yamamoto received a Judge's Merit Award for her sculpture, Tripod, constructed of unfired porcelain, aluminum wire and microcrystalline wax. Yamamoto describes her work as ``haunting ideas of sounds, memories, forms or simple observation of my surroundings. With these abstract and ambiguous sculptures, I want to leave room to be interpreted and completed by the imagination of the observer.''

Wendy Blazier, senior curator at the museum, adds that ``Yamamoto's work combines an organic quality with a visceral, almost predatory, edginess, making you wonder whether what you're looking at is part plant or part animal.''

Notable among works by artists from elsewhere in the state is Nadine Saitlin's Small Red Landscape, which was awarded best-of-show honors. The Boca Raton artist, whose biomorphic forms clearly show the influence of surrealism, has three paintings in the exhibition.

As the state's oldest annual juried competition, the All Florida, on display through Aug. 30, provides exhibition opportunities for established as well as emerging artists and offers a provocative glimpse of the best work they have produced.

Blazier notes that ``while these artists share Florida as their residence, and their works collectively reveal something about Florida contemporary art, one could argue that, just as importantly, the All Florida provides an opportunity to recognize the international world in these Florida artists' works, rather than the region in which we reside. Indeed, many of the artworks in this year's All Florida mirror the struggles and common energy shared by artists everywhere.''

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@