EXHIBITIONS

Ya Levy La’ford: American/Rōōts

JUN 21, 2021 – JUL 4, 2022

Tampa-based Ya Levy La’ford’s art practice explores journeys, pathways, space, and the metaphysical complexities therein. La’ford’s work seeks to communicate humanity’s unseen experiences within the intricacies of geometric laden layers united through interconnecting lines. As a first-generation Jamaican American, she moves between her own heritage and vulnerable communities to find a universal language. For Skyway 20/21: A Contemporary Collaboration and extended to July 2022, La’ford transformed the gallery space with American/Rōōts (2021), a site-specific installation consisting of gold and black geometric pattern that represents the concept of interconnectedness between all living things.

Women in Print

JUL 2, 2021 – OCT 10, 2021 ht2004497

Fujikasa Satoko (Japanese, b. 1980), Soaring Through the Heavens, 2020. Stoneware with white slip. Collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz. Photography: Tanaka Tarō, courtesy of Joan B Mirviss LTD

Historic circus posters document the unique individuals whose talents were featured under the big top. Only headlining acts were considered important enough to have their own “paper.” A poster designed with a portrait and images of the individual’s acts was a financial investment reserved for the most notable of performers. Today these printed images document the likenesses and accomplishments of some of the most talented women to be seen with the American circus.

Prints, Ceramics, and Glass from Japan

AUG 15, 2021 – JAN 16, 2022

Since the first piece of clay was baked in a fire over 12,000 years ago, pottery has become one of the pinnacles of Japan’s artistic achievements. Over its long history, Japanese pottery has drawn stylistic and technical know-how from its neighbors, especially China and Korea. The artists represented here, working between the mid-20th century and the present, demonstrate different approaches to the legacy of the past and the ever-expanding possibilities of this medium.

The Ringling is grateful to lenders Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz and the donors that have built The Ringling’s collection in glass and ceramics and lenders Christine and Paul Meehan and Daphne Rosenzweig lending works by some of Japan’s most innovative printmakers active between the between the 1950s and the present.

Hard Bodies: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer Sculpture

OCT 31, 2021 – JAN 23, 2022

Since Neolithic times, craftspeople across East Asia have used the sap of the lacquer tree to coat and bond together wood, bamboo, textiles, and ceramics to make articles for daily and ritual use. The natural polymer refined from the sap forms a durable, waterproof surface that protects and beautifies. Lacquerware was—and continues to be—prized for its lustre, which artists learned to accentuate over the centuries with inlaid gold, silver, mother-of-pearl, and other precious materials.

From Legend to History: Archaeology of the Underground Railroad in our Backyard

DEC 1, 2021 – FEB 28, 2022

Archaeologists have the unlikely job of saving the lives of people who have passed. For a generation or more, freedom-seeking people built lives in hamlets from the Manatee River to Sarasota Bay. Angola, as the early 19th century maroon community is known, was a haven of liberty from slavery and its inhabitants numbered in the hundreds until the community was destroyed in 1821, with survivors escaping to the Florida interior or the British Bahamas. The National Park Service recognizes the archaeological findings in east Bradenton as evidence for their Network to Freedom, the Underground Railroad. From Legend to History traces the research process, shows the archaeological and archival evidence, and seeks to inspire hope from unsettled times.

Rhodnie Désir: Conversations

DEC 11, 2021 – APR 3, 2022

In her multidimensional choreographic career, Dancer/choreographer Rhodnie Désir created BOW’T TRAIL, a choreographic-documentary journey in which she has conducted research throughout the Americas since 2015. Her work included visits to countries such as Martinique, Brazil, Haïti, Canada, Mexico, and the United States to immerse herself within the African and afro-descendant cultures and rhythms generated from the ingenuity of her ancestors since the Slave Trade. Désir’s inaugural exhibition, Conversations, combines video, light, and sound to explore Désir’s experiences on the BOW’T TRAIL and bring the onstage performance into a new gallery-based medium. With a cumulative and polyrhythmic approach, the artist seeks to share her perspectives through a conversation between the past and the present.

Paid for in part by

As long as there is sun, as long as there is light. Selections from the Bring Gift and The Ringling Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art

NOV 21, 2021 – JAN 7, 2024

In 2020, The Ringling received a significant gift of contemporary art from Murray Bring and Kay Delaney Bring. This exhibition presents selections from this gift in dialogue with rarely seen works from The Ringling’s collection. Highlights of the gift include an important minimalist work by Anne Truitt and a monumental work on canvas by Gene Davis, both artists affiliated with the Washington Color School. Additional works in the gift represent a generation of prominent artists who work, or have worked, in abstraction, including Clement Meadmore, Jules Olitski, Beverly Pepper, Rebecca Salter, Kenneth Snelson, and Yuriko Yamaguchi, among others.

Paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues and the Florida Department of State, Division of Arts & Culture. Support for this exhibition was provided by Gulf Coast Community Foundation and the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art Endowment.

Eleanor Merritt: Remembrance

FEB 18, 2022 – AUG 21, 2022

This exhibition highlights the work of Eleanor Merritt, her creative use of materials, movement between figuration and abstraction, and her commitment to women’s rights. Born in Harlem in 1933, Eleanor’s talent in drawing and painting led to her acceptance to the prestigious High School for Music and Art in New York. She attended Brooklyn College for undergraduate and graduate studies, where she studied with some of the most influential artists of the time, including Mark Rothko and Ad Rhinehart.

This exhibition was paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues. Support for this exhibition was provided by the William G. & Marie Selby Foundation and Ringling Museum Endowment.

Metadata: Rethinking Photography from the 21st Century

MAR 5, 2022 – AUG 28, 2022

The term “metadata” is used to describe the information that travels with a digital image file but is unseen within the image itself. In our networked digital environment, metadata is accessed by both human users and artificial intelligences. Metadata highlights that the information that circulates unseen around photographic images is just as important as seeing what they depict on their surface.

Paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues. Support for this exhibition was provided by National Endowment for the Arts; Gulf Coast Community Foundation; The State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; and the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art Endowment. This exhibition is a part of the Stanton B. and Nancy W. Kaplan Photography and Media Arts Program at The Ringling.

Photos, top to bottom:

Rebecca Salter (British, b. 1955), Untitled M13, 1997, Acrylic on canvas, 28 1/2 × 28 1/2 in. Gift of Murray Bring and Kay Delaney Bring, 2020, 2020.12.22

Eleanor

Lilly

Ballroom Florida: Deco & Desire in Japan’s Jazz Age

MAR 19, 2022 – SEP 25, 2022

Ballroom Florida was the most dazzling of Tokyo’s jazz-age dance halls. Established in 1928, the Florida surpassed competitors with its capacious Art Deco interior, top-tier jazz musicians from Japan and abroad, and alluring “taxi dancers”—professional dancers employed as partners for clientele. The Florida attracted the patronage of Tokyo’s cultural and economic elites, and served as muse to writers, film makers and artists. This exhibition celebrates a recent gift of six paintings by Enomoto Chikatoshi (1898–1973) and a photograph by Hamaya Hiroshi (1915–1999) from Mary and Robert Levenson depicting the women of the Florida and its chic décor.

The Marvellous Marbling of Matsui Kōsei

APR 2, 2022 – SEP 25, 2022

Matsui Kōsei (Japanese, 1927–2003) is known for his delicately marbleized, unglazed vessels. Kōsei pursued his passion for ceramics while serving as the head priest of a Buddhist temple in Ibaraki prefecture. He built a kiln on the temple grounds and studied by attempting to replicate the effects he found in prototypes from China, Korea, and Japan. In recognition for developing eight new and highly complex techniques, Kōsei was designated a Living National Treasure in 1995. This small exhibition presents five ceramics by Matsui Kōsei from the collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz.

The world is just so small, now: Works on paper from The Ringling’s Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art

MAY 14, 2022 – OCT 23, 2022

Bringing together prints, watercolors, and drawings by artists working on paper, the exhibition highlights drawing and printmaking as fundamental to the artists’ practice. Assembled from The Ringling’s collection of contemporary works on paper, most of the pieces are on display for the first time. Shown along with these are several rarely seen lithographs, woodblocks, and a relief print on glass acquired between the early 1960s and late 1990s.

2,715 AUDIENCE AT PERFORMANCES 33 ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

561 ATTENDEES IN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT EVENTS

3 ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE

The Ringling’s Art of Performance rekindled its live performance events in the Historic Asolo Theater with a varied program of mainstage shows, artist residencies, films, talks and community workshops and masterclasses.

Despite uncertain conditions for live public events, the program served audiences, artists and our mission by delivering world class multinational programming in a wide spectrum of disciplines.

PERFORMANCES FOR 2021–2022:

Ludic Proxy: Fukushima by Aya Ogawa

SEP 6–12, 2021

On demand broadcast performance was a highlight of Eco-performance Week. The flawless, multilingual virtual adaptation of Aya Ogawa’s play Ludic Proxy follows a woman named Maho, who visits her older sister living on the outskirts of the Fukushima nuclear evacuation zone in 2015.

Noche Cubana with Cimafunk (Cuba)

OCT 15, 2021

Cimafunk defies classification on a funk pilgrimage in search of a new musical miscegenation of Black music. Singer, composer and producer, the young Cuban sensation offers a bold mix of funk with popular and traditional Cuban music and African rhythms.

De Paso by Sara Perez & Ruben Puertas (Spain)

OCT 30–31, NOV 3, 2021

Dancer and choreographer Sara Perez stunningly precise Flamenco work De Paso (Along the Way) reveals the much-anticipated choreographic virtuosity of this rising star. This theatrical duet with firebrand dancer Ruben Puertas, De Paso employs the remarkable song, guitar, and percussion talents of four musicians.

Flor de Toloache – Female Mariachi (NYC)

DEC 10, 2021

Having performed at Coachella and a NPR Tiny Desk Concert, this Latin GRAMMY-winning, New York-based ensemble is one of the finest all female mariachi groups on the planet. The band sparkles with reverence for mariachi music while introducing an intoxicating, contemporary twist on the genre with a powerful feminine energy.

The BOW’T Trail Young Leaders Commemorative Performance featuring Booker High School Dance Students

JAN 24, 2022

In collaboration with artist visiting choreographer Rhodnie Désir, Booker High School Dance Students performed in the Museum of Art Courtyard to highlight Sarasota’s Black History and celebrate community. In this special performance, students retraced their journey with the Haitian- Canadian artist, choreographer, and dancer via dance.

Sharing Grandmothers

FEB 11 & 12, 2022

This original multidisciplinary song cycle explores the profound contributions of Black women to humanity. The two principal artists are Inez Barlatier, a Miami-based Haitian-American singer/songwriter, percussionist and dancer, and LORNOAR, a Cameroonian artist whose work also encompasses traditional and original songs, music, and dance. The work celebrates the legacy of shared ancestry and traditions between Cameroon and Haiti, the influence of Africa on the Caribbean and its diaspora, and the empowerment of the 21st Century Black Woman.

Yissy Garcia

MAR 10 & 11, 2022

Composer and drummer Yissy Garcia is one of the most powerful artists of this new generation of Cuban musicians. Yissy has ushered in a new era of “high-speed Cuban jazz,” which fuses street conga and rumba, plenty of drums, bass and funk—all rhythms the artist says are “carried in our blood.”

Jamison Ross

MAR 12, 2022

Jamison Ross is a vocalist and drummer that delivers messages of humanity through the medium of jazz. His 2015 debut release, Jamison, introduced the world to his concept of rhythm and melody and also garnered a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Corporeal Decorum by Liony Garcia

APR 15 & 16, 2022

Corporeal Decorum is a multidisciplinary performance piece and investigation into the cultural erasure of Miami’s Art Deco. Conceived and choreographed by Ringling artist in residence Liony Garcia, the piece memorializes important elements of the Miami’s surviving deco architecture.

Andares by Makuyeika Theatre Collective

APR 28–30, 2022

Created by director Hector Flores Komatsu’s personal search to know and understand the indigenous cultures of his homeland, Andares is a moving, fierce denunciation against a present that seems intent upon destroying what was once held as sacred.

Music Around the World with Hermitage Fellow

Kavita Shah

APR 21, 2022

In partnership with The Hermitage artist retreat, audiences enjoyed an evening of live music with composer and performer Kavita Shah under the museum’s magnificent Banyan trees.

The Invention of Seeds by Annalisa Dias: A play reading by Ringling Artist in Residence

Artist in Residence and playwright Annalisa Dias of Groundwater Arts gave an informal reading of her new work “The Invention of Seeds”. Local community members performed, and an intimate reflection with Dias and participants followed.

Artists In Residence

Liony Garcia (Miami, FL)

Teo Castellano/D Projects (Miami, FL)

Annalisa Dias (Baltimore, MD)

Partnerships

Circus Arts Conservatory

Booker High School

Manatee School of the Arts

The Hermitage

Sarasota Film Festival CreArte Latino

46,812 OBJECTS

451 NEW ACQUISITIONS

419 GIFTS 6 BEQUESTS 26 ITEMS PURCHASED

122 OBJECTS LOANED

312 OBJECTS BORROWED

Over the past year, Collections successfully executed a variety of comprehensive in-house and traveling exhibition projects, as well a uniquely large-scale loan project with the Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Montreal. This loan included the preparation of over 30 objects from The Ringling’s circus and art collections, producing over 20 crates that traveled to Old Montreal as part of their exhibition, It’s Circus Time! From October 2021 – March 2022.

Collections continued to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, revamping our outgoing loan program and continuing a selection of delayed projects, such as the renovation of our second-floor galleries in the Tibbals Learning Center. This dynamic re-installation includes a partnership with Feld Entertainment to revive the story of The Greatest Show on Earth, and will include new casework, didactics, and over 20 loaned objects and costumes for display. Collections and Curatorial staff continue to collaborate on this renovation, which is anticipated to open in spring 2023.

In the past year, Collections oversaw the installation and de-installation of 18 in-house and traveling exhibitions. Projects of particular note include Skyway 20/21: A Contemporary Collaboration, Hard Bodies: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer Sculpture, and Metadata: Rethinking Photography in the 21st Century. Staff continued to support our regularly scheduled gallery rotations in the Pavilion and Chao Galleries in the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Center for Asian Art, and the Kotler–Coville Glass Pavilion.

To continue with the development and growth of our department, all full-time staff members of our Preparation & Design team traveled to Bentonville, Arkansas to participate in the American Alliance of Museum’s PACCIN (Preparation, Art Handling, Collections Care Information Network) conference hosted by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

This is the first time since 2014 that our museum has been able to participate in this conference, which is hosted bi-annually. It provided our newest team members and our veteran staff an invaluable opportunity to share their knowledge and represent The Ringling on a national scale. Members of our Registration team also attended the bi-annual Association of Registrar and Collections Specialists (ARCS) virtual conference, participating in a variety of sessions focused on improving and innovating collections care.

Our loan program returned to a more normal pace this past year with Registration staff coordinating the logistics and transportation of 15 outgoing loans, with 66 objects traveling internationally and 56 objects traveling domestically. While courier travel continues to return to normal operations, Collections served as couriers for 6 loans, supervising the safe transit, unpacking, and installation of The Ringling’s objects. Notable loans this year include our Francesco Salviati traveling to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Georgia Museum of Art; our Bernardo Strozzi to The Jewish Museum; our Fede Galizia to the Wadsworth Atheneum and Detroit Institute of Arts; our Domenico Fiasellas to Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura; and a selection of our holdings by Marcel Duchamp to Museum für Moderne Kunst.

The Ringling received 451 works of art into the collection this past year. Impactful offerings include significant donations of 19th and 20th century prints and drawings to our Asian Collection, as well as a large collection of 20th century photography, including notable artists such as Danny Lyon and Dmitri Baltermants. To continue efforts toward diversifying our collection and ensuring its balanced growth, The Ringling acquired 12 Asian antiquities, 12 paintings and 3 textiles by artist Linda Stein, and a print by artist Leon Hicks. Cataloging efforts continue for some of our more recent gifts, including the Stan and Nancy Kaplan Collection, donated in FY19–20. Significant support for the processing of our larger-scale cataloging projects comes from a core group of our dedicated volunteers.