An aerial view of Maurice A Ferré Park (formerly Museum Park) in downtown Miami. Photo by Gabriel Garcia. Courtesy Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, MiamiandBeaches.com.
The Sunshine State hits its stride as the cooler months set in and the art events kick into high gear. While the 2020 art season will look different, galleries, museums and more have innovated to keep collectors clamoring for art even from the comfort of their homes. Among the art hubs in the state are Miami, Sarasota, St. Augustine, Palm Beach, Naples and Winter Park, to name a few.
One of the prime reasons art lovers flock to Florida each December is Miami Art Week, which is scheduled for November 30 to December 6. This year there will be no live art fairs taking place, but many of the favorites have shifted to virtual events. The mainstay, Art Basel Miami Beach, has announced OVR: Miami Beach, a new iteration of the company’s Online Viewing Rooms that will feature galleries accepted into the 2020 edition of the fair. As part of the event, from December 2 to 6, there will be an online program of talks, gallery walkthroughs and more. Similarly, Art Miami and its sister fairs Aqua Art Miami and CONTEXT have announced the online interactive platform MIAMI ART CITY, which will run December 1 to 6 and will “replicate the art fair experience in a virtual art fair community.” Also going virtual are ART NOW FAIR and SCOPE, both from December 1 to 6.
In St. Augustine, collectors can participate in the monthly First Friday Art Walk, from 5 to 9 p.m., when approximately 30 galleries stay open for nighttime receptions and events. Participating galleries are located all around the city, including historic downtown, from Aviles to King streets, St. George Street and over the bridge to Anastasia Island and the beach. Included among them is Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, which also has a location in Ponte Verda Beach. The St. Augustine Art Association is also active in the area, typically hosting an annual Festival of Art at Francis Field. This year’s festival was cancelled, but the event usually includes artwork from 130 local and national artists as well as live music, a kids’ area and much more.
The picturesque and diverse beauty of the state also draws artists to the area, with many of them participating in the countless plein air events from around the state. One such event is the eighth annual Plein Air Festival hosted by Tequesta-based Lighthouse ArtCenter Gallery & School of Art. From March 14 to 20, 25 artists will exhibit their fresh paintings in the gallery and online. Other festivals of note include Forgotten Coast En Plein Air, which is planned for March 19 to 28, across the Apalachicola area of Florida and the Albin Polsek Museum & Sculpture Garden’s Winter Park Paint Out, which went virtual for 2020.
Landscape artist Chris Kling moved to the state in 2005 and finds inspiration in her surroundings, while painter and sculptor Roni Lynn Doppelt runs Roni Lynn D Gallery in Palm Beach.
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Cutter & Cutter Fine Art
25 King Street, St. Augustine, FL 32084
(904) 810-0460
333 Village Main Street, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
(904) 395-3759
gallery@cutterandcutter.com
www.cutterandcutter.com
Now approaching a quarter-century as an art dealer, Cutter & Cutter Fine Art is proud to have earned and made true art collectors all over the world. “Interestingly,” the gallery shares, “COVID-19 has not been a barrier to art acquisitions! In fact, it’s been a pleasant surprise to see collectors turning their eyes toward their walls…and discovering plenty of potential placements.”
Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, Academia II, Third Life, bronze, 40 x 27 x 5", by Paige Bradley.
Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, Marta, Flight, tempera, 63 3/10 x 40½", by Daud Akhriev.
Found at the gallery are works from past and present artists such as Daud Akhriev, Salvador Dalí and Paige Bradley, whose paintings, sculptures and etchings “bring those walls and spaces in your home to life,” the gallery says. “Our collectors often speak of the way art transforms their homes... and their life!”
Cutter & Cutter Fine Art has a virtual gallery walkthrough available on their website, or collectors can set up private appointments. Currently represented are more than 40 artists who work in a variety of styles and mediums, with something for every art collector to enjoy.
Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, Flower Woman with Soft Piano, hand-colored etching from the Hippies Suite, 25 x 20", by Salvador Dalí.
In January, the gallery will host an exhibition for Akhriev family including artwork from Daud, his wife Melissa Hefferlin, and his son Timur Akhriev.
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Lighthouse ArtCenter Gallery & School of Art
373 Tequesta Drive, Tequesta, FL 33469
(561) 746-3101, www.lighthousearts.org
Lighthouse ArtCenter has provided uninterrupted art and cultural programming for over 50 years. Located in Southeast Florida, it serves over 900 members and 22,000 visitors from its three-building campus in the exceptional waterfront town of Tequesta. The ArtCenter’s mission is to inspire, engage and connect visitors with unique exhibitions, a vibrant school of art, and diverse special events.
Lighthouse ArtCenter Gallery & School of Art is a three-building campus in the town of Tequesta, Florida.
Lighthouse ArtCenter Gallery & School of Art, Tomorrow’s Hope, gouache, 29 x 22", by William Kwamena-Poh. On view in Soul on Art: Ghosts of Africa.
“Some of Florida’s best art galleries are in Northern Palm Beach County. If you have an interest in purchasing or collecting art, or you just enjoy walking through galleries and observing, you will find a plethora with a variety of styles and mediums to satisfy all tastes.” — Nancy Politsch, executive director, Lighthouse ArtCenter Gallery & School of Art
“We are so excited for this coming season! With the onset of COVID-19, we took the quiet time to completely reenergize and overhaul our facilities, which will enhance our exhibitions, workshops, and classes,” says Nancy Politsch, executive director. “We welcome visitors back to the gallery January 2021, with refreshed and modernized facilities and a plethora of culturally diverse and enriching exhibitions.”
Soul on Art: Ghosts of Africa, from January 26 to March 10 at the newly renovated gallery, is a timely exhibition featuring works by significant brown and Black artists including William Kwamena-Poh, Kara Walker and Purvis Young.
Radical Jewelry Makeover, running January 26 through March 20, showcases Ethical Metalsmiths’ innovative community mining project. It raises awareness of the connection between mining, metalsmithing, activism, collaboration and art. RJM utilizes donated jewelry as a source of “raw” material. The donated jewelry is then deconstructed to the original components and reconstructed into wearable works of art by artists, students and professionals. 
Lighthouse ArtCenter Gallery & School of Art, Towers in the Sand, oil, 11 x 14", by Stephen Wysocki. Wysocki is one of the artists who will participate in the Plein Air Festival.
The eighth annual Plein Air Festival, held March 14 to 20, is considered one of the premier plein air festivals in the Southeastern United States. Twenty-five national award-winning artists have been invited to exhibit their fresh works in the gallery and online during this highly anticipated celebration of representational art, which captures our environment as history in the making.
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Roni Lynn Doppelt
Roni Lynn D Gallery
329 Worth Avenue
Palm Beach, FL 33480
(561) 271-8775
ronilynndoppelt@gmail.com
www.ronilynndoppelt.com
“My artwork is all about what I value most,” Roni Lynn Doppelt says. “Love of family and friends, love of life itself, appreciation of the beauty of nature and love are all very important to me. That is the reason they are always prevalent in my work.”
Roni Lynn Doppelt, Radiance #6, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40"
With intense emotions and powerful colors lending to her work a diverse and eclectic range of themes and depths of sensitivity, Doppelt displays a dynamic visual symphony established by a seamless cohesion of grand design and artistic abilities. Wrapped around the cyclical nature of human emotions, her paintings and sculptures elicit the awe-inspiring colors, powers and beauty of our expansive universe.
Doppelt, a skilled sculptor and canvas artist, was honored to be invited to participate in a unique opportunity to have her art shown at the Ancient Olympia Town Hall during the 2020 Olympic Flame Ceremony in ancient Olympia, Greece. The virtual digital exhibition was called Athletic Idea, Man And The Arts. It was to be followed by an extended actual exhibition in an art gallery in Athens. 
Roni Lynn Doppelt, Radiance #15, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30"
Roni Lynn Doppelt, Bouquet, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48"
She was a featured artist in early 2019 at the Hugh O’Neill Art Group in Jupiter, Florida. Exhibits and shows for 2019-20 to date include events in New York, Venice, Greece and Monaco as well as a third showing in Dubai. One of the 2019 exhibitions where her art was presented was in Paris at Carrousel du Louvre. Doppelt has also contributed her artwork to various charities and significant fundraising events to foundations such as MorseLife and the Albert Einstein College.
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Chris Kling
cbkling@bellsouth.net
www.chrisklingartist.com
The Florida landscape provides an endless source of subject matter for Chris Kling, who moved to the state in 2005. The artist, who began as a portrait painter, primarily paints in plein air but does larger studio works based on her outdoor studies. She adds, “With my many years as a portrait artist, most often doing full figures, it shouldn’t be surprising that I insert impressionistic figures in a lot of my paintings.”
Chris Kling, Fragrant Harvest, oil, 36 x 36"
With the lockdown because of COVID-19, Kling took the opportunity to expand to new subjects. “I completed a series of fish paintings that were great fun, and these can be seen on my website. I love to paint water, boats, urban scenes,” she says. “As I have progressed in years, I have noticed that my painting style is getting looser and looser.
I am reveling in the freshness and energy of painterly brushstrokes, and have also introducing more palette knife. I compete in plein air competitions and prefer to keep them in Florida, ones I can easily throw my equipment into the back of my car!”
Chris Kling, Breaker, oil, 24 x 48"
Her painting Breaker was recently juried into the National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society’s Best of America exhibition, hosted by Cutter & Cutter Fine Art in St. Augustine, Florida. —
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