This season’s exhibits challenge how you look at the world—and how you look at art. Start at Naples Art Institute, where the team features one of the true originals. Running through January 28, Victor Vasarely: The Absolute Eye celebrates the grandfather of Op art (aka optical art), with the Hungarian-French artist’s complex, geometric pieces that often seem to be moving. As an ode to former masters, Aldo Castillo Gallery kicks off its Master Series with a Tribute to Claude Monet, running January 10 to 14, at its Fifth Avenue South location in Naples. The series leans on the teachings and styles of past art icons to bring healing messages to the modern era. For the abstract, Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center hosts Joan Sonnenberg: Street Walking Artist from January 5 to 25. The Naples artist, who has painted for eight decades, often draws inspiration from her walks around town, picking up on details from the local scenery and placing them in an abstract context. Meanwhile, Patricia Zalisko: For Life to Return, at Naples Botanical Garden through January 21, explores the artist’s processing of Hurricane Ian’s aftermath, with 10 abstract collages and accompanying haikus that reflect on destruction and the beauty of resilience.
In March, Niki Butcher shows the colorful contrast to her photographer husband Clyde Butcher’s work in Daydreaming: A Hand-Painted Photography at Marco Island Historical Museum from March 7 to June 8. The show features her photographs of Old Florida and its places and people, which she then layers with pastel paints to accentuate the scenes’ vibrance. Also on the island: Just Another Canvas: Tattoo’s as Art shows at Marco Island Center for the Arts from January 8 to February 27, with local tattoo artists and fine art-trained Pollyanna Fernandez from Mimi and Jose Luis Bermudez.
For a multi-sensory experience, A Tenuous Framework at Florida Gulf Coast University (January 19 to February 29) features the video work of Wisconsin artists Shana McCaw and Brent Budsberg. It’s a study in Americans’ shared history as immigrants to this country, featuring the duo’s video series The Inhabitants alongside other works of photography, miniatures, installations and touchable artwork.
