The Original Influencers: Central Florida’s Pioneering Professors

Last updated on January 03, 2025

MENNELLO MUSEUM TO PRESENT THREE ORIGINAL INFLUENCERS IN NEW EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTING PAINTINGS BY MERNET LARSEN, STEVE LOTZ, AND BRUCE MARSH

ORLANDO, FLORIDA [January 3, 2025] —

The Mennello Museum of American Art will present The Original Influencers: Central Florida’s Pioneering Professors: Mernet Larsen, Steve Lotz, and Bruce Marsh, from January 31 - May 25, 2025.

The exhibition examines the rich and vibrant legacy of Central Florida’s arts and higher education through contemplating the work of three foundational figures – artists who have had a profound impact on the Central Florida art scene and have inspired generations of students. Through their extraordinary practices and decades of teaching, Mernet Larsen, Steve Lotz, and Bruce Marsh depict natural worlds both organically and geometrically, which implore viewers to analyze how they view the world through lenses of abstraction, symbolism, and perception.

Mernet Larsen depicts monumentalized memories of geometric figures, landscapes, and objects compacted into proportional, non-organic configurations. Steve Lotz is a self-described Organic Imaginative artist whose paintings represent the visual symbology of his unconscious self. Bruce Marsh is a naturalistic painter interested in the drama of seeing through light and shadow in both natural and manmade landscapes. Together, these artists represent an era of pioneering mentorship and artistic practices that endure.

Katherine Page, Curator Art and Education and exhibition curator states “I am excited to showcase the paintings of Mernet Larsen, Bruce Marsh, and Steve Lotz at the Mennello Museum. The three artists have such remarkable styles to depict the world around them demonstrating a deep, almost sacred, appreciation for nature, humanity, and our connections therein. While their approaches and subject matters diverge from one another yielding three singular presentations, their devotion to showing us and their students a new way of viewing is remarkable and unparalleled.”

Page also reached out to former studio art students of the Original Influencers to learn more about their direct impact.

Of Mernet Larsen, Charlotte Schulz writes “Mernet Larsen was highly regarded as a teacher. She had an intuitive response to students’ art and process. Larsen stood ‘in your shoes’, offering suggestions in a way that was about your future. It wasn’t prescriptive. It was ‘Have you thought about this?’ or ‘Do you know about this article/book?’ or ‘What if ___?’. Each time, it hit the mark… Her focus was in cultivating original voices and visions. I can’t imagine my artistic development and thought process without Larsen’s presence in my life. A statement she made on my last day of grad school has never left me: ‘Charlotte, you learned how to learn.’ I did. This carried me forward in life and work, in the most unexpected of ways. What Larsen gave me was a model of an articulate, inventive, thoughtful, questioning artist, someone who navigates uncharted territory to engage with the history of art and ideas.”

Of Steve Lotz, Tami Puckett stated “Steve Lotz was a figure drawing and painting professor of mine. He was friendly, encouraging, and palpably enthusiastic about art. It was inspiring to study with a producing, professional artist. He was always looking for ways to keep us engaged, and I could feel he wanted his students to succeed… His friendship and ongoing confidence in my abilities as an artist has enriched my life. Lotz has always revered beauty and the organic, natural world.  While creating beauty has become suspect – frequently described as lacking the necessary gravitas of social content - he has avoided the undertow of fluctuating cultural opinion. Lotz has honored the tides of his own personal, instinctual, beautiful evolution.”

Of Bruce Marsh, Jake Fernandez notes “Bruce Marsh is an influential figure in the genre of landscape painting… He is an outstanding artist with the ability to transform mundane subject matter into something truly remarkable. Marsh has dedicated his long career to the study of the technical side of painting. His work reflects his knowledge of art history, color theory and the perception of visual phenomena.” Another former student, Peg Trezevant said “While it might go unnoticed, one of the greatest traits a teacher can have is to be able to meet students where they are, and Marsh was not only approachable but he could come at art from any angle with knowledge about techniques, tools and mediums, art history, and most any cultural reference.”

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Brief Biographies of each artist:

Mernet Larsen is a narrative artist who constructs hard-edged, abstracted renderings of daily life. Her paintings evoke a contemplation on the complexity of emotional dynamics through the visualization of spatial relationships by modifying traditional perspectival views to depict characters in multi-geometric dimensionality. Inspired by 15^th century Renaissance paintings and Russian Constructivism, Larsen strives to portray moments in time that, while seemingly mundane, exude significance and solidity. Larsen serves as a Professor Emeritus at the University of South Florida where she taught from 1967–2003.

Steve Lotz is a self-described Organic Imaginative artist whose paintings represent the visual symbology of his unconscious self. Informed by the constant flux of the natural world, Lotz’ practice considers the connectivity of every particle in the cosmos. He balances notions of masculine and feminine within nature to produce works of art that portray the elegant beauty of the universe. Lotz served as an instructor of art at the University of Central Florida, then Florida Technological University, in 1968 and served as the chairman of the Art Department for its first 10 years before retiring as a Professor Emeritus in 2003.

Bruce Marsh is a naturalistic painter interested in the drama of light and shadow in both natural and manmade landscapes. This exhibition presents paintings that focus on the intricate details of soft ripples and waves as they lap gently on the Florida coastline.  His large-scale works envelop the viewer in the serene environments depicted, leaving us with a sense of awe and wonder for the beautiful, natural world in which we live. Marsh joined the faculty at the University of South Florida in 1969 and taught there until retiring as Professor Emeritus in 2003.

IMAGE CAPTIONS / PHOTO CREDITS REFERENCE SHEET

Link to images: The Original Influencers: Central Florida’s Pioneering Professors: Mernet Larsen, Steve Lotz, and Bruce Marsh