All posts by fascione

Free Family Funday

Every second Sunday of the month is Free Family Funday! 

On the 2nd Sunday of each month – Join us at the museum for free admission all day, plus a fine art project! Docent touring and art making are back!  Talk about the art with our knowledgable educators and then create your own work!

Each Free Family Funday has a different art project based on the artists of the current exhibition, their subject matter, and their methods. Check out the photos and videos below to see some of the projects we’ve been making between 2020 – 2023!

We would LOVE to see your projects. Share it with us on social media using #MennelloMuseum

Other past projects have included cyanotypes with Orlando based artist John Baker during the Edward Steichen photography exhibition; Ink Pouring Portraits during the Firelei Baez exhibit; and Stained Glass-like landscapes during the Lawrence Lebduska exhibit.  

Free Family Fundays

November 12, 2023 | Nature Lanterns

September 10, 2023 | Textiles

August 13, 2023 | Pattern Play

July 9, 2023 | Light Boxes

June 11, 2023 | Starting out with a Palette Knife

May 14, 2023 | Watercolor Flowers

April 9, 2023 | Pastel Landscapes

March 12, 2023 | Portraiture in Impressionism and Realism

February 12, 2023 | Pinhole Cameras

January 8, 2023 | Free Family Funday | Binding your Artist Volume

December 11, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Cyanotype VS. Wet Plate

November 13, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Self Representation in Portraiture


October 9, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Flashy Fish, Creepy Crawlies, Perfect Pets


September 11, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Braiding Coasters in the Breeze


August 14, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Personifying Color Fields


July 10, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Carving Soap Sculptures


June 12, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Puffy Paint Party


May 8, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Kitchen Lithography


April 10, 2022 | Free Family Funday |


March 13, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Melting Wax Paintings


February 13, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Candy Crowns


January 9, 2022 | Free Family Funday | Blackout Poetry


December 12, 2021 | Free Family Funday | Freedom Lanterns


November 14, 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Writing and Drawing Manga


October 10, 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Wood Block Printing Patterns


September 12, 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Origami Kimono Bookmarks


August 8 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Flowers and their Language


July 11 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Mumma and the Fauves


June 13, 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Painting with Play-Doh


May 9, 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Mumma’s Signature Portraits


April 14, 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Ripped Landscapes


March 14, 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Plant and Animal Motifs in Watercolor


February 14, 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Relief Printing Valentine’s Cards


January 10, 2021 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Tablets


December 13, 2020 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Chalk Murals


November 8, 2020 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Painting on Wood


October 11, 2020 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Create Your Own Zine


September 13, 2020 | Virtual Free Family Funday | DIY Watercolors


August 9, 2020 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Eco Weaving


July 12, 2020 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Mobiles


April 2020 | Virtual Free Family Funday | Botanical Printing


Indie-Folkfest Volunteer Information

« Indie-Folkfest 2020

Indie Folkfest 2019 will take place on Saturday, February 15, 2020, from 12 to 5 p.m. This annual event in the Mennello Museum Sculpture Garden is free to the public.  With over 5,000 attendees in 2019, we anticipate 2020 to attract 6,000+ people and their pets in celebration of music, artists, food and community.

Interested in being a volunteer at Indie-Folkfest?

Do you have a passion for the festival atmosphere, teamwork, hospitality, organization, food, music, and art? We are looking for dedicated individuals who can help us with welcoming visitors, running arts projects, parking guidance, and vendor care.

  1.  Complete the Volunteer Application
  2. You will receive an email confirming your acceptance from Katherine Page by February 3rd, 2020.

Questions? Contact Katherine Page
407.246.4278  ext. 4861  •  katherine.page@cityoforlando.net

Indie-Folkfest Sponsor Information

« Indie-Folkfest 2020

Indie Folkfest 2020 will take place on Saturday, February 15, 2020, from 12 to 5 p.m. This annual event in the Mennello Museum Sculpture Garden is free to the public.  With over 5,000 attendees in 2019, we anticipate 2020 to attract 6,000+ people and their pets in celebration of music, artists, food and community.

Presented as a gift to the community, admission is free to Indie-Folkfest thanks to the generous support of local individuals and businesses. You can help support the 2020 festival by becoming a sponsor! Your sponsorship not only keeps Indie-Folkfest free for all, but also supports Mennello Museum family-friendly educational programs.

Sponsoring Indie-Folkfest is a great opportunity to support the Orlando community, and gain positive association & visibility at a much-anticipated, established annual festival. Sponsor benefits include: an abundance of community goodwill, logo placements on t-shirts, banners & the museum website; social media & on-stage announcements; tent space; and much more – not only during event promotion, but year-round.

Interested in sponsoring Indie-Folkfest?

  1.  Download the Sponsorship Packet
  2.  Review the options.
  3.  Contact Kim Robinson at kim.robinson@cityoforlando.net or 407.246.3294 by December 31, 2019.
  4. Secure your sponsorship through our online Payment Portal.

Questions? Contact Kim Robinson
407.246.3294  •  kim.robinson@cityoforlando.net

Indie-Folkfest Artist Information

« Indie-Folkfest 2020

Indie Folkfest 2020 will take place on Saturday, February 16, 2019, from 12 to 5 p.m. This annual event in the Mennello Museum Sculpture Garden is free to the public.  With over 5,000 attendees in 2019, we anticipate 2020 to attract 6,000+ people and their pets in celebration of music, artists, food and community.

Interested in being an artist at Indie-Folkfest?

  1.  Complete the Artist Application.
  2. You will receive an email confirming your acceptance from Katherine Page-Navarro by November 30, 2019.
  3. After acceptance, Pay the Artist Fee through our online Payment Portal by December 31, 2019.

Questions? Contact Katherine Page-Navarro
407.246.4278  ext. 4861  •  katherine.page@cityoforlando.net

Immersion into Compounded Time and the Paintings of Firelei Báez

June 7 – September 1, 2019

The Mennello Museum of American Art is pleased to present IMMERSION INTO COMPOUNDED TIME AND THE PAINTINGS OF FIRELEI BÁEZ. The exhibition will be on view at the Mennello Museum from June 7 through September 1, 2019, with an Opening Reception on June 7.

This exhibition will explore Firelei Báez’s investigations on the visibility and the construction of complex cultural identities within the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora and how these notions are perceived in today’s global world. Her large-scale and intricate portraits of influential individuals and mythical goddesses of Afro-Caribbean history create a contemporary narrative of a woman’s life, embracing the past, and staking her place in a universal future.

Báez is best known through her extraordinary paintings of lush landscaped-figures, intricately patterned tignons, and otherworldly bodies with striking eyes. Here, she considers the reality of ones current social and the historic construction of cultural self in America. These complex, intersectional bodies and symbols alongside large-scale portraits are painted in vibrant, swirling colors, which intermingle time and character. For Báez, “identity is malleable, negotiated,” and given strength by the female body and mythology of her being.

This exhibition is curated by Katherine Navarro, Associate Curator of Education.


Purchase TICKETS for the opening reception of IMMERSION INTO COMPOUNDED TIME AND THE PAINTINGS OF FIRELEI BÁEZ 

Member Preview & Opening Reception
Friday, June 7, 2019
Members only: 5:30 – 6:30 pm | Guests: 6:30 – 8:00 pm
Free for members | $10 for Guests

Artist Talk & Book Signing (FREE EVENT)
Saturday, June 8, 2019
Guests: 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Swirling Memories and Compounded Time: Curatorial Talk (FREE)
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Guests: 6:00 – 7:00 pm

The Unbridled Paintings of Lawrence H. Lebduska

January 25 – May 12, 2019

This exhibition presents the rare opportunity to exhibit the notable paintings of Lawrence Lebduska, one of the most popular modern folk art painters of 1930s America. Lebduskaʼs dreamlands and invented gardens teem extraordinarily with life and optimism in a nostalgic, uncorrupted style that captured the admiration of the American public.

Lebduska was an outsider artist who navigated the intensifying New York art scene without the academic trainings and institutional tenure of his contemporaries. Competing with the rise of the avant-garde modernist movements that seized the art historical world in New York and abroad, Lebduskaʼs intrinsically painted Edens of bucolic farms, city parks, and remote jungles, which propelled the artist and his work to celebrity among galleries, collectors and museums. Lebduska earned his first solo show in 1936 at the Contemporary Gallery in New York City nearly selling out his works, a show known to have ignited the folk art collections of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and Eleanor Roosevelt. Lebduska was also included in the famed 1938 exhibition Masters of Popular Painting shown at the Museum of Modern Art.

This exhibition is curated by Katherine Navarro, Associate Curator of Education. The Mennello Museum is pleased to present paintings from the Fenimore Museum; Cooperstown, NY, as well as those from our permanent collection and local collectors.  Lebduskaʼs work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, the University of Arizona, The Fenimore Art Museum, and the Mennello Museum of American Art, among others.

Indie-Folkfest 2020 Artists & Artisans

« Indie-Folkfest 2020

Arielle-Christine Art
Over the years of studying the masters, constantly painting, and learning new techniques, I developed a unique abstract impressionistic style of thick layers. My paintings represent landscapes, waterscapes, and botanicals, consisting of mostly oil paint applied with palette knife. By pulling the deep roots of the beautiful state where I am from, my desire is to create pieces that evoke a sense of serenity and natural beauty.


The Dashing Squad 
Eco friendly and organic products for Moms and kids! The Dashing Squad is your ticket to discover new trends, brands, and products that you have not experienced yet. Let us do the leg work for you. We search far and wide for unique, high-quality items and we combine them into one store for your convenience.


Betsy Best
For me, printmaking is a captivating process. The tactility of using tools to carve a piece of wood and then, the immediacy with which I can see the printed result, offers me a gratifying combination of anticipation and satisfaction; I liken the process to magic. I try to incorporate aspects of both the western and eastern approaches into my printmaking practice. As I work, I reflect upon my personal experiences and use the human form to explore gesture, pattern and color.


Porch Therapy
A native of Florida and inspired by her time spent in Charleston, SC, and Asheville, NC, Jennifer brings an aesthetic that is both practical and imaginative to her landscape design, event staging, and home decor.


Anayansi Jones
My work is fueled by my current state of mind or emotions and I often use representational images that have been distorted. There is no right or wrong way of representing emotions, however, I find myself drawn to the human figure and nature. A distortion of reality either through color, line, or abstraction of representation can be seen in the majority of my artworks. I am acutely interested in the essence of an object as shown through my abstract ceramics. However, with my paintings, I’m interested in the ever-changing landscape and the abstraction of how nature makes me feel. My work is about the moment. It’s spontaneous and often reflects the process of how it came to be as if it was its own being.


Sonas
My creations are inspired by Mother Earth and aim to expose her magic to the lives of others. My art incorporates moss/lichen into coasters, jewelry, and wall décor, handsewn water bottle carriers, plant hangers, macrame mirrors, crystal jewelry, and terrariums featuring hand-collected moss/plants.


Bet’s Bars
Soap art: Natural, vegan, handcrafted, cold process soap with intricate designs. I also make sugar scrubs, body butter, bug spray, bath fizz, and lip balm.


Carla Poma Jewelry
Jewelry for the confident woman who loves to shine. Handcrafted using high-quality gemstones, silver, gold fill, and brass.


UnchARTed Art Designs
In 2016, “Purposely Creative” was founded by Yesenia S. Buisson. It became an escape for her art and a platform to simply share something she loved. Soon after, her sister, Jasmine Ramirez joined her to expand in creating a platform to share their God-given talents. In 2018, they joined forces in a joint venture and thus was created “unchARTed”. The art enthusiast sisters who had only dreamed of creating a platform and community/network for sharing their passion, have now expanded and tapped into uncharted territory. They were even featured in 1340 Art Magazine, an international art platform reaching hundreds of thousands of art lovers and collectors. Now, they have expanded their vision and are taking up the Orlando art community by storm. They continue to grow artistically and bring new techniques and eclectic styles of art to the Central Florida art scene.


Tony Garan
Central Florida Outsider Artist working in acrylics, sculpture, spray paint and colored pencils presenting a collection of 16” x 20” small works and drawings along with several paintings on canvas, glass, and wood.  Garan will also have drawer portraits, which consist of found, upcycled objects to look like faces in drawers.


All of Lure Paper Goods‘ cards, journals and posters are designed by us and printed by hand in our studio. We aim to say the things you want to say in a fresh way. Our cards are personal. They’re extensions of our personalities and interests. They may be inspired by a love of all things vintage. They may make you laugh. They may raise an eyebrow.


Specializing in Black and White Photography with the option of Custom Framing


Jon Napoles
A self-described Southern Fauve, Jon Napoles paints vivid themes of Southern Revelry on reclaimed window panes. His media also include acrylic on panel.


Creative extraordinaire Dawn Schreiner is set to debut her Star Valentines at the Indie-Folkfest! We are convinced this thoughtful illustrator, visual storyteller and folk artist never sleeps, judging by her incredible energy and output, including daily posts of timely illustrations on her Facebook page.

Life’s Palette crafts living succulents and air plants artfully into new homes of found wood and shells!


Annette King
Annette King creates art-to-wear dresses, jackets, handbags, and onesies made from vintage handkerchiefs and lace!



Lady Lion Creations
Handmade flower crowns for all occasions: weddings, birthdays, festivals, celebrations. Because life is better with flowers in your hair…


Capture the Earth Photography
Nature and animals are Josh’s preferred subject matter, but he also photographs people, places and things that are intriguing and interesting.


Art by Chelsea
Copper plate Etching Printmaking Fine Artist Chelsea Smith grew up living between Casselberry, Florida and staying summers in Nottingham, England and Derry, Northern Ireland. She is a Fine Arts Graduate of the University of Central Florida. She leverages renaissance era techniques and materials within neoclassical art to produce original fine art.


Questions? Contact Katherine Page
407.246.4278  ext. 4861  •  kpagemennello@gmail.com

Indie Folkfest 2020 Vendors

« Indie-Folkfest 2020

FOOD TRUCKS

Voodoo Kitchen
Welcome to the Voodoo Nation! Voodoo Kitchen Food Truck has been serving Authentic Cajun & Creole cuisine to Central FL foodies since 2013.


DIXIE DHARMA

Dixie Dharma
WE’RE SLINGIN’ 100% PLANT-BASED FIIIIINE VITTLES WITH A LIL SOUTHERN SPIN!  Born and raised in Central Florida, we know southern food, and we are always creating new, imaginative, and delicious plant based dishes, to feed your hunger! From our gorgeously prepared salads, to our famous “Orange Bird” sloppy joe, and a whole lot of unique daily specials, theres somethin for everybody. Did we mention our THREE flavors of our creamy mac ‘n cheese?


Food + Drink Vendors

Sugarbuzz Dezert Company
Awards: 2013 Curbie Award for the favorite vendor at the Downtown Lakeland Farmers Curb Market and 2014 Winner Taste of College Park (Best Dessert)


Courtesy_Color1.jpg

The Courtesy
The Courtesy is all about experience.
Our handcrafted cocktails are made from spirits and ingredients of only the highest caliber. The wine and craft beer selection are sure to bring variance and pleasure to every palate.


Hanson’s Shoe Repair
Hanson’s is located at 27 E. Pine Street in a building that was erected in 1883-1884 with a nineteenth-century commercial style. Andrew Hanson acquired it in 1894 for his “Hanson Shoe Repair Shop” which had Orlando’s first electric sign. It is generally thought that this building may be the oldest building still standing in downtown Orlando.


Maxine’s on Shine
Orlando’s true neighborhood restaurant located just east of Lake Eola in the heart of the Colonial town area, surrounded by homes. The warm and intimate atmosphere reminds you of entering a friend’s home. The friendly and focused service ensures a comfortable connection. Owner-operators, Kirt & Maxine Earhart are your hosts.


La Femme du Fromage 
We are proud to source handcrafted, artisanal cheeses from the United States and around the world. Our mission is to ignite a passion in visitors of our shop for great quality cheese through our delicious menu, pairing classes, and catered platters.


The Thirsty Topher
Intimate beer and wine bar in the heart of Ivanhoe Village.



Rick’s Dog Deli
Locally Made, Gently Cooked, USDA Inspected Food That Your Dog Will Love


Catered by Bruno – Pizza Bruno
Catered by Bruno is a wedding caterer based out of Orlando, Florida. They specialize in a unique construction style that is Neapolitan in its method. Following the Italian tradition of emphasizing simplicity and ingredient-driven dishes, the mother company, Pizza Bruno, takes care to honor this and continue in this trusted technique. Each element is locally sourced, providing unbeatable freshness and flavor. When all the ingredients come together, they are placed in a wood-fired oven, taking on a beautiful color a delicious smokey touch. Menu: Margarita Pizza, Crimson Ghost Pizza, Marinara Pizza


Olde Hearth Bread Co.
Olde Hearth Bread Company, Orlando’s original artisan bakery, serves the area’s finest hotels, restaurants and caterers with natural, fresh-baked breads and rustic breakfast pastries.


Rob’s Concessions
Quality Kettle Corn and Fresh Squeezed Lemonade!


Feel free to bring your own picnic baskets and coolers to the festival, but we’ll also have foodie-friendly picnic fare, craft cocktails and beer for sale, too.

Mennello Museum Announces Book Release and Final Week Celebration for the Exhibition: Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of The Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art from the Collection of Dr. Robert B. Feldman

Orlando, FL — December 11, 2018

Please join collector Dr. Robert B. Feldman and Executive Director & Curator of Shifting Gaze, Shannon Fitzgerald, for a wine reception on January 12, 2019, celebrating the release of a 98-page, full-color publication that includes an essay by Shannon Fitzgerald & Katherine Navarro, interview with Dr. Feldman, artists’ plates and bios.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 2019
11:30 AM – 1 PM
Mennello Museum of American Art
900 E. Princeton St.

Special Catalog Price for All Attending: $35.00 (regularly $40.00)
Catalog Price for Mennello Museum Members: $32.00

 


 

Join us for the last week of the extraordinary exhibition, Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of The Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art, featuring the renowned artists:

Nina Chanel Abney | Farley Aguilar | Radcliffe Bailey | Yoan Capote | Nathaniel Donnett | Mark Thomas Gibson | Luis Gispert | Clotilde Jiménez | Jennie C. Jones | Samuel Levi Jones | Titus Kaphar | Nate Lewis | Kyle Meyer | Lavar Munroe | Toyin Ojih Odutola | Ebony G. Patterson | Lamar Peterson | Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz | Paul Henry Ramirez | Jamel Shabazz | Vaughn Spann | Shawn Theodore | Mickalene Thomas | Hank Willis Thomas | Carlos Vega | Lynette Yiadom-Boakye | Nate Young

Dr. Feldman shares: “The artists in Shifting Gaze are powerfully breaking boundaries in the conversation about identity and culture in America—especially through the lens of seeing the body and that body having agency.  I am inspired by their work and vision and honored to support them as critical artists at the forefront of important dialogues in our culture.”

Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of The Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art from the Collection of Dr. Robert B. Feldmanopened October 19, 2018, and continues through January 13, 2019.

The exhibition presents a selection of works from Dr. Robert B. Feldman’s extensive collection of contemporary art. The artists have all drawn upon art history, American history, and popular culture to create powerful works that, independently and collectively, present a broad range of concepts about identity, beauty, belonging, and religion, as well as work with deep gravitas around poignant issues of race, sexuality, violence, displacement, vulnerability, erasure, and visibility.

The Shifting Gaze, who is looking at who engages perception, seeing and objectification while Reconstruction represents a rebuild, new articulation, and possibly new constructs via a new voice – from the past and projected into a resonant now. The power of this collection, conceptually, formally, across contexts, sensibilities, and interests is the result of the extraordinary vision and passionate quest of the Winter Park collector Dr. Feldman who shares with us an unparalleled visual intellect fueled by his knowledge, curiosity, humanity, and keen eye.


Mission, Vision and Values

Mission
The Mennello Museum of American Art endeavors to preserve, exhibit, and interpret our outstanding permanent collection of paintings by Earl Cunningham. The Mennello Museum of American Art also seeks to enrich the public through temporary exhibitions, programs, educational initiatives, and publications that celebrate other outstanding traditional and contemporary American art and artists across a broad range of disciplines to reflect the rich diversity of American art, while making it accessible to all. The Museum also shares extraordinary works of American art donated by our founders, the Honorable Marilyn Logsdon Mennello and Michael A. Mennello.

Vision
The vision of the Mennello Museum of American Art to be a distinguished and thriving institution that will build on its City of Orlando base of support through strong board and community relationships resulting in an improved operating environment and a reputation for being a local and national treasure.

Values
Quality. We believe the City of Orlando deserves only the best; we aim to excel at everything we do.

Accessibility. We believe in creating a welcoming space and experience for all; we are friendly, welcome diversity, and are inclusive of all.

Curiosity. We never stop learning or thinking; we continually push boundaries and explore new ideas and strive to remain relevant and provide meaningful experiences.

Collaboration. We believe community partners are essential to mutual success; we work to build relationships and co-create with individuals and organizations.

Stewardship. The Museum will serve in perpetuity; to ensure this, we build and care for our collections, make smart use of our financial resources, and continually invest in our future.

Accountability. We exist to benefit the community; we demonstrate our success and value to the residents of Orlando and our visitors.


About the Museum

The Mennello Museum of American Art, owned and operated by the City of Orlando, is located on the beautiful shore of Lake Formosa in Orlando’s Loch Haven Cultural Park. The museum provides residents and visitors welcoming opportunities to understand and value creativity through innovative experiences with art further connecting it to nature and communal gathering. Our goal is to encourage creative and diverse experiences with art that nurtures audiences while reflecting the dynamic relationship between art and society.  In addition to housing the permanent collection of folk modernist Earl Cunningham, the museum presents temporary exhibitions that feature a broad range of American art from traditional to contemporary practices.

On view through January 13, 2019:
Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of The Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art

View all of our upcoming events: www.mennellomuseum.org/events

The Mennello Museum is located at 900 E. Princeton Street, Orlando, FL 32803.

Website  ·  Facebook  ·  Instagram  ·  Twitter

The exhibitions and the Mennello Museum of American Art are generously supported by the City of Orlando and Friends of The Mennello Museum of American Art. Additional funding is provided by Orange County Government through the Arts & Cultural Affairs Program and United Arts of Central Florida. Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.


Download this Press Release

Francesca Ascione
Marketing & Graphic Design Coordinator
The Mennello Museum of American Art and Public Art, City of Orlando
francesca.ascione@cityoforlando.net
407.246.4113

The Unbridled Paintings of Lawrence Lebduska presents the rare opportunity to see works by one of the most popular modern folk-art painters

Orlando, FL — November 14, 2018

The Mennello Museum of American Art is pleased to announce The Unbridled Paintings of Lawrence Lebduska. This exhibition will be on view at the Mennello Museum­ from January 25 through May 12, 2019.

This exhibition presents the rare opportunity to experience the notable paintings of Lawrence Lebduska, one of the most popular modern folk-art painters of 1930s America. Lebduska’s dreamlands and invented gardens teem extraordinarily with life and optimism in a nostalgic, uncorrupted style that captured the admiration of the American public. These intrinsically painted Edens propelled the artist and his work to celebrity among galleries, collectors, and museums during the rise of the avant-garde movement taking hold of the art world in New York and abroad.

Shannon Fitzgerald, Mennello Museum Executive Director, states, “I am delighted to be sharing the wonderful world of Lawrence Lebduska with our audiences. Especially in a time of conflict, Lebduska takes us away to magical spaces full of respite and folly, harmony and nature.  This exhibition revisits Lebduska’s remarkable place in art history, at a time when ‘self-taught’ was not even considered a term in the art market, and in that way, the artist’s work was radical—how exciting is that?”

Lebduska earned his first solo show in 1936 at the Contemporary Gallery in New York City nearly selling out his works, a show thought to have ignited Abby Aldrich Rockefeller’s passion for collecting folk art. Lebduska was also included in the famed 1938 exhibition Masters of Popular Painting shown at the Museum of Modern Art, which included his piece Bohemian Kitchen(1936, oil on board. Collection of Carl and Marian Mullis), showing once more to the public for this exhibition.

Lebduska was an outsider artist who navigated the intensifying New York art scene without the academic training and institutional tenure of his contemporaries. Born in Baltimore in 1894, Lebduska was raised in East Germany and trained as a stained-glass artist in Bohemia. He harnessed his skills as an artisan, translating these methods of formal expression through lively color fields to create the characteristic scenes and figures of his paintings. Lebduska’s creations reveal a smart and personal reaction to the art world during the 1930s – 1960s, exploring themes of life as an artist, art movements, and the allure exotic animals.

Lebduska’s dreamscapes favor peaceful visions of a world abundant with flowers and a menagerie of exotic animals, though some allude to lower points of the World Wars and the Great Depression. He is most often compared to the “wild beast,” French Fauve, Henri Rousseau. Like Rousseau, Lebduska did not confine his work and depictions to places he had ventured. Rather, Lebduska pulled inspiration from the mysterious lands shown in the magazines of his patrons, the veracity of foreign animals of the zoo, and the ideal spaces where he wished to spend his life.

The Unbridled Paintings of Lawrence Lebduska is curated by Katherine Navarro, Marilyn L. Mennello Associate Curator of Education. The Mennello Museum is thrilled to present paintings from the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Fenimore Museum, Gallerie St. Etienne, as well as those from our permanent collection, and the private collections of Michael A. Mennello, Anne Cochran Grey, PhD, Mary L. Demetree, Josh Feldstein, and Carl and Marian Mullis. Lebduska’s work can also be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art among others.

A full-color catalog will accompany the exhibition with essays by Mehna Herders-Reach and curator Katherine Navarro.

 


 

Please save the date for the opening reception of  The Unbridled Paintings of Lawrence Lebduska

Opening Reception
Friday, January 25, 2019

Members-only Preview
5:30–6:30 p.m.

Public Reception
6:30–8:00 pm

Free for members  |  $10 for Guests

 


 

PLEASE NOTE THE BELOW REQUIRED CREDITS FOR IMAGES:
Hi-res images:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/unhj18iv5fj4mje/AACpYlokwr1ghrdnBtzgUOeia?dl=0

Images:

Lawrence Lebduska, Self Portrait, Asleep with Creatures, 1943, oil on canvas. Courtesy of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, Museum Purchase, N0012.2000. Photo by Richard Walker.

Lawrence Lebduska, Landscape with Horses, 1934. Collection of the Mennello Museum of American Art.

Lawrence Lebduska, Antelopes Drinking, 1947. Collection of Michael A. Mennello.


Mission, Vision and Values

Mission
The Mennello Museum of American Art endeavors to preserve, exhibit, and interpret our outstanding permanent collection of paintings by Earl Cunningham. The Mennello Museum of American Art also seeks to enrich the public through temporary exhibitions, programs, educational initiatives, and publications that celebrate other outstanding traditional and contemporary American art and artists across a broad range of disciplines to reflect the rich diversity of American art, while making it accessible to all. The Museum also shares extraordinary works of American art donated by our founders, the Honorable Marilyn Logsdon Mennello and Michael A. Mennello.

Vision
The vision of the Mennello Museum of American Art to be a distinguished and thriving institution that will build on its City of Orlando base of support through strong board and community relationships resulting in an improved operating environment and a reputation for being a local and national treasure.

Values
Quality. We believe the City of Orlando deserves only the best; we aim to excel at everything we do.

Accessibility. We believe in creating a welcoming space and experience for all; we are friendly, welcome diversity, and are inclusive of all.

Curiosity. We never stop learning or thinking; we continually push boundaries and explore new ideas and strive to remain relevant and provide meaningful experiences.

Collaboration. We believe community partners are essential to mutual success; we work to build relationships and co-create with individuals and organizations.

Stewardship. The Museum will serve in perpetuity; to ensure this, we build and care for our collections, make smart use of our financial resources, and continually invest in our future.

Accountability. We exist to benefit the community; we demonstrate our success and value to the residents of Orlando and our visitors.


About the Museum

The Mennello Museum of American Art, owned and operated by the City of Orlando, is located on the beautiful shore of Lake Formosa in Orlando’s Loch Haven Cultural Park. The museum provides residents and visitors welcoming opportunities to understand and value creativity through innovative experiences with art further connecting it to nature and communal gathering. Our goal is to encourage creative and diverse experiences with art that nurtures audiences while reflecting the dynamic relationship between art and society.  In addition to housing the permanent collection of folk modernist Earl Cunningham, the museum presents temporary exhibitions that feature a broad range of American art from traditional to contemporary practices.

On view through January 13, 2019:

Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of The Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art

View all of our upcoming events: www.mennellomuseum.org/events

The Mennello Museum is located at 900 E. Princeton Street, Orlando, FL 32803.

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The exhibitions and the Mennello Museum of American Art are generously supported by the City of Orlando and Friends of The Mennello Museum of American Art. Additional funding is provided by Orange County Government through the Arts & Cultural Affairs Program and United Arts of Central Florida. Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.


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Francesca Ascione
Marketing & Graphic Design Coordinator
The Mennello Museum of American Art and Public Art, City of Orlando
francesca.ascione@cityoforlando.net
407.246.4113