Naples Art

The Naples New Year's Art Fair and Sarasota Winter Fine Art Festival take place January 3-4.

During the month of December, three exhibitions open, two close and 26 others continue their runs.

Earlier this year, the Naples Art Institute brought works by Henri Matisse to Southwest Florida. This year, it brings the works of another iconic artist to our area: Joan Miro.

During the month of November, four exhibitions open, two close and 23 others continue their runs.

Each year, the Naples Art Institute holds three outdoor art fairs, the Naples New Year’s Art Fair in January, Naples National in mid-February and the Naples Downtown Art Fair in mid-March. The Naples Art Institute Director, Frank Verpoorten, says that art fairs are the best way for people to see a lot of art in a short amount of time.

October is National Arts & Culture Month. This year’s theme is “Stories Unite Us.” Every artwork in this year’s Naples Invitational tells a story.

Southwest Florida’s museums regularly curate traveling art exhibitions as well as artworks from their permanent collections. During the month of October, seven new exhibitions open, six close and 15 others continue their runs.

Still reeling from cuts to grant funding, Collier arts organizations are now weathering a 10 percent drop in international visitors. That amounts to about 100,000 fewer international visitors this year. Canadians and British tourists comprise the largest percentage of this decline. That impacts arts organizations since as much as 40 percent of patrons come from out of town.

Naples artist Lynda Fay Braun has made a career imposing spiritual order on nature’s chaos. Her paintings in this year’s Naples Invitational reflect her signature meditative depth.

Mary LeGarde is a shapeshifter. Depending on the motif and emotion, she may work in Figurative Realism, Impressionism, Surrealism or Narrative Art. For her painting in this year’s Naples Invitational, she combined Figurative Realism with Cubism. It was a necessity. Her muse was Pablo Picasso. The man pioneered the notion of artistic shapeshifting.