At first glance, the gallery feels soft, almost sweet. Walls washed in pastel pink and powder blue hold what appear to be abstract landscapes: rolling curves, gentle shadows, fields of color. Some visitors pause. Others hesitate. A few turn around and walk out.

Then comes the realization.

They are not landscapes at all—they are bodies.

Currently on view at Sarasota Art Museum, Selina Román: Abstract Corpulence transforms tightly cropped photographs of the artist’s own body into large-scale abstract compositions. Through careful framing and pastel bodysuits, ������Ƶ Fine Arts faculty member Selina Román turns stomachs, thighs, hips, and backs into studies of line, shape, and color. The result is both intimate and disorienting; a quiet challenge to traditional notions of beauty and femininity.

But perhaps the most fascinating part of the exhibition is not what hangs on the walls—it’s how differently people see it. Sandra Lefever, a staff member at the Museum, has observed audiences navigating the space over the past six months. She noted that older and younger women often spend the most time with the work, studying it closely. Others, she observed, step inside briefly before deciding it may not be for them.

One piece in particular became her favorite after hours of looking. At first, she wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Eventually, she recognized it: “It’s her back,” Lefever explained, pointing out the mirrored spine within the composition. That moment of recognition changed everything. “The whole thing reminds me of an iceberg,” she added, suggesting that what viewers first see is only a fraction of the meaning beneath the surface.

Even now, she says, visitors frequently misidentify the body parts. One canvas in the lower right remains “pretty ambiguous… it could be anything.”

The exhibition takes on yet another life through younger viewers. Lefever recalled guiding a group of third graders through the gallery. Many of them interpreted the works as landscapes, drawn especially to the pastel tones they described as “ice cream” colors. Their reactions reveal something essential about abstraction: meaning shifts depending on who is looking.

Organized by Sarasota Art Museum of ������Ƶ, and curated by Rangsook Yoon, senior curator at Sarasota Art Museum, Abstract Corpulence turns the gallery into a space of subtle resistance. By magnifying the body until it becomes unrecognizable, Román invites viewers to reconsider scale, perception, and the politics of size.

As the exhibition approaches its closing in March, one question lingers in the quiet, color-washed room: Is this exhibition about the body or about the way we choose to see it?

Perhaps it is less about identifying what part of the body we are looking at and more about recognizing how our own experiences shape what we see. In the end, the work does not demand a single interpretation. It asks only that we stay long enough to look and to look again.

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Blake Gopnik is an art critic for The New York Times and the author of the 2020 biography Warhol, an exhaustive examination of the late pop artist. Most recently, he authored The Maverick’s Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream, about a philanthropist and modern art collector whose egalitarian ideals inspired a desire to take art out of the hands of the elite and make it available to the average American.

Christian Viveros-Fauné is an art critic for The Village Voice, curator-at-large for USF Contemporary Art Museum, co-founder of The Brooklyn Rail, and author of the 2018 book Social Forms: A Short History of Political Art from Zwirner Books.

The duo is notorious for turning the critiques into debates, forming hard and opposing positions on topics and works of art, but with a fun energy and mutual respect. Their visit to Ringling offered a night of the critics’ usual banter and provocative opinions. 

They debated a Caravaggio painting, depicting a young man in drag, who bears a slight resemblance to the artist, with one critic crediting the 20th-century revival of interest in the artist to advances in cinema. 

The two disagreed on the sexualized work of figurative painter Lisa Yuskavage, an advertisement featuring Andy Warhol, and a recent exhibition of early portraits by Amy Sherald. 

In a rare moment of unified thinking, they shared their mutual love for the 2016 documentary Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death by Arthur Jafa, screened in its entirety, leaving the whole room transfixed.  

The event was presented by ������Ƶ Galleries and Exhibitions, the Fine Arts Department, and the Liberal Arts Department, and emceed by Liberal Arts faculty member Tom Winchester. 

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During the Spring 2025 semester, Goodman returned to ������Ƶ for a solo exhibition of technicolor paintings with layered vignettes featuring the who’s who of animation history. The playful stroll down memory lane of an exhibition brings together pop-culture icons from different eras, genres, media, and even brands in dizzying scenes of nostalgia and pleasure.

“Returning to Ringling for a solo exhibition was a full-circle moment for me,”  Goodman shared. “It was deeply meaningful to present a complete body of work in the same place where my artistic journey began.”

Beyond the gallery walls, his time on campus was marked by hands-on involvement with students—spending a month working alongside emerging artists, exchanging ideas, and offering insight into life as a working creative. “Their curiosity and energy made the time truly special,” he reflected. To close out his visit, Goodman also served as a judge for Best of Ringling.

Now based in Chicago, Goodman is building an art practice rooted in place, culture, and collaboration. His reach spans some of the city’s most beloved institutions and brands.

In 2024, he designed a merchandise line for the Chicago Bulls. Beginning with the team’s Artist Hat Series, Goodman designed a custom hat distributed to the first 5,000 fans at a game. That partnership grew to include limited-edition fine art prints, pins, pennants, sticker sheets, and even ceramic basketball piggy banks.

Goodman also worked with the iconic West Loop sandwich shop and grocer, J.P. Graziano, on limited-edition holiday merchandise and special design collaborations in 2024.

Through a partnership with The Simple Good, he also contributed to a Chicago Public Schools coloring book. “This project is especially meaningful because every student receives a copy, giving them a creative outlet and a place to express themselves at the start of their artistic journey,” he shared.

Whether mentoring Ringling students, designing for organizations of all sizes, or making art accessible to Chicago youth, Goodman uses his practice to serve his community and create spaces for dialogue, participation, and connection.

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Using her own body as the subject, Román creates tightly-cropped compositions that deconstruct the human figure into a series of abstract shapes and forms. Wearing pastel bodysuits and tights, the artist transforms her flesh into undulating landscapes and still-life compositions by photographing her body in a series of unconventional postures. The result is an intimate, provocative, and dreamlike installation that invites viewers to consider the human figure from a point of true abstraction and inquiry.

Román has long been interested in portraiture, often choosing women as her models. According to the artist, she loves photographing people, putting her subjects in strange positions, and emphasizing the essence of the portrait through fashion and prop selection. In this exhibition, however, it’s the artist herself who is in the crosshairs of the camera lens. Román says she has avoided self-portraiture for years, but now finds the approach freeing both artistically and psychologically.

“I think self-portraiture may be the most challenging genre of artmaking,” shared Román. “To turn the camera on ourselves takes a good deal of bravery. In these images, we reveal ourselves in a multitude of ways.”

Roman’s evolving artistic process has led to a shift from single-frame photography to composite images that border on collage. This new approach allows for greater control and scale, resulting in photography that is at once meticulously crafted and emotionally raw.

“Here, my body is the environment,” Román explains. “It’s too big again, but this time, that’s the point. This is what I want people to feel: that bigness is not a flaw. It’s a presence.”

While Roman’s newest exhibition is very personal, it’s also widely accessible.

“I find it thrilling when people connect with the art on view and bring their own experiences, memories, and stories to the work,” shared Román. “I create the initial meaning, and then my viewers create their own layers of meaning.”

“This exhibition is another example of how, as part of ������Ƶ, Sarasota Art Museum is able to draw on the talents and expertise of our accomplished colleagues to ensure that our exhibitions are exciting and compelling,” shared Executive Director Virginia Shearer. “In the past, we’ve been able to engage the talents of faculty like Joe Fig (Contemplating Vermeer, 2024) and Jamie DeRuyter (Future Now, 2025). This season, we are pleased to be bringing these wonderful photographs by Ringling photography faculty Selina Román to the Museum to share with Sarasota locals and tourists alike.”

In addition to being a faculty member at ������Ƶ, Román is a proud Floridian and Tampa Bay-based artist. Her work is currently in the collection of the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs, The Tampa Museum of Art and Hillsborough Community College, as well as numerous private collections.

Román will give an opening-day talk about the exhibition on Saturday, August 30, from 11 am-12 pm at Sarasota Art Museum’s Sarasota High School Alumni Auditorium. Learn more or buy tickets on the website. ������Ƶ students, faculty, and staff can attend for free, but must reserve a seat.

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During the segment, Fig gave a short tour of the exhibition, which includes an additional painting depicting a scene from the New Britain Museum of American Art.

Contemplating Vermeer features small-scale paintings inspired by the 2023 Rijksmuseum Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam. These works depict museum-goers closely engaging with Vermeer’s intimate scenes. They continue Fig’s decade-long Contemplation series that shifts focus between the art, its viewers, and the gallery spaces they occupy.

The exhibition is currently on view at the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut, until January 11, 2026.

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Fig’s exhibition, opened on November 17 and depicts scenes from the 2023 Rijksmuseum exhibition of Johannes Vermeer paintings in Amsterdam. Fig’s small paintings feature museum-goers taking a close look at the famous paintings—intimate scenes portrayed on an intimate scale. Fig’s paintings range from seven to 14 inches in height, mirroring the scale of the paintings he depicts—Vermeer’s paintings ranged from seven to 20 inches on average.   

The works expand on his decade-long Contemplation series, in which he captures his subjects: a focus that shifts from the artworks themselves, their viewers, and the gallery or museum space that hosts the whole scene. The works explore how people engage with or contemplate artworks in public spaces.

The works in Contemplating Vermeer bring the viewer’s attention to the social and cultural world around art. They simultaneously highlight the unfixed nature of works as they continue to create relationships throughout their existence and make the viewer distinctly aware of the jarring differences between the eras in which Vermeer and Fig are painting. In Vermeer: Girl with a Red Hat and Girl with a Flute / Rijksmuseum, a woman with black sunglasses on top of her head that look much like Wayfarers—an iconic symbol of contemporary culture—is a dramatic contrast to Vermeer’s Girl with a Red Hat, c. 1669. The large brim of the hat is thick with the fluff of feathers and screams “historic artifact”.

The works are as much art objects as they are learning opportunities and opportunities for self-reflection. They encourage close looking by making the viewer self-aware of their behavior as museum-goers and invoking curiosity as we watch others perform it. 

Contemplating Vermeer has been reviewed in , , and was interviewed for the podcast.  

Also on view are Tammy Nguyen: Timaeus and the Nations and Claire Ashley: Chromatic Blush.

Both Nguyen and Ashley are teaching artists. Ashley teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Nguyen is an Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University. 

Nguyen’s exhibit offers lessons in history and mythology, nation-making, and national identity. as she layers historical documents with haikus, symbols, mythologies, and maritime law, to name just a few of the narratives that are cosmically aligned in the show. In Revolutions of the Same and the Other Nguyen combines 46 “flags of convenience” into 23 woven tapestries, inventing new dual national relationships and accompanying anthems that combine the anthems for each of those nations. The lesson in geopolitics is imbued with humor and wit, and even a little sarcasm. 

Ashley, too, uses humor in her lessons on deconstructing the field of painting, by literally inflating the canvas. Her comically large sculptural paintings overfill the large galleries they inhabit. The slumpy, lumpy inflatables look like rogue parade floats that have gone on to live exciting lives and maybe even joined a very aesthetic cult. Humor, empathy, and play become the foundations for an embodied visitor experience for these works—the term viewing experience seems to miss the mark. 

������Ƶ students, faculty, and staff receive free admission to Sarasota Art Museum. Joe Fig: Contemplating Vermeer is on view until April 13, 2025. Tammy Nguyen: Timaeus and the Nations and Claire Ashley: Chromatic Blush are on view until January 19, 2025. 

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According to the Artnet article “From Zero to Hero,” each artist featured was the subject of zero searches on the Artnet Price Database in 2023 and then dozens in 2024. With more than 17 million vetted and verified auction results, the database is one of the world’s most comprehensive records of art sales. 

Whiteford, who also received his MFA from Yale University in 2019, set a personal record for his 2020 piece, Mass Controller when it sold for $63,500 in New York on November 15, 2023.

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Zack Crosby

New York Academy of Art Summer Undergraduate Residency Program

“At the New York Academy of Art Summer Undergraduate Residency Program, I spent the month of June taking live figure model painting, sculpture, and drawing classes to practice technical skills and better capture the human form. I was also grateful to be taken around to lots of galleries, artist studios, and events in New York City. The highlight of my residency, besides the New York nightlife, was participating in the SURP exhibition, using my time in between and after class to make personal work for the show.

It was my first time in a big city, and the program really inspired me, connecting me with the world of fine arts on a larger scale. Being immersed in the gallery scene and talking to curators, critics, and working artists opened a lot of doors for what I want to accomplish and where I will go after I get my degree at ������Ƶ.”

Rose Marjanneke Williamson 

Chautauqua Visual Arts in Chautauqua, NY 6-Week Residency 

“I was so honored to be selected to be a part of an amazing opportunity alongside 24 other resident artists. This year, the residency was fully funded, and I received a full scholarship from the Friends of the Chautauqua Visual Arts to attend the 6-week summer program located in Chautauqua Institution. The timing couldn’t have been better as I have just recently graduated from the Fine Arts program at ������Ƶ and Chautauqua Visual Arts provided us with a wonderful and interactive program that was community-engaging and filled with creative energy. Our studios were located at the ‘Art Quad’ and we had 24/7 access to facilities such as a clay studio, woodshop, printmaking studio, media lab, fiber arts studio, screen printing room, and additional flex spaces to utilize for large-scale installations pop-up shows or any of the other many things we could’ve imagined.

Chautauqua Visual Arts (CVA) hosted a wide series of artist talks, studio visits, and courses that we were able to take part in. The courses were taught by amazing faculty and professional artists (Sachiko Akiyama, Alex Callendar, Susan Lichtman, Elizabeth Mooney, Stephanie Pierce, Kevin Umana, Cosmo Whyte). In addition, the CVA organized group field trips to plein air locations such as Panama Rocks and museum trips to the AKG Museum and Burchfield Museum in Buffalo. Outside of this, our cohort organized our own unique outings to places such as Barcelona Beach on Lake Erie, hikes at Chautauqua Gorge, and Niagara Falls.

Our day-to-day varied as it was very much a ‘choose your own path’ layout. We could attend morning plein air classes led by Susan Lichtman, take a walk around Chautauqua to a lecture at the Hall of Philosophy, have a studio visit after lunch, sit in on an artist talk at the Hultquist Center, stop by one of the gallery openings, and even catch one of the many events at night being held at the Amphitheatre from the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the Beach Boys, or a performance by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, just to name a few.

Going into my residency at Chautauqua I didn’t have a set plan of what I wanted to create/make. Having just completed my thesis at ������Ƶ, I took a range of materials in addition to a tool that helped guide my most recent body of work—my microscope. I have been looking at my childhood photos on 35mm film under the microscope and many other pictures within the past year. During my time at Chautauqua, I continued that investigation but also started to dive back into drawing and painting from memory—and creating collages with cardboard. The residency allowed for another period of play and exploration in my work. Offering an amazing opportunity to reflect on my final year at Ringling, my work, and where my art might be headed next.”

*Read more about Williamson’s residency in their . 

Leyla Sefket

New York Academy of Art Summer Undergraduate Residency Program

“In my four weeks at the New York Academy of Art (NYAA) Summer Undergraduate Residency Program, I was able to experience the thrill of living in Manhattan as an artist. For the past month, five days a week, I have taken figure-based classes, including drawing, painting, and sculpture, along with theory and cultural Studies. I have also been able to work in my own studio space alongside other young artists. When I’m not in class or working in my studio, I have been exploring the city, visiting museums and galleries, and gaining inspiration for my own work along the way. This program has allowed me to strengthen my skills and prepare me for entering my final year at ������Ƶ!”

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The Film Production crew at the school produced a short documentary about Gómez and his experiences at the residency. In his short time there, he had a major positive impact on the school. The Head of Fine Art Declan Bartlett said, “Melvin has brought so much life experience to the School and shared his passion, skills, and artistic insights with the students. He has encouraged them to believe in their ideas and communication regardless of their current skill set and to courageously explore colour and form, light and tone, content and meaning. He has been inspirational to the Fine Art team and the whole School community, given his back story of resilience, perseverance, and passion for life.”   

While studying in the Fine Arts department at ������Ƶ, Gómez was a Davis Scholar and was chosen for the Trustee Scholar Award 2021-2022. In his first year at Ringling, he pitched a proposal for the Davis Projects of Peace, an initiative created by Kathryn W. Davis, mother of Shelby Davis who established the Davis Scholarship Program. 

For her 100th birthday, the maternal Davis celebrated by committing $1 million to one hundred Projects for Peace. Gómez’s proposal was selected, and he became part of a small group of students who traveled to his home country, El Salvador, where they established youth art programs at two schools, one in an urban region and another in a rural area. Their project was called Sculpting for Peace and included pottery studios, clay workshops, and a painting workshop. 

The group wanted to bring art to a region devastated by post-civil war violence, and particularly, gang violence, in hopes that art could give students a voice, a platform, and a sense of community, and would deter them from seeking those things in a gang. Gómez is especially connected to the cause, as he was a victim of gang violence. He was shot five times during an incident that left three friends dead and Gómez in a wheelchair. 

That initial project has since transformed into a school in Huizucar, El Salvador, that opened its doors in 2017. The Brushstroke of Hope is a non-profit art school for impoverished youth that offers free art education and materials. The school is funded in part by sales of Gómez’s art work and from community contributions. 

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covers Shaltout’s creative inspiration from her childhood family dynamics and their effects on her perception of femininity to her favorite artists and her pension for the absurd. 

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