FLORIDA'S VISUAL ARTIST

Augusta Savage was an American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a teacher whose studio was important to the careers of a generation of artists who would become nationally known. She worked for equal rights for African Americans in the arts.

Born: February 29, 1892, Green Cove Springs, FL  Died: March 1962 (age 70 years), New York, NY Periods: Harlem Renaissance, Realism

 George Gadson (born August 10, 1953) in  Fort Meade, Florida  is an American artist, sculptor, painter, and photographer based in South Florida. His sculptures are displayed as public artwork in a variety of locations throughout Florida, including the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Memorial University in Miami, and the Broward County School Board building. In the 1990s, he was commissioned to create two limited-edition sculptures (The Kicker and The Quarterback) for two Florida-based Super Bowls. He was also commissioned to design an ornament for the White House Christmas tree in 2008 and a sculpture for NFL linebacker Ray Lewis in 2018.

 Harold Newton was an American landscape artist. He was a founding member of the Florida Highwaymen, a group of fellow African American landscape artists. Newton and the other Highwaymen were influenced by the work of Florida painter A.E. Backus. Newton depicted Florida’s coastlines and wetlands. 

 Purvis Young was an American artist of Bahamian descent. Young's work is celebrated at the museum and institutional level while also finding a home in many private collections as well, with a following that included Brice Marden, Jane Fonda, Damon Wayans, Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and others. Born: February 4, 1943, Miami, FL Died: April 20, 2010 (age 67 years), Miami, FL

 As a visual artist she works across several disciplines--painting, photography, mixed media, fashion, and the culinary arts, to name a few. She received her formative visual arts education at the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida, and continued her arts education as an Art History major at the University of Miami. In 2015, she has had the pleasure of exhibiting her work at the Armory Art Center Lake Worth Annex and at the 2015 Biennial, a juried show at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. In 2017, she had her first solo show at ArtServe in Ft. Lauderdale and in 2018 participated in live painting at the W Fort Lauderdale. .

 Alfred Warner Hair, also Freddy Hair, was an American painter from Fort Pierce, Florida who, along with Harold Newton, was instrumental in founding the Florida Highwaymen artist movement. 

 Miami born, Humes comes from a rich family heritage of the Grand Turks, Exuma, and the Eleuthera Islands of the Bahamas; a nationally acclaimed painter, print-maker, draftsman, muralist and educator, Charles E. Humes, Jr. has been a professional fine Artist for over forty years. Influenced as a youth by the Civil Rights Movements of the 70’s and 80’s in which social perception and status was based on the color of one’s skin or the place one calls home, Humes early expressions found a voice championing the plight of the homeless, urban conditions and stereotypes predicated on socio political, educational, economic prejudices and bigotry. 

 Erin Kendrick is a versatile visual artist, designer, and arts educator based in Jacksonville, Florida. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from Florida State University (1999) and an MFA in Drawing and Painting from Georgia State University (2003). Erin worked as a studio artist and arts educator in Atlanta before establishing E. Street Design Co., a creative firm specializing in graphic and event design (2009-2018). 

Stefan Smith is a South Florida muralist & artist specializing in public art, portraiture, immersive experiences, and creative directing. His work focuses on artistically exploring the relationships between people of color, fauna, and abstraction in cultural America and the expression of black identity. "I aim to create energy where conversations and perspective meet."

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Through experimenting in visual art, oils, acrylics, laser cutting and 3D interactive technologies, his work is continually evolving.

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