By: Anna Prentiss , Jamie Rager

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Florida State University’s Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA) and the Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies present a new exhibition examining the spread of sargassum seaweed in Florida and the Caribbean through the lens of art and science.

“HOMO SARGASSUM” will be on display Sept. 9 through March 8, 2025, at MoFA, with an opening reception from 6-8 p.m. Sept. 12. An opening symposium Sept. 26 and 27 will bring together artists, scientists and scholars from around the world to explore the phenomenon of sargassum in the Circum-Caribbean, and how a broad range of artists have been engaged with it in their work.

“This exhibit tells the story of ecosystems caught in peril and transformation through the lens of seaweed migration,” said Kaylee Spencer, director of MoFA. “By using the movement of sargassum as a metaphor, these artists explore how this ecological issue relates to a wide variety of social and historic issues.”

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This exhibit was conceptualized by and is hosted in partnership with the Tout-Monde Art Foundation, a charity that strives to support and connect contemporary Caribbean artists to the world through socially impactful projects dedicated to education, ecology and equal rights. It is co-curated by Vanessa Selk, executive and artistic director at TMAF and Michael D. Carrasco, associate dean for research at FSU’s College of Fine Arts.

“We are very excited to be hosting such an engaging and thought-provoking exhibit,” Spencer said. “We invite everyone from the FSU and Tallahassee communities to join us in exploring the boundaries between humans and nature within global ecological systems through art.”

Sargassum is floating seaweed that moves across the water in large masses. While this naturally-occurring aquatic plant can provide important food and shelter for marine life, factors including climate change and fertilizer runoff have led to a dramatic increase in the amount of sargassum washing up on beaches throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The excess seaweed can harm coral reefs and other marine life, and when it reaches shore, can negatively impact air and water quality in coastal communities.

“‘HOMO SARGASSUM’ is an original and important project, which will bring some of the most exciting artists and scholars from across Florida and the Caribbean to FSU and Tallahassee,” said Martin Munro, director of the Winthrop-King Institute. “With work like this, we are building bridges between colleagues and students in the sciences and those in the humanities to promote dialogue and collaboration on these important topics.”

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Guests at the exhibit will have the opportunity to explore a wide variety of artworks spread across two floors of the museum, featuring paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos and performances. During the exhibition, MoFA will also offer a variety of events and activities, such as conceptual map-making workshops, comic book workshops, artist talks, performances and more.

The project is sponsored in part by the State of Florida through the Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts.

“The exhibition is accessible to everyone in Tallahassee of all ages, and we hope the people of the city will enjoy it and be as inspired by it as we are,” Munro said.

Members of the public can register to attend the symposium by visiting “events” at WinthropKing.fsu.edu.

All associated museum programming is free and open to the public.

To plan your visit and learn more about the museum’s upcoming exhibits and events, visit MoFA.fsu.edu. Admission is free and the museum welcomes all visitors.

BY: ANNA PRENTISS , GABRIELLE SANTEIRO

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Florida State University’s Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA) presents three exhibitions touching on themes of identity, migration and media consumption.

“This season, MoFA will be providing new perspectives on a variety of subjects,” said Meredith Lynn, curator and interim director of MoFA. “We have worked with guest curators to bring in contemporary artists from across the globe who are deeply engaged with ideas our community cares about.”

Lynn said MoFA strives to respond to and provide context for conversations students and community members are having.

“We are also excited by the range of work — from films to sculpture to NFTs (non-fungible tokens) — that we will have on display this semester,” she said. “We are confident that every person who walks into the museum will connect with something.”

The museum is open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

All exhibits are free and open to the public and support MoFA’s mission to connect FSU and the broader community to the arts.

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Cut Frames, Captured Pixels: Found Footage Film & Video

Jan. 12 – March 18

Cut Frames, Captured Pixels is the museum’s first all-moving-image exhibit and will showcase found footage — a filmmaking process where previously shot footage is remixed and cut together to create a new work.

“Each work asks its audience to critically question how its source material is produced, circulated and consumed, in addition to how we, collectively, find meaning in them,” said Dave Rodriguez, curator of the exhibit and digital services librarian at FSU. “I hope that the exhibit will expose MoFA visitors to thoughtful, funny, incisive and inspiring work that they might not have experienced otherwise.”

This exhibit will display a variety of artists and be divided into three phases: “Cinematic Surfaces,” “Video and its Discontents” and “Expanding Screens.”

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Un sentimento di libertá | A Feeling of Freedom
New Italians in the Work of Luigi Christopher Veggetti Kanku

Jan. 19 – May 6

Un sentimento di libertá | A Feeling of Freedom celebrates the diversity of “new Italian” identities by displaying the expressionist art — including portraits and digital paintings — of Afro-Italian artist Luigi Christopher Veggetti Kanku.

“Historically, celebrations of Italian art have excluded Afro-Italian artists, and as a response to this, Veggetti Kanku has organized international exhibitions that display his digital artworks,” said Tenley Bick, guest curator and assistant professor of global postwar and contemporary art. “Conceived in relation to those exhibitions, the show at MoFA also includes the artist’s works on paper, some shown for the first time.”

This exhibition will showcase the importance of cultivating a sense of belonging and pride in one’s culture.

“These works shed light on the power of the visual to disrupt popular imaginaries around identity, race and place, and to create a feeling of freedom that can come with being at home in one’s own country,” Bick said. “Veggetti Kanku’s digital paintings provide an ‘Afro-Pop’ sensibility and a subversion of iconic examples of historical Italian modernist paintings.”

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Are We Free to Move About the World: The Passport in Contemporary Art

Feb. 2 – May 20

Curated by Grace Aneiza Ali, curator and assistant professor in the Departments of Art and Art History, this exhibit contends with artists’ perceptions of the passport as a response to the global migration crisis. “Are We Free to Move About the World” dives deep into the concept of the passport and how it can both enhance and restrict people’s freedom of movement.

“This gathering of global artists examines the great paradox of the passport — its ability to grant freedom of movement as well as curtail it,” Aneiza Ali said. “And it’s an invitation for all of us to ponder a world ordered by the passport and how we negotiate our place in it.”