The entrance of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens highlights two new exhibits. | Michelle Corum, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 24, 2025 at 4:00 pm
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The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Riverside opened two visual art exhibitions Friday with landscapes as sites of memory and meaning.
One exhibit is of a celebrated American artist of the 20th century. Andrew Wyeth at Kuerner Farm: The Eye of the Earth features more than 40 paintings and watercolors. The scenes captivated Wyeth from childhood when he visited the farm of German immigrants near his Pennsylvania home.
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The works are from Andrew and Betsy Wyeth’s private collection, including some that have never been on public display.
Wyeth’s fondness towards Kuerner Farm served as constant inspiration over his long, productive career. Wyeth produced a remarkable array of work, depicting one of the most prevailing connections in American art — the powerful connection between artist and place.
He often spoke about the inspiration derived from walking and sketching the farm including “the marvelous amber color of the rich landscape and the lucid pond looking almost like the eye of the earth reflecting everything in creation.”
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Calida Rawles
The other exhibit at the Cummer is Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides. Wayne and Dolores Barr Weaver, chief curator Holly Keris says Rawles’ paintings explore the displacement, resilience and healing among people in the community of Overtown, a neighborhood in Miami.
Keris explained, “It had once been an incredibly vibrant Black community that was severely impacted by the creation of the federal and state highway system. Literally, you know, chopped into bits.”
Keris said Calida built up a trusting relationship with people who were either from Overtown, still lived there or had family connections to Overtown and depicted them in the different bodies of water.
Some of them are the bright blue chlorinated waters of swimming pools, and some are the murkier, green waters of the Intracoastal or the Atlantic Ocean. Keris said it speaks to the trauma and the rebirth of that community and is sadly a very American story.
Cummermuseum.org has a schedule of talks and lectures about the artists and exhibits.
Self-guided explorations and family-friendly activities pertaining to both exhibits are planned for the opening weekend: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Victoria Wyeth, a writer, teacher and only grandchild of Andrew Wyeth, will speak in the afternoon and evening Nov. 5 at the museum to celebrate Andrew Wyeth at Kuerner Farm: The Eye of the Earth. She will give insights into the legendary artist’s world through personal stories, memories and research.
The Wyeth exhibit runs through Feb. 15. The Rawles exhibit runs through March 1.
