Current Exhibitions
Southern Watercolor Society 49th Annual Juried Exhibition
On display through April 25, 2026
Sara May Love Gallery, Sarah K. Newberry Gallery, Zoe Golloway Gallery
Come celebrate watercolor paintings from artists across the South in this year’s 49th Southern Watercolor Society Juried Exhibition. Founded in 1975, the Southern Watercolor Society formed to elevate the stature of watercolor painters and educate the public to the significance of watercolor painting as an important creative and permanent painting medium.
The 49th Southern Watercolor Society Annual Juried Exhibition is made possible by the Impact Fund and Watson Arts Fund, organized by the Southern Watercolor Society, and presented by the Florida State University College of Medicine. Additional support is provided by Proof Brewing, Inc. Gadsden Arts is sponsored in part by the Gadsden Tourist Development Council and State of Florida through the Division of Arts and Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Meet the Juror:
Iain Stewart is a Scottish-born watercolor artist and Signature Member of both the American Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society, among numerous state and international organizations. Recently inducted into the Whiskey Painters of America, Stewart has received multiple awards in international competitions, and his work is held in corporate and private collections worldwide. A sought-after instructor and juror, Stewart has been published in numerous books and periodicals and has produced five instructional DVDs. His first book, En Plein Air: Light and Color, was published in 2021. Stewart maintains a studio in Opelika, Alabama, and works internationally as an architectural illustrator. He also taught watercolor and design drawing at Auburn University, where he earned his degree in architecture. He is an International Brand Ambassador for Escoda Brushes, Daniel Smith Watercolors, and Stillman & Birn Sketchbooks.
Image: Mary Ellen McLaughlin (Savannah, GA), Echoes of the East, 2025, watercolor, 27 x 19 inches
residual heat: 2026 FSU Student Exhibition
On display through June 13, 2026
Munroe Family Community Gallery
residual heat brings together selected work from MFA, BFA, and BA students in the Florida State University Department of Art.
The works in this exhibition explore what remains after something has happened focusing on traces: marks, materials, and memories left behind by action, experience, or process. Across painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and interdisciplinary practices, the artists consider how things change over time and what continues to endure. Their work reflects on how meaning is not fixed to a single moment but can persist, shift, and accumulate. Bringing together a cross-section of emerging artists, residual heat highlights both individual perspectives and shared questions about time, transformation, and memory. The exhibition invites viewers to consider how images, objects, and ideas continue to resonate—long after their initial moment has passed.
This exhibition is curated by award-winning artist and Professor of Painting and Drawing, Carrie Ann Baade, Audrey Lendvay, BFA, and Stephanie Rowe, MFA.
Image: Keziah Navarro Vazquez, His grace is enough, 2026, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches
Gadsden Arts Artists Guild
On display through June 13, 2026
Bates Community Room and Bates Gallery
Enjoy the second Artists Guild exhibition of 2026, on view in the Gadsden Arts Center & Museum’s Bates Community Room and Bates Gallery through June 16, 2026. On display is artwork by Jan Austin-Hicken, Douglas Bondurant, Deborah Bullock, Michael Burchfield, Tony Butkowski, Kathy Cody-Guastella, Hui Chiu McClure, Kathy J. Ferrell, Robert W. Feuerstein, Ellen Fournier, Terry Francisco, Thomas Friedman, Debbie Gaedtke, Joy Green, Sal Guastella, Lucy Harris, Cathy Hathaway, John R. Isaacs, Sandra Lipner, MJ Lord, Kristin Manos, Michele Moffett, Kent Putnam, Jill Quadagno, Linda Rabon, Ann Robinson, Stephen Bennett Smit, Debra Spitler, Karen Stewart, Mary Liz Tippin-Moody, Georgia Turner, and Erika Zambello.
Image: John R. Isaacs, Curious Red Fox, 2010, acrylic, 17 x 14 inches