Orlando Museum of Art’s annual showcase of Florida artists returns this year with an expanded footprint and a selection of creators representing the diverse tapestry of the Sunshine State.
The 12th annual Florida Prize in Contemporary Art brings a curated selection of a dozen artists (including two pairs of artists working as a team) mostly based in South Florida who explore cultural heritage, language, relationships and the natural world through their work.
Francisco Masó, a Cuban-American artist working in Miami, was named as the winner of the $20,000 Florida Prize for “The Coronation of Gladiolus,” an immersive installation that examines state control, surveillance and oppression. The winning artist was chosen by juror Jade Powers, The Hugh Kaul Curator of Contemporary Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art.
The $5,000 People’s Choice Award winner will be unveiled during the exhibition’s closing ceremony on Aug. 20, after visitors have had a chance to vote.
This year’s show features several firsts. In addition to the two teams of artists participating in this year’s exhibition, the show is expanding physically into the museum’s foyer with a large balloon sculpture by St. Petersburg-based artist Jason Hackenwerth. In addition, one sculptural work by Jessy Nite will be displayed outside the museum, another first for the Florida Prize show.
The works differ in their subject matter, the feelings they evoke and the personal stories of each artist that inspired the creations. The common thread is that they all envelop viewers in installations that take up a wall or an entire gallery space.
Visitors can see three towering pyramids of paintings crafted by Mette Tommerup, a Miami-based artist originally from Denmark, in the 2026 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art on May 26, 2026. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)
Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon, OMA’s chief curator, said that this year’s artworks are less directly inspired by Florida in comparison to previous exhibitions. Still, the artists in the show draw inspiration from their own histories and the traditions that meld together in the Sunshine State.
“None of them create in a vacuum. They all create in Florida,” Claeysen-Gleyzon said, with associate curator Katherine Page adding: “These works represent the cultural landscape instead.”
Upon entering the main gallery space, viewers first visit an installation that sprawls across drawings on walls and into sculptures created by Charo Oquet, a multidisciplinary Afro-Caribbean artist. Her works convey cultural heritage, joy and binding energies through sculptures and found objects. A large fabric sculpture in the center of the room ties the space together.
Painter Ema Ri creates gestural works that invoke nature and fleeting moments in the 2026 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art on May 26, 2026. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)
One gallery over, Francisco Masó‘s work explores systems of control and protest through patterns worn by secret police and symbolism used by the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), a Cuban opposition movement.
In the space behind Oquet’s installation, visitors can see three towering pyramids of paintings crafted by Mette Tommerup, a Miami-based artist originally from Denmark. The painter approaches her art in collaboration with nature, literally dragging canvases on the sand at low tide or across rocks. The symbolism and elemental forces behind the paintings were influenced by her Scandinavian heritage and by Freya, the Nordic goddess of love and war.
A set of paintings on the adjacent wall also draws inspiration from the natural world. Ema Ri crafts ephemeral, poetic paintings that suggest movement and fleeting, serene moments in nature. Ri’s fingerprints and scratches can be seen on each canvas; an imprint of the artist’s body is found on a bed of dried flowers in the next room.
Photographer Rose Marie Cromwell uses photographs to share her lineage in the 2026 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art on May 26, 2026. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)
Black-and-white photography by Rose Marie Cromwell takes the stage in an installation that includes video, a photograph printed on silk and a collage of printed photographs physically stitched together. The frames capture moments in time and tell a story of Cromwell’s lineage through photos of her mother and daughter.
An installation created by Meredith Laura Lynn and Katie Hargrave involves video screens and leafy collages that examine our relationship to the natural environment and public lands. The multimedia artworks aim to help viewers engage in their own thinking and conversations about nature.
Hackenwerth’s paintings create a floor-to-ceiling spectacle on the opposing wall, bringing together letters, shapes and hands in colorful paintings that contemplate transformation, decay and mortality. One of the recurring elements is layered paint “skins” created with thick acrylic paint.
St. Petersburg-based artist Jason Hackenwerth has colorful canvases with shapes, letters and hands in the 2026 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art on May 26, 2026. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)
“Beneath Your Light My Paradise” emerges on the wall of the next gallery in a play of light and shadow constructed by Nite, who also uses paracord (nylon rope) and fiber art to contemplate survival, resilience and preservation. Another paracord sculpture reads “Retreat” when viewed at the correct angle.
On painted tarps, Austrian-born artist Maria Theresa Barbist works through five stages of healing from trauma: identify, confront, release, change and growth. A video screen incorporates the artist’s movement into the exhibition.
We Are Nice’n Easy, a collaborative duo featuring artists Allison Matherly and Jeffrey Noble working as a husband-and-wife team, has a pink-hued installation in the 2026 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art on May 26, 2026. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel)
The final gallery contains soap figures of a man and a woman made by We Are Nice’n Easy, a collaborative duo featuring artists Allison Matherly and Jeffrey Noble working as a husband-and-wife team. The pink-hued scene contemplates the “rose-colored” glasses that can shift the perspective of a relationship, and the delicate balance between individuality and connection.
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If you go
The 2026 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art opens with an exhibition preview party from 6-9 p.m. May 29 at 2416 N. Mills Ave. in Orlando. Tickets for the event, which include food, are $50 before fees. The exhibition is open through Aug. 23. The museum is open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and from noon-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Tickets are $20 for adults, $12 for seniors ages 60 and older and $8 for children ages 6-17. Free admission is available for active-duty military, veterans and first responders. More information: omart.org