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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT DECEMBER 15, 2022
YOUROBSERVER.COM A striking portrait of Gil Waters at the Sarasota Icons exhibit.
LARGER THAN LIFE Civil Rights leaders John Rivers and Dr. Ed James.
Javi Suárez didn’t want to just sketch out Sarasota’s historic figures. He wanted to make them iconic. SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR
I
t’s a history lesson, a love letter to Sarasota and a layered statement of artistic intent. Javi Suárez grew up in this town, having moved to Sarasota from Puerto Rico as a 10-year-old, and he moved back here to pursue his career as an architect and his passion as an artist.
Now, in his first exhibit at Art Ovation, he’s making Sarasota iconic. Suárez has taken on nothing less than the history of Sarasota and the people who helped make it the place it is today, and he says it was important for him to depict not just titans that loom large in the public consciousness but also those who have been overlooked. “There’s icons within the community that everybody knows about that; we have represented the John Ringlings and Marie Selbys,” says Suárez of his series of paintings. “Then there’s other individuals that SEE ICONS, PAGE 2
Javi Suarez stands in front of his painting of his dad, Javier Suarez, as part of his Sarasota Icons exhibit at Art Ovation.
Photos by Spencer Fordin