Locals and visitors interested in the work of historic and contemporary Florida Keys folk artists have one week left to catch Key West Art & Historical Society’s “Islands, Imagination and Instance: Florida Keys Folk Art” exhibit in the Bryan Gallery at the Custom House Museum, 281 Front Street. There they can discover how Stanley Papio, Makiki, Mario Sanchez, Ronny Bailey, Andy Thurber, Jack Baron, Papito Suarez, and others celebrated and expressed their cultural identity through community aesthetics, and view the paintings, sculptures, and wood carvings that reveal how the flora and fauna (islands), the originality (imagination), and atmosphere (instance) of the Florida Keys have shaped them artistically.

“Naïve art, or outsider art, gives visitors so much insight into the community,” says Society Curator Cori Convertito, Ph.D. “These are individuals that don’t necessarily create art for financial gains, they do it because their artwork allows them to discover their true being.”

“Islands, Imagination and Instance: Florida Keys Folk Art” closes Sunday, January 6, 2019.  For more information, call Cori Convertito, Ph.D., at 305-295-6616 x 112 or visit kwahs.org. Your Museums.  Your Community.  It Takes an Island.