Solana Fine Art’s exhibition Flourish will feature works by Atlanta-area artists Wyanne Thompson and Lorra Kurtz, who’ll encourage visitors to celebrate spring renewal with such paintings as Thompson’s Happiness is in the Air and Kurtz’s Vessel & Bloom. | Courtesy Solana Fine Art
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant introduced the concept of “languishing” with his popular 2021 New York Times article headlined: “There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing.” We’ve all felt it. Maybe we’re feeling it now.
Solana Fine Art in Winter Park is encouraging us to leave behind the days of languishing (failing to make progress or be successful) and embark upon a celebration of renewal, possibility and the energizing shift that accompanies spring’s arrival in its upcoming exhibition, Flourish.
Flourish will feature work by Atlanta-area artists Wyanne Thompson and Lorra Kurtz, with whom Solana’s founder and gallerist Bob Jimenez has a longstanding relationship. Jimenez spent 23 years in Atlanta, where he was a senior executive with Cox Enterprises, before returning home to Central Florida and opening his gallery in 2024.
The exhibition will run March 17 through April 24, and the artists will attend an opening reception on Tuesday, March 20, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
“I think [Thompson and Kurtz’s] work really dialogues beautifully. I describe it as energy versus atmosphere,” says Jimenez. “Even though their styles are so different, there are shared themes between them, such as transformation as a natural process of life and the notion that beautiful things can come out of change—even the most terrible of changes in one’s life.”
A contemporary abstract painter known for large-scale works created on raw canvas, Thompson considers painting to be her most direct and fluent language after her ability to speak and swallow was permanently altered due to extensive surgery to treat oral cancer in 2013.
“After all this happened to me, I really came out of my shell,” says Thompson. “And now I find the need to create happy paintings that make people feel loved. I see people who think they aren’t worthy or beautiful, and they are. I started writing what I feel and what I wanted to say to those people on canvasses: that they can face anything, too.”
Kurtz is a contemporary mixed-media artist whose use of acrylic, encaustic, collage and plaster explores the natural world and the connection between humans and the environment through themes of nature, family life cycles, hope, renewal, gratitude and home.
“Painting is like solving a complex puzzle,” she says. “There are so many moving parts to resolve, so many ideas to ponder. The exploration is endless and the completion of a painting, joyous.”
Together, Thompson and Kurtz shape an exhibition filled with visual poetry—an exploration of growth, change and the beauty of becoming with new artwork accompanied by original pieces as well as others from the personal collection of Jimenez.
“Wyanne brings boldness and movement and this color-driven emotion that is uniquely hers, while Lorra’s work brings kind of soft transitions and great spatial depth,” notes Jimenez. “As visitors are moving through, they’ll experience both the high energy and quieter reflective pieces.”
Solana Fine Art is located at 1104 Solana Avenue, Winter Park. For more information, visit solanafineart.com or call 321.972.1774.
