Mixed-media artist Tasanee Durrett’s Sacred Vessels: Healing and Memory in the Black Diaspora, being held at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, will feature such works as Tethered Waters, Access to Water for Brown Bodies and Becoming Visible to Myself. Durrett’s work has been showcased in several high-profile museum exhibitions over the past year. | Courtesy Hannibal Square Heritage Center
Tasanee Durrett is having a moment. During the last year, the Orlando-based artist’s work has been featured at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York; the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry Chicago; the Mint Museum in North Carolina; and Art Basel Miami.
Locally, Durrett has been a participant in Orlando’s Bloomberg Philanthropies Art Pollination initiative and has shown her work in the Mennello Museum of American Art.
Her next gig is a solo exhibition at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, one of Crealdé School of Art’s signature cultural programs dedicated to celebrating the rich history of Winter Park’s historically African American West Side.
Sacred Vessels: Healing and Memory in the Black Diaspora—slated to run September 4 to December 13—will feature mixed-media works by Durrett that explore identity, resilience, memory and belonging.
“Central Florida has been such fertile ground for my work lately, and there’s a real hunger here for art that goes deep, that holds space for complexity and healing,” says Durrett. “Sacred Vessels feels like a natural culmination of that momentum.”
Showing at Crealdé and the Heritage Center, she adds, is meaningful because “these are spaces that genuinely honor community and legacy. I hope that my work allows people to sit with their own stories of memory, loss and resilience—and to feel seen in them.”
A transplant from Chicago, Durrett has become one of Central Florida’s most compelling contemporary artists. Her practice combines architectural precision—which stems from her education at the University of Arizona—with personal narratives of the Black experience.
In 2022, Durrett turned to painting as a medium for liberation and healing after surviving an eight-year abusive relationship. Emily Bourmas-Fry, executive director and CEO of Crealdé, found herself returning frequently to the artist’s portfolio after meeting her at last year’s Women in the Arts Expo at the Orlando Public Library.
“There’s an incredible sense of intention in everything she creates, yet the work never feels rigid,” says Bourmas-Fry. “You’re immediately captivated by the beauty of her work, but every time you come back to it, you notice something different.”
The Hannibal Square Heritage Center is located at 642 West New England Avenue, Winter Park. For more information, visit crealde.org or hannibalsquareheritagecenter.org, or call 407.539.2680.
