Permanent Collection

Purvis Young was born in Miami’s Liberty City in 1943.  He was the epitome of the statement “Art isn’t about survival, it’s about transcendence.” He became an artist of the street without any formal training, making art generated from obsession and desperation. His first major work was a series of hundreds of painted panels attached to the walls of dilapidated buildings in Overtown, called “Goodbread Alley,” which provided Young with tremendous visibility and media attention. Within two years, he was given a show at what was then the Museum of Modern Art in Miami. As a result, galleries and collectors began to acquire his work. In all his work, Young points to the consequences of racism, to the plight of the underprivileged, to years of neglect, and to the cosmos of despair. 

In 2010, the Rubell Family Collection (Miami, FL) made a gift of thirty-one Purvis Young mixed media paintings to FGCU Art Galleries. The Rubell Family Collection Museum is one of the leading collections of contemporary art in the world.  The collection features rotating exhibitions of work by prominent artists.

The ASG Technologies Collection represents over eighty works of art. This gift compliments FGCU Art Galleries’ growing collection of internationally recognized contemporary artists. Joseph Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, John Buck and Judith Murray are a few of the artists represented in the gift. The works are diverse in the mediums represented including painting, printmaking, ceramics, mixed media sculpture and fiber arts.

  The works of art are of particular use to the students of FGCU in their studio research and understanding of art and visual culture.
 ASG Technologies (Naples, FL)  is a global software products provider enabling technology solutions from legacy to leading edge environments in today’s enterprise.

This portfolio of  three works by Warrington Colescott, along with "Ten Artists: Ten Years" published by the University Wisconsin Milwaukee, are gifted to the FGCU Art Galleries from Rona Steingart. This gift of prints compliment the vitreograph prints from Littleton Studios by showing some different printing techniques. Lithographs, woodcuts, serigraphs, collagraphs, intaglios and photographs are all here inviting the viewer to examine how these unique processes contribute to an artist’s vision.

“This collection of Haitian paintings began by accident rather than by design, the first pieces from a gallery in Charleston, South Carolina. We were attracted to the Saint-Soleil style, and then gradually over twenty five years, we both added paintings and sold a number as well. With each piece we became more educated on the artists, all of whom are well recognized. Included in museum collections and private collections, recounted in books and publications, these artists continue to inspire study and enthusiasm. The work strongly reflects these artists’ passions to create, to thrive and express a view of the world where, as Selden Rodman aptly expresses, ‘Art is Joy’.”~ Richard Stephen and Ingela van Essen Conley 

The paintings in this collection offer an introduction to some late 20th century art styles from Haiti. The Saint-Soleil art movement started in the 1970s and is one of the more well known, represented here through images of Loa, which are emanations of a supreme being, as well as evolved spirits of the dead. The paintings by Levoy Exil and Prosper Pierre Louis are examples of artists depicting Loa. Two paintings by Etienne Chavannes and Laurent Casimir are market scenes. These paintings, along with Louisiane Saint Fleurant’s and Gerard Fortune’s depiction of women, reveal additional genres coming out of Haiti. 

Each year FGCU Art Galleries curates new work from regional and national artists. As an educational institution, the mission of the gallery involves encouraging artists to take risks. The hope is that out of this partnership between the artist and curator comes some interesting new projects from artists. The works in this collection represent the generous gifts from the artists who have exhibited with FGCU Art Galleries.