State of the Arts gallery co-founder has a gallery of his own

Many people are familiar with the State of the Arts gallery in Sarasota, founded by artist David Steiner and his ex-wife, Tre Michel, in 2004. As galleries come and go downtown amid soaring rents, construction and seasonal slumps, State of the Arts is a survivor. So is Steiner, but his name isn’t as well known.

Steiner’s paintings still hang in State of the Arts at 1525 State St., along with the works of many other artists, including Barbara Banks, Mitchell Epstein, Nancy Guth, Tim Jaeger, Amy Odekirk and Brandon Thrift, to name just a few.

You’ll also find Steiner’s art at his eponymous gallery at 327 Central Ave. It first opened in April 2024 as Divergent Image Gallery across from the Arcos Apartments in the Rosemary District.

But on a recent day, no one other than Steiner and an assistant who handles social media was in the well- appointed space filled with his massive paintings and his smaller color photographs. After Steiner’s marriage ended, he dabbled in photography before returning to painting in full force last year.

A window washer came in and grabbed some candy from the reception station while Steiner entertained a visitor reeled in via email by his girlfriend, Maria Wynne. A former Microsoft and Xerox executive from Chicago, Wynne has taken up the arts in Sarasota, promoting Steiner’s career and recently joining the board of The Hermitage Artist Retreat.

“The reach of Maria’s network is so great that she makes Chicago seem like a small town,” Steiner says.

Steiner is also a connector. “His generosity, curiosity and prolific practice have left a lasting impression on the many artists and creatives he has connected with throughout Sarasota,” says Jaeger, chief curator of Ringling College of Art and Design, when we asked him about Steiner.

Still, it doesn’t take long to see why Steiner needs a rainmaker. He’s not a self-promoter in the tradition of Andy Warhol and other art impresarios. When Steiner talks about his hero, Syd Solomon, he speaks highly of Solomon’s wife, Annie. A doyenne of the Sarasota Art Colony, Annie Solomon was known for her warmth, hospitality and parties. She died at age 102 in 2022. 

“All that socializing that Annie did, all those parties, they really helped Syd’s career,” Steiner notes. He says his ambition is to have his art as recognizable as Syd Solomon’s.

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But Steiner lives in an era where art has become another asset class, along with stocks, bonds, real estate, gold and crypto. Speculative cycles help fuel the bidding at the auctions held by Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Art fairs like Art Basel and its offshoots in Miami Beach and elsewhere are driven by spectacle and social media.

White middle-aged artists such as Steiner weren’t canceled by Black Lives Matter or DEI initiatives. But they’re not as trendy as artists who have been historically ignored. Female, Black, indigenous, gay, Latino, foreign and self-taught artists are receiving more attention than ever before. Some would say: It’s about time.

Where does that leave Steiner? On a sweltering Friday in August, a little like the proverbial Maytag repair man, who didn’t have enough work to keep him busy. The rainy season has forced Steiner to literally pack up the tent that serves as his backyard studio. Heat and the chance of a sudden downfall also puts a damper on foot traffic near Steiner’s gallery.

When a torrential thunderstorm arrives, it’s an excuse to turn an interview into a bull session about the state of the arts in Sarasota.

When a reporter observes that Sarasota is a powerhouse in the performing arts while St. Petersburg is stronger in visual arts, Steiner dismisses the notion. “We’ve got The Ringling Museum here, the contemporary Sarasota Art Museum, and Tre and I were really successful with State of the Arts,” he says.

According to Steiner, construction of towering luxury condos is disrupting the downtown gallery scene along South Palm Avenue and nearby streets. “When buildings like the Waldorf-Astoria are finished, the storefront retail is going to be Louis Vuitton and Prada, not art galleries,” he says. “The rents are going to be too high for local businesses.”

Pedestrian traffic is increasing in the Rosemary District as condos go up there, but 90-degree temperatures aren’t conducive to window shopping and gallery hopping. While the performing arts that aren't dark sell out during Sarasota’s steamy summers, businesses dependent on sidewalk traffic like restaurants, retail and art galleries struggle.

Nevertheless, Steiner has managed to find some high-profile collectors. According to Steiner, one of his paintings is owned by Katherine and Frank Martucci. 

They are among the collectors in Southwest Florida who have lent their art to the Sarasota Art Museum’s ongoing exhibition, “Something Borrowed, Something New.”

“If I called Frank Martucci, he’d call me back,” Steiner says. We’ll take his word for it.

An art fair at the Sarasota Polo Club?

Most of the colorful, abstract paintings of Steiner’s for sale at his gallery range between $10,000 and $15,000. He muses that some of the area’s newcomers buy $5 million homes and new Ferraris but will balk at spending $10,000 on a painting. It’s their decorators who teach them about the value of art.

“Decorators are essential for artists to get their works sold in Sarasota,” Steiner says.

Of course, many artists have harnessed the internet to sell their works, but Steiner only displays paintings on his website. He doesn’t use an e-commerce platform such as Shopify that would allow you to buy his art online. “I think collectors still want to meet the artist face to face,” he says. “That’s why attending art shows is essential.”

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The monsoon-induced brainstorming session continues even as the rain becomes so heavy that it’s nearly impossible to be heard without yelling. Hey, how about an art fair at the Sarasota Polo Club in Lakewood Ranch? (We’re not sure who gets credit for that idea.)

“Someone should organize that,” Steiner says. Of course, there is no shortage of art fairs at places like St. Armands Circle, Five Points Park and Phillippi Estate Park. Steiner is envisioning something more upscale, along the lines of the annual Hamptons Fine Arts Fair in Southampton, New York, another polo hotspot.

That show was held in July and Steiner was there. The rates he was quoted to transport his large-scale works (typically 60 inches by 80 inches) to the Hamptons were so high that Steiner rented a van and drove up there himself. That kind of roll-up-your-sleeves approach is evident in his sideline framing business and the fact that Steiner likes to stretch his canvases himself.

In between the raindrops, Steiner has been painting up a storm to prepare for a show at Art Ovation hotel downtown in 2027.

Although most of Steiner’s work is Abstract Expressionism, he’s been painting colorful female figures in what he calls the “Doyenne” series. Some of these are surrounded by white space, a compositional pattern that attracted the eye of Art Ovation curator Robyn Holl when she dropped by for a recent opening at Steiner's gallery.

“Doyenne” is one of those words that gets thrown around in a dismissive manner. But the feminine of “doyen” actually means a woman who is respected in her field.

Come what may, there will always be a doyenne in Steiner’s life.