Season is still in sizzling. Make sure to take in some shows before summer arrives.

Five compelling reasons to wander galleries, catch a performance and reconnect with Sarasota’s creative pulse.

By Su Byron
| 5:00 a.m. March 30, 2026

Artist Maria A. Guzmán Capron beside one of her large-scale textile works featured in “Maria A. Guzmán Capron: Penumbra,” on view at Sarasota Art Museum through Sept. 27.

Arts + Culture

Stitched

At Sarasota Art Museum, “Maria A. Guzmán Capron: Penumbra” unfolds as a lush solo exhibition of large-scale figurative textiles that explore how identity is stitched from ancestry, culture and lived experience. Born in Milan to Peruvian and Colombian parents and raised in Texas, the California-based artist creates plush, hand-dyed and screen-printed portraits with exaggerated hands, layered fabrics and entwined figures that draw viewers into a tactile world of connection. A suspended 15-foot soft sculpture winds through the gallery, while works like “Déjame Llevarte” and “Brisa Corriendo” hint at the many selves we carry. “Penumbra,” meaning half-shadow, becomes a metaphor for the in-between spaces where light and identity meet. April 19 through Sept. 27. Visit: SarasotaArtMuseum.org.

Moonlight, Mischief and Mixed-Up Love

Runaway lovers. Meddling fairies. A troupe of hilariously earnest actors. One enchanted forest where nothing — and no one — is quite what it seems. Spells misfire, affections tangle and identities blur as moonlight and magic turn the world deliciously upside down. The Asolo Conservatory takes on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Shakespeare’s buoyant comedy of romance, confusion and theatrical mischief. The production spins a sparkling tale of desire and transformation where love rarely follows a straight line — especially when fairies are involved. April 7-26. Visit: AsoloRep.org.

DragonBoot Quartet performs the world premiere of Roger Zare’s “Gamma” for string quartet for Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota on April 12.

Homegrown Notes, World-Class Players

A Sarasota story comes full circle when the DragonBoot Quartet (Cate Carson, violin; Katya Moeller, violin; Sydney Whipple, viola; and Lila Holyoke, cello) performs the world premiere of Roger Zare’s “Gamma” for string quartet for Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota. Zare, a Sarasota native and the organization’s first scholarship recipient in 2003, returns home in spirit through this new work, performed by four rising Juilliard musicians. The program also includes Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 33, No. 1, Jessie Montgomery’s “Voodoo Dolls” and Janácek’s “Intimate Letters.” 4 p.m. April 12, at First Presbyterian Church. Visit: ArtistSeriesConcerts.org.

Work by Art Venti is featured in “The Imagination of Art Venti” at the Arts Advocates Gallery, Saturdays April 4–May 30.

Drawn In

“The Imagination of Art Venti,” at Arts Advocates Gallery, showcases the artist’s extraordinary “pencil paintings” — monumental works built from countless delicate layers of colored pencil on paper as wide as 110 inches. Created over months, these intricate compositions blur abstraction and reality while quietly engaging environmental and social themes. Using the familiar language of landscape, Venti invites viewers into a visual dialogue where lines, shapes and color feel both recognizable and elusive. On view 2-4 p.m. Saturdays, April 4 through May 30, with opportunities to meet the artist. Visit: ArtsAdvocates.org.

Selby's Alexander Calder show, "The Nature of Movement," is on display through May 31.

Motion in Bloom

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ “Alexander Calder: The Nature of Movement” pairs the artist’s kinetic abstractions with living plant displays that float, twist and hover as if suspended in air. Works by Calder mingle with lush epiphytic orchids and bromeliads, echoing his fascination with balance, suspension and motion, while a playful nod to his early circus studies resonates with Sarasota’s Ringling legacy. Through May 31. Visit: Selby.org.

author

Su Byron

Su Byron has worked in the regional arts and cultural world for the past 25 years as a writer, an editor, and a public relations and marketing specialist. For 12 of those years, she was the co-publisher of the Sarasota Arts Review, a monthly arts and entertainment newspaper. Su is a freelance writer whose regular columns and articles appear in a host of regional and national publications.