Anthony Record at MOFAC

Anthony Record

AVON PARK, Fla. – April 6, 2022 – Anthony Record recently joined South Florida State College (SFSC) as curator of the Museum of Florida Art and Culture (MOFAC).

MOFAC provides an exhibition venue for contemporary Florida regional artists and preserves Florida’s history and heritage through art. The Museum also serves as a repository for the historical artifacts unearthed by members of the Kissimmee Valley Archaeological and Historical Conservancy.

Prior to joining MOFAC, Record was studio programs coordinator at the Tampa Museum of Art from 2018-2022. At the Tampa Museum of Art, he developed and taught a wide range of art education programs for children, teens, and adults. In Tampa, he co-founded QUAID Gallery, an artist-run exhibition space, in collaboration with several other local artists. He served as director and curator at QUAID Gallery from 2014-2022, curating exhibitions of local and emerging contemporary artists. From 2009 to 2018, he taught studio art and art history at several colleges and universities, including Pasco-Hernando State College, Hillsborough Community College, and the University of South Florida.

Originally from Tampa, Record grew up in Spring Hill, Fla. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art from the University of South Florida and an M.F.A. with an emphasis in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute.

“I am incredibly excited for my new role at MOFAC,” Record said. “As a native Floridian, I’m honored by the opportunity to work with an institution and collection that has such strong ties to local artists, in a space that uniquely combines exhibitions of contemporary art with collections of ancient material culture that have been excavated locally. I look forward to collaborating with collectors and artists living and working in Florida, continuing my work of building connections between different artistic communities in the region, and organizing exhibitions that show the wildly diverse perspectives and approaches of our artists in Florida for the benefit of our students and audiences within Highlands County and throughout the state.”

Cindy Garren, director of cultural programs at SFSC, said, “Not only is Anthony an educator and mentor having taught at several state colleges, but he is an accomplished artist with a strong artistic vision. I am confident that with his leadership, MOFAC will enhance its reputation as the leading museum in Highlands County and beyond.”

As an artist, Record’s paintings have been exhibited internationally in New York, Miami, Vancouver, Kanazawa (Japan), and elsewhere. Collections of his drawings have been published by various publishing houses throughout Europe.

“I’ve considered myself a serious painter for many years, so my work has evolved pretty radically over time,” Record said. “Typically, what I do is very fast, spontaneous, abstract painting with brush and ink on paper, and I use the materials of traditional Chinese landscape painting. My abstract style has been heavily informed by the Florida landscape, but by a specific aspect — driving down the highway, those tall walls of pine forests on the sides of the highways that are covered with kudzu. They create shadowy, ambiguous, and otherworldly forms. Those images got me into Chinese traditional landscape painting from the Song and Yuan dynasties, because the way they painted mountains in this abstract manner is similar to the ambiguous forms that the kudzu makes.”

“In my art, I always want things to be on the edge of recognition, meaning that when you first encounter the painting, you don’t know if you’re supposed to recognize images in it. Your initial reaction is an uncertainty — whether or not you’re supposed to recognize things. I like that tension. That’s my painting practice in a nutshell.”

MOFAC is located adjacent to the Alan Jay Wildstein Center for the Performing Arts at SFSC at 600 W. College Dr. in Avon Park. The Museum is open to the public Wednesday through Friday, 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. or by appointment for group tours. Patrons of the Wildstein Center may visit the museum one hour prior to matinee and evening performances. For more information about MOFAC and its programs or to request a museum tour, contact Record at 863-784-7240 or email Anthony.Record@southflorida.edu.