Colombian Brand, Agua Bendita, Finds Its Place in Orlando
July 13, 2026
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, Maria Theresa. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
Orlando Museum of Art Summer Events and Exhibitions
By Arsheeya Garg
Orlando Museum of Art is making a strong case for a cooler kind of summer outing. Its 12th annual Florida Prize in Contemporary Art anchors the season, but the museum is also offering a rotating slate of exhibitions that give locals and visitors multiple reasons to step inside, slow down and spend an afternoon with visual art.
The Florida Prize, on view from May 30th through August 23rd, is the museum’s signature contemporary survey of artists working across Florida. This year’s exhibition is the largest in the prize’s history, bringing together 12 artists, including two duos, across painting, photography, sculpture, weaving, performance and immersive installation.
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, Francisco Masó. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
“This year we selected the largest group in the Prize’s history, twelve artists, including two duos,” Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon, Chief Curator at the OMA, said. “The breadth stretched us in the best possible way.”
What makes this exhibition feel like an experience is how distinctly each artist has been given a room of their own.
“The curatorial team thinks of the layout as a rhythm,” Claeysen-Gleyzon said. “The scale and intensity of these environments mean that pacing matters; a visitor should be able to move from a loud, theatrical space into one that invites stillness and reflection. That contrast is deliberate.”
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, Rose Marie Cromwell. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
The 2026 Florida prize lineup reflects the diversity of the artists. In one gallery, Francisco Masó’s installation transforms spectacle into a meditation on surveillance and resistance; elsewhere, works by Jessy Nite, Charo Oquet, Rose Marie Cromwell and others explore coded meaning, transformation and the body’s relationship to memory according to Claeysen-Gleyzon.
“From literal, text-based work to coded or unspoken languages, spiritual practices, and the passing of knowledge across generations, through mythologies and literature, this year’s artists share an impulse to build a vocabulary and to translate deeply personal experience into forms others can recognize,” Claeysen-Gleyzon said. “That became one of our organizing thoughts. Each artist speaks a distinct visual language, yet placed together, they reveal how much of contemporary life is shaped by what is said, what is withheld, and what is encoded just beneath the surface, and very often within the body.”
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, Charo Oquet. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
OMA is also using the summer to keep the rest of its galleries active. Its summer ongoing exhibition, Echoes of the Ancient Contemporary Voices, presents a rotating contemporary artwork alongside the museum’s collection, with new artists introduced each month. The museum says the project is designed to create fresh dialogue and new perspectives in the art of the region.
OMA’s recent exhibitions include Dennis Scholl: A Day of Four Sunsets, which ran through June 14, and This is not a Toy, which ran through April 27, 2026. Alongside this is their upcoming seasonal exhibition, Hello Sophie!: The Artwork of Sophie Blackall coming Fall 2026. For visitors who like their cultural calendar with a longer horizon, the museum’s broader exhibition roster adds more depth to their season.
“Above all, I hope visitors feel that art is for them and for everyone,” Claeysen-Gleyzon told Orlando Life. “I also hope first-time visitors leave with a sense of how vital and varied the art being made in Florida really is, and perhaps a little surprised by it.”
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, Jason Hackenwerth. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
In a city built around entertainment, OMA is offering a different kind of summer plan: one that rewards curiosity, invites repeat visits and makes room for art that is alive, local and worth lingering over.
“If visitors leave curious, moved, and eager to keep supporting living artists, then the exhibition has done its work,” Claeysen-Gleyzon said.
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, Mette Tommerup. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, Jessy Nite. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, Ema Ri. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, Hargrave and Lynn. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
Courtesy of The Orlando Museum of Art, We Are Nice’n Easy. Photography by Zaire Aranguren, Rheo Creative.
