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Public Art Search

Art in our plazas and public buildings

Public Art Search

Art in our plazas and public buildings

Find Art All Around Orange County Florida
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Featured Work

Folks in the Hood (Neighborhood)

 - Joe Sam
Painting (EXTERIOR)


James Smith Neighborhood Center

About the Artwork

This series of paintings on cut metal gives a tribal feel to the organic shapes forming a persons torso, arms and head, etc. The series reflects people, especially children in their community, with lots of humor and color. The artist has done sculptures like these all over the country and in many very urban communities. Art pins made from his sculptures have been in strong demand.

About the Artist

Joe Sam
was born and raised in Harlem, New York City. He vividly remembers looking at colors and textures and spent a lot of time looking at hues of peeling paint. It was that old lead-based paint that peeled periodically, especially when the ceiling leaked. He says, “There were always these incredible designs on our walls.” Joe Sam is a mixed media artist. Whenever possible he uses materials in the state in which they were found. Whatever the media, the surface of his work is textured or shaped. His work reflects the fact that he’s a Black artist. Colors, patterns, and designs are multi-faceted and combine many parallel elements in a single piece of work analogous to the way African-derived music combines parallel rhythmic and melodic elements. The content of Sam’s work reflects issues and ideas concerning people of color.



Did you know?

Ed Carpenter's "Tower of Light" in front of City Hall is used as an outstanding example of modern glass art by some art professors.

Discover Art in Central Florida!

For those who have eyes to see, there are hundreds of works of art around them. This web site provides some information on many of those works of art that can be regularly viewed in Orange County by any member of the public without an admission fee. They are outside in public view, or located in an interior area that is normally open to the public.

Look around this web site and find something that interests you. Then go see it in person. The information you find here will add to the pleasure of exploring public art in Central Florida.

If, in your travels around Orange County, you come across some public art that is not listed here, please let us know so we can add it. If you are aware of additional information about art or artist that is included here, again, please let us know. Together we can make this an incredible resource for people seeking to spice up their life through exploring art.