New Wave Art Wknd brought its Cultural Symposia to Palm Beach’s spring calendar with artists, curators, collectors, and cultural leaders gathering for a host of activities that fund a residency program for underrepresented artists while spotlighting our community’s vital contemporary art scene. From March 6-8, participants attended exhibitions, curated gallery visits, panel discussions, private collection tours, and social gatherings meant to unite, inspire and foster meaningful dialogue across disciplines and communities through its partnerships with leading cultural institutions and private collections, including GAVLAK, The Bunker Artspace, Norton Museum of Art, and the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, among others.
Building on its partnership with Dreyfoos School of the Arts, funds were also raised for an inaugural New Wave Dreyfoos Student Residency which will enable a graduating senior to receive a $5,000 scholarship and summer studio residency this year.
Participants included Audrey and James Foster, Sherry Chris, Maynard Monrow, Laura Dvorkin, Kyle DeWoody, Ann Fisher, Jennifer Fischer, Eric Shiner, Cathy Busch, Mickey Beyer, Alexandra Vargas, Gopal Rajegowda, Kelly Bensimon, Nicolas von Lehndorff, TJ Wilcox, Sarah Gavlak, Barry Blumberg, artists Jose Alvarez, Naomi Fisher, Ann Lewis, Ana Maria Velasco, Asser Saint-Val, Nico Kos, Jennifer Herman-Feldman and David Feldman, Terri Kahan, Kristin Hjellegjerde, Eric Firestone, Eleanor Acquavella, Susana Gil, Pam and Duke Reyes, and Robert Stilin.
The weekend opened on Friday with a special Artist Talk by Spring 2026 Artist-in-Residence Ann Lewis. During her six-week residency, Lewis worked in a wood shop producing her installation Ease, which will be erected in West Palm Beach as an installation and site of social practice programs. Blending sensory experience with trauma-informed design principles, Ease will invite participants to pause, reflect, and reset within a restorative environment designed to foster well-being and communal healing.
Acquavella Galleries presented a guided tour of Soft Reins, a group exhibition guest-curated by artist Tomokazu Matsuyama that explores the enduring symbolism of the horse across cultures and art history.
The newly opened Eric Firestone Gallery in West Palm Beach, presented artist Huê Thi Hoffmaster for an intimate walkthrough of Cross Generational, offering insight into his practice and the exhibition’s dialogue between artists working across different eras of contemporary abstraction.
Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery hosted a conversation between art writer Nico Kos and artist Aigana Gali, whose practices span contemplative figurative painting and luminous, cosmologically inspired abstraction, reflecting the gallery’s international program and commitment to presenting globally resonant contemporary voices.
GAVLAK celebrated its 20th anniversary with a survey exhibition co-curated by founder Sarah Gavlak and artist T.J. Wilcox, who led patrons through the presentation while reflecting on two decades of the gallery’s role in shaping the contemporary art landscape in Palm Beach and beyond.
Other highlights included a private collection visit and cocktail reception at the Palm Beach home of collectors Pam and Duke Reyes, supported by corporate sponsor Christie’s.
On Saturday morning, The Bunker Artspace in West Palm Beach, presented a panel discussion of thought leaders featuring Eric Shiner, president of Powerhouse Arts; Jennifer Herman-Feldman, founder of Long Meadow Art Residency; Jennifer Fischer, advocate for the diplomatic power of art and collaborator with the Detroit Salon; and Sarah Gavlak, founder of New Wave and GAVLAK Gallery, who explored “Alternative Models of Arts Patronage.”
The morning concluded with an intimate curatorial walkthrough led by Bunker Artspace curators Laura Dvorkin and Maynard Monrow. The Bunker Artspace presents annual exhibitions from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection. This year’s installation included Beyond the Rainbow, a dynamic tapestry of queer history, artistic movements, and resilience; Companion Species (Witness), guest curated by artist Marie Watt, highlighting the interconnectedness of humans, other species, and the land; and Reclamation, featuring some of today’s most groundbreaking artists working in sculpture and assemblage.
Saturday evening, New Wave patrons gathered for a Dinner Soirée at the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens. Cocktail hour unfolded within the late Ann Weaver Norton’s historic home, where Picasso: Clay, Line and Legacy centered on Picasso’s transformative period at the Madoura pottery workshop in Vallauris, France, from 1946 to the early 1970s. The evening culminated with dinner and music under the stars.
On Sunday, Norton Museum of Art’s Chief Curatorial Officer J. Rachel Gustafson, led a tour of Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time, a landmark exhibition of more than 75 works from The Leiden Collection and one of the world’s foremost private collections of 17th-century Dutch art. More than a dozen extraordinary paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn and the only painting by Johannes Vermeer are showcased in the private collection.
