Morean Arts Center's Annual Members Show Turns Sweet Tooth Into Art Form

St. Petersburg's biggest members exhibition returns July 11 with nearly 150 works exploring sugar, nostalgia, and excess

ST. PETERSBURG — The Morean Arts Center kicks off one of its most anticipated annual traditions on Saturday, July 11, when "Sugar High: 2026 Members Show" opens to the public from 5-8 p.m. at the Central Avenue gallery, 719 Central Ave.

Now in its latest iteration, the members show has become a fixture of the Morean's exhibition calendar — a chance for the arts center's community of working artists to put their output in front of the public and each other. This year's theme leans into confection: nearly 150 pieces built around candy, indulgence, and the pull of childhood sweetness, with organizers promising a mix of color and playful chaos across the gallery walls.

Art Walk regulars who can't make the Saturday opening have an earlier option — an open studio preview on Friday, July 10, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Judging duties fall to a museum curator

Sara Felice, curator at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art on St. Petersburg College's Tarpon Springs campus, is serving as this year's guest juror. Felice will hand out several awards recognizing standout work in the show — a role that carries some weight in local arts circles, since the Leepa-Rattner's curatorial eye is well known across Pinellas County's gallery scene.

Last year's top honoree returns with a solo show

Neverne Covington, who took best-in-show honors at last year's members exhibition, gets her promised follow-up: a solo show titled "Into the Mystic," opening alongside "Sugar High." Covington works in oils, oil sticks, and wax on canvas, building up layers where each mark shapes what comes after — a technique she's used to explore childhood, memory, language, and Southern gothic themes across drawing, printmaking, painting, and sculpture. Describing her process, Covington said pattern and color repetition guide her work, and that she's trying to surface both the known and unknowable in nature.

A ceramics collection built on friendship, not just aesthetics

The same evening also brings "It's Been a Privilege: Ceramics from the Giordano Collection," spotlighting the personal ceramics holdings of the late Rob Giordano (1951-2015), a local artist and longtime Morean staff member. Giordano collected on the principle that owning a piece by an artist he admired was itself a privilege — and a way of supporting them. His widow, Linda, is sharing the collection in a combined exhibition and sale. Pieces up for purchase include work by Russ Gustafson-Hilton, Alan Johnson, Matthew Schiemann, and Don and Cristina Williams, alongside a handful of works by Giordano himself.

If you go

All three shows — "Sugar High," "Into the Mystic," and "It's Been a Privilege" — run July 11 through Sept. 23. The Morean Arts Center gallery is free and open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information is available at MoreanArtsCenter.org or by calling 727-822-7872.