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Today we’ll be visiting the Albin Polasek Museum in Winter Park. The Albin Polasek Museum is not far from the Rollins Museum of Art so you can interchangeably visit them all in one day. But the Polasek Museum offers tours that you can take part in and learn about Albin Polasek. I won’t say too many details because it’s part of the whole experience. That being said, check out their hours before you go! There are only two tours on Sundays which is their shorter day. There’s no additional cost for the tours so make the most of your ticket! You can make a day of it, as they have an awesome lake that you can enjoy while walking the sculpture garden. And if you want to really make a day of it and eat outside, you are not too far from a few really cool spots – you can even walk to some of them if you are up for that.
Albin Polasek was primarily a sculptor, though he did do some painting, and he is originally from the Czech Republic. He was naturally a sculptor. He could see the potential in the stone before him and he just chipped away until the idea that he saw in his mind was produced. He started in the Czech Republic as an apprentice, hopped around through a few different apprenticeships, and his mom sent him off to the US, where he eventually caught the eye of a benefactor, and he got some formal training. The house looks very large from the outside, but it actually isn’t all that intimidatingly big. As you walk up to the front you already see some of the sculptures he made. The interior of the home has artwork all the way up the high ceilings. His greatest piece is called “Man Carving His Own Destiny” which he received inspiration for during his school years in the US while hanging out with his fellow students. You can see two smaller scale renditions they have, one of which is called “Evolution,” and you get a sense of what the original (much larger piece) was meant to do. I do tend to lean towards sculpture a lot, but it’s because for me, the ability to create something out of stone is fascinating. The precision, the focus, the intent that is required is massive.
When it comes to the house, I had to chuckle as there’s a few artist homes that I immediately thought of. And the prevailing thought that came to me was, “There is definitely a hidden template for an artist house.” And the Polasek home is no exception. There’s a lot of color involved, a lot of hidden meaning if you aren’t aware the history of what they selected to display, and it can come off as very random and just haphazardly put together. But there’s a lot going on in an artists’ mind, and their homes display that very much. We live in an era, where there’s a lot of thought put into what our homes look like. Our homes today are very much curated with a specific vision that you want to present to the world. And I include myself in that group. You can see that in our Tik Tok and Instagram feeds, maybe even Facebook if you still use it. There’s a definite push for having a theme, and then there’s an artist’s home that is kind of like a free for all – anything and everything goes.
The art gallery that is right next to the home, where you purchase your ticket, is currently showcasing Puerto Rican artist Gilbert Salinas. The exhibition is up through December 4th so definitely go check him out! Salinas was born in Boston actually and then moved to Puerto Rico at a very young age and went to the Academy of Central Arts in the city of Arecibo. The exhibit is called Among the Chaos. It is very much leaning towards contemporary art, but it’s not in your face about it so I believe that a lot of people will be able to grasp it and appreciate it. I feel like biology/sciencey people might enjoy this one. I try to first just look at the pieces and see what I come away with, before reading the little informational board that is next the work explaining it. I do that because I like to see how art can “speak” differently, or similarly, to people.
As far as the artwork itself, it’s very inspiring. Salinas has created these depictions of people almost at a biological cellular level. There’s no actual face or body to the depictions but you can make out their exterior shape, and inside the shape is where you see the interior cells that make up the figure. And it is a really wonderful way to break down what makes up people. You have this sense of, “this is what science says we look like through a microscope,” but then those same cells, to me, played the roles of all of the things that you have going on in your life and all of the interior thoughts that you have going on at the same time. This duality was really profound, because so often people are not just one dimensional. There’s a lot that goes into the creation of each person. There’s the biological side of you, and there’s the psychological side of the person. All of these different forces are working together to make YOU.
And it is chaotic. And it is beautiful.
Museum Musings 
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