Carol Moon Frazier_ Funky Flamingos (2022)

The Palm Beaches are gearing up for a robust season of arts, culture and community programming, courtesy of the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County. First up is Whimsy & Wonder, an exhibition elevating the offbeat to highlight beauty.

“We are delighted to welcome everyone in the community to the Cultural Council to experience our upcoming exhibitions,” Cultural Council president and CEO Dave Lawrence says in an official announcement. “Our new season kicks off this fall with an enchanting exhibition celebrating quirky and magnificent visual creations.”

Thematically linked by the iconic American flamingo, Whimsy & Wonder is an evolving curation that will change shape through its two-month run at the Cultural Council’s main exhibition hall in Lake Worth, begging return trips from patrons. A major highlight is Dave Blair’s kinetic sculpture performances.

Blair is a lauded multidisciplinary local known for complex audio/visual contraptions cobbled up from different types of wood, metals, glass and assorted digital machinery. Spellbinding Blair works such as God Machine II and Light Herder could be dream-stage variations on the weird, impossible imagery of British filmmaker and animator Terry Gilliam. Blair will perform on select Saturdays during the show’s run.

In its goal to engage with and grow the arts in greater Palm Beach, the Cultural Council wants to represent the full range of regional talent. Two exhibitions at the Cultural Council’s other Lake Worth spaces are instructive.

The Solo Gallery is hosting Lauren Bertelson: Like Mother, Like Daughter through December 2. The collection of Bertelson’s photography contextualzes self-portraiture and domestic craft in a feminist challenge to the self-erasure and societal dismissal of “women’s work.”

The Donald M. Ephraim Family Gallery hosts Veterans of Palm Beach County, featuring seven artists who happen to be military veterans or have family who served. Running through Decmeber 9, Veterans offers a range of media and styles including printmaking and ceramics, and explores a variety of topics while celebrating the men and women of the armed forces.

Whimsy & Wonder is on view November 17, 2023, through Jan. 13, 2024, at the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County’s main gallery in Lake Worth. palmbeachculture.com ~ Abel Folgar