Image: Graphicstudio/U.S.F., Tampa
USF Graphicstudio in Tampa will present ‘Jim Dine: Swaying in the Florida Night,’ a survey of prints and sculpture editions produced through the artist’s collaboration with the studio between 1973 and 1989. The exhibition will run from September 8 through December 18, 2026, bringing together works that trace Dine’s sustained engagement with experimental printmaking and sculptural production.
Dine’s practice spans painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, poetry and performance. The exhibition focuses on a period in which the artist worked closely with Graphicstudio’s printers and fabricators, using the workshop as a site for testing combinations of processes, materials and imagery. Graphicstudio was founded at the University of South Florida in 1968 as an experiment in art and education and has since worked with more than 100 emerging and established artists to produce limited-edition prints and sculpture multiples.
Among the works documented by Graphicstudio are ‘Metamorphosis of a Plant into a Fan’ (1973–74), a five-part aluminum sculpture depicting the conceptual transformation of a houseplant into a tabletop fan, and the related print series ‘The Plant Becomes A Fan’ (1975). The sculpture was Dine’s first project at the studio. Its fabrication took place in Tampa and at Dine’s studio in Putney, Vermont, and established a collaborative relationship that continued across subsequent projects.
The survey also includes editions built around Dine’s recurring motifs, including bathrobes, hearts, skulls, trees and classical sculpture. Graphicstudio describes the bathrobe as an image that began as a self-portrait symbol before acquiring more universal meanings, while the heart has been associated with Dine’s wife, Nancy. The exhibition’s broader presentation places these images within the artist’s ongoing movement between personal symbolism, art-historical reference and material experimentation.
The title work, ‘Swaying in the Florida Night’ (1982–83), is an etching, drypoint and aquatint measuring 47 by 70½ inches and printed in an edition of 65. According to the studio’s technical account, Dine drew energetically onto two copper plates with greasy lithographic crayon, then used an electric drill and Dremel to create marks conveying the intense motion of wind. Other listed editions include ‘Hand Painting on the Mandala’ (1986), an etching and power-tool drypoint with hand-painting; ‘Ravenna in November’ (1987–89), a color heliorelief woodcut with etching and painted additions; and ‘The Mead of Poetry’ (1988), a group of woodcuts.
‘Jim Dine: Swaying in the Florida Night’ will be open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at USF Graphicstudio, 3702 Spectrum Blvd., Suite 100, Tampa. Admission is free and open to all. The studio will be closed on November 11 for Veterans Day and November 26 and 27 for Thanksgiving. A public reception, with complimentary refreshments and access to the exhibition and production areas, is scheduled for October 16 from 5 to 8 p.m.
