The Arts >>

• Best Ensemble
  Ambar Aranaga, Erynn Dalton, Monica Garcia, and Phyllis Spear for Claire Chafee's Why We Have a Body
  Why We Have a Body is a zany impressionistic play that ought to be monstrous fun for the actresses who tackle it. And indeed, the actresses of the now-deceased Sol Theatre seemed to be enjoying themselves last summer as they juggled Claire Chafee's endless witticisms with her bottomless... More >>
• Best Theatrical Season
  Palm Beach Dramaworks' 2008-09 Season
  There is no doubt about it: Palm Beach Dramaworks' patrons are old. This year, there have been a few evenings when the second-youngest person in attendance was our theater critic's mother. But really, who cares? Because unlike some theaters with aged audiences, Dramaworks refuses to get by on... More >>
• Best Theatrical Venue to Die
  Sol Theatre Project
  Tiny Sol Theatre got a major face-lift about two years ago. Its funky little lobby was overseen by a giant sun-themed mosaic of mirrored glass, and painted tile covered one wall from top to bottom, filling the place with a mystical orange glow. Above the ticket booth was a pot-smoking Mona Lisa.... More >>
• Best New Play
  Carter Lewis' Ordinary Nation, Florida Stage
  Last May, just as our nation's most visible political performers were turning into caricatures of themselves and making strawmen of their enemies, Florida Stage unleashed Ordinary Nation: a political play that made a mockery of categorical political definitions. Plenty of people forgot it the... More >>
• Best Director
  Richard Jay Simon for Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, Mosaic Theatre
  No doubt about it: The Seafarer was a great production. It was a fantastic script paired with an almost perfect set and interpreted by maybe the best cast Mosaic Theatre has assembled since Glengarry Glen Ross in 2007. But it was a delicate job. Really, The Seafarer is nothing but the Christmas... More >>
• Best Theatrical Production
  Conor McPherson's The Seafarer Mosaic Theatre
  The Seafarer is a big play set in a little room. Comprising nothing more than the banter of old friends (and one diabolical houseguest) in an Irish basement on Christmas Eve, it warmly and humanely paints its characters' portraits as completely as any play can: their histories, flaws, world... More >>
• Best Supporting Actor
  Dennis Creaghan in Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, Mosaic Theatre
  All actors in The Seafarer were excellent, but Dennis Creaghan was un-fucking-believable. A recently blinded alcoholic Irishman — with a big, affable spirit and a bounty of deep, personal pain — he captured your heart and imagination within the play's first five minutes and never... More >>
• Best Supporting Actress
  Nanique Gheridian in Michael Frayn's Benefactors, Palm Beach Dramaworks
  For good Darwinian reasons, we remember trauma with more clarity than pleasure. This, perhaps, is why tragediennes win more awards than their comedienne counterparts. Last year, Nanique Gheridian turned in a memorable performance as Sheila, the frightened, mousy wife of razor-witted Colin... More >>
• Best Actor
  Gordon McConnell in Neil LaBute's Wrecks, Mosaic Theatre
  Wrecks was last season's hardest-to-watch play, dealing with weakness, loneliness, desperation, and dysfunction in such a personal way that audiences actually left embarrassed — like they'd unwittingly paid to be peeping Toms for a night. With Wrecks gone from our stages and unlikely to... More >>
• Best Actress
  Barbara Bradshaw in Eugene Ionesco's The Chairs, Palm Beach Dramaworks
  Eugene Ionesco's plays are fantastical imaginative flights with no stable anchors in the real world. His characters often speak nonsense words, swing from states of extreme agitation to euphoria with no obvious catalyst, and find themselves in unlikely or impossible situations. It takes a good... More >>
• Best Group Exhibition
  "Unbroken Ties: Dialogues in Cuban Art," Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale
  As in-house curator at the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale, Jorge Santis brought more than 30 years of curating experience, not to mention his own story as a Cuban exile, to bear on this thrilling survey of Cuban art, and it showed. No other South Florida museum show this year had the historical... More >>
• Best Solo Exhibition
  "Of Rage and Redemption: The Art of Oswaldo Guayasamín," Schmidt Center Gallery, University Galleries, Florida Atlantic University
  The thing about Oswaldo Guayasamín, an Ecuadorian artist who died in 1999 at age 79, is that he takes you off guard. First he hits you viscerally with full force — painting human flesh, for instance, with such rawness and immediacy that you want to recoil. Then, once you've had a... More >>
• Best Visual Artist
  Janet Gold
  It's hard to keep track of Janet Gold, which is part of what makes her one of the most compelling presences on the South Florida art scene. One day, you may catch her at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, where she has taught courses ranging from illustration to creative thinking. Another... More >>
• Best Art Event
  Third Avenue Art District Artwalk, First Saturday in February
  Like Santa Claus, the Third Avenue Art District Artwalk comes but once a year. And although there are no chimneys involved, there are gifts — if you consider it a gift to visit the studios of local artists and get wined and dined along the way. This year, the evening threw in a free visit... More >>
• Best Art Gallery
  Art and Culture Center of Hollywood
  Unfettered by the demands of the commercial marketplace, the privately supported Art and Culture Center has taken that freedom and run with it, charting a course that sometimes appears to be fearless. Where else, for instance, would you find something as esoteric as "Exploding the Lotus"? That... More >>
• Best Duo Exhibition
  "Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities," Norton Museum of Art
  Not since Mr. Reese introduced peanut butter to chocolate has there been such an inspired pairing as this show of more than 40 O'Keeffe paintings and more than 50 Adams photographs. The two met during their first extended stay in New Mexico in 1929, when she was 42 and he was 27. She eventually... More >>
• Best Artist to Return to South Florida
  Enrique Martínez Celaya
  This time last year, we were lamenting the still-fresh loss of Enrique Martínez Celaya, who had abruptly closed his studio in Delray Beach and moved his family back to Los Angeles. Alas, one fewer world-class artist in residence in South Florida. He didn't even hang around long enough to... More >>
• Best Art Museum
  Boca Raton Museum of Art
  If variety is indeed the spice of life, then this year's schedule at the Boca Museum was a buffet as satisfying as it was highly seasoned. There were crowd pleasers such as "Degas in Bronze: The Complete Sculptures" and "Shock of the Real: Photorealism Revisited." There was a massive and... More >>