Opening | “Soft Structures for Holding Ourselves” by Tasanee Durrett

Orange County Arts & Cultural Affairs

We would be delighted if you could attend the Art in the Atrium Opening Reception on on Friday, February 13, 2026, at 5:30 p.m.

Orange County Administration Center

Orange County Arts &amp; Cultural Affairs in partnership with the <a href="https://www.thebhcoc.com/" title="https://www.thebhcoc.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Black History Committee of Orange County, Inc</a>. presents Art in the Atrium, featuring “Soft Structures for Holding Ourselves” a solo exhibition by Tasanee Durrett. An opening reception will be held in the Atrium Art Gallery at the Orange County Administration Center on Friday, February 13, 2026, at 5:30 p.m.<a href="https://www.tasaneeart.com" title="https://www.tasaneeart.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Durrett </a>(b. 1994) is a Chicago-born architect and abstract figurative artist based in Central Florida. Her work is about repair. She creates art to rebuild connections where it was not always guaranteed in her life. Growing up with fractured family histories, absence, and survival shaped how she sees the world, and her practice comes from the need to reconnect what has been broken. Working across mixed-media painting and sculpture, her practice explores identity, lineage, and psychological healing within the Black diaspora. Through abstract figurative, mixed-media works, she explores inherited absence and the ongoing work of reconnection. Through layered compositions that merge Black figures with flora, abstract forms, and architectural linework, she creates a visual language of Black fine art centered on the convergence of mind, body, and spirit. Her work is deeply informed by research into Black psychology and lived experience, including collaborations with health professionals and neuroscientists, with a particular focus on the head and neck as sites of memory, emotion, and psychological refuge.​By focusing on the head and neck of her figures, she treats these areas as thresholds between thought and feeling, where memory, emotion, and identity are held, and where psychological refuge can be rebuilt. From the neck down, our bodies are largely the same; it is the head and neck that carry individuality, lived experience, and how we move through the world. This focus allows her to show the effort it takes to hold oneself together, and to acknowledge how Black bodies carry knowledge, stress, and resilience that are not always visible or spoken. Her background in architecture strongly influences how she makes art. Grounded in her training in architecture, where she earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arizona, Durrett approaches each surface as a constructed space shaped by memory, movement, and lived experience. Drawing from her Afro-Indigenous heritage, she incorporates natural elements and ancestral patterning to honor lineage, identity, and the ongoing journey toward mental wellness. She works with natural materials such as salt, silkworm cocoons, and raffia because working with her hands is both an artistic act and a way of staying connected to the natural world. In 2022, painting became central to her practice as a means of recovery and self-reconstruction following an eight-year abusive relationship. Her work does not try to provide closure or easy answers. Instead, it creates visual spaces where complexity, care, and connection can exist at the same time. WHEN:Opening reception on Friday, February 13, 2026,Doors open at 5 p.m.Program begins at 5:45 p.m.Display continues through February 26, 2026 WHERE:The Atrium GalleryOrange County Administration Center201 S. Rosalind Ave., Orlando, FL 32801 “Soft Structures for Holding Ourselves” by Tasanee Durrett will be on display through February 26, 2026. The Administration Center is open weekdays 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. except for holidaysFor more information, please contact <a href="" title="" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dawn.Knight@ocfl.net</a>.

I'm So Pretty by Tasanee Durrett

Black History Committee of Orange County, Inc. Is the proud sponsor of“Soft Structures for Holding Ourselves” by Tasanee DurrettThe mission statement of the Black History Committee of Orange County, Inc. (BHCOC) is to bring awareness and educate the citizens of Orlando, Orange County Florida and the world about Black History which is a vital part of American History.The Black History Committee of Orange County, Inc. was established in 2002 as a not-for-profit organization, our purpose is to raise money for African American students graduating from an Orange County High School who wish to continue their education at a college and/or university and need funds to pay for their education. The organization also provides book and computer scholarships.Please visit <a href="https://www.thebhcoc.com" title="https://www.thebhcoc.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.thebhcoc.com</a> for more information or contact bhcocinc@gmail.com to inquire about membership opportunities or ways to support our mission.

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Opening | “Soft Structures for Holding Ourselves” by Tasanee Durrett

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Opening | “Soft Structures for Holding Ourselves” by Tasanee Durrett

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