Andrew Ford Fine Art
Andrew Ford Fine Art runs two galleries on South Pineapple. Gallery 506 hosts rotating exhibitions of Sarasota and regional artists. Gallery 510 is home to the sculpture and graphics of Jorge Blanco.
Andrew Ford is well-known auctioneer, art collector and art lover. Sarasota is an artistic heritage town, and Andrew and his wife Lathrop would like to preserve it in this ever-changing environment. They turned their building next to Sarasota Trading Company and Sarasota Estate Auction into art destination, where they combine past and present, bring art lovers together through conversation, exhibitions, happy hour and involvement of Burns Court Cinema films.
Andrew Ford and Susan McLeod, the gallery’s managing director at Andrew Ford Fine Art aim to mix Sarasota’s creative present with artistic past.
“The visual arts put Sarasota on the map,” Ford says. “Calling attention to Sarasota’s roots in the visual arts was the idea behind the gallery’s first exhibition in 2023.” He notes that the show focused on artists with academic ties to Sarasota and the Sarasota Art Association — which later became Art Center Sarasota. “It was a very successful show,” he says. “And it put us in contact with some of the artists’ descendants.”
Those contacts encouraged Ford to dig deeper. “We heard from the granddaughter of Max Ernst, the son of Frank Colson and other family members,” he says. “That got us interested in the next generation of artists connected to Sarasota’s art history. We expanded from there.”
The gallery now embraces emerging artists who might have been overlooked. Andrew Ford credits Susan McLeod’s longtime connections in Sarasota’s arts community with helping bring more women artists into the mix. McLeod herself began studying oil painting seriously only a few years ago but has quickly established herself as an artist in her own right. The gallery’s recent “Patience and Peace” exhibition featured her oil paintings, particularly portraits of women. Several remain on view. “Each portrait has a different voice and a different feeling,” McLeod says. “These paintings give me joy.”
McLeod sees the gallery’s greater mission as reclaiming Sarasota’s visual arts heritage. “Andrew grew up on Siesta Key,” she says. “He knew all the mid-century artists who made such an impact. He takes that heritage very personally.” He’s worked in the art trade since 1994. Sarasota’s connections to the great art schools and artist colonies of the Northeast hold a special fascination for him.
“Boston, Provincetown, Cape Ann, Gloucester and Rockport were cultural hotbeds,” he says. “In the 1950s and ’60s, many significant artists summered in those places and wintered in Sarasota. Some became instructors at New College, Ringling College, the Longboat Key Art Center and Sarasota Art Association. There’s a real history there.”
Andrew Ford recently acquired Frank Benson’s “The White Heron,” painted in 1924. He describes the painting as “amazing” and “hypnotic.” “Benson was a leading figure of the Boston Impressionist School,” he says. “This is one of the most important paintings to come to Sarasota in years.”
Ford and McLeod want people to look at art. More importantly, they want to bring people together. That’s the goal behind their Friday “happy hours” centered around artists, speakers and conversation. The gallery also partners with nearby Burns Court Cinema on art-related films and associated events.
Gallery 506
Come to Gallery 506, see current rotating exhibitions, have a happy hour on Friday nights, and come see Art films at Burns Court Cinema.
Every Friday, 5–7 PM. Friday Night Happy Hour at the gallery. Through December 18.
Rotating exhibitions are of accomplished local artists with ties to the Sarasota Art School and the Ringling School of Art & Design, alongside regional and contemporary painters. The walls change often, so there is always something new.
Recent Shown Artists:
Susan McLeod · Robert Rauschenberg · Syd Solomon · Helen Sawyer Farnsworth · Jon Corbino · Benson B. Moore · Frank von der Lancken · Léonard Saurfelt · Roy Nichols · Elaine Clayman · Igor Levchenko · Gale Fulton Ross · Eric Picardo · Adam Batko · Vicki Chelf · Josefina Fernandez Brital
Shows rotate regularly. Call to confirm a particular work is on display.
Interested in exhibiting? Send a few images of your work, a short bio and your website to the gallery. They review submissions for upcoming exhibitions.
andrewfordfineart1@gmail.com
Gallery 510
At Gallery 510, come see Jorge Blanco’s joyful, abstracted figures in flat planes of color: cyclists, golfers, dogs, a bull. Jorge Blanco is Venezuelan American sculptor, born in 1945, who has worked in Sarasota since 1999. For five decades, he created industrial design, public art and collectible sculpture. He has public sculpture in cities from Tokyo to Park City and Sarasota.
Jorge’s trademark subject is an abstracted figure that is both recognizable and joyful. Love, music, dance, sports and humor drive the work. You can see Calder, Klee and Miró in his visual vocabulary, but the geometry is his own, and each large public piece is made for its site.
He trained in industrial design at the Neumann Institute in Caracas (1971) and studied at Rome’s Academy of Fine Arts. In Europe he found the world of cartoonists and went on to create El Náufrago (The Castaway), Venezuela’s best-known comic strip, later published in Sarasota’s City Tempo and the Observer.
Jorge has more than thirty public commissions across the U.S., Japan, Uruguay and Venezuela. In Sarasota, look for Here’s Looking at You at Burns Court, Bravo! and The Runners.
On view now: Joy in Motion: Jorge Blanco at Art Center Sarasota, October 8 through November 14, 2026.
Gallery 510 shows his limited-edition sculptures and graphics year-round. Andrew Ford Fine Art is his exclusive gallery.
Both galleries are located on South Pineapple Avenue, a short walk from Burns Court. Call ahead to confirm a particular work is on display or to set up a private viewing.
Gallery 506
506 South Pineapple Avenue
Sarasota, Florida
Gallery 510
510 South Pineapple Avenue
Sarasota, Florida
Gallery
941-366-8400
Andrew Ford, direct
941-650-8854
Email
andrewfordfineart1@gmail.com
Family of businesses:
Sarasota Estate Auction
Ford Art & Antiques
Website:
Andrew Ford Fine Art – Gallery 506 and Gallery 510 · Jorge Blanco · Sarasota
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