Beau Wild: A Lasting Legacy - September 2026

Beau Wild was more than a prolific artist. She was an inspiration to artists, collectors, and art lovers throughout our community. Her decades-long commitment to creating, experimenting, and evolving left an indelible mark on the local art scene and on the many artists who were influenced by her work and example.

Wild passed away in February, just days after celebrating her birthday. While she is no longer here to create new work, her studio remains filled with the paintings, sculpture, and mixed-media pieces that tell the story of an extraordinary artistic life.

Gallery500 is honored to celebrate that life and legacy with Beau Wild: From the Studio, a special exhibition featuring the final collection of artwork from her studio.

This will be the last showing of Beau Wild's work directly from her studio, featuring many pieces that were included in her 2023 retrospective at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens, along with never-before-available works from her private collection. For collectors and admirers of Wild’s work, it is a unique opportunity to experience and acquire pieces from her remarkable career.

A native Floridian, Wild returned to her childhood hometown of Daytona Beach in 1983 after spending 22 years in New England. She studied occupational therapy at Tufts University and painting at the Museum School/Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Over the course of her career, Beau exhibited at art festivals, competitions, galleries, and museums throughout Florida and nationally. Her work has been shown at institutions including the Museum of Florida Art, Florida Museum for Women Artists, Foosaner Art Museum, Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens, Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry, and the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St. Petersburg College.

She received numerous awards, including Best in Show honors, and in 2015 was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award during a national competition in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Yet her accomplishments extend far beyond exhibitions and awards.

Wild built a life in which art has remained a constant. She was a mother, wife, occupational therapist, teacher, friend, avid gardener, and successful business owner. Through it all, she continued to create. She didn't just make art. She made art a way of life.

One of the most compelling aspects of Wild's career was her willingness to explore. Her work moved through figurative painting, abstraction, mixed media, assemblage, and sculpture. Rather than settling into one recognizable style, she continued to challenge herself and explore new ideas.

That extraordinary range was showcased in her 2023 solo retrospective at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens.

A solo museum exhibition is a significant accomplishment for any artist. A retrospective celebrating decades of work is an even greater honor. The exhibition provided a rare opportunity to see the evolution of Wild's artistic voice across approximately 40 years.

Curated by Fran Gardner, the exhibition brought together an impressive range of work, illustrating Wild's creativity, experimentation, and artistic growth. The artist had been collecting the pieces for years in preparation for the exhibit. While many have been since collected, a few works from the retrospective will be on display in Beau Wild: From the Studio exhibition.

I have admired the artist since we were first introduced several years ago. The more I have learned about her career, spent time with her in her studio, and gotten to know her as a person, the greater my admiration has become.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with Wild in her studio while filming Gallery500's Emerging Artist Series. In this interview, we discussed Wild's career and what it meant to be an established artist. We looked through her collection, talked about her process and discussed creating new work. I even had the chance to watch her paint. Click here to watch the interview

What I have always been impressed with is her ability to endure, evolve, and continue creating. Wild created inwardly. She used emotion and experience as fuel for her work. Years of experience—including success, failure, experimentation, and change—allowed her to continue pushing herself as an artist.

That willingness to try something new, to fail, learn from it, and turn that failure into something meaningful is perhaps one of the greatest lessons Wild offers other not only other artists but viewers as a whole.

Beau Wild: From the Studio offers a rare opportunity to experience Wild's work in a deeply personal way.

For longtime collectors and admirers of Wild's work, this is an opportunity to revisit important pieces from her career and discover works that have rarely, if ever, been seen publicly.

For those new to her work, it is an opportunity to experience the remarkable breadth of an artist who spent a lifetime creating.

An artist's legacy is measured not only by the work left behind, but by the people inspired along the way.

Her work will continue to speak to collectors and art lovers, but perhaps just as importantly, her example will continue to inspire artists to keep creating—to remain curious, take chances, embrace failure, and never stop growing.

Gallery500 is proud to honor Beau Wild and her extraordinary contribution to our community with Beau Wild: From the Studio.

We invite you to experience this special collection and celebrate the remarkable legacy of an artist who has spent a lifetime making art. 

Thursday, September 17th, 5-7 pm at Gallery500 in ONE DAYTONA

*All artwork will be available for acquisition on a first-available basis.*

As early as I can remember, I was an observer. Several questions intrigued me then and continue to intrigue me now – Why do people do what they do? What motivates their actions and reactions? What makes people 'tick'? Whether it is an elderly woman's feeling of isolation, the outsider's anxiety when courting a new friend, the conflicting joy and sadness of the surrogate mother, the unforgotten lives of those who have passed, these deeply empathetic connections are sensitive glimpses. While I assume the objective position of the observer, these glimpses open a small window through which I also look inside my own emotional life. - Beau Wild