The Push exhibition at Orlando Museum of Art was the first solo retrospective of J. Grant Brittain's pioneering skateboarding photography and it had a fascinating local connection. One of Brittain's most influential earlier shoots was a guerrilla late-night session at Orlando's Fashion Square mall, where skateboarders took on the curved wall in front of Burdines — which, fortuitously, was a reasonable facsimile of a quarter-pipe. Local skate legend Tim Payne re-created that section of wall faithfully and artfully to scale and placed it in the entryway to the exhibition. From hiding from mall-cops in the bushes to a museum? What a ride.
Outside of Orlando's very gay side, there is almost no better example of how much Orlando differs from the rest of the GOP-controlled Sunshine State than the anti-capitalist streak that permeates the local arts and culture scene. The "Eat the Rich" graffiti that popped up not just once, but twice (after being painted over) earlier this year on Mills Avenue is a prime example. Painted on construction boarding outside of what's slated to be a new Team Market Group restaurant, the graffiti was celebrated online for a mere few days, just ahead of Trump's inauguration in January. We don't know who was behind either iteration, or whether it was the same tagger. But it served as a firm reminder — along with the massive anti-Trump protests outside of City Hall this year — that Orlando is painfully aware of wealth inequality and willing to call it out.
1024 N. Mills Ave., anonymous artist(s)
Since the United States Tennis Association's National Campus in Lake Nona opened to the public back in 2017, scores of the world's top tennis players have either trained at or called this sprawling 100-court facility home. And for tennis (or Tennis Channel) junkies, there's no better place in town to bump into the sport's greats — 2023 U.S. Open and reigning French Open champion Coco Gauff, for example, or 2025 Australian Open winner Madison Keys. You'll also see the country's top men's players, like Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton, smacking balls at the campus. Best of all, Central Florida residents can experience a brush with tennis fame while enjoying a free 30-minute session with a certified teaching pro. Just remember to keep your eye on the ball.
This year brought with it Florida's biggest theme park news in years: Universal Orlando opened the doors — or portals — to its newest park, Epic Universe, this summer. There are five immersive worlds, over-the-top themed environments, crazy new rides, film franchise-inspired eats — truly a theme park-goer's dream. Our only gripe? I-4 was absolutely not ready for the onslaught of parkhoppers now jamming up Central Florida roads on Saturday mornings (and every other hour on all the other days). Traffic was bad; now it's worse. But hey, what other city can say it has a designated neighborhood for riding dragons?