The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach opens two exhibitions on Saturday, Oct. 31: Blazing Light: Photographs by Mimi Plumb, the California photographer's first museum exhibition, and Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, a survey of about 70 paintings by the Chicago artist. Both run through March 14, 2027.

Mimi Plumb, five decades in one room

Mimi Plumb, born in 1953, has photographed the landscape of the American West and the streets of the San Francisco area for five decades, in gritty black and white that leans on California's hard sunlight. She started as a teenager in the early 1970s, during a period of rapid land development.

Blazing Light brings together the three bodies of work the museum considers her most important. The White Sky, made from 1972 to 1978, follows suburban California in the years after World War II. Landfall and The Golden City span 1984 to 2020. The Reservoir, from 2021 to 2025, is a set of stark, empty landscapes. Pictures in the show include Boys and Tires, Sears Point (1976), Couple at the Gas Station (1972), Salton Sea (1984), Boy with Sparkler (1988) and Girl in the Polka Dot Dress (1990).

The exhibition was organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Gertrude Abercrombie's strange, simple things

Gertrude Abercrombie (1909 to 1977) was a central figure in the art and jazz scenes of mid-century Chicago. She painted hundreds of works drawn from her own life: self-portraits, landscapes, interiors and still lifes filled with personal symbols and mysterious female figures, often built from dreams and memories. The museum describes her subject as the peculiar side of everyday life.

The paintings range from The Church (1938) and Self-Portrait, the Striped Blouse (1940) through Two Ladders (1947), A Terribly Strange Tree (1949) and A Picture in a Picture in a Picture (1955) to Moored to the Moon (1963). The exhibition is co-organized by Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and Colby College Museum of Art in Maine.

Talks that go with the shows

Mimi Plumb comes to the museum the night before the opening, Friday, Oct. 30, for an artist talk in conversation with Gregory J. Harris, the same night as a member happy hour. On Nov. 11 the museum holds A Closer Look at The Whole World Is a Mystery, and on Nov. 13 its ArtSpeaks series pairs Zachary Wirsum with Regina Palm. The full program schedule is on the museum's calendar.

A third exhibition follows on Dec. 5: Prix Pictet: Storm, from the international photography prize, runs through April 18, 2027.

Hours, prices and free days

The Norton is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed Tuesdays. General admission is $20, seniors 60 and over pay $17, students with a school ID pay $5, and children 12 and under and members get in free. Friday's Art After Dark is $10 for adults and $5 for students.

City of West Palm Beach residents get free admission for one every Saturday, year round, with ID, which makes opening day free for city residents. Active military and veterans get free admission for two, Florida educators get in free, and Bank of America cardholders get in free on the first full weekend of each month, which in November is Nov. 7 and 8. The museum is at 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach.

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