The First Center in Nashville, TN, opened in April 2001, and since that time has hosted a spectacular array of art from the region, the country, and around the world.

Unlike any traditional museum youve ever visited, the First Center for the Visual Arts has become a magnet for Nashvilles rapidly expanding visual arts scene. With an exhibitions schedule that has new art flowing through the magnificent Art Deco building every 6 to 8 weeks, no matter how often you visit, there is always something new and exciting to see in the spacious galleries.

On view at the First Center for the Visual Arts' Broadway Street entrance through the end of 2013, Rose on 65th Street (2011) is from a series of thirty-eight sculptures of gigantic roses created by New York artist Will Ryman. Arrayed along New York Citys Park Avenue from January 25 through May 31, 2011, the colossal flowers, each painted in a primary color or bright pink, stood in startling contrast to the towering buildings and busy traffic of the street.

A native New Yorker, Ryman has long been interested in creating experiences of delight by placing comically distorted and often oversized forms into both indoor and outdoor architectural sites. He says, I always try to combine fantasy with reality. In the case of The Roses, I tried to convey New York Citys larger than life qualities through scale; creating blossoms which are imposing, humorous, and hopefully beautiful.

Causing an unsettling mixture of pleasure (because of their beauty) and dislocation (because of their scale), the sculptures inspired viewers to imagine: what if? As was the case with Alice in Wonderland or the children in Honey I Shrunk the Kids, the works were not unnaturally large, but were part of a world in which people have gotten smaller (a feeling that is not uncommon in a large metropolis). This odd, shrunken sensation is reinforced by the presence of giant insectsbees and aphids, primarilyon the stems and blossoms; we share the stage with not-so-little creatures we can no longer ignore.