ORLANDO, Fla. — Friends of Josh Garrick, the artist, educator and writer with a passion for ancient Greek culture, will gather to celebrate his life — appropriately surrounded by his artwork — on Dec. 19.

“He was a citizen of the world who loved Orlando and called it home,” fellow artist Donna Dowless said. “He was a loyal and active supporter of the arts and the artists. His passing is a great loss for our community.”

Among the honors accrued during his lifetime: Being the first American allowed to exhibit alongside the priceless Greek antiquities in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and being named to the honorary position of “cultural and business ambassador to Greece” by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.

After a long illness — he had battled cancer multiple times throughout his life — Garrick died Sept. 13 at age 77. That number might surprise people, even friends, as Garrick exuded a bustling energy. He could often be seen at arts events, dressed to the nines in something shiny, ruffled or both, especially at the ballet — an art form he adored. At times, he served as executive director of Southern Ballet Theatre, the precursor to today’s Orlando Ballet, as well as Central Florida Ballet.

“He was such a dynamo,” longtime friend John DiDonna said. “He had one of those spirits you thought was indomitable.”

For years, Garrick was Florida editor of the Wandering Educators website, a collective of educators who wrote about their travel adventures and their home cities. In the role, Garrick highlighted Central Florida’s burgeoning cultural scene to the world.

A fine-art photographer, Garrick began his love affair with Greece as a child in rural Pennsylvania. He recalled in a 2013 Orlando Sentinel interview how as a child he sculpted a model of a Greek temple — and won a ribbon at his local county fair.

Years later, after earning a master of fine arts in ancient Greek culture from Columbia University in New York City, he began teaching at New York’s School of Visual Arts. He would take students on field trips to Greece, where he would lecture among the artifacts. He would also take photos, which became the basis for his art.

In 1991, Garrick was granted the singular honor of becoming the first American allowed to take photos from the roof of the Parthenon, which cemented his style of photographing antiquities from unusual but artistic angles.

“Josh fell in love with Greece, its culture, its landscape and most of all its people,” Coralie Claeysen-Gleyzon said. “Through his many trips to the country he became acutely aware that he had been granted access to something rare and beautiful, something he felt compelled to share through his photography.”

Claeysen-Gleyzon, now chief curator of Orlando Museum of Art, worked with Garrick when she curated for the now-closed Jai Gallery in Orlando.

“In his images, he achieved more than the documentation of ancient objects; he crafted epic narratives, unraveled hidden stories, and revealed and celebrated their enduring aura,” she said. “In return, Greece embraced him” — demonstrated when he became the first American to exhibit in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Locally, he exhibited at galleries including downtown Orlando’s CityArts and FAVO, the Faith Arts Village Orlando on East Colonial Drive. His work is in the permanent collection of Orlando Museum of Art, the Eustis Museum of Art and the Art & History Museums of Maitland.

Downtown Arts District executive director Barbara Hartley, who oversees CityArts, appreciated how Garrick’s work evolved and matured through his career.

“He continued to grow his practice in different materials,” she said.

Garrick eventually became well-known for a technique of printing his images on aluminum using a method that highlights the contrasts between light and shadow and between antiquity and modernism.

“I tried to shoot them in a way so that the viewer understands these were once living, breathing people,” Garrick told the Sentinel about his works capturing Greek statues. “It’s not all about cold, white marble.”

In proclaiming Garrick an honorary cultural ambassador to Greece in 2018, Dyer saluted Garrick’s work in building bridges between Orlando and the European nation.

“You have proven that relationships are most successful when community leaders, like you, contribute toward strengthening the economic and cultural ties between two cities,” Dyer wrote in a congratulatory letter to Garrick. “We are incredibly grateful for your dedicated service to Orlando and Central Florida.”

Hartley said an important part of Garrick’s legacy is how he championed others.

“He was such an advocate for local artists, in addition be being renowned on his own,” she said. “He didn’t just support artists by showing up. He bought lots of art, too.”

The Dec. 19 celebration of life will reflect his love of fellow artists. Organized by his spouse, Maria Luisa “Fabi” Garrick, the event will take place at CityArts.

“I invite you to stand with me in remembrance, in admiration and in love — not in mourning what we lost, but in honoring what Josh gave to all of us: his vision, his passion, his tenderness, and his endless belief that beauty is a form of truth,” she wrote to friends. “Thank you for holding Josh with me. Thank you for helping me carry his light forward. His spirit lives in every heart he touched, and now it is our turn to continue the conversation he began.”

Garrick’s work will be spread throughout the building, in a gallery dedicated to him, as well as among others’ work “in whatever space we can find,” Hartley said.

She plans to display a selection of Garrick’s work for public view through January after the event for friends and family. His absence, she said, is felt keenly.

“I miss his passion, the love of life he brought to all of us,” Hartley said. “He was very special.”

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