Pictured: 'Turning Tide' by Jennifer Leigh Jones.

The artists of SARTQ swapped their brushes for rollers and canvases for walls this week as the artist collective transformed an unused building in the middle of the Rosemary District into a pop-up gallery for a special exhibition opening tonight. Entitled SARTQ: 600°, the exhibition features nine SARTQ artists, including the SARTQ debut of painter Jennifer Leigh Jones, and runs for this weekend only, closing down on July 28. An opening reception begins tomorrow night, July 27 at 7pm, at 600 Central Avenue.

With a welcome from DreamLarge, the owners of the space, the artists of SARTQ gave the near-abandoned brick-and-mortar a serious makeover. Walls were painted white; the floors slate grey. Air conditioning was repaired, as were the lights. And what a week ago looked more like an abandoned building, tonight will entertain artists and their guests, complete with Caribbean-Asian street food from Dibs Food Truck and brand new work on display. “For me, this is what SARTQ has always been,” says Rae Ramos, SARTQ executive director. “It’s transforming a raw space into a space to show art.”

And though the new air conditioning should keep guests from melting in the evening air, artists indulge the theme’s skyrocketing temperature through their work. See a crowded sunny beach captured from above in eye-popping color by Tim Jaeger, whose popular series immortalizes these local sands. And see the return of multimedia artist Laine Nixon, who storms back onto the scene with a large-scale work composed on white board with dry erase marker, where hundreds of squares and lines and blues and reds evoke the boiling atoms of a roiling star.

Jones, new to Florida and SARTQ, arrived just in time for last year’s red tide—her first experience with the phenomenon. “So her work plays off the heat,” says Ramos. “The temperatures and what they do to our waters and our environment.” Also on display will be work from Jeffery Cornwell, Zachary Gilliland, Julie Kanapaux, Taylor Robenalt, Javier Rodriguez and Tom Stephens.

As for Ramos, he’s already eyeing the next spot for SARTQ to takeover and transform. “This is us showing what artists can do for this community,” he says.

SARTQ: 600° opens tonight at 600 Central Ave., Sarasota, with an opening reception Saturday night from 7pm to 9pm.

Pictured: 'Turning Tide' by Jennifer Leigh Jones.