SEASON 18
EXHIBITS IN THE GALLERY
September 2021 - August 2022
This exhibition season was financially assisted in-part by the Josephine S. Russell Charitable Trust, PNC Bank, Trustee.
Pre-order the season-documenting hardcover anthology, the Manifest Exhibition Annual (MEA s18). Download to save or print the entire season 18 calendar here. |
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PREVIOUS SEASON 18 EXHIBITS:
Season 18 Launch!
September 24 - October 22, 2021Ticketed Preview:
Thursday, Sept. 23, 7-9pm
—————–
Public Opening: Friday, Sept. 24, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation (Closing Reception): Thursday, October 21, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION
main gallery + drawing room + north gallery
PAINTED 2021
5th Biennial Survey of Contemporary Painting
At some point many generations ago society reached a level where ordinary people could spend a lifetime perfecting their ability to mix and apply paint, in extraordinary ways. Manifest established this exhibit as a permanent biennial project in 2013 to inaugurate our expanded gallery. PAINTED 2021 is the fifth biennial presentation of this survey of contemporary painting.
PAINTED joins Drawn as a recurring gallery exhibition designed to complement our annual INDA and INPA (drawing and painting) publications. Every two years it launches our exhibition season by presenting a competitive group exhibition focused exclusively on painting.
For this exhibit 152 artists submitted 617 works from 33 states and 5 countries, Canada, England, Israel, Singapore, and the United States. Thirty-two works by the following 27 artists from 15 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Erick Anderson
Ingleside, IllinoisDavid Andree
Fayetteville, ArkansasDavid Baird
Birmingham, AlabamaMatthew Ballou
Columbia, MissouriBrigham Dimick
Edwardsville, IllinoisDavid Dorsey
Pittsford, New YorkMark Hanavan & Paul Loehle
Middletown, OhioChris Krupinski
Maineville, OhioDustin London
Ann Arbor, MichiganRobert McCann
East Lansing, MichiganSusan Palmisano
Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaNorton Pease
Statesboro, GeorgiaAnn Piper
Selinsgrove, PennsylvaniaDavid Pjecha
Kansas City, MissouriBruce Riley
Chicago, IllinoisMarc Ross
Columbus, OhioLauren Sanderfer
Louisville, KentuckyBenjamin Shamback
Mobile, AlabamaBen Steele
Smyrna, GeorgiaHilary Swingle
Sandy, UtahLaura Truitt
Yellow Springs, OhioLance Turner
Ashland City, TennesseeJessica Mia Vito
Dundee, MichiganShaun C Whiteside
Radford, VirginiaMirabel Wigon
Modesto, CaliforniaCaitlin Winner
Craryville, New YorkDganit Zauberman
Guilford, Connecticut
David Baird
Ann Piper
Lance Turner
Caitlin Winner
parallel space
AQUACHROME
Contemporary Watercolor*
Quite possibly the oldest form of painting, watercolor persists today, defying narrow categorization and broad stereotype. Practiced for centuries in concept development preliminary to 'finished' paintings made in oil or other scale-worthy durable media, watercolor also found favor with botanists, illustrators, and portraitists, and was applied to varied and countless surfaces.The nature of the media itself represents a delicate and dictatorial transparency, fluidity, and a potential for expressive spontaneity. This not only makes it an ideal vehicle for contemporary art, but also one of training, intensity, philosophy, and play for any who practice it. Where an artist can easily dominate other painting media, forcing a will through viscous layers into a work of art like taming a wild horse, with watercolor there is dialog, compromise, and undeniable forthrightness. In this way the artist practicing watercolor works with a tiger in the room.
*Along with watercolor, works in gouache, ink wash, and other similar media were accepted for consideration.
For this exhibit 60 artists submitted 242 works from 25 states, Puerto Rico and 4 countries, China, England, Malaysia, and the United States. Sixteen works by the following 12 artists from 10 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Byron Anway
Lincoln, NebraskaScott Espeseth
Madison, WisconsinIvan Fortushniak
Indiana, PennsylvaniaJang soon Im
Long Island City, New YorkCaylin Jayde
Cedar Falls, IowaSoyoung Jung
West Lafayette, IndianaZdenko Krtic
Auburn, AlabamaChris Krupinski
Maineville, OhioMonika Malewska
Huntingdon, PennsylvaniaSiobhan McBride
Staten Island, New YorkMargi Weir
Detroit, MichiganCaomin Xie
Brookhaven, Georgia
Jang soon Im
Scott Espeseth
Soyoung Jung
central gallery
Raygun Gothic
Paintings by Jason Bly
Jason Bly resides in Wichita Falls, TX. He is Assistant Professor of Art at Midwestern State University where he has taught painting and drawing since 2017. He also serves as a member on the board of the Texas Association of Schools of Art. His previous experience includes teaching at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (2007-2017) and Lewis and Clark Community College (2007-2017). Bly also served as Director of Exhibitions at the Edwardsville Arts Center (2013-2017). His paintings have been shown in solo, invitational, and juried exhibitions. He holds his MFA in painting from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and MA and BA degrees in painting and printmaking from Eastern Illinois University.
Of his work the artist states:
"In my paintings, I examine the present day through the lens of past predictions dating from the 1950's - 1980's. These forecasts, found in scientific journals and science fiction, saw beyond the year 2000 to a variety of outcomes whether hopeful or fearful of the future. Some theorists wrote of the potential for space travel, new technologies, and stability of life while others predicted a darker turn in nuclear annihilation, fear of the unknown, and a continuing lack of resources. Now that we exist within this future, we are able to see that very few of those outcomes took place directly, yet they set into public awareness the dangers and positive innovations that were becoming possible as time advanced. So, while neither prediction was necessarily true, elements of each did occur. I am interested in portraying these fantastic events alongside painted representations of everyday household items that act as symbolic tokens and serve as access points to the intangible.
Through painting elements that are both real and unreal, I engage in the painting's ability to stimulate not just the sense of sight but also that of touch.”
This exhibition was selected from among 128 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 18th season.
November 5 - December 3, 2021 Ticketed Preview (get tickets here): Thursday, Nov. 4, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, Nov. 5, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation (Closing Reception): Thursday, December 2, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION (TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE)
main gallery
MISFITS
Works that Don't Conform
mis·fit
noun
: something that is the wrong shape or size or is inappropriate: a person whose behavior or attitude sets them apart from others in an uncomfortably conspicuous way
We offered this call to artists for their works that somehow represent, through their form, style, subject matter, construction, or context, the wonderful quality of being misfit, ill-fitted, non-conforming, odd or unusual in some way.
For this exhibit 87 artists submitted 310 works from 29 states and 2 countries, Canada and the United States. Thirteen works by the following 11 artists from 9 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Cassidy Ely
Richmond, KentuckyRobert Jones
Ypsilanti, MichiganFlorence Liu
Chicago, IllinoisBobbi Meier
Gary, IndianaBrett S. Poza
Ashburnham, MassachusettsOliver Ray
Cleveland, OhioKatherine Rumminger
Liberty, South CarolinaZak Smoker
Cleveland, OhioJohn Swartwout
Wisconsin Rapids, WisconsinKalin Thomas
Burlington, VermontTravis Townsend
Lexington, Kentucky
Oliver Ray
Kalin Thomas
drawing room + parallel space
SIGNAL
Signs, Symbols, Icons
Throughout history signs and signification have been important in the study of philosophy and psychology. For the Greeks, "signs" occurred in the world of nature, and "symbols" in the world of culture. (For example, Plato and Aristotle explored the relationship between signs and the world.) A sign is defined as anything that communicates a meaning that is not the sign itself to the sign's interpreter. (extracted from wikipedia)Signs, symbols, icons, indices, numerals, and other such forms of communication operate at an almost subliminal level in our society today, including in the form of these very words you read. We take their nature, their existence even, for granted. It is this that gives them their power, their potency as aspects of the human exchange of knowledge, ideas, expression, and energy.
With this in mind we offered this call to artists for their works that feature or explore signs, symbols, icons, indices, numerals, and other semiotic phenomenon in some way. The inclusion of the subject of 'signs, etc.' may be overt and specifically about the concept, or subtle and circumstantial.
For this exhibit 95 artists submitted 369 works from 34 states. Twenty-one works by the following 14 artists from 11 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Jeffrey Baykal-Rollins
Westport, ConnecticutAnn Clarke
Syracuse, New YorkNeal Cox
Nacogdoches, TexasAndrew Heath
Hollis, New HampshireWilliam Karaffa
Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaJean Mandeberg
Olympia, WashingtonSteve Novick
Somerville, MassachusettsRhea Nowak
Oneonta, New YorkClaudia O'Steen
Rock Hill, South CarolinaBrett S. Poza
Ashburnham, MassachusettsBilly Renkl
Clarksville, TennesseeMarc Ross
Columbus, OhioHanna Sosin
Cincinnati, OhioKalin Thomas
Burlington, Vermont
Jeffrey Baykal-Rollins
Billy Renkl
Brett S. Poza
central gallery
Family Album
Paintings & Drawings by Michael McCaffrey
Michael McCaffrey received a BFA degree from the University of Kansas in 2006 and an MFA in painting from Indiana University in 2008. In the winter of 2016, Michael was awarded a two-week residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.
Michael exhibits both regionally and nationally, recently with a solo exhibition at the Lawrence Arts Center in Lawrence, KS, a group exhibition at the Leedy-Voulkos Arts Center in Kansas City, MO, and nationally at the 12th Annual International Drawing Discourse Exhibition at the University of North Carolina-Ashville. Michael's work is also published in Manifest Gallery's International Painting Annuals #5 and #9. In 2015 he received an international grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields foundation. This year (2021) he has been awarded a Fellowship to attend Ballinglen Arts Foundation in North County Mayo, Ireland in 2023.
From 2014-2017 Michael functioned as the Artist-in-Residence in Hashinger Hall at the University of Kansas. Currently, he is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Visual Art at the University of Kansas where he teaches all forms of Painting, Drawing and Life Drawing. He has chickens and cats, and enjoys eating bagels with his father in the park on Sunday mornings.
Of his work the artist states:
"Six years ago, after my mother's death, I returned to my hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. Since that time, I have explored themes of Family, Place, History, and Death. Most of my work begins with a series of observations of a specific space, such as my fathers kitchen, or his dining room table. Additionally, I'm fascinated with the family albums my mother kept while she was alive. Viewing these photographs causes a disconnect within me. The images from these albums represent my history and lineage, but I have no recollection of these moments. To connect with a past I often feel left out of, I work to re-record and translate these images into paint, paper, and charcoal. These materials are familiar, tangible, and real. I can feel them, their materiality makes these memories real.
As I work, I struggle with a balancing act of observation and artifice. I allow the work to migrate into a meditative, invented, and intuitive place. I oscillate between accurate visual representation and invented abstract forms. Shapes come together; recognizable forms materialize, then fall apart or become distorted. As this process unfolds, I hope to create a layered accumulation of paint and memories, a woven tapestry that captures a deeper and holistic view of my family's past and present. In these works, I hope to observe some personal truth about my memory, my family, and my place in it.”
This exhibition was selected from among 128 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 18th season.
north gallery
EPIPHANIES
Mixed Media & Alternative Processes
Like alchemists, artists walk the line between science, poetry, chemistry, and spirituality—usually steeped in history, but also crafting it moment by moment. Often our intuition, or the needs of our ideas, take us in a direction that is unexpected in an otherwise orderly, perhaps even traditional process. Materials merge, accidents occur, realizations are had—all affecting the magic of the work at hand, leading to epiphany.
In honor of the effort of searching, invention, and discovery by artists charting new paths we offered this call to artists for their works that represent mixed media or creation through alternative processes.
For this exhibit 64 artists submitted 268 works from 20 states and 3 countries, Brazil, Canada, and the United States. Thirteen works by the following 12 artists from 9 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Kirsten Ator
Brooklyn, New YorkSara Gallagher
Nicasio, CaliforniaAndrew Hardin
Louisville, KentuckyKaren Hillier
Bryan, TexasDavid Janesko
Houston, TexasMary Johnson
Denton, TexasSarah Knight
St. Louis, MissouriKathy Lovas
Dallas, TexasDereck Mangus
Baltimore, MarylandJane Nodine
Spartanburg, South CarolinaHeather Parrish
Iowa City, IowaKitty Schroeder
Cincinnati, Ohio
Heather Parrish
Kirsten Ator
December 10 - January 7, 2022 Ticketed Preview: Thursday, Dec. 9, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, Dec. 10, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation (Closing Reception): Thursday, January 6, 2022, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION (GET TICKETS HERE)
main gallery + drawing room
TONDO
Works Featuring the Circle
The circle is the obvious king of shapes, the sphere an emperor. Roundness is fullness, completeness, happiness, an answer to emptiness. A hole cannot be round—a hole is nothing. A zero is not round, it is only pretending. Alternatively, the reverse may be true.
An orbit is round. The slow spiral into the sun is round. An ellipse is round enough.
Round allows for transportation, for oiled ball-bearing movement, for spinning and whirling and motion. Round is never still. Round is a merry-go-itself.
Round is a problem for the art-installer, but it is usually worth it. It is the temporary but not forgotten structure for the embroiderer. It is a challenge for the painter and the drawer who feel the loss of corners. Roundness and smoothness are perfections, and therefore difficult to preserve. Where are circles supposed to be kept?
The sphere and the circle are deceptive in scale. Globes, beads, berries, stars, all round, and requiring context for their vastness.
Historically, mystically, Heaven and Earth are spheres, sea and sky the separation within them, hell being divided into circles. The year is marked by the completion of roundness moving around another roundness. It’s circles all the way down...
In honor of circles, and their roundness, we offer TONDO.
For this exhibit 142 artists submitted 513 works from 37 states, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., and 7 countries, including Canada, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United States. Thirty works by the following 20 artists from 13 states and 3 countries were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Matthew Ballou
Columbia, MissouriJames Betts
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaBob Bruch
Oberlin, OhioRobert Carpenter
Baton Rouge, LouisianaMichael DeLuca
Moorestown, New JerseyPatrick Gabler
Hamburg, GermanyDavid Harmon
Maize, KansasAlexandra Kiss
Toronto, CanadaKent Krugh
Fairfield, OhioRadha Lakshmi
Cincinnati, OhioDominic Lippillo
Starkville, MississippiLake Roberson Newton
Memphis, TennesseeShelby Shadwell
Laramie, WyomingMary Jo Toles
Cleveland, OhioScott Turri
Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaWeiting Wei
Powell, OhioBryan Whitney
New York, New YorkPatrick Wilson
Kalamazoo, MichiganSuzanne Wolfe
Honolulu, HawaiiEmil Yanos
Napa, California
Matthew Ballou
Patrick Gabler
Suzanne Wolfe
parallel space
PERCEPTUAL
Works Made from Direct Observation
“Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision—it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so.”
– Charles Hawthorne
In the early part of our lives as artists we learn that making art is somewhat less about the things that we make, and more about learning to see and wrestle with our comprehension of our subject. Early art instruction, particularly in drawing and painting, is often based on the idea that you should not respond what you think you see, but rather what you actually see.
This puzzle is the crux of our first lesson that there is a truth in the world we observe that we can train ourselves to pay better attention to, and that our effort to let go of our preconceptions, to catch that truth, not necessarily to record it but to make a gesture at it, to pin down a piece of it, is a thing that makes for great art.
With this in mind, PERCEPTUAL is an exhibit that primaries the artist’s process of perceiving their subject.
For this exhibit 73 artists submitted 287 works from 29 states, Puerto Rico, and 4 countries, including Canada, Portugal, Netherlands, and the United States. Seventeen works by the following 14 artists from 9 states and 3 countries were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Geoff Barnes
Sewickley, PennsylvaniaCole Carothers
Milford, OhioDaniel Dallmann
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaBrett Eberhardt
Providence, Rhode IslandAmy Erickson
Seattle, WashingtonM Tobias Hall
Santa Fe, New MexicoAlexandra Kiss
Toronto, CanadaAnne Lindberg
Wilmington, North CarolinaDaniel Riesmeyer
Thibodaux, LouisianaJaye Schlesinger
Ann Arbor, MichiganAnna Maria Vargiu
Warffum, NetherlandsChristina Weaver
Clyde, North CarolinaCaitlin Winner
Craryville, New YorkTaylor Woolwine
Shaker Heights, Ohio
Cole Carothers
Caitlin Winner
Alexandra Kiss
central gallery
ONE 12
The 12th Annual Manifest Prizewinner
Studio Corner and Floor
oil on linen, 60 x 85 1/2", 2020
by Brett Eberhardt (Providence, Rhode Island)
Of his work the artist states:
"I have been painting floors for over 15 years now. I guess that means it has become an obsession—both an obsession of floors as painted images and the technical challenges of rendering them. The scratches, spills, residues and remnants of past activity on these surfaces engage the more profound thoughts I have about life and experience. Floors seem to bear and capture everything.
When I was fortunate enough to be able to rent a studio space separate from my home for the first time, it was the floors of the spaces that were auditioning. The visual scrutiny I have paid this floor has led me down a rabbit hole of observational inquiry and discovery too elaborate to relay here.
I would like to acknowledge Albert Flocon’s and André Barre’s Curvilinear Perspective: From Visual Space to the Constructed Image, which established the mathematical foundation for curvilinear perspective in 1968 and confirmed my own observations and strategies for sighting and measuring. Applying this intense system of observational examination to what may be widely considered an unremarkable and unworthy subject is an attempt to have the floor unfold in grand celebration of both painting and experience.
I would like to thank the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts whose generous financial support made this painting possible."
Brett Eberhardt was born in Lewiston, Idaho in 1974. He received his BFA in Painting and Woodworking from Northern Michigan University and his MFA in Painting from Syracuse University. Brett’s home and studio are in Providence, Rhode Island. He is an Assistant Professor of Painting at Manchester Community College in Connecticut. His work is exhibited nationally and represented by Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Kent, CT.
ABOUT THE $5,000 MANIFEST PRIZE
Five seasons ago our board of directors increased the Manifest Prize to $5,000. This underscored our non-profit organization's desire to reward, showcase, celebrate, and document exceptional artwork being made today by working artists, and to do this in a tasteful non-commercial public context. Manifest's mission is centered on championing the importance of quality in visual art, supporting and encouraging artists at all levels. This project is one aspect of the realization of that mission.We respect the creative principle of reduction (the blind jury process) as it is employed to achieve an essential conclusive statement for each exhibit we produce. This is what has led to the high caliber of each Manifest exhibit, and to the gallery's notable following. We believe competition inspires excellence. Therefore we determined over a decade ago to launch the Manifest Prize in order to push the process to the ultimate limit—from among many to select just ONE work.
Manifest's jury process for the 12th Annual Manifest Prize included multiple levels of jury review of 771 works of all shapes, sizes, and media made by 172 artists from 35 states, Washington D.C., and 11 countries, including Canada, China, England, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States. The jury consisted of a total of 23 different volunteer jurors from across the U.S. and beyond. Each level of the process resulted in fewer works passing on to the next, until a winner was reached. The size and physical nature of the works considered was not a factor in the jury scoring and selection.
It should be noted that the winner and finalists, 11 works, represent the top scoring 1% of the jury pool. The winner represents the top one-tenth of 1% of the jury pool.
The winning work will be presented in Manifest's Central Gallery from December 10, 2021 through January 7, 2022. It will be accompanied by excerpts from juror statements and the artist's statement.
The Finalists:
The Artists of the Ten Runner-up / Finalist Works will also be featured in the season-documenting Manifest Exhibition Annual publication (MEAs18). These are works by Ivan Albreht (Palmetto Bay, Florida), Justin Archer (Atlanta, Georgia), Tamie Beldue (Swannanoa, North Carolina), Patricia Bellan-Gillen (Burgettstown, Pennsylvania), Brett Eberhardt (Providence, Rhode Island), Andrew Leventis (Charlotte, North Carolina), Aaron M Shay (Canton, Ohio), and David Van Ness (Flagstaff, Arizona).
north gallery
12th Annual TAPPED
Artists and their ProfessorsThe relationship between artists and their current or former instructors can be a powerful one. Even when this bond is left unstated, we carry our professors' voices forward in time as we mature as artists and people. We eventually realize that the instruction given by our teachers during our relatively brief careers as students continues to expand within us. We realize that the learning they inspired (or insisted upon) is a chain-reaction process that develops across our lifetime. All of us who have been students carry forward our teachers' legacy in one form or another. And those who are, or have been teachers, bear witness to the potency of studenthood.
Out of respect for this artist-teacher bond, and in honor of teachers working hard to help artists tap into a higher mind relative to art and life, Manifest is proud to present TAPPED, an annual exhibit that presents paired works of art by current or former artist/teacher pairs.
For this exhibit 67 artists submitted 217 works from 26 states and 4 countries, China, Ireland, Italy, and the United States. Sixteen works by the following 14 artists from 10 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
The artists are listed in pairings to illustrate their teacher/student relationship (past or present). Works on view will include paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, collages, and photographs. The exhibition layout is planned so that each pair of artists' works will be shown side-by-side or in close proximity. Visitors will be able to enjoy the variety of types of works while also considering the nature of influence between professor and student.
It is worth noting also that at least one of the artists in the 'former student' category are now themselves working as a professor.
Professor Student Jane Barrow
St. Louis, MissouriSutton Allen*
Fayetteville, ArkansasShelby Shadwell
Laramie, WyomingAmelia Borja
Azusa, CaliforniaArron Foster
Kent, OhioChandler Brutscher
Salem, OregonSarah Sedwick
Eugene, OregonSarah Calandro
Leander, TexasBlake Praytor
Greenville, South CarolinaSamantha Goss
Greer, South CarolinaPerin Mahler
Laguna Beach, CaliforniaJamie M Platt
South Point, OhioRyan Horvath
Edwardsville, IllinoisAbbi Ruppert*
Westover, West Virginia* current student
Jane Barrow
Sutton Allen*
Shelby Shadwell
Amelia Borja
Arron Foster
Chandler Brutscher
Sarah Sedwick
Sarah Calandro
Blake Praytor
Samantha Goss
Perin Mahler
Jamie M. Platt
Ryan Horvath
Abbi Ruppert*
January 21 - February 18, 2022 Ticketed Preview: Thursday, January 20, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, January 21, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation (Closing Reception): Thursday, February 17, 2022, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION
THE FIVE THEMES PROJECT — For this fourth exhibit period of our 18th season Manifest has created a very special set of exhibitions for the third annual Five Themes Project—offering five concurrent interrelated shows. This iteration of the project explores the spectrum of places where humans learn about who they are and how they define (or are defined by) their environment relative to the larger world.
main gallery
WILDERNESS
Works Exploring the Beyond
(Part of the Season 18 Five Themes Project)
The wilderness is a place where we are not. Cities, farms, and neighborhoods grow with or through some kind of cultivation of nature—but there are places that we have not, cannot, maybe should not bring to heel. Wilderness is where the landscape remains bigger than us, primal, and virgin. The wilderness is where our surroundings are still mysterious and powerful—the wilderness is where we can still manage to disappear.
What kind of powerful, dangerous, and uncontrolled places remain?
For this exhibit 48 artists submitted 177 works from 23 states. Twenty works by the following 14 artists from 11 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Dawn Waters Baker
Garland, TexasWilliam Batstone
Columbus, OhioKariann Fuqua
Oxford, MississippiTravis Graves
Johnson City, TennesseeAnthony Huang
Knoxville, TennesseeTonia Hughes
St. Joseph, MissouriMelanie Johnson
Warrensburg, MissouriLynne Miller Jones
Evanston, IllinoisAly Ogasian & Claudia O'Steen
Los Angeles, CaliforniaJames Ostrander
South Bend, IndianaSeana Reilly
Vienna, VirginiaKaren Rumora
Baltimore, OhioMatt Smith
Huntington, West VirginiaElizabeth Weber
Little Rock, Arkansas
Elizabeth Weber
Aly Ogasian & Claudia O'Steen
Travis Graves
drawing room
RURAL
Works Exploring the Countryside
(Part of the Season 18 Five Themes Project)Living in the “countryside” is often framed, maybe romanticized, as a lifestyle more in touch with the land, historically because the settlements around it are supported by its cultivation. (How have the economics of rural living changed?) People here live more distantly, and accordingly develop different kinds of family and networks to relate. Distance creates new customs—conventionally a sense of independence and self-reliance. (What do we rely on rural communities for? What do rural communities rely on?) The landscape is a little more uninhabited, but it is still well-mapped and divided. What does a rural home look like? A rural school? A rural place of worship? A rural life? A rural philosophy?
Where does 'rural' begin and end?
For this exhibit 74 artists submitted 305 works from 27 states and 3 countries, Canada, England, and the United States. Fourteen works by the following 9 artists from 8 states and Canada were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Sean Caulfield
Edmonton, CanadaLeah Gose
Wichita Falls, TexasJason Lanegan
Spanish Fork, UtahNatalie Pivoney
Batavia, IllinoisThomas Stoffregen
Saint Paul, MinnesotaCaleb Stoltzfus
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaGlenn Taylor
Ann Arbor, MichiganKathryn Yarkosky
Athens, OhioChris Young
Los Angeles, California
Sean Caulfield
Jason Lanegan
Chris Young
parallel space
SUBURBAN
Works Exploring Suburbia
(Part of the Season 18 Five Themes Project)
The suburbs encircle and bloom out from a city. Think of it like a circulatory system where cars, buses, and trains flow into a heart along highways and bridges, then are pumped back out in the evenings, past grocery stores and strip-malls and finally through the snaking, branching streets, ending in cul-de-sacs. It is the classic habitat of the "American Dream"; its markers, its symbols, are specific—lawn mowers, garages, apartment complex pools maybe, streets named for trees, communities named for forests or orchards they may or may not have supplanted, frames for unfinished houses—even if their particular aesthetics have changed.
What attracts us to this very in-between space, where you have neighbors to wave at, kids to play with, a job to drive to, and clearly drawn property lines?Is this American Dream of suburbia just a pretty package for divide and conquer—a new opiate for the masses—not just limited to "America"? Or is it the natural evolution of a much more complex and perhaps even beautiful organism we cannot fully perceive but for which we all play a critical role—the outer fringes of an outstretched body of humanity?
For this exhibit 38 artists submitted 134 works from 19 states and Washington D.C. Fifteen works by the following 13 artists from 12 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Maddie Aunger
Lincoln, NebraskaChris Bergeron
Metairie, LouisianaBrooks Cashbaugh
Iowa City, IowaAdam Crowley
Kansas City, MissouriRichard J Diedrich
Naples, FloridaKareem Obey
Seattle, WashingtonChris Offutt
Oxford, MississippiShannon Pritchard
Indianapolis, IndianaTyler Thenikl
Athens, OhioJames Wade
Lexington, KentuckyJake Wilson
Glen Carbon, IllinoisRoscoe Wilson
Hamilton, OhioStephen Yuen
Honolulu, Hawaii
Maddie Aunger
Chris Offutt
James Wade
central gallery
URBAN
Works About the City, or City Life
(Part of the Season 18 Five Themes Project)
Cities grow, out and up. Mostly up. Cities are built new on top of old, old converted to new, sometimes for hundreds of years. The oldest cities may be whole civilizations deep. This density is its own kind of wilderness, though one made of bricks and concrete, rather than trees. Opportunities draw us to cities, and the connectivity they allow for often keeps us there. The concentration of human life—of shifting architectural design, of streets, of neighborhoods, of food, of languages and accents, of the spaces behind and between buildings, of the culture that thrives on deep talent pools—all of this creates distinct identities for each of our cities.
What does it look like to have so much of human civilization concentrated on one spot? How does the City shape culture, everyday life, and the art of our time?
For this exhibit 42 artists submitted 161 works from 19 states and 4 countries, Canada, Japan, Slovakia, and the United States. Seventeen works by the following 11 artists from 9 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Dylan Bannister
Rock Hill, South CarolinaMiranda Brandon
Minneapolis, MinnesotaJohn Ferry
Prairie Village, KansasChristine Holtz
Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaClayton Lewis
Ann Arbor, MichiganDereck Mangus
Baltimore, MarylandMusic X Habitat X Art
(Collaboration by Scott Lowell Sherman, Amelie Jiang,
and Yaoyue Huang)
Cincinnati, OhioMarlene Steele
Cincinnati, OhioThomas Stoffregen
Saint Paul, MinnesotaLydia Thompson
Charlotte, North CarolinaRaphael Warshaw
Gainesville, Virginia
Dylan Bannister
John Ferry
Marlene Steele
north gallery
POST URBAN
Works About What Comes Next
(Part of the Season 18 Five Themes Project)
What is going to change?
Our planet is changing, and our policies, economics, interactions both on-and-off line, all of that will have to follow suit. How will our homes and lifestyles adapt? Is the future utopian, full of high-speed rails and sleek buildings? Will we bury one another under a new layer of history? How densely can we live? How separated can we be? Will our coastlines be swallowed up, and fires eat the wilds and neighborhoods alike? Will we migrate? To where? Can we stop it? How?What would that look like? How do creative ideas and expressions help resolve today's approaches to this future for the better?
For this exhibit 22 artists submitted 71 works from 15 states and 2 countries, Canada and the United States. Sixteen works by the following 10 artists from 9 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Jacob Crook
Starkville, MississippiSarah Deppe
Madison, WisconsinJesse Egner
Brooklyn, New YorkRebecca Harrell
Austin, TexasDawn Holder
Indianapolis, IndianaJohn Homer
Ft. Thomas, KentuckyRobert Jones
Ypsilanti, MichiganBob Mosier
Conroe, TexasMary Nees
Johnson City, TennesseeCollin Richard
Manchester Center, Vermont
Jesse Egner
John Homer
Robert Jones
March 4 - April 1, 2022 Ticketed Preview: Thursday, March 3, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, March 4, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation (Closing Reception): Thursday, March 31, 2022, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION (TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE)
main gallery + drawing room
OHIO, KENTUCKY, INDIANA
Regional Showcase Exhibition
In 18 seasons Manifest's projects have included works by artists representing 50 states and 43 countries. Beginning in our tenth season, we launched an ongoing series of exhibits focusing on works by artists in our three-state region. Seven years ago we added projects that also focused on other definable regions outside our own. These Regional Showcases were offered to complement the very wide geographical makeup of most Manifest exhibits with a closer look at art being made here in our own backyard, as well as provide a platform from which we could examine the trends, qualities, and idiosyncrasies of contemporary art within specific geographical areas and compare them to our own.
This exhibit had no specific requirement for type, media, or style of work to be submitted. This was an open call. Submissions ranged widely from traditional to very conceptual, abstract, and experimental work. Jury selections were made based on the overall quality of the works submitted.
For this exhibit 190 artists submitted 745 works from Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Twenty-five works by the following 19 artists from our three-state region (6 from Indiana, 6 from Kentucky, and 7 from Ohio) were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Kelly Asbury
Cold Spring, KentuckyMiriam Baranov
Columbus, OhioEdward Bernstein
Bloomington, IndianaKatherine Brenner
Cincinnati, OhioJustin Carney
Bloomington, IndianaPatty Flauto
Rocky River, OhioAshley Pryor Geiger
Swanton, OhioRandall Godawa
Taylor Mill, KentuckyRon Isaacs
Lexington, KentuckyBenjamin Lambert
Berea, OhioDamon Mohl
Crawfordsville, IndianaJordan Morgan
Goshen, KentuckyHeidi Neumann
Lexington, KentuckyDavid Ondrik
Bloomington, IndianaElvan Penny
Bowling Green, KentuckyKevin Rose Schultz
Floyds Knobs, IndianaDan Segal
Lakewood, OhioSam Toland
Oxford, OhioMark Van Buskirk
Richmond, Indiana
Katherine Brenner
Edward Bernstein
Benjamin Lambert
parallel space
ORNAMENTAL
Works Exploring Aesthetics of Decoration
How can you tell when something is special?
Start with cake: there are cakes, and then there are wedding cakes. A wedding cake is covered with carefully designed icing, written on in cursive, adorned with edible flowers, glitter, stacked high in tiers and presented in the center of a table. Another example, a gift is a gift; a present comes with a bow.
To mark something as notable, we decorate it. We nest special things in beauty.
Ornamental is an exhibit of works that explore the aesthetics of decoration, glamour, patterns, and surfaces.For this exhibit 77 artists submitted 283 works from 27 states and 2 countries, including Slovakia and the United States. Ten works by the following 10 artists from 8 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Eric Grasham
Denton, TexasJennifer Kirkpatrick
Youngstown, OhioGlover Marfo
Oxford, OhioAnthony Mead
Lexington, KentuckyAnette Millington
Beacon, New YorkJessica Mohl
Crawfordsville, IndianaJane Nodine
Spartanburg, South CarolinaTavia Sanza
Columbia, MissouriWeiting Wei
Powell, OhioSuzanne Wolfe
Honolulu, Hawaii
Tavia Sanza
Anthony Mead
central gallery
ACCRETION
Sculpture & Prints by Bonnie Ralston
Bonnie Ralston is a visual artist living and working in NYC. Her process-driven sculpture and works on paper serve as a record of personal inquiry into identity and transformation, and bring attention to the beauty and potential of the everyday and the overlooked. The natural sciences provide inspiration and departure points for her work: she explores topics as varied as invertebrate metamorphosis and geologic time.
Secondary schooling led Ralston to believe that her passions for art and science could not be combined nor pursued concurrently. So when college applications came due, Ralston chose fine art over environmental science.
The BFA she earned in 1996 from Hartford Art School launched a successful career in graphic design that eventually led Ralston, in 2002, to work for The Museum of Modern Art. Immersed in and influenced by the canon of modern and contemporary art that surrounded her, Ralston refined her own aesthetic while gaining the equivalent of a graduate degree in modern art history. For seven years, she collaborated with artists, curators, and museum educators on exhibitions and printed ephemera until the call of the wild became too great to ignore.
In 2009, she left her life and job in NYC to follow 1,685 miles of white blazes on the Appalachian Trail. During those six months, she reconnected to herself and to her love for the natural world. Her return to NYC marked the end of her 15-year design career and the beginning of a second career in environmental education. Through her MS coursework at Lesley University’s Ecological Teaching and Learning program, Ralston came to understand the interconnectedness of art and science, and more importantly, that she did not have to abandon either. In 2016, she resumed a regular studio practice merging her love for both.
Ralston’s work has been included in exhibitions nationwide and is in private collections in Connecticut and New York. She is the founder of the fledgling artist-run event collective Gowanus Night Heron, which hosted its first two events in 2021. She also serves as the Director of Teaching & Learning Support for NYC Parks.
Of her work the artist states:
"I am fascinated by states of change and the continual act of becoming, which New York City streets, sidewalks, and buildings display in excess. My visual inspiration comes from these moments that reveal the built environment softening and giving way to time, wear, and the natural processes that govern us all.
The intrinsic limitations of my chosen media—street refuse, clay, oxides, salt, and water—challenge me to engage fully with what is in front of me. Not unlike a scientist seeking ultimate truths, the promise of discovery (about materials, process, and self) drives my practice.”
This exhibition was selected from among 128 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 18th season.
north gallery
MARK
Works Focused on Mark Making
Art builds from a touch: pen to paper, light to sensor, tool to medium, brush to canvas. That touch leaves behind a signature, the mark, the most fundamental impression of the artist’s contact with the work. These impressions can exist on their own or be used to build something greater than its parts, but still given life by them.
MARK is an exhibit about the artist’s hand, the signature left by the maker’s tool, and the energy it contains.
For this exhibit 136 artists submitted 538 works from 36 states, Washington D.C., and 5 countries, including Canada, England, France, India, and the United States. Twenty-one works by the following 17 artists from 11 states and 3 countries were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Bartosz Beda
Dallas, TexasPirjo Berg
Grand Forks, North DakotaJake Boggs
Kailua-Kona, HawaiiMichael Bonardi
Columbus, OhioDavid Clark
Wheat Ridge, ColoradoMartie Geiger-Ho
Bradford, PennsylvaniaGianluca Giarrizzo
Harleysville, PennsylvaniaDaniel Gluibizzi
Elmwood Park, New JerseyTracy Hill
Warrington, EnglandTony Holmquist
Durango, ColoradoKelly Isaak
Calgary, CanadaPatti Jordan
Montclair, New JerseyFelicia Leach
Columbia, MissouriRyan O'Malley
Corpus Christi, TexasWilliam Potter
Indianapolis, IndianaSabrina Sabella
Elmwood Park, IllinoisTravis Schmiesing
San Francisco, California
Sabrina Sabella
Bartosz Beda
April 15 - May 13, 2022 Ticketed Preview: Thursday, April 14, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, April 15, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation (Closing Reception): Thursday, May 12, 2022, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION
main gallery + drawing room
DRAWN
9th Annual International Exhibition of Contemporary DrawingManifest was founded in-part to stand for the importance of drawing as a process, skill, and discipline, and as a continuing viable product of the creative fine art and design fields. Since its inception our nonprofit organization has continued to incorporate drawing-based programming, including education (Drawing Center), publications (INDA), and gallery exhibits into the broader spectrum of its projects. The artists who formed Manifest in 2004 knew that despite their diverging career paths (architecture, art history, painting, industrial design, photography) they were brought together by their connection to drawing and their mutually intense but multi-faceted pursuit of this fundamental discipline.
In honor of the original spirit of the founding ideals of Manifest, the gallery launched DRAWN almost a decade ago as an annual exhibition. DRAWN seeks to survey and present the broad scope of drawing being made today. This gallery exhibit is completely separate from but nevertheless complements, and sometimes shares work in common with, the now triennial INDA publication project.
DRAWN called for artists to submit works of drawing in any media relevant to the practice (including non-traditional approaches), any style, and any genre (fine art, illustration, design, conceptual, realism, etc.).
For this exhibit 167 artists submitted 616 works from 38 states and 10 countries including Australia, Canada, China, England, India, Italy, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Portugal, and the United States. Twenty-four works by the following 17 artists from 11 states and 3 countries were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Roger Derrick
Long Branch, New JerseySamantha Haring
Cincinnati, OhioJudith Berk King & Bryan Hiveley
Miami Shores, FloridaChristine Kirouac
Winnipeg, CanadaRobert Long
Flagstaff, ArizonaPaige Martin
Wilkes Barre, PennsylvaniaBen Moreau
Seattle, WashingtonJoe Morzuch
Starkville, MississippiAnthony Pessler
Phoenix, ArizonaMichael Reedy
Ann Arbor, MichiganAlberto Repetti
Genova, ItalyJanvier Rollande
Harpswell, MaineChris Sancomb
Peacedale, Rhode IslandAmy Schissel
Miami, FloridaShelby Shadwell
Cincinnati, OhioKathleen Thum
Central, South CarolinaLee Waldman
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Michael Reedy
Amy Schissel
parallel space
PORTAL
Doorways & Openings
A doorway is the necessary afterthought of making a place, but one that takes on a great deal of importance once you realize that you need it—simply passing though a portal changes your experience of the other side. You are awed by a foreboding entryway, you forget your reason for entering a room after walking through a doorway. You intimately experience a movie through the phone in your hand.
Passing through, or looking through, the framework of a portal sets the tone for the experience within.
PORTAL called to artists everywhere for works of any kind, for an exhibition of that which separates and encloses the movement of inside to out—doorways, windows, frames, lenses, all the means by which we leave one space or state and enter another.
For this exhibit 171 artists submitted 628 works from 37 states and 5 countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States. Eleven works by the following 9 artists from 7 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Steven Carrelli
Chicago, IllinoisKatherine Colborn
Cincinnati, OhioJacob Docksey
St. Paul, MinnesotaCorey Drieth
Colorado Springs, ColoradoPeter Hildebrand
Brooklyn, New YorkRhea Nowak
Oneonta, New YorkChris Sancomb
Peacedale, Rhode IslandLisa Schenkelberg
Shaker Heights, OhioAmy Schissel
Miami, Florida
Lisa Schenkelberg
Peter Hildebrand
central gallery
NOTIONS & IMPRESSIONS
Mixed-Media Photo Based Works by
Morgan Ford Willingham
Morgan Ford Willingham is a photographic artist and educator. After receiving an MFA in photography from Texas Woman’s University, she moved to the Midwest to pursue a career in academia and art making. Morgan explores pop culture, advertising, societal norms, and historical representations to better understand its influence on women, and their identity and self-image, using various mediums, including photography, book arts, and installation. Morgan's work has been widely exhibited, including Humble Arts Gallery in NYC, Filter Photo in Chicago, and the Hite Institute of Art in Louisville, KY. She is currently Associate Professor of Photography at Emporia State University in Kansas.
Of her work the artist states, in-part:
"Examining and reflecting upon the mother-child relationship, from the attempts to raise a child and to shape what their future holds, to the ways in which the child forges their own path, these domestic portraits of my daughter and me attest to the selfhood, uncertainty, and parallels that are threaded between us. The images independently and collectively signify the intimate daily circumstances, and the historical and cultural influences that shape us both as individuals and as a familial unit.”
This exhibition was selected from among 128 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 18th season.
north gallery
DIPTYCH/TRIPTYCH
Works Made of Two or Three Parts
An idea can call for multiplicity—you can’t always say everything in one image, one object. It is sometimes better, then, to work with an orchestra instead of a soloist.
Diptychs and triptychs are traditional modes for an artist to use multiples in their work, each with their own histories and idiosyncrasies. Two images together can present dichotomy, an either/or, a balance, an alternative. The triptych pulls the viewer into the realm of sequence, of beginning, middle, and end, of the central work flanked by attendant handmaidens.
For this exhibit 167 artists submitted 541 works from 34 states and 4 countries, including Barbados, Canada, Russia, and the United States. Eleven works by the following 7 artists from 6 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Patricia Bacon
Lyons, New YorkJohn Yoyogi Fortes
Sacramento, CaliforniaSerge Hamad
Fort Lee, New JerseyRobert Jinkins
Belmont, WisconsinRose Schlemmer
Menomonie, WisconsinD.L. Simmons
Flint, TexasThomas Stoffregen
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Patricia Bacon
John Yoyogi Fortes
Tom Stoffregen
May 27 - June 24, 2022 Ticketed Preview: Thursday, May 26, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, May 27, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation (Closing Reception): Thursday, June 23, 2022, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION (TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE)
main gallery
RITES OF PASSAGE
18th Annual Emerging Artists Exhibit
An Exhibit of Works by Current or Recent Undergraduates.Initiated in 2005, The Rites of Passage exhibits were developed to support student excellence by offering a public venue for the display of advanced creative research, to promote young artists as they transition into their professional careers, and to bring the positive creative energies of national institutions together in one place.
With this eighteenth annual installment of the Rites series, Manifest offers a $500 best of show prize to reward excellence at this early career level, as well as a non-monetary Director's Choice Award.
The Rites call for submissions was open to students graduating or expecting to graduate in 2021, 2022, or 2023 (undergraduate juniors, seniors, and those who graduated last year).
For this exhibit 72 artists representing 52 academic institutions in 27 states submitted 253 works for consideration. Eleven works by the following 9 artists from 8 states representing 8 different academic institutions are featured in the 18th annual Rites of Passage exhibit.* Artists are listed with their academic status as of the dates of their entry into this competition.
Why is this important?
Passing through an accredited college art program is one way among many to become an artist. While it does not guarantee success, it does serve as a measurable achievement, and if the degree granting institution is holding up its end of the deal, each artist who attains a degree through such a program has met or surpassed certain standards. For programs which are appropriately rigorous, passing a student is seriously meaningful business. Manifest's Rites of Passage is meant to serve as an external view into this process, across a broader scope than just one institution, and is offered as a bridge between academic pursuit and the general public.The nine early exhibit catalogs for Rites, and now the Manifest Exhibition Annuals, have over time become a compelling document framing a view into the state of art in academia, and quite possibly the launching place for future notable artists of the world.
Featuring works by:
Austin Dawes
Senior, Oklahoma State UniversityJason Dorler
2021 Graduate, University of West FloridaEtta Gallaway
Junior, Bowling Green State UniversityForrest Hensley
Senior, Edinboro UniversityRuoxi Hua
Senior, The College of William and MaryJason Lindsay
Senior, Winthrop UniversityGrace Misko
Junior, Bowling Green State UniversityReagan Profit
2021 Graduate, University of KentuckySamuel Stoddard
Junior, Utah Valley University
Etta Gallaway
Jason Lindsay
Samuel Stoddard
drawing room
MIMIC
Works About Replication & Simulation
Are there trustworthy reasons for trying to appear as something that you are not?
In nature, mimicry allows certain creatures to survive: hiding via camouflage, or deterring predators by baring poisonous colors. Creating an illusion through verisimilitude is a foundational part of all kinds of art, and reflects the skill and sensitivity of the maker.
Mimicry implies a reverence for life; successful imitation requires knowing what it copies well.
How do you choose which aspects of an original that you want to simulate? What are the essential qualities of liquid that an animator should study, in order to re-create it on screen? What cadences and mannerisms does an actor re-interpret to call up a person? Which movements are most important for a prosthetic limb to perform?
What does mimicry reveal about the original? Is the illusion even better than the original?
MIMIC is an exhibition about replication, simulation, and the relationship between life and illusion.
For this exhibit 54 artists submitted 195 works from 29 states and 2 countries, Canada and the United States. Sixteen works by the following 12 artists from 10 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
John Anderson
Florence, MassachusettsLeslie Berns
Hudson, New YorkJanet Bogart
Ann Arbor, MichiganDylan DeWitt
West Hartford, ConnecticutJulie Gray
Saco, MaineSharon Harms
Nashville, TennesseeRon Isaacs
Lexington, KentuckyBetsy Morningstar
Windsor Mill, MarylandSteve Novick
Somerville, MassachusettsAaron Pickens
Greentown, IndianaHolly Ross
Saginaw, MichiganKatherine Rumminger
Greenwood, South Carolina
Katherine Rumminger
Dylan DeWitt
parallel space
MAGNITUDE SEVEN
18th Annual Small Works Exhibit
An exhibit of works from across the U.S. and Germany, each no larger than about 7" in size.
Back in 2005 we launched the Magnitude Seven project with the idea that small works would be easier and more practical for artists to send to Manifest in Cincinnati from anywhere in the world. This proved true, and right off it was this exhibit that lead to Manifest earning the tag line 'the neighborhood gallery for the world.'
Inevitably MAG 7 is a wild and varied mix of works, including an extreme range of media, styles, and artist intents. The exhibit always gains unity from the common scale, so even disparate works seem to engage in playful and tolerant conversation across the gallery or side by side. We have found that having a gallery full of hand-sized works is a joyful experience of small things well made, a menagerie of creativity, and a poignant reminder that bigger is not always better.
We are happy to offer this eighteenth annual exhibit of works no larger than seven inches in any dimension!
For this exhibit 131 artists submitted 504 works from 31 states and 9 countries, Canada, China, England, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the United States. Eighteen works by the following 15 artists from 9 states and Germany were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Rob Anderson
Villa Hills, KentuckyStephanie Berrie
Cincinnati, OhioJohn DeHoog
Ann Arbor, MichiganDaniel DeLuna
Rochester, New YorkSimone DiLaura
New York, New YorkMark Eisendrath
Baltimore, MarylandGila Epshtein
Berlin, GermanyFrederick Fochtman
Columbus, OhioKelsey Giroux
Cheyenne, WyomingTrey Hock
Kansas City, MissouriRobert Levy
New York, New YorkRuss Revock
Cleveland, OhioDane Schumacher
Appleton, WisconsinLawrence Tarpey
Lexington, KentuckyEduardo Valdes
Riverview, Florida
Rob Anderson
Daniel DeLuna
Trey Hock
central gallery
MAR 2021/22
Manifest Artist Residency Showcase Exhibition
SPACE BLANKETS
Drawings by Shelby Shadwell
The year-long Manifest Artist Residency was launched in 2012 with the goal to provide artists with a combination of free studio space, supportive resources such as teaching opportunities and free access to life drawing and other programs at the Manifest Drawing Center, the compelling creative culture that permeates all Manifest programs, and routine engagement with the visiting public during each of our nine exhibit periods each season. To cement their year of development each artist receives another benefit of the program–a MAR Showcase solo exhibition.
This solo exhibit features works made by our 2021/22 Artist in Residence, Shelby Shadwell. This marks the culmination of Shelby's residency at Manifest which officially concludes in June. The exhibit serves as a celebration of his achievements and adoption into the growing list of Manifest residency alumni.
Shelby Shadwell is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Wyoming. Born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, Shelby received his BFA in 2003 from Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in 2006 from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
A two-time recipient of the Visual Arts Fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council, Shelby actively exhibits across the nation. His more recent exhibitions include LIKE AND SHARE IF YOU AGREE!!!, a solo show at the South Bend Museum of Art, DRAWN at Manifest Creative Research Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, and DRAWING DISCOURSE at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Shelby was awarded a solo exhibition at the APEX Space at the Portland Art Museum in OR in 2016, and his work is included in their permanent collection.
For his research sabbatical from 2021-2022, Shelby accepted the Manifest Artist Residency Award, and he has been very productive making new work in the Residency studio and collaborating on educational opportunities at the Drawing Center in Cincinnati, Ohio since July 2021.
Of his work the artist states:
"I am making large scale charcoal and pastel drawings of space blankets (aka solar blankets, emergency blankets, thermal blankets, etc) which are made of a compact lightweight material used to regulate temperatures of things like spacecraft and human beings in particularly cold circumstances. One might see them packed in a first aid kit for camping or, more poignantly in recent years, wrapped around migrants detained in camps near the border between the US and Mexico. While the material is cheap and flimsy, it has a brilliant sparkling appearance reminiscent of precious stones or metals, thus evoking a comparison to fools gold. The subject also maintains themes from previous bodies of work such as how the representation of the abstract folds and contours in the material can evoke pareidolia, or the perception of recognizable form in a random conglomeration or formation of things. I maintain an interest in the implications of how the human mind, as a kind of inference engine, seeks to find patterns where they may or may not exist."
north gallery
MAR 2021/22
Manifest Artist Residency Showcase Exhibition
In The Stillness We Sit
Drawings and Objects by Ed Erdmann
The year-long Manifest Artist Residency was launched in 2012 with the goal to provide artists with a combination of free studio space, supportive resources such as teaching opportunities and free access to life drawing and other programs at the Manifest Drawing Center, the compelling creative culture that permeates all Manifest programs, and routine engagement with the visiting public during each of our nine exhibit periods each season. To cement their year of development each artist receives another benefit of the program–a MAR Showcase solo exhibition.
This solo exhibit features works made by our 2021/22 Artist in Residence, Ed Erdmann. This marks the culmination of Ed's residency at Manifest which officially concludes in June. The exhibit serves as a celebration of his year-long journey and adoption into the growing list of Manifest residency alumni.
Ed Erdmann is a United States artist originally from Menomonie, Wisconsin. He has been based in Cincinnati, Ohio since 2020 when he joined Manifest’s Scholar in Residence program, and continued on through a second year as a Manifest Artist in Residence. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Stout. Ed's work investigates the landscape and its relation to human mortality and myth. Through exploration of natural forces, he looks for ways of integrating those forces into his work. Wind, plants, trees, rivers, and soil all are active elements that find their way into his paintings and drawings. Ed's work has been shown in solo and group shows locally and regionally in places such as: Wisconsin Public Radio, Watermark Art Center, Bemidji, MN, and Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison WI.
Of his work the artist states:
"Lines connect us to each other, acquaintances, friends, and family. Lines relate to the geological layering that stacks over millions of years. Trees cast lines across the sky or shadows onto the ground. Books are filled with lines. Words, paragraphs, and pages make up the geological history of our written word the same way stone, sand, and clay make up geological history.Time has power. Like Sisyphus, the Earth is bound to cycles. The landscape speaks softly. Time is an arrow. Once it is loosed from the bow it will not stop until it hits the ground. Our human mortality acts in the same way.
The landscape speaks honestly.
Death is real. We, in varying degrees, have to wade through the mucky banks of mortality. All things need time to grow and become what they are. My work grows and changes through the restriction of control within the seasons. The weather calibrates the work that I make.
This work is based in observation. It is often a quiet and personal action. Through walks, I find connections to landscape and meditation in the stillness. The repetition and changing nature of seasonal weather guides the choices and materials that I use. Like a prayer, I repeat patterns, forms, and actions."
July 8 - August 5, 2022 Ticketed Wine & Cheese Preview
(GET TICKETS HERE): Thursday, July 7, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, July 8, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation (Closing Reception): Thursday, August 4, 2022, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION (TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE)
main gallery
THREAD
Works of Art & Design Made Primarily Using Fiber-Based Materials or Processes
A thread is a kind of line. A thread is a line with a function; a thread binds, wraps, it ties. When multiplied and twisted together it becomes an object with strength, one that can offer warmth like a blanket or catch the air like a sail. Thread can be turned into an object that is soft and comforting, and it can be woven or wrapped into one offering structure, protection, and even fire resistance.
All manner of metals, plant matter, and plastics can be pulled or spun into string. Just like a mark, or a line, a thread is a unit of construction.
THREAD was offered as a competitive call for any work of art or design that connects, binds, winds, warms, strengthens, ensnares, and unites. Submissions were open to non-traditional sewing/stitching materials, as well as fiber-based processes that are surprising and unexpected.
For this exhibit 189 artists submitted 709 works from 38 states, Washington D.C., and 4 countries, including Canada, Germany, Israel, and the United States. Eleven works by the following 11 artists from 10 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Featuring works by:
Margery Amdur
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaJen Brown
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaBrian Divis
Gurnee, IllinoisSally Garner
Loganville, GeorgiaAnn Harwell
Wendell, North CarolinaMary Anne Jordan
Lawrence, KansasTina Linville
Marysville, CaliforniaMelissa Lusk & McCrystle Wood
Cincinnati, OhioSarah Pickett
Dallas, TexasLisa Flowers Ross
Boise, IdahoColton Rothwell
Missoula, Montana
Lisa Flowers Ross
Sally Garner
drawing room
OBSOLETE
Works About the Outdated or No Longer Useful
How long does something matter?
How long is a thing in vogue?
At what point is something worn out, no longer useful, unredeemable?
Obsolescence is often recognized like an afterthought, after we’ve already moved on from a thing’s purpose. Our bodies are littered with evidence of our biological histories, from our appendix, to the tailbone, to wisdom teeth. Goosebumps will spread across our skin, a vestigial response to cold or fear, but we lack the heavy hairs that would warm us or make us appear larger.
Many objects, ideas, and communication styles we use don’t last a lifetime, some hardly last a full year. We shape our habits around tools with shelf lives—how long can you trust a phone charger to remain compatible?
Sometimes obsolescence is planned. A lightbulb is designed with its lifetime already measured. A company can choose to no longer support a machine, a program, an operating system, and we know then that its days are numbered.
There is an existential threat along with this ecological one—if your CD player is now sitting on a shelf, gathering dust, how much of that metaphorical dust is falling to rest on you? Rather than being frightening, could it be a relief to no longer be relevant?
Can something be obsolete, but still have worth? If so, what does that look like?
OBSOLETE is an exhibition about the vestigial, the replaced, the out-of-style, and the things that remain without necessarily being dead.
For this exhibit 59 artists submitted 193 works from 24 states. Twelve works by the following 12 artists from 8 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Presenting works by:
Sam Bulleit
Chicago, IllinoisSeamus Carey
Chicago, IllinoisRose DeSloover
Southfield, MichiganJennifer Eddins
Mt Airy, MarylandPete Edwards
Richmond, KentuckyHillary Gattian
Athens, OhioJacob Gibson
Denton, TexasCooper Holoweski
Bloomfield Hills, MichiganJohn Lee
Williamsburg, VirginiaAnavi Bhushan Nugyal and Meha Ray
Chicago, IllinoisMaria-Elena Pombo
Brooklyn, New YorkL. Katherine Roberts
San Angelo, Texas
Rose DeSloover
Hillary Gattian
Cooper Holoweski
parallel space
TIME OUT
Paintings by Sam King
Sam King has exhibited at venues across the United States, including The Painting Center, NYC; Unrequited Leisure, Nashville; The Provincial, Kaleva, MI; MANIFEST Gallery, Cincinnati; Laconia Gallery, Boston, among others, as well as university galleries including University of North Carolina Greensboro, Western Connecticut State University, Lower Columbia College, and University of Arkansas Fort Smith.
King has collaborated with other artists and musicians on a number of occasions, most recently with Brooklyn-based experimental rock quartet JOBS, for the audio-visual release 'Similar Canvas' (Ramp Local #47). In 2020, he was a resident at the Hambidge Center, supported by the Lee and Margaret Echols Fellowship for musicians. In 2019, he curated 'Shelters, Monuments,' featuring the work of artists Whiting Tennis and Sarah Norsworthy, for The Provincial. He was a 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council's Individual Artist Fellowship.
King's work is held in a number of public and private collections. He attended the University of Tulsa (BFA, 2003) and Indiana University (MFA, 2005). He resides in Fayetteville, AR, where he serves as an Associate Professor for the University of Arkansas School of Art.
Of his work the artist states:
"My paintings embrace and embody the disruption of time and material. When a painting fails to resolve, or its resolution fails to convince me over time, I remove it from its stretchers, cut it into pieces, glue the pieces to newly stretched canvases, and go to work again. Its tricky to say how long it takes me to make a painting, because for me, a painting is a combination of something several years old and something that just happened. It is a continuum, this building, breaking apart, and re-building, with a rhythm that is unique from others I know. That the paintings are suggestive of space, form, and light is inevitable to me, and I welcome it. I dont think it is possible to transcend the apparatus of interpretation, but one can confound or delight it, among other things. Metaphor is relatedly inevitable.
My experience is bound up in these paintings. Events from the past echo into the present, for better and worse. Friction might resolve into harmony, or render a whole arrangement unsustainable. Work wears us out and we seek restoration. The obvious becomes revelatory. Plans fail. Structures break down. Improvisation carries us through."
This exhibition was selected from among 128 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 18th season.
central gallery
REFRESH
Buon Fresco Paintings by Michael Nichols
Michael Nichols creates ghostly forms using traditional painting and drawing techniques. His work explores contemporary applications of two ancient mediums, metalpoint drawing and buon fresco painting. Nichols has exhibited work abroad and throughout the United States in venues that include the Boston Center for the Arts, the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, and the Huntsville Museum of Art. International publications that feature his work include several volumes of the International Painting Annual published by Manifest Press, and two recent publications, Gateway to Drawing, A Complete Guide published by Thames and Hudson and Silverpoint and Metalpoint Drawing: A Complete Guide to the Medium published by Routledge Press.
Nichols work has been recognized with numerous awards and honors. In 2018, the Great Meadows Foundation, in Louisville awarded him with Professional Artist Development Grant. In 2010, The Kentucky Arts Council recognized him with an Al Smith Fellowship. Western Kentucky University has supported his research in the technique of buon fresco painting with numerous faculty grants. The most recent WKU research grant, Influences, Conversations about fresco in Italy, included travel to Monza, Italy, where the Scuola di Affresco Andrea Sala Nichols hosted Nichols to lecture about Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry frescoes.
Michael earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Fontbonne University. He lives in Bowling Green, KY with his partner, artist Leslie Nichols. Michael is a Professor of Art at Western Kentucky University.
Of his work the artist states:
"I explore contemporary applications of the ancient technique of buon fresco painting. Traditionally, this form of painting was applied to freshly plastered surfaces such as walls and ceilings. While fresco has a long history as an architectural feature, contemporary use of the medium is barely existent due to its physical demands and technical difficulty. I am interested in creating frescoes that push the boundaries of the medium in ways that engage contemporary viewers, while preserving the important time-honored fundamentals of the technique. Using a variety of traditional and contemporary supports such as ceramic, Styrofoam, and Magnesium Oxide panels, I make portable frescoes that float off the wall. I am also interested in pushing the boundaries of traditional fresco imagery. Historically, powerful institutions and patrons asserted their world views through fresco. As a counterpoint to a top-down use of the medium, I pioneered the technique of painting frescoes with an airbrush. In a nod to graffiti art, I spray pigment onto plaster in ways that veil my subjects. These dispersed figures become indefinite, ephemeral, and spiritual."
This exhibition was selected from among 128 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 18th season.
north gallery
MASTER PIECES
16th Annual Exhibit of Emerging Masters
Building upon the philosophy of the Rites of Passage exhibits for undergrads, each year Manifest offers a similar opportunity to current and recent graduate students for exhibiting at Manifest. This sixteenth installment of the Master Pieces project continues to reveal the intensity and professionalism of students working towards their terminal academic degree in the field of visual arts.
As do our annual Rites of Passage and TAPPED exhibits, Master Pieces reflects our organization's commitment to surveying, documenting, and presenting the state of arts in academia on an ongoing basis. We believe this is important to artists, the public, students, and teachers.
Often the most exceptional work comes out of graduate students' immersion in their culture of study and intellectual pursuit. Manifest’s goal, therefore, has been to select and document works that in the truest sense of the word are contemporary masterpieces—works that represent the standard of quality that the artist is expected to maintain throughout his or her professional career as a Master. The exhibit catalogs for the earliest Master Pieces exhibits, and now the award-winning Manifest Exhibition Annual, will serve as a visual documentation of these artists’ own benchmarks for years to come.
For this 16th annual exhibit 108 artists representing 64 different academic graduate programs submitted 322 works from 29 states and 3 countries, Canada, England, and the United States. Fourteen works by the following 12 artists from 9 states representing 9 academic institutions were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Featuring works by:
Jordan Blankenship
2022 MFA/MA Graduate
University of Massachusetts-DartmouthDaniela Maria Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas
Current MFA/MA Student
University of DallasJustin Carney
Current MFA/MA Student
Indiana University-BloomingtonAmanda Gargac
Current MFA/MA Student
Bowling Green State UniversityYurie Hayashi
2022 MFA/MA Graduate
University of Massachusetts-DartmouthOlivia Hinkel
Current MFA/MA Student
Texas A&M University-Corpus ChristiMatthew McHugh
2021 MFA/MA Graduate
Purdue UniversityCarmen Ostermann
Current MFA/MA Student
Columbus College of Art and DesignElizabeth Peña-Alvarez
2022 MFA/MA Graduate
University of Massachusetts-DartmouthLisa Nelson Raabe
2021 MFA/MA Graduate
Bradley UniversityGrace Worley
Current MFA/MA Student
Ohio UniversityMorgan Zichettella
Current MFA/MA Student
East Carolina University
Artists are listed with their academic status as of the dates of their entry into this competition.
Carmen Ostermann
Morgan Zichettella
Lisa Nelson Raabe
August 12 - September 9, 2022
SEASON 18 FINALÉ!Ticketed Wine & Cheese Preview Annual Fund Benefit
Thursday, August 11, 7-9pm
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Public Opening: Friday, August 12, 6-9pm
Moderated Artists Panel Talk and Conversation: Thursday, September 8, 2022, 6-8pm
ONLINE EVENT - FREE ADMISSION
MANIFEST VR WALKTHROUGH — Social Distancing Exhibit Experience (link here to full screen view)
main gallery + drawing room
14th Annual NUDE
Exploring the Uncovered Human Form
Manifest exhibits many kinds of works, from more conceptual and experimental art to the traditional. In fact we think it's important to have such a range in our repertoire. It is something that Manifest is known for. Every year our annual projects allow us to track how artists around the world address a consistent theme, subject, or media over time, or allow us to document the state of art in a particular strata of professional creative activity, and to study and preserve our findings in a meaningful way through our exhibit publications and website.
NUDE is one such project. The human body is a popular subject for many reasons, the most obvious being that it is us. Throughout history (and pre-history) the representation of the human form has been charged with tremendous energy. Whether it be a religious edict that one should not depict the human form—a taboo, or the glorious opposite—a revelation of mastery over form in the crafting of sensuous and life-like physical human beauty, the art of the body has nevertheless moved us through time.
Through all the permutations art has experienced across history, work of the body persists. We use the human nude to master skill, understand ourselves, and push social and psychological buttons for the sake of expression (sensual, delicate, political, aggressive, and so on). We intend for Manifest's ongoing annual NUDE project, now in its 14th year, to explore how our collective body is used today in art to achieve these goals and more.
This year we are happy to be presenting Manifest's 14th annual NUDE, an international competitive exhibit exploring the uncovered human form in current art.
For this exhibit 156 artists submitted 626 works from 36 states, Washington D.C., and 6 countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Israel, Japan, and the United States. Twenty-three works by the following 16 artists from 13 states and Israel were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Featuring works by:
Robin Assner-Alvey
Ballwin, MissouriRami Baglio
Northampton, MassachusettsMagaly Cantú
Denton, TexasMiguel Carter-Fisher
Richmond, VirginiaCaroline Dejeneffe
Santa Monica, CaliforniaKelly Devitt
Story City, IowaLuke Jordan
Lawrence, KansasBob Moskowitz
Thousand Oaks, CaliforniaAngel O'Brien
Portland, OregonMarc Ouellette
Asheville, North CarolinaBrooke Owens
Oxford, OhioSidney Sherman
Brick, New JerseyChristopher Smith
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaKathy Vaillancourt
Santa Fe, New MexicoAdrian Waggoner
Columbus, OhioYuval Yossifov
Tel Aviv, Israel
Robin Assner-Alvey
Yuval Yossifov
Marc Ouellette
parallel space
STAGED
Works Made With Direction
and Meticulous Planning
To stage something often means to fake it, but we mostly agree that some degree of fiction is acceptable, even necessary to create art. There are truths that we can access through writing lines, arranging compositions, setting conditions, or posing subjects that remain true, even if the elements telling them are artificial.
Conceptually, staging something creates opportunity for the artist to impose their wants, biases, and ideas with greater focus. The obvious next question is if you stage an artwork, what is your motive?
STAGED is an exhibit that explores such works.
For this exhibit 40 artists submitted 168 works from 20 states and 2 countries, including Canada and the United States. Ten works by the following 8 artists from 7 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Featuring works by:
Tuan Bui
New York, New YorkMegan Geilman
Provo, UtahTalaina Kor
Joseph City, ArizonaAmelia Morris
Indianapolis, IndianaJada & David Parrish
Richmond, VirginiaRobert Schefman
West Bloomfield, MichiganGary Sczerbaniewicz
Buffalo, New YorkTara Thacker
Eden Mills, Vermont
Tara Thacker
Robert Schefman
central gallery
ARTIFEX EX MACHINA
Works Made In Collaboration With
or About Machines
Machines ease our work. We design them to amplify the effort of our bodies, and to harness larger forces and focus that energy on a task. Using machines, we can produce objects on a larger scale, make them more complex, and work more quickly, sometimes efficiently.
The machine also contorts and changes our idea on its way to the final product, and it shapes our practice as we adapt to it. We can’t put an idea into a machine and print the idea out; we have to work in conversation with its capacity.
What does the hand of the machine look like? Is the artist hiding it, or do they let its mark remain? Is the effort of a machine beautiful?
Artifex Ex Machina is an exhibit that resulted from these questions being posed to artists around the world.
For this exhibit 60 artists submitted 215 works from 26 states and 3 countries, including Australia, Canada, and the United States. Nine works by the following 7 artists from 7 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.
Featuring works by:
Matthew Ballou
Columbia, MissouriGraham Burns
Round Lake Beach, IllinoisNathaniel Foley
Indianapolis, IndianaTerrence Lavin
Meriden, ConnecticutJeffrey Moser
Morgantown, West VirginiaJacob Rowan
Jackson, MississippiDana Younger
Austin, Texas
Jeffrey Moser
Matthew Ballou
Dana Younger
north gallery
DECONSTRUCT / RECONSTRUCT
Photographs & Installation by Eric Lubrick
Eric Lubrick is a photographer and artist living and working in Indianapolis, Indiana. Eric was born in Texas and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He studied at Columbus College of Art and Design and received his MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2007. His photography has been featured in numerous publications and books such as National Geographic, the Huffington Post, and Sothebys. When Eric isnt shooting freelance or working in the studio, his day job is the Senior Staff Photographer at the Indianapolis Museum of Art where he documents the collection and happenings.
Last year, Eric was awarded the Crystal DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award for aspirational visual arts projects. He has shown work throughout the country. Eric's most recent work Deconstruct/Reconstruct is an exploration of how language, life, and plants intersect.
Of his work the artist states:
"This body of work came about by exploring the idea of juxtaposing language and flowers. I saw flowers as objects that could symbolize calmness, stillness, a safe space, and beauty. I was interested to see if this comparison of flowers and words could influence my creative process and understanding of topics such as politics, injustices, and the art world. Holding up these idyllic metaphors next to these overwhelming topics allowed me the power to recontextualize these tough subjects.
While creating this body of work the pandemic and political unrest shook the world. Much of the project began to take shape around these life-changing events. Words like waves, languishing, empathy, and essential seemed to be a large part of the 2020-2022 lexicon as well as my mental space. This work is a visual representation of how I have felt and partly coped with the global pandemic and the current politics dividing America."
This exhibition was selected from among 128 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 18th season.
——— END OF SEASON 18 ——— THANK YOU!
Manifest is supported by sustainability funding from the Ohio Arts Council, and through the generous direct contributions of hundreds of individual supporters and private foundations who care deeply about Manifest's mission for the visual arts.
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