From the start I felt a real connection with clay. I liked the tactile aspects of clay and how it can be shaped and molded and how the material changes properties with the addition of heat. During my time at Iowa, I became a proficient thrower and hand builder. My sculptures were large coil structures from hand rolled coils influenced by African art. Around 1996 I started working on metal sculpture with professor emeritus Julius Schmidt.
Abstract art is invented. As such, it is always personal. Whether my work looks representational, or artificial, or non-objective, it is still about invented objects in invented arrangements in stacked space.
Derived from pre-Renaissance thinking “space-stacking” has been my main visual theme since my BA and MFA in painting and printmaking.
Jeff Allen’s work has been described as bold, yet soft. Pastoral with a certain dream like ethereal quality. Impressionistic realism. Jeff draws his inspiration from the Iowa landscape and the group of friends that surround him.
“My work explores choices and promises that we make in life. It is an exercise in exploring the known versus the unknown; patience, waiting; the fear and excitement of thresholds and transitions. The work begins with something familiar and real. This represents the known.”
Patricia (Tricia) Knox came to the University of Iowa as a potter but found herself working in Chunghi Choo’s metal’s studio most of the time. After completing her MA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry in 1982, she established her own studio and began selling her work in galleries around the US.
“Abstract art is invented, and so when my work looks representational, it is really about invented objects in invented arrangements. As such it is always personal, even when it appears to be non-objective. I will bring my latest paintings since moving to Iowa City, as well as a few purchased works that have influenced me over the years. Come to discuss: why abstract art and what does it mean?”
Adam Burke is an intermedia artist working in video, performance, and photography. He is also a writer and editor. His award-winning documentaries, animations, and music videos have been screened in festivals across the country and can be found in the collections of the University of Florida, Kansas State University, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and more. He was a studio assistant to Hans Breder for several years, working on digital paintings, installations, performances, music, and dozens of videos.
Kevin Kelley has been a filmmaker for over forty years. His work has been honored with two regional EMMY© Awards, two CINE (´sini) Golden Eagle Awards, and three New York Festival World Medals. His work has been screened at The Los Angeles International Documentary Film Festival, The Newport Beach Film Festival, The New York Filmmakers Festival and aired nationally on PBS and HBO. Kelley’s films have been screened for audiences around the world including: Germany, Spain, England, Italy and Australia. In 2017, he and co-founder, Marie Wilkes, created a non-profit organization, New Mile Media Arts, whose purpose is to educate and inspire through the art of filmmaking, presenting unique stories of common people in uncommon situations.
Thomas Agran’s studio work focuses on the mid-western landscape, its total transformation through agriculture, and the political, social, and environmental consequences of that change. Some of his paintings also explore the complicated nexus of food, agriculture, nostalgia, and marketing. Agran’s paintings can be found in numerous public and private collections including the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art and the Grinnell College Prairie Studies Collection. Over the past 5 years, public art has become an important (seasonal) part of Agran’s practice, and he has executed and assisted with numerous large scale murals in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.
Over decades, her studio work has always embraced expressive painted, printed and dyed textiles that she creates herself. These have taken the form of wall pieces, art quilts and functional items which she has sold and exhibited locally, nationally and internationally. Her current bodies of work, the Tarp Series and the Drawing Series, add drawing and mixed media to those textiles. Bennett has lived in Iowa City since 1978 and is also known for her work in the local arts community, with her long affiliation with Iowa Artisans Gallery, Gallery Walk and local nonprofits. She is currently Board President of the Surface Design Association, a national nonprofit with 2300 international members working in art textile media.