Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery
LINDSBORG— Five new exhibitions comprise the 128th annual Midwest Art Exhibition, which opens at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery on January 25 and continues through April 19, 2026. The shows include paintings by Tim Stone and prints by Marco Hernandez, both of Wichita; woodcarvings by Glenn Knak of Salina; mixed media pieces by Genevieve Waller of Denver; and selections by Gretchen Elliott’s art students at Smoky Valley High School. The opening reception for the exhibitions will be on Sunday, January 25, 2025, from 2 to 4 p.m., with exhibition talks beginning at 2:30.
The Midwest Art Exhibition was founded in 1899 by three local Lindsborg artists – Birger Sandzén, Carl Lotave, and G. N. Malm – as a complement to the annual Messiah Festival held at Bethany College. Today, it represents the longest running annual art exhibition in Kansas and features works by artists invited by the Sandzén Gallery or from the Gallery's permanent collection.
Tim Stone is a native of Hutchinson who now lives in Wichita. He graduated from Wichita State University in 2012 with a BFA degree and in 2022 with an MFA. He is currently instructing drawing, painting and design courses as an adjunct lecturer at WSU, as well as instructing at the Lawrence Arts Center. His exhibition, Din of Silence, will feature paintings that point to disturbances, unease, and alarming problems. There is tension between the ordinary and the superlative, between what is natural and artificial. He writes, “I am examining how bemusedly liminal our physical and digital spaces have become. In an era where the boundaries between fantasy and reality blur, we recognize ourselves witnessing and engaging with the overwhelming noise—sometimes in person, often through the screens of our phones.”
Marco Hernandez is a Mexican artist/printmaker from Wichita. He received his MFA from Kansas State University in 2015. After receiving his MFA degree, he taught there for year before being hired as a professor at Wichita State University. For his exhibition Origen (the Spanish word for origin) he writes, “My current body of work explores themes associated with contemporary Mexican and Mexican American cultures. I am inspired by my personal experiences growing up as a Mexican immigrant in California and the Midwest. Mexican and Mexican American symbols play a large role in my prints. The symbols span from ancient Mesoamerican imagery to contemporary popular cultural objects. Life experiences and a traditional Mexican upbringing have influenced my thoughts and beliefs; and ultimately have been inspirational to the imagery and meaning in my art.”
Carvings from the Heart features selections in wood by Salina artist Glenn Knak. He started carving in 1979 when, “I learned how to sharpen a knife and a pointy wood stick I was working on started to look more like a person than a pointy stick. I then tried and completed three more carvings of people ranging in height from 4 to 8 inches tall and surprised myself with the results. I am a self-taught woodcarver and have spent 20 years carving caricatures, realistic humans, and experimenting with different carvings to see what worked best for me. Over the years I developed my own style of carving people and setting them in a scene to “tell a story.” I also found that when I developed a scene or carving that had a special meaning to me, it often brought out an emotional response from the people viewing it.”
Denver artist Genevieve Waller works primarily with camera-less photography, installation, and sculpture—investigating the connections between abstraction, decoration, kitsch, and LGBTQ+ culture. For her photograms, she focuses on how they function as trace images (like footprints) and their tendency to abstract reality.
In her installation and sculptural works, she’s concerned with the porous boundary between interior decoration and fine art, the legacy of Surrealism, and dethroning the seriousness of high art. Waller is from Wichita and holds a BA in art history from Wichita State University, an MFA in photography and art history from Ohio University in Athens, and an MA in visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester in New York.
Art by students from Smoky Valley High School in Lindsborg round out the exhibitions. They will be showing works selected by instructor Gretchen Elliott in a multitude of mediums from paintings and prints to sculpture and ceramics.
The Sandzén Gallery is located at 401 North First Street in Lindsborg. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free, with donations appreciated. Docent tours for groups are available by two-week advance appointment.
For more information about Birger Sandzén, the Gallery, and these exhibitions visit the website www.sandzen.org or phone (785) 227-2220.