The works of emerging young Kansas artists will be the focus of an upcoming exhibit at the Salina Art Center.
The 2021 Sunflower Biennial is scheduled for Wednesday-April 11 at the Salina Art Center, 242 South Santa Fe Avenue. The adjudicated exhibition highlights young Kansas artists in two divisions, 15-18 years old and 19-24 years old.
More than works from more than 120 artists were submitted for the Sunflower Biennial 2021.
"Artists are charged with transporting us to unexpected places - the weird, the unseen, or new perceptions of the ordinary. Artists experiment with materials and juxtapositions that challenge us while connecting with our common humanity. The young artists included in this Sunflower Biennial demonstrate these qualities in abundance. For me, this is what artists do best, and it is exciting to see a new generation of artists finding new ways to surprise us," said Nelson Smith, the Sunflower Biennial juror.
Salina Art Center, 242 S. Santa Fe is open Wednesday–Sunday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Guests are welcome to make an appointment outside of public hours if they are more comfortable. To schedule a private showing, call 785-827-1431. Admission is always free.
Additionally, Friday is "First Friday!" Gallery hours are extended from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Admission is free. Masks are required, and only 15 people are allowed in the galleries at once due to the Saline County mandate through Feb. 21, 2021.
Interested persons also can participate in Lunch and Learn with Smith and a panel of young artists featured in the Sunflower Biennial, Feb. 17 at noon. You can join Lunch and Learn by tuning into Facebook Live on the Salina Art Center Facebook page.
About the juror
Smith has received wide-spread recognition for his work as a painter and sound artist. He has been awarded four state Michigan Council for the Arts Individual Artist Grants, the national Art Matters grant, several artist residencies including a Residency Fellow at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ireland, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Senior Artist in Residence, Harvestworks (New York), Vermont Studio Center, and many other honors and commissions. Smith's work reveals his ongoing exploration of relationships between objects/images, language, and sound.
Whether working with the surface of a painting or with an installation environment, he integrates his vocabulary of images, texts, schematics, sounds, and objects into a variety of inventive distinctive compositions.
He earned a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He studied with Agnes Denes, George Ortman, and George Olson. His paintings are included in many significant public and private collections including the Museum of Modern Art's Artist Book Archive, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and University of Kansas Medical School. Besides composing for his own installation and performance productions, his sound designs and scores have also been commissioned for the films and performance works of Sue Carman-Vian, among others. His installation and performance works have been presented in a variety of galleries and non-traditional art spaces in Detroit, New York, and Cleveland.