The Things She Learned

Brenda Jones discusses the influence of gender roles on her conceptualization process and how materiality shapes the work.

Tragic Beauty

Elle MacLaren explores the devastation of the climate crisis using encaustic to mimic the melting of glaciers and ice sheets in the Artic and Antarctica.

Glimpses, Dreams, & Memories

Rod Forslund reflects on a lifetime of experiences expressed through abstraction and some figurative to convey the many emotions he’s experienced living in these vastly contrasting environments.

Other Backgrounds

Curated by Sammy Lee, Derrick Velazquez, and George P. Perez. Featured work was made by Aitor Lajarin-Encina, Juliette Lee, Colby Deal, Gustav Hamilton, Joo Yeon Woo, and Leslie Macklin.

Candid

Sam Swihart talks about giving new context and life to the anonymous moments in lives of strangers and how these scenes reflect ubiquitous qualities of the human experience.

Material Identity

Watch Material Identity artists, curator Sarah LaBarre, and juror Jessica Kooiman Parker discuss the exhibition call, studio practice, and making art during the pandemic.

Granite

Eric Franklin reflects on the subtle patterns and organization in granite and mimics them through the medium of glass. This reflection is also present in the current situation in the world, which will require deep introspection not only to find organization in the chaos, but also to adapt and incorporate ourselves into the fractures of our new reality

Liminal.

I am. I was.

I will be.

Liminal expresses a space of transition in the context of the pandemic. Powers states: "If we are all honest with ourselves, we are all in that space: deciding what feeds the soul, letting go of that which does not feed our souls. This body of work captures my interpretation of that changing, elusive space, a space that is the transition point between the flatlands of the prairie of my youth, and the soaring heights of the mountaintops that represent the life I choose to fashion for myself moving forward. I was. I am. I will be."

Elementals

Elementals explores Flippen's experience of the energy we expend in pursuit of a relationship to the world that is both rigorous and incorrect - attempting to understand the unknowable and change the insurmountable. Through his work Flippen attempts to understand his own failure to understand the universe. Or to heal it. And yet, we must hope, and try, and hope again - there is beauty in the attempt.