Born in Kentucky, raised in Ohio, and currently residing in Iowa City, Iowa, Thomas Agran is interested in the Midwest — for both its charms as well as its challenges. He is particularly dedicated to the Midwestern landscape, its total transformation through agriculture, and the political, social, and environmental consequences of that change. Some of his paintings also explore the complicated …
Iowa based artist Jill Wells is best known for her dynamic and colorful narrative paintings investigating race, history, stereotypes, accessibility and the human condition. Born in 1980 in Des Moines, Iowa, Wells was raised in Indianola, Iowa. She studied at Drake University (BFA 2005). An award-winning painter, Wells has been in practice for more than 18 years, with public and …
Mitchell Squire is an artist and educator whose practice encompasses architecture, visual art, and the study of material culture. He has mounted solo exhibitions at CUE Art Foundation (NYC), White Cube (London), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art / Carver Bank (Omaha), and the Des Moines Art Center, as well as many academic institutions. His work has appeared in signature group …
After graduating from The University of Michigan with a BFA degree in Fibers, Marianne Fairbanks went on to study textiles at The Kyoto Seika University in Japan. She continued her travels across nine countries in Southern Africa before returning to the US to earn an MFA in Fibers and Material Studies at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. …
Yorame Mevorach (also known as Oyoram) is a Franco-Israeli artist and filmmaker. Born in Jerusalem in 1951, he first studied engineering, but was quickly drawn to the cinema. He received an undergraduate degree in film at Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts in Ramat Gan, and moved to Paris where he studied cinematic theory at the Sorbonne (Université Sorbonne …
A native of Washington State, Nick Goettling’s experience creating dynamic, engaging, and attractive public art comes from a solid foundation of fine art and hands-on construction skills. He has used this background to created large works for institutions and city governments such as the City of Portland, the City of Tacoma, the University Village Neighborhood Association in Chicago, Northeastern Illinois …
Benjamin Gardner received his MFA from Illinois State University and BFA from Millikin University. He has had exhibited his work nationally and abroad, including recent exhibitions in Iowa, South Carolina, New York, Germany, and South Korea. His short animation Hallucination Dream Sequence will be featured on Iowa Public Television’s Film Lounge in 2018 and was an official selection of the …
The CAUSE COLLECTIVE is a team of artists, designers and ethnographers creating innovative art in the public realm. Our projects explore and enliven public spaces by creating a dynamic conversation between issues, sites and the public audience. By exploring ideas that affect and shape society, we seek to add the “public” back into public space and art. #InSearchofTheTruth Learn more …
Natasha L. Logan is a multi-media arts and cultural producer and curator based in Brooklyn, NY. Since 2009, Logan has been producer of multi-media art, transmedia, and film. As a multimedia arts producer she has collaborated with various artists to develop projects that encourage public participation, incorporate interactive technology, and unite communities. Recent productions include the transmedia projects Question Bridge: Black Male and The Truth …
Will Sylvester is at the intersection of art and technology. Having worked in e-commerce, commercial photography, radio broadcasting, television news, cable television, and video editing, he currently works to help integrate art with technology for Songha & Co. in New York City. While working as e-commerce manager and photographer/videographer for Industialrideshop.com, Sylvester attained his AAS in Film and Television Production, …
Jim Ricks is an Irish and American conceptual artist, curator, and writer. Originally from California, he has lived in Ireland for 8 years. He received a Masters of Fine Art from the National University of Ireland Galway and an undergraduate degree in Photography from the California College of the Arts (San Francisco). Ricks was selected for Futures 12 at the Royal Hibernian Academy …
Hank Willis Thomas is a contemporary visual artist and photographer working primarily with themes related to identity, history and popular culture. Thomas’ monograph, Pitch Blackness, was published by Aperture. He has exhibited throughout the U.S. and abroad including, The International Center of Photography, Public Art Fund, The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Studio Museum in Harlem, Musée du quai Branly, and the …
Ryan Alexiev was born in Los Angeles and raised in Alaska by Bulgarian immigrants. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994 and an MFA from the California College of the Arts in 2007. Ryan currently teaches in the Graduate Design program at California College of the Arts, his Alma …
Brent Holland integrates digital and traditional drawing. Holland’s hand-drawn imagery is conceived with new media applications that range from tightly-rendered portraits to unique abstractions that range in size from miniatures to bus-sized murals to integrated architectural construction. Using representation and abstraction, his paintings and drawings are often multilayered meditations upon time, space and his sphere of existence. Forms in cavernous …
Larassa Kabel, born 1970 in Mt. Clemens, MI, is a visual artist who often uses photorealistic drawings, paintings and prints to address issues of loss, fear, compassion, gender and feminism. She wants her work to start conversations about the “sad, hard parts” of human experience and help people “support one another in a difficult world.” Through the concept of compassion, …
A lifelong resident of Des Moines, Robert Whicker became involved in visual art at an early age. He has experimented with a variety of media, beginning with classes at the Des Moines Art Center as a child, and most recently contributing to the 48 Hour Film Project—world’s oldest and largest timed filmmaking competition. Although skilled in various disciplines, Whicker’s main artistic …
Matthew Fluharty is an artist, writer, and researcher currently splitting his time between Winona, MN, St. Louis, and points along the Mississippi River. He is the Executive Director of Art of the Rural, facilitator of its Middle Landscape projects, and a member of the M12 collective. He serves on the Council for Common Field, the Board of Directors for the …
The M12 Collective is known for groundbreaking and award-winning creative projects that explore the aesthetics of rural cultures and landscapes. M12 is an interdisciplinary group based in Colorado on the American High Plains that create context-based art works, research projects, and education programs. Working in the fields of art and design, we favor projects that are centered in rural areas …
Jack Heintz was born 2 October 1984 in Des Moines, Iowa. He studied design at Iowa State University in Ames and earned a Bachelor’s degree in 2014. His creative advertising TV commercial project, Revenge of the Lemons, received a silver medal at the 2014 American Advertising Federation awards in Des Moines. Heintz currently lives in Des Moines and works as a graphic designer and art …
Jennifer Leatherby is a painter, illustrator, and digital artist. She lives and works in Des Moines, Iowa where she co-owns Portrait Studio and a feminist t-shirt brand. She is inspired by minimalism and the digital age.
ASPHATE (pictured) and LETER91 are both graffiti writers carrying near 10-year tenures, as well as crewmates in Scarce Elementz, a nationally recognized mural crew. ASPHATE is the sole Iowan in the crew while the remaining members hail from Arizona and California. Their works have been featured in a number of publications and have garnered commissions for a number of clients, …
Susan Chrysler White has been developing large glass and Plexiglas sculptural pieces. In researching how her paintings, through their vocabulary of excess, have a connection with historical and contemporary manifestations of the chandelier, White became interested in exploring these associations. Baroque sculptural and architectural forms as well as art nouveau and late gothic filigree, all enter into her language of …
Mary Mattingly (born 1978) is an American visual artist living and working in New York. She was born in Rockville, Connecticut in 1978. She has studied at Parsons School of Design in New York, and received her Bachelor Fine Arts degree (BFA) from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. She is the recipient of a Yale University School of Art Fellowship. Mattingly explores the …
Jay Vigon is known for his distinctively bold graphics to logo design, music packaging, and fashion advertising. His clients include George Lucas, Warner Bros., Gotcha Sportswear, and the University of California, Irvine. Vigon is the author of two books: Marks and Marks II. Jay Vigon’s pioneering style led him into broadcast graphics for television commercials with such clients as AT&T, …
Painter and musician Alex Brown engaged the viewer with everyday images that emerge out of abstraction. The illusion is essential in his artwork; he took a completely recognizable object and challenged the viewer to see it anew. Often found photographs were used from postcards, travel brochures, and the Internet. Then a series of geometric transformations on that material was imposed …
Chris Vance is a Bondurant [Iowa] artist who has created a personal iconography. His art is rooted in a blend of cartoons, music, graffiti, and skateboard culture. He described his distinctive style in an interview published on a blog called “Seeds of Fruit”: “I have four kids, and I’ve been influenced by skateboards since I was a kid, plus graffiti, …
A native of Iowa, Doug Shelton is an experienced painter and muralist with a career spanning nearly 40 years. His murals can be seen in many public and private buildings across the country. He has worked on mural and decorative wall-painting projects with Evergreen Studios in New York, including painting the ceiling murals in the House Wing of the United …
Frank Hansen studied (1987-92) at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, and earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in fine and commercial art. Hansen grew up on a farm and that background has influenced his work. His work includes clothing and furniture designs as well as interactive pieces and video art. He has exhibited at Moberg Gallery in Des …
Jordan J. Weber is a Des Moines-based multi-disciplinary artist/activist who works at the cross section of race and environmental justice. His work has been exhibited at White Box, New York; Union for Contemporary Art, Omaha; Intersect Art Center, St. Louis; Des Moines Art Center; Macalister College, Twin Cities, Smack Mellon, New York; Manifest Justice, Los Angeles; Charlotte Street Foundation; Kansas …
Born and raised in Hong Kong, King Au obtained a Master’s Degree in Architecture and discovered his passion for photography while he was in graduate school. Initially, he practiced architecture and freelanced as an architectural photographer. Later, he ventured into editorial and advertising photography, which is the majority of his work today. For more than 20 years, he has been …
Mark A. Kane is a writer, editor, and photographer. He was a cofounder and Editor of Fine Gardening magazine, founder and Editor of Garden Gate magazine, and Executive Garden Editor of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, where he designed and built the BH&G Test Garden, a source of firsthand information about plants and ideas.Kane has visited and photographed hundreds of …
Dan Attoe (American, born 1975) is a painter, sculptor, bullfighter and founder of art group Paintallica. He is represented by Peres Projects in LA and Berlin. Attoe was born in Bremerton, Washington and moved through Idaho, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa before choosing his current location near Portland, Oregon. Attoe attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he first studied psychology, and …
Born on 01 January 1967 in Buffalo Center, Iowa, Pete Goché was raised out on the open flat of north-eastern Iowa from which he cultivated an intense curiosity of self with respect to the earth’s surface. His understanding and sensibilities regarding spatial experience and ethno-specific design stem from this agrarian upbringing and ongoing research in art, architecture and anthropology at Iowa State University. Equally, …
A native of Iowa, Travis Rice makes use of geometric forms and colorful materials to create simple and playful abstractions. He has created artworks on both a large and small scale, in both two and three-dimensional formats. Travis Rice earned his bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and studied at the Rhode Island School …