creative research gallery and drawing center
a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization

 


SEASON 20
EXHIBITIONS



September 2023 - August 2024


This exhibition season is financially assisted by a grant from the Josephine S. Russell Charitable Trust,
and many individual donations, large and small, from across 40 states and three countries.
You can donate here to help keep our nonprofit programming growing!


Download to save or print the entire
season 20 calendar here.

See Grand Jury Award finalists and winners here.

Submit work to open projects here.

Find your way to the gallery, (map) here.


 
March 8 - April 5, 2024

Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit:
Thursday, March 7, 7-9pm (GET TICKETS HERE)
—————–
Public Opening (free): Friday, March 8, 6-9pm

main gallery + drawing room

 

OHIO, KENTUCKY, INDIANA
Regional Showcase Exhibition

 

In 20 seasons Manifest's projects have included works by artists representing 50 states and 48 countries. Beginning in our tenth season, we launched an ongoing series of exhibits focusing on works by artists in our three-state region. Nine years ago we added projects that also focused on other definable regions outside our own. These Regional Showcases were offered to complement the very wide geographical makeup of most Manifest exhibits with a closer look at art being made here in our own backyard, as well as provide a platform from which we could examine the trends, qualities, and idiosyncrasies of contemporary art within specific geographical areas and compare them to our own.

As is the case every season, this exhibit had no specific requirement for type, media, or style of work to be submitted. This was an open call. Submissions ranged widely from traditional to very conceptual, abstract, and experimental work. Jury selections were made based on the overall quality of the works submitted.

For this exhibit, 195 artists submitted 798 works from Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Twenty-two works by the following 16 artists from our three-state region were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Presenting Works by:

Kristina Arnold
Bowling Green, Kentucky

Mary Fashbaugh-Bean
South Bend, Indiana

Frederick Fochtman
Columbus, Ohio

Frank Gwirtz
Middlefield, Ohio

Lee Heinen
Cleveland, Ohio

Uhma Janus
Louisville, Kentucky

Anna Kruse
Kent, Ohio

Renee McGinnis
Chesterton, Indiana

William Olsen
Hebron, Kentucky

Kathleen Pahl
Bowling Green, Ohio

Jesse Payne
Terre Haute, Indiana

Jinblossom Kim Plati
Columbus, Ohio

Kyle Ragsdale
Indianapolis, Indiana

Lisa River Schenkelberg
Shaker Heights, Ohio

Caitlin Talmage
Cincinnati, Ohio

Travis Townsend
Lexington, Kentucky

 

 

 

 

Uhma Janus

 

 

Kyle Ragsdale

 

 

Jinblossom Kim Plati

 

 



parallel space

 

CONDITIONAL EQUILIBRIUM
Printmaking by Koichi Yamamoto

Koichi Yamamoto, born in Japan in 1967, is an artist celebrated for fusion of traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques. Renowned for pushing the boundaries of 15th century traditional copper engraving intaglio works, Yamamoto continually explores new possibilities within the medium.

Yamamoto earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He pursued further studies in copper engraving intaglio at the Bratislava Academy of Fine Arts in the Slovak Republic and additional training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland. He completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Alberta, Canada. Additionally, he gained experience as a textile designer in Fredericia, Denmark.

With a rich exhibition history both nationally and internationally, Yamamoto's work has earned widespread acclaim. He has also shared his expertise as an educator at Utah State University and the University of Delaware. Currently, he holds a professorship at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Yamamoto's recent solo and group exhibitions include prestigious venues such as Fondazione Pastificio Cerere in Rome, Italy, Gallery Shoal Creek in Austin, Texas, Cartavtra Gallery in Florence, Italy, and Creekside Studio in Texas. He has also participated in notable juried exhibitions such as the International Contemporary Engraving Prize Casa Falconieri in Gagliali, Italy, Douro International Printmaking Biennial in Portugal, Tribuna Graphics Art Museum of Cluji-Napoca in Romania, The Stream of International Prints Exhibition at Alvarosiza Hall in Anyang, South Korea, the Parkside National Print Exhibition at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside, the Delta National Small Prints Exhibition at Arkansas State University, and "Beyond the Norm" at the University Galleries of Illinois State University.
Yamamoto's works have been featured in prominent publications including Actuel no. 27 l’ estampe contemporaine in Jodoigne, Belgium, Kunst + Unterricht in München, Germany, and Eleven Eleven 15: a journal of literature and art by California College of the Arts in San Francisco, California.

Of his work the artist states:

“Just before dawn, there's a soft, indistinct light that seems just perfect—a tranquility I wish could linger. I strive to recreate this delicate light-filled space. In my quest for a delicate balance between light and darkness, hope and despair, I explore the interplay of opposing forces in nature, the fleeting sense of security in symmetry, and the acknowledgment of impermanence. I seek to capture moments where these elements coexist in dynamic tension.

Through my art, I prompt viewers to ponder the dual nature of existence—the contrast between light and shadow, and the enduring struggle between optimism and uncertainty. Each piece is an amalgamation of opposing forces, presenting an illusion that defies clear definition.

As we navigate life's complexities, I hope this Conditional Equilibrium offers insight into the profound unity underlying our varied experiences. Embracing both brightness and darkness, we find solace in the understanding that balance is ever-changing, guiding us towards clarity and enlightenment. The idea of ‘normalcy’ is an illusion; awareness is a miracle. This body is an unexpected gift, and every experience is unique and marvelous.”

This exhibition was selected from among 166 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 20th season.

 

 

 

  

 

 

  


central gallery

 

The Shape of Things to Come
Paintings and Sculpture by Ben Steele

Ben Steele is an artist, educator, and community organizer living in Atlanta, Georgia. He studied at Washington University in St. Louis, Yale University, and Maryland Institute College of Art before moving to Atlanta to pursue a career in the arts. His oil paintings have been displayed at many galleries locally and nationally in addition to The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCAGA) and The High Museum.

Steele is co-founder of SeekATL, an artist studio visit group that meets monthly with the goal of connecting Atlanta’s artists. He also coordinates The Working Artist Project studio visits with MOCAGA. Steele is Visual Art Department Chair at The Westminster Schools.

Of his work the artist states:

“The universe inhabited by my paintings is carefully balanced between optimism and ruin. All of time collapses combining both a sense of humanity’s greatest moments of ingenuity while simultaneously that we are subject to fate and a world which returns us to a state of entropy.

My paintings address the greater questions in life, causing viewers to search for meaning while creating connections between otherwise disconnected objects, images, and events. I am drawn to the utopian ideals put forth in futuristic architecture and see this as a way humanity continually strives for a world that is just out of reach. The promised future is never here. Forms refer to futurism and invention in multiple times and places in our world’s history. They also at times appear to be in a state of ruin or construction.

I am interested in how representing ideas of the future from the past creates a tension and feeling of displacement in time. Across multiple paintings a single form may appear more than once, seen at different scales, from diverse angles and in changing environments, as if in a shuffling of a giant deck of human history.

Through many works there is a relationship drawn between earthly concerns and those visible above. Searchlights, rainbows, fireworks, and comets serve as backdrops indicating a quest for knowledge, redemption, disaster, or celebration. Contemporary concerns involving space exploration, rising water levels, and natural disasters feel of the moment, yet possess a deep reach back through human imagination.

My work takes inspiration from the vast history of landscape painting, futuristic architecture, designs and inventions, science fiction literature, and special effect cinematography. In the studio, I employ a variety of media from which to inspire paintings: Projection, 3D printing, Mold making, Carvings, Laser-Cut Constructions, Mirrors, and Found Objects all form expansive installations which serve as subject matter for an ever-expanding universe of forms and juxtapositions. The Shape of Things to Come, is a title taken from H.G. Wells 1933 classic science-fiction novel. A vision of the future written in the far distant past is a perfect portal through which to enter this painterly universe.

This exhibition was selected from among 166 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 20th season.

 

 

 

 

 

 


north gallery

 

IN SEARCH OF BLUE


Blue, the color that represents the spirit, the sky, and water, the immaterial and the remote, so that however tactile and close-up it is, it is always about distance and disembodiment.


— Rebecca Solnit, Yves Klein and the Blue of Distance
 

It is easy to fall in love with a color. Studying color and understanding its facility requires devotion. Attention and generosity must be paid to making it, to directing the feelings it elicits, to anticipating and discovering its harmonies or discordances with other colors.

Blue, the shortest and most energetic wavelength on the visible color spectrum, holds a powerful sway over us. It is attractive, it is calming, but it also holds depths bordering on the sublime. The sky changes, but eternally returns to blue. Maybe that lends to the pigment the sky’s immense gravity.

Finding the right blue is a quest—the blue that has the depth of the ocean, that shocks like glacial ice, that reminds us of heaven. Using blue is also a search for blue, for the eternal, for the vast. Blue is a wide and boundless color, one we can easily get lost in.

In Search of Blue is an exhibit of works about the color Blue and all that it may convey.

For this exhibit, 225 artists submitted 820 works from 37 states, Washington D.C., and 12 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and the United States. Sixteen works by the following 12 artists from 8 states, Italy, and Portugal were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Presenting works by:

Madeline Bass
Atlanta, Georgia

Jan Burleson
Athens, Tennessee

Summer Doll-Myers
Macungie, Pennsylvania

Meryl Engler
Akron, Ohio

John Greig Jr
Rutledge, Pennsylvania

Melissa Haviland
Athens, Ohio

Willard Lustenader
Deep River, Connecticut

Alberto Repetti
Genova, Italy

Luis Filipe Rodrigues
Santo Tirso, Portugal

Jill Stoll
New Orleans, Louisiana

Annmarie Suglio
Madison, Wisconsin

Denis Wogan
Easthampton, Massachusetts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Madeline Bass


Alberto Repetti


Annmarie Suglio




April 19 - May 17, 2024

Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit:
Thursday, April 18, 7-9pm
—————–
Public Opening: Friday, April 19, 6-9pm




May 31 - June 28, 2024

Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit:
Thursday, May 30, 7-9pm
—————–
Public Opening: Friday, May 31, 6-9pm





July 12 - August 9, 2024

Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit:
Thursday, July 11, 7-9pm
—————–
Public Opening: Friday, July 12, 6-9pm





August 16 - September 13, 2024

Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit:
Thursday, Aug. 15, 7-9pm
—————–
Public Opening: Friday, Aug. 16, 6-9pm





 

PREVIOUS SEASON 20 EXHIBITS:

Season 20 Launch!
September 29 - October 27, 2023

Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit
Thursday, Sept. 28, 7-9pm
—————–
Public Opening: Friday, Sept. 29, 6-9pm

main gallery + central gallery + north gallery

 

PAINTED 2023
Manifest Gallery's 6th Biennial Survey of Contemporary Painting

At some point many generations ago society reached a level where ordinary people could spend a lifetime perfecting their ability to mix and apply paint in extraordinary ways. Manifest established this exhibit as a permanent biennial project ten years ago in 2013 to inaugurate our expanded gallery. PAINTED 2023 is the sixth biennial presentation of this survey of contemporary painting.

PAINTED joins Drawn as a recurring gallery exhibition designed to complement our recurring INDA and INPA (drawing and painting) publications. Every two years it launches our exhibition season by presenting a competitive group exhibition focused exclusively on painting.

For this exhibit, 174 artists submitted 702 works from 35 states and 9 countries, including Austria, Canada, China, England, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. Thirty works by the following 23 artists from 14 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

We are pleased to present works by:

Edgar Cano-Lopez
Natchitoches, Louisiana

Yulia Gasio
Huntington Beach, California

Glen Hansen
South Jamesport, New York

David Heshmatpour
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Susan Hoffer
Lake Placid, New York

Lynne Jones
Evanston, Illinois

Rob Kolomyski
Woodbury, Minnesota

Paul Loehle
Cincinnati, Ohio

Perin Mahler
Laguna Beach, California

Monika Malewska
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania

Andrew Martin
Lubbock, Texas

Michael McCaffrey
Lawrence, Kansas

Justin McIntosh
Camby, Indiana

Marcus Michels
Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Kenneth Millington
Beacon, New York

RD Mitchell
Plano, Texas

Joe Morzuch
Starkville, Mississippi

Mihee Nahm
Euless, Texas

Lucy Kay Plowe
Bedford, New Hampshire

Sandy Rice
Canton, Michigan

Marc Ross
Columbus, Ohio

Benjamin Shamback
Mobile, Alabama

Gabriel Zea
Brooklyn, New York

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Edgar Cano-Lopez

 

     Lynne Jones

 

     Rob Kolomyski


     Lucy Kay Plowe

 


drawing room + parallel space

 

AQUACHROME
Biennial Exhibit of Contemporary Watercolor*

Quite possibly the oldest form of painting, watercolor persists today, defying narrow categorization and broad stereotype. Practiced for centuries in concept development preliminary to 'finished' paintings made in oil or other scale-worthy durable media, watercolor also found favor with botanists, illustrators, and portraitists, and was applied to varied and countless surfaces.

The nature of the media itself represents a delicate and dictatorial transparency, fluidity, and a potential for expressive spontaneity. This not only makes it an ideal vehicle for contemporary art, but also one of training, intensity, philosophy, and play for any who practice it. Where an artist can easily dominate other painting media, forcing a will through viscous layers into a work of art like taming a wild horse, with watercolor there is dialog, compromise, and undeniable forthrightness. In this way the artist practicing watercolor works with a tiger in the room.

*Along with watercolor, works in gouache, ink wash, and other similar media were accepted for consideration as a subset of the broader Manifest painting biennial.

For this exhibit 53 artists submitted 193 works from 22 states and 4 countries, Belgium, Canada, France, and the United States. Nineteen works by the following 13 artists from 12 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Presenting works by:

Gary Barton
Provo, Utah

Shawn Edrington
Pocatello, Idaho

Ed Ferszt
Kingston, Rhode Island

Antonio Gonzalez-Garcia
Columbus, Ohio

Janet Gorzegno
Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Melissa Gwyn
San Francisco, California

Mikey Hernandez
Irving, Texas

Olga Kosheleva
Downers Grove, Illinois

Sophie McVicar
Birmingham, Alabama

Tanya Pirasteh
Columbus, Ohio

Scott Teplin
Brooklyn, New York

Ripley Whiteside
Madison, Tennessee

Dalton Zheng
Henrico, Virginia

 

 

 

     Gary Barton

 

     Tanya Pirasteh


     Ed Ferszt

 

    

 

 


November 10 - December 8, 2023

Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit (GET TICKETS HERE):
Thursday, Nov. 9, 7-9pm
—————–
Public Opening: Friday, Nov. 10, 6-9pm

main gallery + drawing room

 

SELF
Works of Self-Portraiture & Self-Image

Making a self-portrait requires you to have a sense of self, a sense of identity, a sense of what you look like—both how you are perceived by others and how you perceive yourself. That sense of self needn’t be fixed (and it may not even be accurate) but it is the starting point for both reflection and communication. More importantly, making a self-portrait requires that you examine your self-perception.

What are the things that make you, You? How do you look at yourself? How do you imagine yourself? How much of your identity is flattery, how much is overly-critical? What expression of you comes from your actions, and what comes from your appearance? How well do you understand the ways your body shapes and is shaped by the world? 

SELF is an exhibit works of self-reflection, and about self-image.

For this exhibit, 157 artists submitted 545 works from 32 states and 3 countries, Iran, Japan, and the United States. Twenty-three works by the following 20 artists from 11 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

 

We are pleased to present works by:

Penny Cagney
Santa Cruz, California

Marge Cameron
Beloit, Ohio

Sally Clegg
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Isabella Covert
Savannah, Georgia

Daniel Dallmann
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Dara Engler
Trumansburg, New York

Shannon Fody
Royal Oak, Michigan

Ollie Froelich
Crown Point, Indiana

Cyrus Glance
Asheville, North Carolina

Marcella Hackbardt
Mount Vernon, Ohio

Ethan Humrichouser
Cincinnati, Ohio

Todd Kunkler
Cincinnati, Ohio

Julio Labra
Atlanta, Georgia

Ellen Starr Lyon
Bloomington, Indiana

Amelia Morris
Indianapolis, Indiana

Shaena Neal
Paris, Kentucky

Anna Pellicone
Cohoes, New York

Kirk Prudenciano
Rosedale, Maryland

Hez Sumner
Highland Heights, Kentucky

Kerra Taylor
Springfield, Missouri

 

 

 

 

 

 


     Sally Clegg

 

     Shannon Fody

 

     Kirk Prudenciano


     Daniel Dallmann



 


parallel space

 

HORIZON
Prints and Drawings by Kasey Ramirez

Born in New Brunswick, NJ, Kasey Ramirez received an MFA in Printmaking from Indiana University and a BFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design. She currently lives and works in West Hartford, Connecticut, where she serves as Assistant Professor and Head of Printmaking at the Hartford Art School. Her work has been exhibited at the International Print Center New York, The Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, OH, 21C Museum in Bentonville, AR, Rosewood Arts Centre Gallery in Kettering, OH, and the Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, NJ. She is a recipient of an Artists 360 Grant from the Mid America Art Alliance, for which she is pursuing research on climate change and hazard mitigation efforts to inform her work. She has participated in artist residencies at Arquetopia in Urubamba, Peru, Collar Works Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency in Granville, New York, Vermont Studio Center, as well as Guanlan Printmaking Base in Shenzhen, China.

Of her work the artist states:

"My work explores the tension between stability and impermanence by placing architectural structures in consuming environments. In the wake of increasingly frequent severe storms, and having direct experience with Superstorm Sandy, my personal sense of vulnerability connects with the impending tipping point of climate change. In my drawings and prints, buildings become a stand-in for human efforts for protection that are ultimately vulnerable to environmental extremes.

I enjoy the alchemical properties of printmaking—how the surface of wood can become air, to be at once an assertively flat surface and a spatial, breathing image. I find the processes of physical erosion or destruction resonate with the features of these disasters. Drawing also allows me to explore this sense of devastation and looming atmosphere. By using charcoal, soot, ink, and other organic residue in these works, the drawings reference their subjects—oppressive air, water, or destructive fire. I seek to create a sense of time and turmoil through repeated gestures of accumulation and removal.

This exhibition was selected from among 166 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 20th season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


central gallery + north gallery

 

MOMENTUM
Works of Art About, Depicting, Mapping, Describing, or Using Movement

Imagine that you are on a bus.  

There is a bomb on that bus.  

Once the bus reaches 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. 

In this situation, what do you do?

Momentum raises the stakes. Travel, the process of being in one place and then next in another, is change — things happening. Everything is always in motion, from electrons to planets, all barreling through vastness. 

Things spin, whirl, and tick in circles like clockwork. They move in waves, gently ebbing and flowing, or blasting buildings and eardrums, and with intense percussive force. Time moves somewhat reliably in one direction. People move, and carry things with them. The myriad of ways in which matter, energy, ideas, and creatures move is the stuff that shapes the entirety of our physical world.

Stillness is just the illusion that we believe in long enough to catch our breath. 

Nothing is still, and everything is changing. 

MOMENTUM is an exhibit of works about, depicting, mapping, describing, or using movement—a show about the one universal constant, change.

For this exhibit, 72 artists submitted 251 works from 25 states and 5 countries, Australia, Canada, Israel, Spain, and the United States. Fifteen works by the following 11 artists from 9 states and Spain were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Presenting works by:

Bob Bruch
Oberlin, Ohio

Gabe Drueke
Smithton, Illinois

John Francis
Boise, Idaho

Steven Gray
Park City, Utah

Gretchen Durst Jacobs
Dayton, Ohio

Patti Jordan
Montclair, New Jersey

M. Lohrum
Tacoronte, Spain

Randolph Melick
Traverse City, Michigan

Jodi O'Hara
Black Mountian, North Carolina

Amy Salomone
Warwick, Rhode Island

Rohini Sen
Indianapolis, Indiana

 

 

 

 

 

 

     M. Lohrum

 

     Randolph Melick


     Gabe Drueke

 

    

 

 


December 15, 2023 - January 12, 2024

Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit (GET TICKETS HERE):
Thursday, Dec. 14, 7-9pm
—————–
Public Opening: Friday, Dec. 15, 6-9pm

main gallery + drawing room

 

DISQUIET
Art that Unsettles

What are the signs that something is wrong? 

There is a moment before we react to danger where we register, subconsciously, that something is off. That we have reason to be afraid. The source of our disquiet can be obvious: teeth, viscera, a body open in unnatural ways. 

When the image lacks obvious violence but instead depicts something familiar made unfamiliar/untrustworthy, or vice versa, our horror simmers before exploding because the fear is harder to name—a room where the edges don't come together correctly, a face held in an expression incongruous to the moment, a chemical sheen glistening on the surface of a comforting meal.

When unsettled, our sense of being “okay”, our certitude of continued cleanliness or wholeness, is challenged, and we experience the frisson, the arousal, the fascination that comes with being under threat. We are primed for a reaction in this moment. We can run, fight, reject, or else succumb to the disquieting thing and be changed by it. 

What do we see at the border between life as we know it, and the unknown?

DISQUIET is an exhibit about the strange, the uncanny, the abject, the revolting, the unsettling, and the things that frighten us.

For this exhibit, 111 artists submitted 397 works from 30 states, Washington D.C., and 3 countries, Canada, Germany, and the United States. Twenty-six works by the following 15 artists from 11 states and Canada were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.


Presenting works by:

Chelsea Bonham
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cole Carothers
Milford, Ohio

Dara Engler
Trumansburg, New York

Misty Findley
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Tanja Gant
Hawkins, Texas

Michel Guy
La Prairie, Canada

Ann Harwell
Wendell, North Carolina

Kent Krugh
Fairfield, Ohio

Amelia Morris
Indianapolis, Indiana

Steve Novick
Somerville, Massachusetts

Molly Otremba
Louisville, Kentucky

Amy Salomone
Warwick, Rhode Island

Joseph Skinner
Corpus Christi, Texas

Ericka Sobrack
Orlando, Florida

Erik Waterkotte
Charlotte, North Carolina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Steve Novick

 

 

     Cole Carothers


     Ericka Sobrack


 


parallel space

 

ILLUSTRATED

How much do you want to be understood?

Clarity of meaning is a question, rather than an essential quality of art. We can explore ideas while holding space for uncertainty and mystery, leaving some questions open-ended.

But when is there no room for ambiguity? Visual work is sometimes tasked with answering questions rather than raising them, with conveying information rather than emotion—think of technical manuals explaining which-part-goes-where, books full of images that work in union with text to tell a story (or tell a story without any text at all), advertisements where images are calibrated, targeted, to market products to you, courtroom drawings, maps, and so much more. Before the advent of photography, visual art and design were practically synonymous with 'illustration'. Before the advent of movable type, visual illustration was the primary means of education and non-audible communication.

When communication is the goal, the artist looks beyond their own self expression or self-satisfaction, considering more carefully the audience and the message they are conveying—and when words, even direct words, result in confusion or delay, an image shows us the way.

ILLUSTRATED is an exhibit works of art (including fine art, design, and illustration) that depict, represent, explain, clarify, relate, illuminate, detail, or communicate. 

For this exhibit, 20 artists submitted 70 works from 14 states and 2 countries, Germany and the United States. Ten works by the following 7 artists from 6 states and Germany were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.


Presenting works by:

Matthew Bailey
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Sharon Dundee
Lyndhurst, Ohio

Fuko Ito
Lexington, Kentucky

Clayton Lewis
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Andrei Mocanu
Darmstadt, Germany

Hyunjee Clara Ryu
Beverly Hills, California

Christopher Troutman
Beaumont, Texas

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Matthew Bailey

 

 

     Fuko Ito

 

 

     Hyunjee Clara Ryu


 

 


central gallery

 

ONE 14
The 14th Annual Manifest Prize Winner

 

Michael Reedy
(Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Hoo-ooh!
charcoal, colored pencil, watercolor, gouache, acrylic, glitter, and glow-in-the-dark paint on paper
53.5” x 25”, 2022

Of his work the artist states:

"The nature and process of death has been a central concern for most religious traditions, philosophical schools, medical practitioners, and artists for millennia. Regardless of one’s belief in an afterlife or a soul, nothing shapes and conveys that physicality in a more direct and morally complex way than medical imaging.

Anatomical illustration was at one time a highly collaborative endeavor by anatomists and artists to reveal the secrets of the body with a showmanship not only intended to amaze onlookers, but also to morally instruct. However, as medical imaging practices and anatomical illustration have evolved, we increasingly nd ourselves viewing the body through a set of pictorial conventions governed by the principal desire to escape the body’s harsh reality via the gross reduction of visual information. In an era where virtual corpses can be summoned from cyberspace anytime/anywhere, our understanding of the moral lessons once conveyed by anatomical images is only being further and further diminished. It has been my goal to reengage and explore medical imaging within the framework of memento mori by employing anatomical models to serve as warnings or reminders of death."

 

Michael Reedy currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and teaches drawing at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Art & Design. His work has been included in over 250 national and international exhibitions and can be viewed in numerous private and institutional collections, including Clatsop Community College, Minot State University, Shippensburg University, Penn College of Technology, and the Hoffman Trust National Collection in association with the San Diego Art Institute. His work has also been featured in over 30 books and journals, including Hi-Fructose, Juxtapoze, Spectrum, and Fresh Paint. Notable recent creative activities include a two-person exhibition at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco and solo exhibitions at Helikon Gallery in Denver, The Scarab Club in Detroit, Arch Enemy Arts In Philadelphia, Revolution Gallery in Buffalo NY, and BeinArt Gallery in Brunswick, Australia. His work was also recently featured in Create Magazine, Creative Quarterly, The Moleskine Project Vol. 2 (Spoke Art), and Manifest Gallery’s 14th International Drawing Annual.

 

ABOUT THE MANIFEST PRIZE

Seven seasons ago our board of directors increased the Manifest Prize award to $5,000. This underscored our non-profit organization's desire to reward, showcase, celebrate, and document exceptional artwork being made today by working artists, and to do this in a tasteful non-commercial public context. Manifest's mission is centered on championing the importance of quality in visual art, supporting and encouraging artists at all levels from all backgrounds. This project is one aspect of the realization of that mission.

We respect the creative principle of reduction (the blind jury process) as it is employed to achieve an essential conclusive statement for each exhibit we produce. This is what has led to the high caliber of each Manifest exhibit, and to the gallery's notable following. We believe competition inspires excellence. Therefore we determined over a decade ago to launch the Manifest Prize in order to push the process to the ultimate limit—from among many to select just ONE work.

Manifest's jury process for the 14th Annual Manifest Prize included multiple levels of jury review of 856 works of all shapes, sizes, and media made by 200 artists from around the world. The jury consisted of a total of 18 different volunteer jurors from across the U.S. Each level of the process resulted in fewer works passing on to the next, until a winner was reached. The size and physical nature of the works considered was not a factor in the jury scoring and selection.

It should be noted that the one winner and four finalists, 5 works, represent roughly the top scoring .5% of the jury pool. The winner represents the top one-tenth of 1% of the jury pool.

The winning work will be presented in Manifest's Central Gallery from December 15, 2023 through January 12, 2024. It will be accompanied by excerpts from juror statements and the artist's statement.

The Finalists:

Four finalist works by two artists (runners up to the winner) will also be featured in the season-documenting Manifest Exhibition Annual publication (MEAs20). These are works by Justin Archer (Atlanta, Georgia) and Patricia Bellan-Gillen (Burgettstown, Pennsylvania).

 

 

 

 




 

 

 

 


north gallery

 

14th Annual TAPPED
Artists and their Professors

The relationship between artists and their current or former instructors can be a powerful one. Even when this bond is left unstated, we carry our professors' voices forward in time as we mature as artists and people. We eventually realize that the instruction given by our teachers during our relatively brief careers as students continues to expand within us. We realize that the learning they inspired (or insisted upon) is a chain-reaction process that develops across our lifetime. All of us who have been students carry forward our teachers' legacy in one form or another. And those who are, or have been teachers, bear witness to the potency of studenthood.

Out of respect for this artist-teacher bond, and in honor of teachers working hard to help artists tap into a higher mind relative to art and life, Manifest is proud to  present TAPPED, an annual exhibit that presents paired works of art by current or former artist/teacher pairs.

For this exhibit, 57 artists submitted 197 works from 24 states. Twelve works by the following 12 artists from 8 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

The artists are listed in pairings to illustrate their teacher/student relationship (past or present). Works on view will include paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and photographs. The exhibition layout is planned so that each pair of artists' works will be shown side-by-side or in close proximity. Visitors will be able to enjoy the variety of types of works while also considering the nature of influence between professor and student.

It is worth noting also that at least one of the artists in the 'former student' category are now themselves working as a professor.

 

 

 Professor  Student

Deidre Argyle
Springfield, Missouri

Shauna Smith
Springfield, Missouri
Jason Lanegan
Spanish Fork, Utah
Jessica Booth*
Spanish Fork, Utah
Dana Saulnier
Oxford, Ohio

Brooke Owens*
Covington, Kentucky

Angela Wells
Tarboro, North Carolina
Brian Culbertson
Greenville, North Carolina

Nathan Heuer
Indiana, Pennsylvania

Lauren Scavo-Fulk
Jeannette, Pennsylvania

Kristen Tordella-Williams
Opelika, Alabama

Lily Dorian*
South Bend, Indiana
   
* current student  

 


 

 

 

 



 


Deidre Argyle

Shauna Smith

Jason Lanegan

Jessica Booth

Dana Saulnier

Brooke Owens

Angela Wells

Brian Culbertson

Nathan Heuer


Lauren Scavo-Fulk


Kristen Tordella-Williams

Lily Dorian

 

 

 

January 26 - February 23, 2024

Ticketed Preview - Annual Fund Benefit:
Thursday, Jan. 25, 7-9pm
—————–
Public Opening: Friday, Jan. 26, 6-9pm

main gallery + drawing room

 

PAPERWORK

Paper is one of the first areas of creative possibility that we encounter.

It is a surface made of pulped cellulose, created to take on marks, incisions, and material. It carries between us our messages, sketches, lists, and sums—all forms of externalized memory, thoughts, emotions and knowledge. It is bound into books and packed into clean sheaves. Stacks of paper clutters desks, fill spiral journals crammed into backpacks. Wads of tissue-thin paper napkins wait at the bottom of fast food bags to wipe away crumbs and be thrown away. Beautiful paper, special paper, waits in files and drawers for the right project.

With the right marks adorning its face, paper can become precious. Duplicated enough, it becomes essentially, and importantly, disposable.

Beyond its use as a surface, it can be folded, molded, out of its flatness into an object, a something in its own right, and not just a vehicle. Great satisfaction is found in pressing paper’s folded edge into a crease. There is beauty in the sound of it slicing.

Paper exists in extremes, as the most disposable of trash to something exquisite, preserved, and sacred. We enrich and destroy paper, and it allows us to shape it into many things.

PAPERWORK is an exhibit of works on paper, of paper, and about paper in all of its uses.

For this exhibit, 137 artists submitted 521 works from 33 states and 5 countries, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico, and the United States. Seventeen works by the following 15 artists from 12 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Presenting works by:

Briana Babani
Red Hook, New York

Jane Barrow
St. Louis, Missouri

Jessica Beels
Louisville, Kentucky

Jenny Challa
New York, New York

Colleen Couch
Memphis, Tennessee

Paula Damm
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Katharine DeLamater
Brooklyn, New York

Rebecca Hutchinson
Rochester, Massachusetts

Laura Makar
Hamtramck, Michigan

Michele Heather Pollock
Columbus, Indiana

Jennifer Seo
Spokane, Washington

Emily Sheehan
New Albany, Indiana

Kathleen Thum
Central, South Carolina

Jacob Watts
Chicago, Illinois

Cassie White
Corpus Christi, Texas

 

 

 

 

Briana Babani

 

 

Paula Damm

 


parallel space

 

PRINTED LANDSCAPES
Works by Kathy McGhee

Kathy L. McGhee is a professor in fine arts, and Area Coordinator of Printmaking at the Columbus College of Art & Design where she teaches introductory, intermediate and advanced printmaking. McGhee is a practicing printmaker who has shown her work both nationally and internationally. She received the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s International Residency Award in 2005 and traveled to Germany. In 2010, she was a participant in the Xi’an International Printmaking Workshop held at Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts in China, and in 2012, she received an international residency through the Ohio Arts Council. In 2019, she was an artist in residence at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and also at the Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

She holds a BS in plant biology from Ohio State University, 1997; a BFA in drawing and painting from Ohio State University, 1997;  and an MFA in printmaking from Ohio State University, 2000.

Of her work the artist states:

"My printmaking practice is inspired by the natural world. I create work inspired by my observations. These images are not necessarily of vast vistas but often will consist of small moments of beauty and of relationships existing between plants as well as the earth. I am intrigued not only by the experience of being in nature but also of the visual patterns created as organisms coexist.

I am interested in exploring and calling into question ideas and associations regarding our perceptions of the natural world as well as self-realizations which may arise from its closer scrutiny and to create a sense of introspection and self-discovery. I find that my background, as an individual raised in rural Ohio and my connection with the landscape and other natural elements, has greatly influenced the manner in which I have depicted these ideas—I frequently use images of animals, the occasional household item, landscape and other natural elements. In doing this, I find that I am able to create meaningful interactions between viewers and the works.


This exhibition was selected from among 166 proposals submitted in consideration for Manifest’s 20th season.

 

 

 

  

 

  


central gallery

 

FOODSTUFFS
Art About Food

Food is intertwined with cycles of life and death, creation and destruction. Originating with energy from our sun, food is cultivated, gathered, found, and then digested and decomposed. It is, in a real sense, a delivery method for getting the Sun into our bodies. Methods of preservation, pasteurization, and processing continue to define our eating. As food becomes more plentiful and convenient it not only serves to nourish us, but defines our social habits, our relationships with our bodies, and cultural practices. Food to some can mean scarcity and hunger. Food to others can mean gluttony and waste. Food as a subject of art begins with humanity itself. Our ancestors vigorously illustrated their aspirations and efforts to secure it in the form of cave paintings and drawings dating back tens of thousands of years. And surely the visual and symbolic encapsulation of food as a human imperative goes further back still.

FOODSTUFFS is an exhibition of works that explore food, hunger, fulfillment, and food-related practices as subject, form, or content.

For this exhibit, 92 artists submitted 312 works from 28 states and 4 countries, Canada, Germany, Ireland, and the United States. Twelve works by the following 7 artists from 6 states were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Presenting works by:

Briana Babani
Red Hook, New York

Jaquelee Chit Yu Chau
Athens, Ohio

Daniel Endicott
Ambler, Pennsylvania

Frank Melendez & Nancy Diniz
New York, New York

Steve Novick
Somerville, Massachusetts

Benjamin Shamback
Mobile, Alabama

Shiya Zeng
Salt Lake City, Utah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaquelee Chit Yu Chau

 

Benjamin Shamback



north gallery

 

WAXWORKS
Art Made of, Using, or About Wax

Wax’s capacity to mimic the surface, sheen, and luminosity of living flesh lends its use to the uncanny.

Life-like wax sculptures used to be sacrificed in lieu of material goods. Early anatomical instruction was performed using wax simulacra of human viscera.
 
Its texture rests on the knife edge between attractive and repulsive; The surface is inviting, but touch it for too long and you will feel it soften under the low heat of your hands.
That same softness, the ability to be warmed and shaped allows it to become a sketch material, a molding material, something easily shaped or carved.

Wax gives an idea form, and then it is sacrificed, lost, inside the very mold it shapes, burned out and flooded with liquid bronze, silver. An alchemic transformation. 

Wax is one of the oldest painting mediums, with its own quality of light, its distinctive smell.

Wax preserves, mimics, warms, melts, softens, molds, runs, burns, and fuels.
 
WAXWORKS is an exhibition of artworks made with, using, of, or about wax in all its forms.

For this exhibit, 60 artists submitted 203 works from 20 states, Washington D.C., and 3 countries, Germany, North Macedonia, and the United States. Fourteen works by the following 11 artists from 6 states and Washington D.C. were selected by a blind jury process for presentation in the gallery and the Manifest Exhibition Annual publication.

Presenting works by:

Calvin Cohen
Syracuse, New York

Jim Cotter
Minturn, Colorado

Myles Dunigan
Oberlin, Ohio

David Evans
Washington D.C.

Anne Feller
Boulder, Colorado

Kim Flora
Cincinnati, Ohio

Jon Hunt
Manhattan, Kansas

Rebekah Hurst
Frisco, Texas

Matthew Jones
Arlington, Texas

Kevin Milstead
Washington D.C.

Michele Thrane
Arlington Heights, Illinois

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 


Jon Hunt


Kim Flora


Anne Feller


 


 

——— END OF SEASON 20  ———

THANK YOU!


See all open calls here.



 Josephine S. Russell
Charitable Trust

Manifest is supported by sustainability funding from the Ohio Arts Council, and through the generous direct contributions of individual supporters and private foundations who care deeply about Manifest's mission for the visual arts.


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