News & Exhibitions
Weinberger Fine Art, Exploring the Figure (Two-Person Show)Jul 7—Aug 25, 2023
Weinberger Fine Art
114 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, MO
http://www.weinbergerfineart.com/
WFA presents figurative work by Susan Grace and Luke Reichle, which is new, bold, colorful, and joyful!
Reuben Saunders Gallery, Solid GroundApr 7—Apr 29, 2023
Reuben Saunders Gallery
3215 E. Douglas Avenue, Wichita, KS 67218
https://www.reubensaundersgallery.com/
This group exhibition will feature new artworks that celebrate the beauty, culture and majesty of vast vistas created by over 15 different local & regional artists!
We hope you will join us for our opening reception from 5:30pm – 9:00pm!
Weinberger Fine Art, The Life You’ve SeenMar 18—Apr 30, 2022
Weinberger Fine Art
114 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, MO
http://www.weinbergerfineart.com/
Weinberger Fine Art is pleased to present The Life You’ve Seen, a selection of works by over 30 women artists living and working in the greater Kansas City metro area for an exhibition on feminine identity and the varying ways in which it can be defined. Identity is boundless and constantly in flux, ebbing and flowing as we age and transform. What does it mean to be you in your body? What does it mean to be you in your body making art?
The Life You’ve Seen will be on view March 18th through April 30th. Please join us for the opening reception on Friday, April 1st from 5 - 8 pm.
ARTISTS INCLUDE:
Ada Koch, Alicia Kelly, Amanda Long, Beth Grillo, Brooke Spalding Ford, Chari Peak, Clare Doveton, Cynthia Bjorn, Elise Gagliardi, Ellen Weitkamp, Emily Quinn, Jacquette Caskey, Jenn Hudson, Jessalyn Mailoa, Jillian Youngbird, Katrina Revenaugh, Kim Eichler Messmer, Kristin Goering, Lacey Lewis, Lauren Phillips, Laura Nugent, Linda Lighton, Lindsey Dunnagan, Madison Tubbs, Morgan Ford Willingham, Rachel Ferber, Rachelle Gardner Roe, Rashelle Weissenbach, Robin VanHoozer, Sam Haan, Scout Marshall, Susan Grace, Tessa Harrison, and Teresa Johnson.
Reuben Saunders Gallery, Lawrence CollectiveMar 4—Mar 26, 2022
Reuben Saunders Gallery
3215 E. Douglas Avenue, Wichita, KS 67218
https://www.reubensaundersgallery.com/
“Lawrence Collective” Exhibition opens Friday, March 4th 2022, from 5:30pm – 9pm and runs through March 26.
This exhibition highlights the parallels of six different artists from Lawrence, Kansas.
• Ben Ahlvers
• Norman Akers
• Susan Grace
• Mary Anne Jordan
• Michael McCaffery
• & Gina Westergard
The artwork on display will represent a range of mediums, from large scale oil paintings to textiles to ceramics and more! The show focuses on cultural survival, domesticity in everyday life, the mystery of death, and the way society is continually evolving by exploring the possibilities for metamorphosis.
The Turnings of Susan Grace: A Celebrated Artist Reimagines the Portrait.Sep 23, 2021
Feature article in Lawrence Mag (Fall 2021) by Darin M. White.
Manifest Gallery, Semblance - The Portrait TodayJul 8—Aug 6, 2021
Manifest Gallery
2727 Woodburn Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
https://www.manifestgallery.org/
“Semblance - The Portrait Today” is an international exhibition for works of portraiture.
London Paint Club, Together Through Painting Online ExhibitionMay 18—Jun 6, 2021
“Together Through Painting” celebrates the intergenerational and transnational aptitude of a medium that creates a new form of dialogue between the artists, previously unconnected. Defying geopolitical borders, and merging interior and exterior worlds, emotions and thoughts, these selected paintings serve as a source of great inspiration and consolation for all of us. The strength of this online community is therefore once again proving necessary as we continue to face challenges in our everyday lives.
Mulvane Art Museum, Sustainability / Social, Environmental, EconomicFeb 5—Jul 31, 2021
Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University
1700 SW College Ave
Topeka, KS
https://mulvaneartmuseum.org/
Oriented around three organizing themes, Sustainability | Social, Environmental, Economic, the exhibition features artworks that relate to the topic of sustainability. Spanning the entire second floor of the museum’s galleries, this exhibition seeks to prompt important conversations about climate change, the socio-cultural significance of topographical sites to different groups of people, the evolving history of landscape and its representation in art, distinct ecosystems, and illustrative biodiversity. This long-term installation is an innovative curatorial endeavor that showcases the strength and diversity of the Mulvane Art Museum’s permanent collection.
Reuben Saunders Gallery, Transformation - Paintings by Susan GraceJan 8—Feb 19, 2021
Reuben Saunders Gallery
Opening Reception Jan. 8, 10 am - 7 pm
3215 E. Douglas Ave
Wichita, KS 67218
http://www.reubensaundersgallery.com/
Weinberger Fine Art, Fall SalonOct 4—Nov 29, 2019
Opening Reception Oct. 4, 5 - 8 pm
114 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, MO
http://www.weinbergerfineart.com/
Bunker Center for the Arts, Mixing It Up: Paintings and Drawings by Susan Grace, Kansas City, MOApr 5—Apr 30, 2019
Bunker Center for the Arts,
Kansas City, MO
1014 East 19th St.
Kansas City, MO 64108
https://www.bunkercenter.com/
Weinberger Fine Art, Urban Joy, Kansas City, MOMar 1—Mar 30, 2019
114 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, MO
http://www.weinbergerfineart.com/
Weinberger Fine Art, Winter Salon, Kansas City, MOFeb 1—Feb 28, 2019
114 Southwest Boulevard, Kansas City, MO
http://www.weinbergerfineart.com/
Blue Ciggy: Paintings and Drawings by Susan GraceJul 6—Jul 28, 2018
Opening reception: First Friday, July 6
Jones Gallery - Crossroads KC
1717 Walnut St.
Kansas City, MO 64108
816-421-2111
https://www.facebook.com/Jones-Gallery-Crossroads-KC-144771842268134/
KC Artists Coalition Member Exhibition - Buttonwood Art SpaceDec 1—Jan 25, 2018
Opening Reception: Dec. 1, 5-7 pm
Second Reception: Jan. 11, 5-7 pm
Buttonwood Art Space
3013 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64108
Strecker Nelson West Presents 2017 - A Group Exhibition at SNW GalleryNov 3—Dec 30, 2017
Opening Reception: Nov. 3, 5-8 pm
Strecker Nelson West Gallery
406 1/2 Poyntz Avenue
Manhattan, KS 66502
12 x 12 Group Exhibition - National Juried Exhibition at Lawrence Arts CenterOct 27—Dec 22, 2017
Opening Reception: Oct. 27, 5-9 pm
Lawrence Arts Center
940 New Hampshire St.
Lawrence, KS 66044
https://lawrenceartscenter.org/
https://www.facebook.com/lawrenceartscenter
Kansas City Society for Contemporary Photography Current Works - 2017Oct 13—Nov 10, 2017
Juried by Keith Davis, Senior Curator of Photography, at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Opening Reception: Oct. 13, 6-8 pm
Kansas City Artists Coalition
201 Wyandotte, STE.105, KCMO 64105
https://www.facebook.com/KansasCitySCP
http://www.kansascityartistscoalition.org/
Visions of the Flint Hills - A Group Exhibition at Buttonwood Art SpaceOct 6—Nov 22, 2017
Opening Reception: Oct. 6, 5-9 pm
Buttonwood Art Space
3013 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64108
https://buttonwoodartspace.com/
https://www.facebook.com/buttonwoodartspace/
The Mind’s Eye - A Group Exhibition at Strecker Nelson West GalleryAug 25—Oct 28, 2017
Opening Reception: Aug. 25, 5-8 pm
Strecker Nelson West Gallery
406 1/2 Poyntz Avenue
Manhattan, KS 66502
99: Locally Brewed - A Group Exhibition at Cider GalleryAug 25—Sep 22, 2017
Opening Reception: Final Friday, August 25, 5-9 pm
Cider Gallery, 810 Pennsylvania St. Lawrence, KS, 66044
Artist of the Day: Susan GraceMay 29, 2017
Article by R.L. Gibson
May 29, 2017
Art and Art Deadlines.com
http://www.artandartdeadlines.com/2017/05/aotd-susan-grace/
“I find that I am an obsessive observer of signs but am increasingly skeptical that I perceive them in the ways intended by those who produced them.” — Susan Grace
•
I am moving my home and downsizing again. This is the last step on the way to making my family more mobile. I have temporarily returned to goal-specific formal secondary education, and have just met the end of residential parenting. My world is shifting. I look around me for comfort in the familiar, in signs and symbols that the sun will appear once again in the morning. And, while the sun has yet to disappoint me, it is hard not to feel isolated when you interpret all the signs differently than those around you. I feel as a stranger in a strange land, like the title of that famous sci-fi novel. When I read the statement of today’s AAAD Artist of the Day, Susan Grace, I knew I’d found a kindred spirit. Read the statement, browse the work. Maybe we aren’t strangers after all.
•
Share the narrative by investigating the work of AAAD Artist of the Day, painter Susan Grace!
“Here Kitty Kitty,” oil and charcoal on paper.
Artist in Focus: Susan GraceMar 9, 2017
Article by Natasha Welsh.
Cider Gallery Blog. http://www.cidergallery.com/wad-blog/
March 9, 2017
Artist in Focus: Susan Grace
Art, Events
Susan Grace is a local Lawrence artist who uses her immense knowledge of classic literature to express notions of instability, memory, and human communication and connections.
Susan Grace is a professional painter living and working in Lawrence, KS. She has a long and illustrious career exhibiting in art galleries throughout the U.S., including: the ARC Gallery in Chicago, Riverside Art Museum in California, the World Trade Center and an assortment of local galleries. In addition to her frequent showings, the artist has garnered acclaim and various awards for her paintings. Most notable of these are special recognition and honorable mention by The Artist Magazine and the Upstream People Gallery Online in Omaha, NE. She is currently showing in the Re: Solution group exhibition on display at the Cider Gallery.
While not formally trained, her education on painting began in Athens, Greece. Before becoming a professional painter, she used her education in theater and literature to teach Literature courses to curious students. As such, her life-long study of the works of both American and European authors is considered by the artist to be a major source of inspiration for her artwork. She often describes her works in the form of poems and quotes from famous authors. As seen on her website, the artist draws her major inspiration from the works of Thomas Pynchon and Samuel Beckett, stating:
“In my paintings I explore issues related to disintegration, disorientation, instability, and attempts to communicate using some kind of written sign, including text translations and asemic writing [writing devoid of semantic context]. From shifting perceptions, unreliable memories…we construct an identity and a personal and sometimes briefly shared narrative of the past and a possible future.”
This notion is reflected in the most recent works of Grace, displayed on the walls of the Cider Gallery. These pieces, which merge and flow with sweeping lines and a muted color palette, are often punctured by swirling script. The script reflects writing, but is not recognizable as such. Instead, the juxtaposition of pastel text over shades of brown and orange expresses the artists ideas of textual translations that are both unreliable and yet fixed, reflecting the imperfection of memory. In the instance of these images, the following passage picked by the artist best describes the tension between recollection and the blankness of unconsciousness.
“She could, at this stage of things, recognize signals like that, as the epileptic is said to—an odor, color, pure piercing grace note announcing his seizure. Afterward it is only this signal, really dross, this secular announcement, and never what is revealed during the attack, that he remembers. Oedipa wondered whether, at the end of this (if it were supposed to end), she too might not be left with only compiled memories of clues, announcements, intimations, but never the central truth itself, which must somehow each time be too bright for her memory to hold; which must always blaze out, destroying its own message irreversibly, leaving an overexposed blank when the ordinary world came back.”
― Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)
“Blue Ciggy #2,” oil on canvas.
“He’s In Town Again,” mixed media on canvas.
“Staring Too Long,” mixed media on canvas, triptych.
Visit the artists webpage here: http://www.susangracestudio.com/
RE: SOLUTION // A Group Exhibition at Cider Gallery (continues with new work)Feb 24—Mar 24, 2017
![[url=https://www.facebook.com/cidergalleryfineart]https://www.facebook.com/cidergalleryfineart[/url]](http://www.susangracestudio.com/images/artwork/Hes_in_Town_Again-slide.jpg)
Opening reception: Final Fridays, February 24, 5:00-9:00 pm.
Cider Gallery, 810 Pennsylvania St, Lawrence, KS, 66044
http://www.cidergallery.com/
https://www.facebook.com/cidergalleryfineart
RE: SOLUTION // A Group Exhibition at Cider GalleryJan 27—Feb 22, 2017
Opening reception: Final Fridays, January 27, 5:00-9:00 pm.
Cider Gallery, 810 Pennsylvania St, Lawrence, KS, 66044
http://www.cidergallery.com/
https://www.facebook.com/cidergalleryfineart
Fragments: Paintings by Susan Grace and Photography by Kyle BatsonSep 30—Oct 22, 2016
Opening reception: Final Fridays, September 30th, 5:00-9:00 pm.
Cider Gallery, 810 Pennsylvania St, Lawrence, KS, 66044
http://www.cidergallery.com/
https://www.facebook.com/cidergalleryfineart
Kansas City Artists Coalition 40th Anniversary River Market Regional Invitational Exhibition.Aug 12—Sep 22, 2016
August 12 Opening Reception. 5-8 p.m. As part of the KCAC 40 Anniversary Block Party!
Kansas City Artists Coalition
201 Wyandotte
Kansas City, MO 64105
Kansas City Artists Coalition re: MEMBERS ExhibitionJul 10—Aug 20, 2015
Opening Reception: July 10, 6-8 pm
Kansas City Artists Coalition
201 Wyandotte
Kansas City, MO 64105
http://www.kansascityartistscoalition.org/
Jurors
Philomene Bennett is the co-founder and past-president of the Kansas City Artists Coalition. Bennett is a prominent painter and art instructor in Kansas City and has been an active artist for 50+ years. Bennett has had over 100 solo, two-person and group exhibitions of her work throughout the United States. Her work is in the collections of museums and corporations throughout the United States, including the Kemper Museum, Kansas City, Mo.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, Daum Museum, Sedalia, MO, Albrecht -Kemper Museum, St. Joseph, MO, Prudential Life Insurance, New York, NY, United Missouri Bank, Kansas City and Blue Springs, MO, Mutual Benefit Life, Kansas City, MO, Odyssian Technology, South Bend IN, American Express, Salt Lake City, UT; and many others.
Jim Sajovic is a Professor at the Kansas City Art Institute. He has been involved with KCAC from the early days. Sajovic’s solo exhibitions include: Jim Sajovic: Hix Fragments & (pash’n), Todd Weiner Gallery, KCMO: Be Inspired, Kemper Crossroads Museum,:KCMO. Jim Sajovic: Evolution, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO; Dreamer-Ecstasy, Belger Arts Center, KCMO Jim Sajovic, The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia; Millennium Garden, The Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, MO. The Art of Jim Sajovic, The Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, Kansas. Sajovic’s works are held in public and private collections in the United States, Europe, and Asia. His artworks have been exhibited in galleries and museums, nationally and internationally, including New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles; Edinburgh (Scotland), Paris (France), as well as Milan, Rome, and Venice (Italy).
James Martin is an independent consultant, curator, educator and writer based in the Kansas City area. He serves as Curator of the Center for the Healing Arts at Truman Medical Centers and he currently consults on public art for the municipalities of Gladstone, MO; Merriam, KS; and Olathe, KS. He began his career in 1989 as Interim Director at the Kansas City Artists Coalition, and returned to work for KCAC in 1995 as Managing Editor of Forum Magazine. In addition, he was formerly Curator of the Sprint Art Collection and Assistant Curator in Modern and Contemporary Art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Janet Simpson is Executive Director of the Kansas City Artists Coalition and has been in this position since 1989. The Executive Director has primary responsibility for the organization, including artistic direction of the Exhibitions Series and Programs. Simpson has served on various committees and boards in her community, state and nation including the Kentucky Arts Council, the University of Missouri–Kansas City’s Urban Mission Task Force: Culture and Arts, Missouri Arts Council Organizational Development Working Committee; Kansas City Municipal Arts Commission 1% for Art Panel; the River Market Business Association Board of Directors; the Missouri Citizens for the Arts Board of Directors; and the National Association of Artists’ Organizations Board of Director, and was the Midwest representative to that organization and served on the Working Conditions Committee and the Conference Committee.
Catalog
The Artists Coalition will publish an illustrated digital catalog. Copies will be available online and distributed to contemporary art curators and gallery directors nationally.
The Mulvane Art Museum: Recent Acquisitions 2010-2015Jun 5—Aug 14, 2015
Open House: June 20, 1-4 pm
The Mulvane Art Museum
17th and Jewell Streets
Topeka, KS 66621
http://www.washburn.edu/about/community/mulvane-art-museum/index.html
Since 2010, the Mulvane Art Museum has acquired approximately 250 works of art in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, photography, glass, printmaking, and ceramics. The works range from a 17th century etched self-portrait by Rembrandt Van Rijn to folk art by Ann Carter to paintings by Topekan Barbara Waterman-Peters and everything in between. The exhibition will display works by Mountain Plains artists as well as works by artists from much farther afield.
Kansas City Artists Coalition River Market Regional ExhibitionJul 8—Aug 19, 2011
Opening Reception: July 8, 5-8 pm
Kansas City Artists Coalition
201 Wyandotte
Kansas City, MO 64105
http://www.kansascityartistscoalition.org/
Juror
Dr. Patricia McDonnell, Director, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas. McDonnell has worked in art museums for 30 years. She opened new museum facilities at Tacoma Art Museum (with architect Antoine Pedock) and the Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota (with architect Frank Gehry), and led curatorial programs to build an increased audience. McDonnell is a widely published scholar, a specialist on painter Marsden Hartley, and curated over 80 exhibitions on a range of modern and contemporary art subjects.
An illustrated catalog with an essay by Dr. McDonnell will be published.
Metamorphosis: Paintings by Susan GraceJan 6—Feb 5, 2011
Reception: January 7, 7-9 pm
Gallery Talk: January 20, 7 pm
Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence KS
785 843 2787
http://www.lawrenceartscenter.org