JANE BURKE
It is an honor to be invited to select this year’s artists for the 2024 Mountain Plains Contemporary Art Biennial (Salina Biennial) and to see such a strong pool of talent spanning across ten states. The breadth of artists in this year’s Biennial is a representational cross-section of the caliber of artists working in the interior of the country. Consistent with Salina Art Center’s mission, the Biennial directly contributes to the creation of “exchanges among art, artists, and audiences” in the near geographic center of the continental US, and in so doing, helps to decentralize the coasts as dominant epicenters of art.
After studying the past two iterations of the Biennial, similar organizing principals resurfaced including subject matter concerning: materiality, landscapes, portraiture, the environment, and abstraction. Albeit they are common categories, they are far from definitive, in that artists are now predominantly working across disciplines and mediums. Collectively, the work on view, exemplifies a broad spectrum of traditional and experimental methodologies, from R. Dugger Houston’s use of egg tempera to Pam Little’s digital painting.
Presumably, catalyzed by the pandemic, climate catastrophes, and cost of living, cities within the mountain plains region have undergone shifts in the make-up of their artistic communities with the influx of coastal transplants. The national call for social justice in 2020 and the wide-spread adoption of DEAI (diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion) principals has since diversified the representation of artists and increased the visibility of historically marginalized communities including rural areas. However, our progress towards equity, is seemingly one step forward, two steps back, wherein the politics from state to state are increasingly in flux.
All that said, the primary motivation behind my selection, was to present diverse backgrounds and amplify their voices, in most cases, by showing more than one work, in order for visitors to become better acquainted with their artistic point of view. Although, it created a densely packed show, I wanted to offer artists a platform to display a larger sample of work, in part to create a more in-depth visual dialogue between the artists’ subjects, methods, and materials. Many of the topics center around universally relevant concerns, related to social justice and environmental issues through the lens of lived experience.
Other intersections occur within the ongoing conversation around the antiquated hierarchy between fine art and craft. The number of artists employing textiles in their work, reflects its increased ubiquity throughout global contemporary art practices, and merits its own section. Although, difficult to define by materials or methods alone, visitors will find textile-based work throughout several loosely defined categories. Textiles are having a resurgence—no longer beholden to gender norms or narratives restricted to domesticity. Works such as Heather Schulte’s, Abraham, Abraham! and Systemic (in)justice, are instead being modernized through contemporary frameworks, in this case, sociopolitical commentary created in cross-stitch.
Another example of how materiality is categorically shapeshifting, is Megan McCoy’s, Top Down and Booty, which, at first sight, appear as geological formations, but are in fact abstracted anatomical compositions in tufted acrylic yarn. They are representative of how artists are employing fiber in more painterly ways—occupying more stylistically, fluid spaces in between realism and abstraction.
The tone of the exhibition is set with this in mind—the ways in which bodies can also function as landscapes and vice versa, to help map time and space in our rapidly-changing world. The stage of the exhibition is set within this crossroads—a type of reckoning of past paradigms within dominant historical narratives while simultaneously navigating an unknown, technological frontier. This duality can be detected within Adam Anglin’s mixed media works, In My house I’m Not As Afraid and I Know I’ve Changed But Please Still Love Me, which, in his words, straddle the “tension and harmony between the natural world and synthetic forms.”
Classic modes of landscape photography as seen in Eric Hagemann’s, San Luis Valley, and Alan Paine Radebaugh’s oil on canvas, CANYONS 35, are juxtaposed with domestic “landscapes” of everyday objects, such as Lim Puoch’s oil paintings, Pink Sink and Rolls on Deck. This transition into the private realm is ushered in by a salon-style gallery of portraits, which provide a deeper psychological synopsis of how
Eric Hagemann | San Luis Valley, 2023
artists continue to use visual art as a form of advocacy and activism. Notable works include, Ang Bennett’s acrylic and metal leaf paintings, Resplendent Resurgence and Celestial Echoes, which serve as an “academic inquiry and an exploration of societal portrayals” that transforms traumatic experiences into a celebration of the “joy, power, and innate beauty inherent” in their queer, Black, trans identity. Shyanne Dickey powerfully “challenges an American structure that whitewashes black history” in her multimedia work, Window Frame. Her practice aims to not only increase the visibility of successful, black, female farmers in the Midwest, but to also subvert stereotypes residual from slavery.
Aside from an increase in marginalized representations of the West, there are also nods to cowboy culture, perhaps the most widely circulated signifier of the region-at-large. Through recent traveling exhibitions, fashion campaigns, and, of course, music, with Beyonce’s new album, Cowboy Carter, the cowboy theme is on trend due to its long overdue recognition of its multicultural, multifaceted origins. Most notably represented in this exhibition by Cody Norton, a queer hunter, who aims to “intervene and disrupt heteronormative, white, male-dominated spaces” through his self-tanned bison hides, digitally etched with images featuring gay cowboys from the film, Broke Back Mountain.
However, the largest category that encapsulates much of the work, is related to nature and the fragility of the environment. Jee Hwang’s interest in her natural surroundings is reflected in her metaphoric use of oversize plants in her self-portraiture. Keith Buswell also uses images of trees symbolically, to convey how we are all interrelated. Citing the ecologist Suzanne Simard, whose 2016 study proved the root system of trees relays information to each other through a network of fungi, going so far as being able to provide nutrients to young and dying plants. He compares this interconnected reliance to his own community in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Another way in which artists continue to metaphorically address current topics is through the construction of abstracted forms. Abstraction has long held appeal in its ambiguity, although often improvisational and spontaneous, it can also be highly calculated, at the same time. Samatha Haan’s, Fragment series, is based on a mathematical theory of communication, from which she developed her own analog system of language. While Clinton Marstall’s paintings replicate biological
patterns informed by a recent study proving that observing fractals reduces physiological stress. Another artist, who uses patterns as a form of solace, is Cesar Lopez, influenced by American minimalism, he chooses to work with opacity “to preserve all of the nuance of one’s subjectivity and experience in forces, that seek to capture and flatten one’s subjectivity for easy legibility or categorization.”
With that said, it is difficult to categorize the individuality of each artist, although, like the root system of trees, there is a strong network within the mountain plains region that is committed to the art of visual storytelling. The 2024 Biennial helps to substantiate the ways in which artists are responding to the current social and environmental climate—which is becoming more and more interconnected as the experiences we share transcend city, state, and even national borders. The artistic landscape is one that is composed of communal concerns—often framed as open-ended questions, as well as reflections on the balance between extremes. As evident from the quality of art on view, it is clear our region is actively participating in collective problem solving and healing through the production of innovative, thoughtprovoking art. I look forward to seeing how the next Biennial will distinguish itself, as another time stamp in the continuum of tracking constant creativity.
2024 Juror, Jane Burke
Burke is the curator at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, Colorado. Previously, she held positions at the Denver Art Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, The Contemporary Museum, and The East West Center Gallery. She has also guest-curated for Artworks Center for Contemporary Art (Loveland), RULE gallery (Marfa), and the University of Denver Museum of Anthropology. Burke received a bachelor’s degree in studio art from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an interdisciplinary master’s degree in Asian art history and Mandarin from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Photo Credit: Esther Lee Leach
Samantha Haan | Fragment (Shade), 2023
Unless otherwise noted, all work is courtesy of the artists. Dimensions are given in inches, height preceding width, preceding depth.
THE ARTISTS
Adam Anglin
Lives/works: Denver, CO
In My House I’m Not As Afraid, 2024
Acrylic, Charcoal Pencil on wood panel
18” x 18” x 2.5”
I Know I’ve Changed But Please Still Love Me, 2024
Acrylic, Charcoal Pencil, on Cradled Wood Panel
18” x 18” x 2.5”
Shelly Beech
Lives/works: Superior, CO
Shop Window, 2023
Intaglio Gravure with Chine Colle’
11” x 15.5” x 1”
Sabrina’s House, 2023
Intaglio Gravure
11” x 15.5” x 1”
Ang Bennett
Lives/works: Omaha, NE
Resplendent Resurgence, 2024
Acrylic + Metal Leaf
48” x 36” x 0.75”
Celestial Echoes, 2024
Acrylic + Metal leaf
10” x 8” x 0.1”
Left: Anne Burton, Bodily Autonomy, 2022
Above: Camila Friedman-Gerlicz, Clebsch Diagonal Cubic, 2023
Douglas Billings
Lives/works: Wichita, KS
Monument Rock, KS (A), 2022
Acrylic Painting
30” x 24” x 0”
Maelynne Bonner
Lives/works: McPherson, KS
Beetle Teapot, 2023
White Stoneware
7.5” x 12” x 13.5”
Anne Burton
Lives/works: Lincoln, NE
Bodily Autonomy, 2022
Reduction woodcut
28” x 22” x .5”
Keith Buswell
Live/works: Lincoln, NE
That Which Connects Us... (Downtown), 2021
Etching
22” x 22” x 2”
Neola, 2023
Etching with blind embossment
28” x 22” x 0”
Midwest, 2024
Group of etchings
20” x 54” x 2”
Joshua Cook
Lives/works: Warr Acres, OK
Jump for Joy, 2023
Sculpture made from recycled materials
7” x 8” x 10”
Anthony Corraro
Lives/works: Wichita KS
Self, 2023
Dyed floor dust filtered through silkscreen
17” x 15” x 0”
John Decker
Lives/works: Emporia, KS
My Pet Trout (in red), 2024
Intaglio
8” x 5” x 0”
Shyanne Dickey
Lives/works: Stillwater, OK
Window Frame, 2022
Oil on window blinds and canvas
42” x 36” x 4”
Kammy Kennelley Downs
Lives/works: Kansas City, MO
Green Tea, 2022
plant-dyed cotton, voile, organza, ink, graphite, stitching
88” x 30” x .005”
Stinging Nettles, 2022
Mix-media, ink, graphite, stitching, on Nettle dye
88” x 30” x .005”
Camila Friedman-Gerlicz
Lives/works: Santa Fe, NM
Family Tree Porcelain, 2023
5” x 30” x 4”
Horned Torus, 2023
Stoneware and Glaze
9.5” x 14.5” x 12.5”
Clebsch, 2023
Diagonal Cubic Stoneware
10.5” x 16” x 16”
Linda Ganstrom
Lives/works: Hays, KS
Sara’s Seed, 2024
Ceramic and Fabric
5” x 24” x 24”
Ajay Gustafson
Lives/works: Grand Junction, CO
Garden Plant, 2023
Hand Printed Linocut/Collage - Ink on Paper
38.5” x 38.5” x 1.5”
Samantha Haan
Lives/works: Kansas City, MO
Fragment (Shade), 2023
Flash on canvas
36” x 36” x 2”
Fragment (Hum), 2023
Flash on Canvas
48” x 36” x 2”
Fragments (Conjunctions), 2023
Flashe and enamel on Aluminum
Composite Panel
12” x 50” x 1.5”
Eric Hagemann
Lives/works: Aurora, CO
The Shape of Light, 2023
Archival Pigment Print
24” x 40” x 1”
San Luis Valley, 2023
Archival Pigment Print
24” x 40” x 1”
Timothy Harris
Lives/works: Haslet, TX
Japanese Inspired Lilies No.2, 2023
Photography
24” x 31.5” x 1”
Matthew Hilyard
Lives/works: Andover, KS
#B336, 2023
Acrylic/Staples/Spray enamel/ Shaped canvas
20” x 15” x 9”
#F248, 2023
Acrylic/spray enamel/ bungee cord/ sahped canvas/wood srtecher
21” x 15” x 9”
How does it feel, 2023
Duct tape/acrylis/spray enamel/tape/ shaped canvas
22” x 17” x 3”
Patricia Hollins
Lives/works: Omaha, NE
Grotto, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
34” x 40” x 2.25”
Karl Horeis
Lives/works: Denver, CO
Girl in Pink Tank Top, Ukraine, 2023
Acrylic
24” x 18” x 1”
Girl with Dark Hair, 2022
Acrylic
24” x 18” x 1”
McQueen, 2022
Acrylic
30” x 30” x 1.5”
Russell Horton
Lives/works: Baldwin City, KS
Fairfax Trafficway, 2023
Oil on Canvas
39” x 65” x 2”
R Dugger Houston
Lives/works: Placates, NM
The Covid Shot, 2024
Egg Tempera on canvas
30” x 20” x 1”
Kids Drinking, 2021
Egg Tempera on canvas
48” x 36” x 1”
Jee Hwang
Lives/works: Hays, KS
Aloft, 2023
Watercolor and pencil on paper
42” x 38.5” x 0”
Courtesy of Sydney Soderberg
Weed wig woman, 2023
Watercolor and pencil on paper
13.5” x 24” x 0”
Dwell, 2022
Watercolor and pencil on paper
22” x 16” x 0”
Nicholas Kostner, Weak Antidote, 2023
Brenda Jones
Lives/works: Peyton, CO
Domestic still life, 2024
Clay, underglazes, glaze
18” x 25” x 15”
Lori Jones
Lives/works: Lake City, KS
Decisions, 2022
Pencil
13” x 5.5” x 0”
Nicholas Kostner
Lives/works: Kingman, KS
Weak Antidote, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
36” x 42” x 1.5”
Josephine Langbehn
Lives/works: Omaha, NE
Golden Hour, 2023
Acrylic on Canvas
22” x 20” x 2.5”
Pam Little
Lives/works: Hamilton, MT
Spring Source On Scapegoat, 2023
Digital painting
24” x 18” x 0”
Cesar Lopez
Lives/works: Kansas City, MO
Structural Unite: Cube, 2023
Aluminum composite material, aluminum, rivets
40” x 40” x 40”
Emily Main
Lives/works: Tulsa, OK
Tabby In Tallgrass, 2023
Oil on Canvas
24” x 36” x 1.5”
Darrel Manis
Lives/works: Hays, KS
A Queen, Resplendent on Her Throne, 2023
Watercolor on Paper
19” x 27” x 1”
Clinton Marstall
Lives/works: Shawnee, KS
Hexagonaria I, 2023
Oil on canvas
36” x 36” x 1”
Todd McCollister
Lives/works: Omaha, NE
Untitled: Long Shadow #19 (ash grey with green loops), 2023
Wood, epoxy resin, acrylic paint, dyes, clear finish
4.5” x 19” x 19”
Courtesy of Zachary Gustin
Megan McCoy
Lives/works: Elkhorn, NE
Top Down, 2022
Tufted acrylic yarn
135 cm x 76 cm x 3 cm
Booty, 2022
Tufted acrylic yarn
137 cm x 106 cm x 3 cm
Andrew McIntyre
Lives/works: Waco, TX
Rosette #1, 2023
Porcelain
3” x 17” x 17”
Rosette #2, 2024
Porcelain
1.5” x 15” x 15”
Taylor McQueary
Lives/works: Wichita, KS
Delicate, 2024
Acrylic on Canvas
40” x 16” x 1.5”
Rachel Mindrup
Lives/works: Omaha, NE
Ill-Fitting, 2021
Oil on Canvas
48” x 36” x 1.5”
Elizabeth Morisette
Lives/works: Fort Collins, CO
Segmented, 2022
Sewn Zippers
16” x 5” x 2”
Allen Morris
Lives/works: Spearfish, SD
SDND Fallen Section Corner, 2022
Polylactic Acid 3D Print
7” x 15” x 6”
Stella Nall
Lives/works: Missoula, MT
Crocodile Tears, 2023
Acrylic painting with wood carved details
24” x 24” x 2”
Sweetie Horses, 2023
Acrylic and beadwork on paper
11” x 8.5” x 0”
Elizabeth Nixon
Lives/works: Gardner, KS
critter, 2023
Dog Hair, Wire
2’ x 4’ x 2’
Cody Norton
Lives/works: Broomfield, CO
Badgering Confession, 2023
Self-Tanned Badger Hide & Digital Fabrication Laser Etching
3’ x 2’ x .5”
Kissing Cowboys, 2023
Self-Tanned Elk Hide & Digital Fabrication Laser Etching
7’ x 4.5’ x 2”
Bison Leather, 2023
Self-Tanned Bison Hide & Digital Fabrication Laser Etching
8” x 5” x 2”
Taylor Painter-Wolfe
Lives/works: Tulsa, OK
Upland 1, 2022
Handmade, hand-dyed felted wool and thread
36” x 30” x .5”
Upland 3, 2022
Handmade, hand-dyed felted wool and thread
40” x 38” x .5”
Anthony Peña
Lives/works: Omaha, NE
Sun kiss, 2023
Digital Art
24” x 18” x 1”
Karla Prickett, Innate VIII, 2022
Audrey Powles
Lives/works: Bingham, NE
Cookie, 2023
Fine art photograph
21” x 17” x 2”
Patty’s Legacy, 2023
Fine art photograph on canvas
16.5” x 24.5” x 2”
Karla Prickett
Lives/works: Salina, KS
Innate VIII, 2022
Mixed Media Collage on Canvas
30” x 30” x 1.5”
Lim Puoch
Lives/works: Omaha, NE
Pink Sink, 2023
Oil on Canvas
20” x 20” x 2”
Rolls on Deck, 2023
Oil on Canvas
12” x 9” x 1”
Alan Paine Radebaugh
Lives/works: Albuquerque, NM
CANYONS 35, 2023
oil on canvas
36” x 28” x 0”
CANYONS 36, 2023
oil on canvas
36” x 28” x 0”
Miga Rossetti
Lives/works: Wilson, WY
Ramblin, 2023
Acrylic and mixed medium on paper with venetian plaster
30” x 20” x .05”
Maggy Rozycki Hiltner
Lives/works: Red Lodge, MT
Perpetual, 2023
Altered found quilt (Rail Fence & 9
Patch patterns), cotton
55” x 43” x .5”
Nadine Saylor
Lives/works: Kearney, NE
Fond Memories of You, 2022
Hand Blown Glass, Pyrex
9” x 15” x 15”
Vanilla Pincushion, 2022
Hand Blown Glass, Stainless Steel
21” x 10” x 10”
Global Crisis, 2023
Hand Blown Glass, Sand carved and enameled
16” x 8” x 8”
Carol Scheferman
Lives/works: Spring, TX
Girl With Blue Scarf, 2023 Oil
24” x 20” x 1”
Heather Schulte
Lives/works: Boulder, CO
Abraham, Abraham!, 2023
Cotton embroidery on newsprint
31.5” x 20.5” x 2”
What we feel; we cannot say (RAGE, shame, GUILT), 2022
Cross stitch embroidery
8” x 8” x 1”
Systemic (in)justice, 2022
Cotton embroidery thread on newspaper
31.5” x 20.5” x 2”
Shelby Shadwell
Lives/works: Laramie, WY
EMERGENCY BLANKET 9, 2022
Charcoal and pastel on polyester
85” x 85” x 0”
SPACE BLANKET 11, 2023
Charcoal and pastel on polyester
57” x 42” x 0”
Amanda Smith
Lives/works: Augusta, KS
Inner Peace, 2023
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
36” x 24” x 1.5”
Valerie St. Pierre Smith
Lives/works: Omaha, NE
Indigenous Mermaid, 2023
Digital Textile Print
10” x 10” x .25”
Sam Stump
Lives/works: Grand Island, NE
Two Halves of One Whole, 2022
Ink on Bone
8” x 8” x 14”
Levente Sulyok
Lives/works: Douglass, KS
Bird Song (Blue-Violet), 2022
Antique weaving, handembroidered pattern, text
58” x 42” x 1”
Kirsten Taylor
Lives/works: Kansas City, MO
Afield: Poems from the tallgrass, 2023
Handmade paper and inks, xylene transfers, book board
11” x 7.5” x 1.25”
Janet Vetter
Lives/works: Loveland, CO
Nepenthes Cascade, 2023
Watercolor
24” x 18” x 0”
Aliceara Purple Passion, 2022
Watercolor
12” x 16” x 0”
Kelly Yarbrough
Lives/works: Manhattan, KS
Survivor, 2024
Watercolor and colored pencil on paper
22” x 30” x 0”
Left: Janet Vetter, Nepenthes Cascade, 2023
Right: Joshua Cook, Jump for Joy, 2023
PROGRAMMING
MAY 23 | OPENING RECEPTION
5-7 PM | FREE & Open to everyone
JUNE 19 | ART BYTE
12:15 PM | FREE
Bring your lunch and join Darren as he takes just 30 minutes to investigate a single piece of art in the gallery. These small bytes of art information inspire conversations around viewing, interpreting, and discussing contemporary art in all forms. This interactive conversation will surely leave you feeling inspired and confident about your next visit to an art museum. A new piece of work is discussed each month while you enjoy your lunch break.
JULY 13 - PICTURE PLOTTING: ART-INSPIRED STORYTELLING
11 AM - 1 PM | FREE
For families with children aged 4-8
Bring your little artist or storyteller to look and learn about art in the gallery! We’ll look at an art piece, read a story, and then everyone will write their own story about the art we’ve looked at. This event is free and all you need is to bring your observation and creative thinking skills. Parents/grandparents/caregivers are expected to stay and participate.
JULY 17 | ART BYTE
12:15 PM | FREE
Bring your lunch and join Darren as he takes just 30 minutes to investigate a single piece of art in the gallery. These small bytes of art information inspire conversations around viewing, interpreting, and discussing contemporary art in all forms. This interactive conversation will surely leave you feeling inspired and confident about your next visit to an art museum. A new piece of work is discussed each month while you enjoy your lunch break.
AUGUST 3 | ARTIST RECEPTION
5 PM | FREE
Please join us in celebrating the artists of the 2024 Mountain Plains Biennial. Juror, Jane Burke will give remarks and announce awards at 6 PM. This event is free and open to the public.
Connecting art, artists, and audiences since 1978, the Salina Art Center is an accredited contemporary art museum, education studio, and independent Cinema in the heart of downtown Salina. As a 501(c)3 notfor-profit arts organization, creativity thrives, powered by our dedicated members, local businesses and foundations, grants, and the City of Salina. Together, we’re enriching lives through art.
Elevate your creativity by becoming a member of Salina Art Center. Your membership enriches your journey and ensures that quality art experiences remain accessible to all. Discover how you can make a difference at www.SalinaArtCenter.org.
Salina Art Center, 242 S Santa Fe Ave. Salina, Kansas SalinaArtCenter.org
Catalog published by Salina Art Center to accompany the exhibition, Mountain Plains Contemporary Art Biennial May 22 - September 1, 2024
Text by Jane Burke
Design by Hannah Crickman
All images courtesy of the artists Exhibition design by Jane Burke and Daniel Picking
