2022
2021
2021- 10th Anniversary
Virtual Reception: February 5th, 5:30pm CST
Exhibit Dates: January 29- February 27, 2021
"I am an Iowa artisan working by day in new home construction and remodeling. My job sites are filled with a myriad of common, yet uncommon materials that continually spark my imagination and wiggle their way into my fine art works. Designing and building homes captures a desire for large scale creativity, but the ever-flowing variety of construction waste products intrigues my bold color loving side. My two artistic disciplines are intertwined and I have found that I can barely do one without the other."
Rhythm in Bloom by Ann Royer
solo exhibition of recent abstract artworksReception: TBD
Exhibit Dates: March 5- April 17, 2021"It was with some reluctance that I agreed to write about my art. I have always thought each person looks at art bringing with them their own experiences, which governs what they see (no one should interfere with that process). Over the years I have tried to explore the horse and female images. Every time I worked with other animals I would always return to the horse. Its exquisite form is universal as a war horse, sport horse, or plow horse. The female form represents mother earth. Its pear-shaped, voluminous form is fun to work with. I have always felt free to work in many media and examine an image in a representational, semi-abstract, or totally abstract form. It is personally satisfying. The need to create images precedes recorded history. The drawings in the Caves of Lascaux are an example. I have that need. I hope the people see something magical in all art in any form."
Polyphonous 2021:Mimetic Lives II by Satomi Kawai & Jillian Moore
A satellite exhibition during Munich Jewellery Week with Polyphonous partners in Europe.Virtual Reception: March 12th, 11:00am CST
Exhibit Dates: [extended] March 5- June 26, 2021
Closing Reception: June 18, 5:00-7:30pm CST (in person. masks required)Satomi Kawai "I would like to invite you to join me as I explore life and nature as a contemporary jewelry artist.
I grew up in a rich natural environment in Japan, and I have always enjoyed observing nature. I learned traditional Japanese cultural practices, including flower arrangement, tea ceremony and calligraphy. Also, my grandmother encouraged me to develop my artistic appreciation when I was a little girl. With this background, today, I live in Iowa. I feel a strong tie to nature wherever I am, and I enjoy traveling and experiencing different environments. Substances in and outside of the body consist of solid and fluid, and something in between. Also, substances transform as a solid becomes fluid, and fluid becomes gas. Over time, matter changes color, pattern, shape/ form, and substance. This macro process in an external environment- nature- is reflected by the micro environment in our own bodies, including cell activity. By exploring the internal environment, I focus my observations on several layers of personal femininity, including the physical, emotional, and psychological quality of being a woman.
Jillian Moore is an artist and writer based in Iowa City, Iowa working primarily in the field of contemporary jewelry and small sculpture. Her work is inspired by forms in the biological world and amplified by an interest in the fantastical. Operating with a background in metalsmithing and a foreground in experimental resins and other plastic processes, Moore's work is comprised of a variety of new materials and techniques executed with the obsessive, monomaniacal approach of her craft discipline training. "Our natural tendency to seek out patterns results in a sensitivity to the congruities in biological forms. Deliberate exploitation of these phenomena results in objects that are both ambiguous and evocative. Some are organs removed from the body in which they once belonged, revealing structures with unknown functions.”
10 Year Anniversary PartyDate: April 1st, 2020A treat for you and a treat for us. Because of you, we get to celebrate not only surviving an incredibly uncertain year, but a full decade in business providing the finest art and professional services to our community.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
Celebrate safely with us during our anniversary weekend, April 1st- 3rd, by stopping into the gallery during our regular business hours and pick up a little treat.
any way new by Thérèse MurdzaExhibit Dates: April 30- June 12, 2021
Reception: June 18th, 5:00-7:30pm (in person. masks required)A writer turned visual artist, Portland painter Thérèse Murdza began drawing big words on giant rolls of paper in 1998. Using an evolving and animated range of circles, lines, and colors, she continued her work onto stretched canvas in 2001, eventually building her now signature bright, richly textured paintings on large, sometimes mult-paneled works on canvas, and smaller paintings on canvas and paper. From her studio in Portland, Oregon, she partners with gallerists, design professionals, and private collectors to place her artwork nationwide.
The Gilded Girls by Suzy McGrane-Hop, Linda Ge & Lauren Tucci
Staff exhibitionExhibit Dates: July 2 - August 14, 2021
Reception: July 16, 5:00-7:30pmTo commemorate Gilded Pear’s 10th anniversary, the summer exhibition will be showcasing artworks made by gallery staff artists! Gilded Pear Gallery is thrilled be able to celebrate in person after gatherings had come to a halt due to the pandemic. Join in on the fun for the Party and Reception, July 16th, 5:00-7:30pm CST. Please RSVP!
The exhibit features drawings, paintings, and sculptures by Linda Ge, Suzy McGrane-Hop, and Lauren Tucci. While the title of the exhibit references the popular TV show “The Golden Girls” the artworks on display pay little homage to the sitcom giant (though the ‘Girls’ themselves unite the artists).
Meditations on Moments in the Landscape by Fred EaskerExhibit Dates: August 20 - October 2, 2021
Reception: September 17, 5:00-7:30pmFred's landscapes offer an extraordinary view into the ordinary. Drawing on familiar scenes from the back roads of his native eastern Iowa, he explores both the aesthetics and the character of the place, offering a keen meditation on the power, vulnerability, and eloquence of this beautiful land.
Fred Easker has been painting full time since 1994. Like most artists he had previously worked at other things including teacher, museum educator and director of a historic house museum which was completely renovated under his guidance.
He actively participates in the life of his community working on boards and organizations involved in the arts and humanities, and was awarded the Friend of the Arts award from Marion Fine Arts council in 1993. Easker resides in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Fred Easker's work is included in museum, corporate and private collections throughout the Midwest and has appeared in a number of periodicals and books. He was an arts Midwest/NEA regional visual arts fellowship recipient in 1997. The artist holds a BA and MA in Art Education from the University of Iowa.
The Promise of Life in memory of Stephen Metcalf (1948-2020)Exhibition Dates: August 20 - October 2, 2021Biography
"Simply put, I believe my work is about the act of painting.”
Born in Chicago, Stephen Metcalf grew up in the Midwest. As a child he practiced drawing and painting and by the time he started art school at the University of Illinois his drafting skills could mimic photographs. Frustrated by the tedious nature and predictability of this process, he decided to reinvent himself as an artist and as a graduate printmaking student at the university of Illinois he produced mixed media paintings and large scale works on paper that were recognized by their inclusion in major exhibitions like drawings USA 77 at the Minnesota museum of art and works on paper at the art institute of Chicago.
Since receiving his MFA in art and design, Stephen has produced hundreds of paintings which are represented in public, private, and corporate collections throughout the United States, including the Illinois state museum, the Minnesota museum of art, the Kirkwood center hotel, the U.S. Military hospital on Nellis airbase, and the Cleveland clinic.
Juncture by Ellen KlecknerExhibit Dates: October 15- November 27, 2021
Reception: October 22nd, 5:00-7:30pmThrough a convergence of materials, Ellen's work uses a familiar vocabulary drawn from a legacy of makers and to leads viewers into the unfamiliar; where materials embody ideas and form becomes a question.
Ellen's education began at the Craft Schools of Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft, and John C. Campbell Folk School. She received her BFA in Ceramics from The Appalachian Center for Craft and completed a Post Baccalaureate year of study at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She received her MFA in Ceramics at Ohio University.
With roots in Southern California, Iowa and New York; Ellen’s work continually investigates connections. Connections between place, material, idea and legacy. Ellen has been an artist in residence in many communities including The Flux Factory in New York City and the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemet, Hungary. Ellen is currently the Executive Director of the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio, a non-profit community art center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Dance Party by Mary ZeranExhibit Dates: December 3, 2021 - January 29, 2022
Reception: December 3rd, 5:00-7:30pmMary Zeran was raised in a family of women artists whose textiles, embroidery, and woodcarvings, existed as their visual language; enigmatic shapes and forms were their words. Each time she picks up a brush or scissors she immerses herself in the language of her family, which brings her ever closer to their traditions, histories, and stories.
Mary Zeran received her B.F.A and M.F.A from University of Iowa. She was born in Iowa City in 1964 and now lives and works in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is the recipient of several awards and honors and her works are in numerous public and private collections as well as many notable corporate collections. Her collage works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States and abroad including the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art; Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, in Kansas City; SOIL Gallery in Seattle; Higher Art Gallery in Michigan; and Chaing Mai University in Chaing Mai, Thailand.
Kimberlee Rocca: Picking Up the Pieces
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Ann Royer: Rhythm in Bloom
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Satomi Kawai, Jillian Moore: Polyphonous 2021 Mimetic Lives II
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Thérèse Murdza: any way new
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Gilded Pear Gallery Staff: The Gilded Girls
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Fred Easker: Meditations on Moments in the Landscape
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Stephen Metcalf: The Promise of Life
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Ellen Kleckner: Juncture
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Mary Zeran: Dance Party
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2020
2020
Making Arrangements: Ataraxia by Crit StreedJanuary 23, 2020: 5:30-7pm
January 30, 2020: 5:30-7pm
along with video installation; exhibit will also display additional work by the artist."Making Arrangements is an ever-changing configuration in glass positioned in relationship to a video projected on the wall. The woman in the video is endlessly moving two chairs in an empty room in pursuit of the perfect arrangement. The shelves of milk glass have equally been arranged to balance, flow, fill the eye and evoke an interest."Crit Streed was born in 1948 in Washington, Iowa, where she grew up. She received a B.A. in art from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, and her M.A. in painting and drawing and M.F.A. in painting and lithography from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Between short-term teaching positions, she lived and worked in Nepal from 1982 to 1984, and has participated in various artist residencies nationally and abroad. She has exhibited widely and is Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, where she had taught since the 1980s. Recently, she completed a residency in Cadaqués and currently lives and creates in Cedar Falls, IA.
Collector ShowcaseReception: February 21st, 5:00-7:30pm
Exhibit Dates: February 18 - April 4, 2020Select group exhibit of renown artists of the Midwest.
This group exhibit celebrates the rich history of Iowan and Midwestern artists on a national stage. Their contributions to current regional arts programming, funding, and institutions are fundamental and they continue to garner attention on prominent platforms.Artists featured:
Marvin Cone
Bertha Evelyn Jaques
Mauricio Lasansky
Conger Metcalf
Grant Wood
Stillness and Occurrence by John BeckelmanReception: [updated] May 22nd, 5:00-6:00pm
Exhibit Dates: April 17 - June 13, 2020Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the gallery has adjusted the reception date to a "Closing" reception. On view dates will remain the same. Check back periodically for updates on virtual reception.Using the expressive potential of clay and a variety of other materials, the work explores liminal space and are often times referenced as topographic or cosmographic. At the same time, this work attempts to gently entice the viewer into the inner landscapes and interior spaces of our imagination and memory.
John Beckelman's work has been exhibited in shows throughout the country, including California, New York, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Ohio, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, South Dakota, Montana, and Iowa. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, commissions, and grants. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics and his Master of Science in Ceramics from Illinois State University. John is the Robert O. Daniel Professor of Art, Emeritus at Coe College. He lives and works in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he maintains a studio at the Iowa Ceramics Center and Glass Studio in the Historic Cherry Building.
Peculiar RealityExhibit Dates: June 26 - August 8, 2020
Virtual Reception with Mary Koenen Clausen: July 24th, starting at 5:30pm CST
Virtual Reception with Jillian Moore: July 25th, starting at 11:00am CST
*RSVP for video detailsDue to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the gallery is withdrawing submissions for the national call. Instead, Peculiar Reality, will be a 2-Person exhibit with the invited gallery artists to participate: Mary Koenen Clausen and Jillian Moore. Peculiar Reality: National Juried Exhibit will be announced at a later date when threat to health becomes less of a concern. For more information about the call, visit Call for Entries.Check back periodically for updated dates for the reception. We're navigating our schedule day-to-day.Mary Koenen Clausen’s mixed media collages are rich in texture and image. Her works frequently are comprised of three visual fields or planes: the heavens, earth, and underworld. Figures composed of mismatched heads and bodies float among animals, icons, musical notes, and foreign texts on backgrounds thickly painted with deep hues. Mary sees the musical notes, symbols and foreign text, many of which she reproduces in her own hand, as messages emanating from her spiritual guides while channeling energy from other time and space dimensions. She gathers her material from Italian magazines, 17th and 18th century Bibles, antique books, among other sources. Mary also uses photographs of her surroundings in her work. Her home and studio are full of paintings, photographs, wall hangings, dolls, and other collected objects, an environment that reflects the complexity of her work. Mary lives and works in Muscatine, Iowa.
Jillian Moore is an artist and writer based in Iowa City, Iowa working primarily in the field of contemporary jewelry and small sculpture. Her work is inspired by forms in the biological world and amplified by an interest in the fantastical. Operating with a background in metalsmithing and a foreground in experimental resins and other plastic processes, Moore's work is comprised of a variety of new materials and techniques executed with the obsessive, monomaniacal approach of her craft discipline training. "Our natural tendency to seek out patterns results in a sensitivity to the congruities in biological forms. Deliberate exploitation of these phenomena results in objects that are both ambiguous and evocative. Some are organs removed from the body in which they once belonged, revealing structures with unknown functions.”
Vision: Inner and Outer by Marcia WegmanExhibit Dates: August 21-October 2, 2020
Reception: Virtual, September 18th @ 5:30pm cst.Due to the Derecho that impacted Cedar Rapids August 10th, the gallery opened the exhibit August 28th.Marcia Wegman lives in Iowa City, IA. She has worked in multiple media, including intaglio printmaking (which she studied for her MFA at the University of Iowa), oil, watercolor, collage, and paper making. Her landscapes of the Midwest capture the spirit of Iowa. In addition to pastoral pastels, she also paints abstract landscapes on Yupo. They convey a feeling rather than the exact details of a location. The layering of long brushstrokes fractures the landscape and rebuilds it in new and exciting ways.
Endless Planes
by Julia Kottal and David KupfermanDue to the staff testing positive for (COVID-19), the gallery has adjusted the reception date with Julia to a "Closing" reception. On view dates have been extended.Exhibit Dates: October 16 - November 28, 2020
Reception with Julia Kottal: December 4th, 5:30pmCSTJulia is a native mid-westener, born in Michigan. She has studied art in Florida, Maryland and California before moving to Iowa in 1992. She has a B.A., with painting as her emphasis, from Coe College. She has work in various collections nationally, including Alliant Energy, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Coe College, Kirkwood Community College, University Miami of Ohio, Millhiser Smith, Terry, Lockridge and Dunn, and United Fire Group. She is currently a full time painter.
Kupferman’s work combines spontaneous, gestural imagery with geometric abstract shapes of color and linear patterns that weave a tapestry of flowing images in a unique fusion of Eastern and Western styles. He was born in Boston,and is son of artists Ruth Cobb and Lawrence Kupferman. He studied and apprenticed with his father, Head of the Dept. of Painting, at the Massachusetts College of Art and with sculptor Mirko at Harvard University. He attended the University Of Wisconsin, Madison and MERU, Switzerland.
Mission Happiness by Mary ZeranExhibit Dates: December 11, 2020 - January 23, 2021
Virtual Reception with Mary Zeran: December 11th, 5:30pm CSTMary Zeran was raised in a family of women artists whose textiles, embroidery, and woodcarvings, existed as their visual language; enigmatic shapes and forms were their words. Each time she picks up a brush or scissors she immerses herself in the language of her family, which brings her ever closer to their traditions, histories, and stories.
Mary Zeran received her B.F.A and M.F.A from University of Iowa. She was born in Iowa City in 1964 and now lives and works in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is the recipient of several awards and honors and her works are in numerous public and private collections as well as many notable corporate collections. Her collage works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States and abroad including the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art; Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, in Kansas City; SOIL Gallery in Seattle; Higher Art Gallery in Michigan; and Chaing Mai University in Chaing Mai, Thailand.
Jewelry Cocktail Party
Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the gallery will not be hosting it's yearly Jewelry Party in-person.Join us on our social media, where we are holding our "Stories Jewelry Party" each day the week of December 14th!
Follow us and check in on our available jewelry selections this year.
Video: Crit Streed | Making Arrangements
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Collector Showcase: Group
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John Beckelman: Stillness and Occurrence
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Mary KoenenClausen, Jillian Moore: Peculiar Reality
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Marcia Wegman: Vision- Inner and Outer
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Julia Kottal, David Kupferman: Endless Planes
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Mary Zeran: Mission Happiness
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2019
2019
Anastrophe~ ©2018 SENGANAMOJanuary 24th, 2019: 5:30-7pm
January 31st, 2019: 5:30-7pm with remarks from the artists
prints available for purchase January 23rd-February 1st"We are all vessels, exploring our physical existence in whatever space we occupy – both swallowing it up into our own form and spitting it back out for others to ingest. Our investigation of this liminal space sometimes freezes the gesture as if trapped in an ancient metope, and then sends the captive back into the entropy."***screenings contain mild nudity***January 24th
4 animations on continuous loopHieroglyph, Digital Video Animation, 35 seconds
Parasympathetic, Digital Video Animation, 35 seconds
Purgatory, Digital Video Animation, 35 seconds
Importunately, Digital Video Animation, 35 secondsJanuary 31st
2 Films looping one after the other. While the films have started their second loop the artists will speak briefly about the work/process and take few questions if any are to be asked, all while the lights are down and films continues to loop.Liminal Space, Digital Video, 4 minutes 23 seconds
Leaving Again, Digital Video, 3 minutes 27 seconds
Curated group exhibit. Participating artists Jill Allan, Judy Bales, Michael Bauermeister, Mimi Damrauer, Kristina Fjellman, Ellen Kleckner, John Krizan, and Steve Sinner & Joe MeirhaegheThis group exhibit celebrates the whimsy in line and color in contemporary craft works. Playful and meticulously created- a joyous celebration.Exhibit Dates: February 8th-March 15th, 2019
Reception: April 5th, 2019 5-7pm
Exhibit Dates: April 5th-June 7th, 2019A writer turned visual artist, Thérèse Murdza began drawing big words on giant rolls of paper circa 2000. Using an animated range of circles, lines, and colors, she continued her work onto stretched canvas, eventually building her signature bright, richly textured paintings. Her musical training remains an influence: ‘I am keenly aware of the precise and imprecise moments of sound-making, shapemaking, emotion, and contact -- not so concerned with narrating the beginnings and the ends, but in opening up the middles. Making marks within the potent middle of things. With you. Yes, you. Do you see? We are in this thing together.’
Reception: June 14th, 2019 5-7pm
Exhibit Dates: June 14th-August 16th, 2019Cedar River Artisans:
Our group is composed of ceramic, sculpture, fiber, photography and landscape artists. We explore themes and tell stories through our diverse media presentation. The variety in our backgrounds and experience, as well as in our chosen mediums and styles, create the depth and interest in our collaboration as a creative body. Though we create independently, as a collective we invite viewers to join our conversation.
Reception: September 6th, 2019 5-7pm
Exhibit Dates: August 30th-October 4th, 2019Priscilla Steele was raised in New Jersey, just outside of New York City where regular trips into New York and Philadelphia opened a large, somewhat daunting, but very exciting, cosmopolitan world. She studied at a small liberal arts college in northern New York, and four years later spent a productive academic year in Europe where she developed a strong interest in drawing and printmaking.
After graduating in 1973, she moved to the Midwest and balanced printing and drawing with theatrical design and painting, as well as furniture design with her husband, Craig Campbell. In 1986, her family moved to Iowa so she could attend graduate school at University of Iowa and acquired an MFA in printmaking. She stayed in Iowa to teach at Coe College and has since retired and continues her journey as a working artist focusing on figurative and botanical subjects in Omaha, NE.
Reception: October 18th, 2019 5-7pm
Exhibit Dates: October 11th-November 29th, 2019This show brings together the work of artists who illustrate a particular style of moments in Midwest scenery. Both artists appear to have romantic or idealized renderings of these realistic vistas. The space between the sky and the earth is vast. Land reaches out to the endless horizon and the foliage seem to breathe the air that chase the clouds in that moment. Adventure and solace can be found in these paintings; the hunt for the cloud you could cut with a knife, the well-traveled path highlighted by the afternoon sun, or the colorful field within soft rolling terrain. The works themselves vary from the very large punchy style of Kristin’s and the mid-sized detailed serenity of David’s.
Reception: December 6th, 2019 5-7pm
Exhibit Dates: December 6th, 2019-January 17th, 2020Mary Zeran was raised in a family of women artists whose textiles, embroidery, and woodcarvings, existed as their visual language; enigmatic shapes and forms were their words. Each time she picks up a brush or scissors she immerses herself in the language of her family, which brings her ever closer to their traditions, histories, and stories.
Mary Zeran received her B.F.A and M.F.A from University of Iowa. She was born in Iowa City in 1964 and now lives and works in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is the recipient of several awards and honors and her works are in numerous public and private collections as well as many notable corporate collections. Her collage works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States and abroad including the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art; Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, in Kansas City; SOIL Gallery in Seattle; Higher Art Gallery in Michigan; and Chaing Mai University in Chaing Mai, Thailand.
Kinesics: Senganamo; Video
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Carnaval de Craft: Group
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Therese Murdza: True Maps
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Cedar River Artisans: Group
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Priscilla Steele: a line goes for a walk
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Dave Gordinier, Kristin Stoeffler: Open Air
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Mary Zeran: Keeping the Bubble Happy
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Jewelry: Group; RSVP Event
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2018
Crash Currents: 3-person Exhibit
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Lauren Tucci, Suzy McGrane-Hop: GuILT
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Satomi Kawai, Crit Streed: Formations
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Figured: 3-Person Exhibit
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Gordon Kellenberger, Stephen Metcalf: Spectrum
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Fresh Paint: 3 Person Exhibit
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Mary Zeran: Loud + Proud
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Jewelry: Group; RSVP Event
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2017
sequitur non sequitur. February. Solo
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Inciting Rapture. April. Two-Person Exhibit
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It Takes All Kinds. June. Group Invitational
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Fred and Velga Easker: Recent Works. September. Two-person
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FRAMEWORK. October. Group Juried Exhibition
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A Rainbow Colored Dream!. December. Solo
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2016
Divided|Attraction: April Juried Group Show
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(re)Direct: July Solo, Shared space exhibit
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Leading Ladies: June, Shared space group exhibit
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Familiar Territory: September, Two-Person Exhibit.
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Evolution of the Landscape: Art Talk
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Impressions: October, Two-Person Exhibit
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Artist Lecture: Jane Gilmor
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KACHOW!: December, Solo Exhibit
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2015
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2014
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2013
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2012
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