×

2023

2023
  • Exhibit Dates:
    February 20-May 13, 2023
    Public Reception:
    April 21, 5:00-7:30pm
    Tell Me Everything by Thérèse Murdza
    Main Floor
    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 multi-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. 
    Constellations by John Beckelman
    Second Floor
    John Beckelman's work has been exhibited in shows nationwide. 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 downtown.
  • Exhibit Dates:
    May 30-August 5, 2023
    Public Reception:
     June 9th, 5:00-7:30pm
    Welcome: New Gallery Artists
    open call for representation | group exhibition
    Main Floor
    Call to artists seeking gallery representation. This exhibition will be a welcome for new Gallery Artists. The show is not based on a theme but the best representation of an artist’s body of work and style. 
    By Design
    curated | group exhibition
    Second Floor
    ​An exhibition inviting interior designers who have previously partnered with Gilded Pear Gallery and appreciates the value of original art in the home and office. Designers are asked to design a mood board surrounding an artwork/s of their choice from Gilded Pear artists.

    This showcase is meant to have a new spin on an exhibition, highlight our design friends, and be a fun show for the summer. 
  • Exhibit Dates:
    August 14-October 28, 2023
    Public Reception:
    September 8th, 5:00-7:30pm
    Jim Ochs: 45 Years of Work
    posthumous solo exhibition | Jim Ochs
    Main Floor
    James Ochs was born in Denver, Colorado in 1943. He gained print experience at Blacks Print Studio in New York City, and he worked in collage and paint at the Art Student League. He received his B.A. in painting at Colorado State University, and went on to earn an M.A. and M.F.A in printmaking and drawing from the University of Iowa. Ochs’ work can be found in prominent art collections around the US, including the Des Moines Art Center; Muscatine Art Center, Muscatine, IA; Farm Bureau, Des Moines, IA; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Harvard College, Cambridge, MA; and Brown University, Providence, RI. Featured in over 120 national, regional and solo shows nationwide, his works have received numerous awards, including the Coconut Grove Art Exhibition, Coconut Grove, FL; and the Winter Park Art Festival, Winter Park, FL.
    Animalia by Maggie Vandewalle
    Second Floor
    ​Maggie Vandewalle was born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa. In 1981, she received an art scholarship to the University of Iowa where she worked toward a BFA in printmaking. After college, she gravitated to watercolor—a medium she uses almost exclusively today. She recalls a childhood divided between two passions—an insatiable love of reading and a profound fascination for the natural world. These early interests are the foundation for her paintings of whimsical creatures; their antics often bring a smile or a feeling that one has walked into the middle of a remarkable journey.
  • Exhibition Dates: November 6, 2023 - January 27, 2024
    Public Reception: November 17th, 5:00-7:30pm
    Gilty Pleasures:
    The Gilded Girls
    by Gallery Staff
    Main Exhibition
    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). "Gilty Pleasures" welcomes the 2nd installment of the trio showing together.
    Small works:
    Holiday Shop
    artwork $500 and under
    Second Floor
    Stop by for Small Business Saturday for Mimosas and Munchies, November 25th.

    Our small works show is a great one stop shop for gifting items.

    ​
    Jewelry Showcase:
    Holiday Cocktail Party

    Exhibition Dates: November 27, 2023 -February 17, 2024
    Holiday Party: December 1st, 5-8pm
    First Floor
    Our Jewelry Cocktail party has become a festive tradition, join us for some holiday spirits!
Picture
Thérèse Murdza: Tell Me Everything
Picture
John Beckelman: Constellations
Picture
Welcome: New Gallery Artists
Picture
By Design: Group
Picture
Jim Ochs: 45 Years of Work
Picture
Maggie Vandewalle: Animalia
Picture
Gilded Pear Gallery Staff: Gilty Pleasures
Picture
Holiday Cocktail Party & Jewelry Showcase

2022

2022
  • Exhibit Dates:
    February 28 - May 21, 2022
    Reception:
    April 1st, 5:00-7:30pm
    ON THE VERGE by Crit Streed
    Main Floor

    Crit Streed tracks time and response using an intuitive reflex and her analytic nature. The medium is ink on paper and the approach is intense but not pre-planned. The drawings are reciprocal for the artist and reveal the effect of surroundings and the impact of experience. Forms in the drawings often expose natural growth intersected by human interaction and the tremor of events. Crit Streed explores installation and video as well as a performative approach to drawing. Crit has exhibited both nationally and internationally. She credits her creative explorations to a life in Iowa, extensive travel to other cultures and how her synapses fire.
    Fiber Optics by Kristina Fjellman
    Second Floor
    Kristina is a visual artist and performer and is drawn to creative projects that will combine both of these passions.. She has exhibited her sculptural fiber art across the Midwest and in the Twin Cities, is a 2010-2011 recipient of a Jerome Fiber Art Project Grant at the Minnesota Textile Center, and has performed with The Winding Sheet Outfit, Red Eye Theater and Sandbox Theatre. Her current work incorporates light and sound through projected animation and explores how it interacts with her sculptures.
     
    Kristina is a graduate of St. Catherine University with a MAED in Art and Theater Education, an ensemble member of Sandbox Theatre and a founding member of The Winding Sheet Outfit.
  • Exhibit Dates:
    May 31- August 20    , 2022
    Reception:
    June 10th 5:00-7:30pm
    Selections From the Lasansky Workshop
    coinciding with an exhibition of the work of Tomas and Charlie Lasansky at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
    Main Floor & Second Floor

    Featuring: Tomás, Charlie, Diego & Rory Lasansky with Adam Rake and introducing Amadeo Lasansky.

    Tomas
    Since 1980, the iconic portrait paintings, drawings and prints of Tomás Lasansky have been included in more than 120 exhibitions and 30 solo shows, among them The Butler Museum of American Art and The Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame. His uniquely powerful images capture a dignified and empathetic vision of the inexhaustible American spirit, throughout the generations. His works are represented in the collections of U.S. Embassies and museums worldwide.
     
    Charlie
    Charlie Emmert’s intrinsic creativity and natural ability to link color with emotion perfectly complements her dexterity and enthusiasm for the paint and brush. Emmert’s skill as a colorist has always been the focal component of her expressionistic portraiture. “Color,” says Emmert, “corresponds to the complexity of life.” Visually attractive and compelling psychological portraits intimating the inner life of the subject showcase her ability to connect deeply with her subject. Charlie’s works have been collected throughout the United States and abroad for over 30 years.
     
    Diego
    Painter and printmaker, Diego Lasansky, grew up in the milieu of an exceptional family of artists. By the age of 21, his work had already garnered local, national, and international accolades. His work can be found in over 55 national and international museums and public collections. Diego’s work is figurative, and focuses on subjects readily available to him-such as family members-and those of historical and personal significance.
     
    Rory
    The son of artists Charlie and Tomas Lasansky, and grandson of Mauricio Lasansky, Rory’s recent intaglio prints and paintings speak directly to that history through expressive portraits of family members and cultural luminaries, richly layered with color and texture. Rory Lasansky’s work has been recognized nationally and internationally, and is held in numerous private and public collections, including The China Printmaking Museum.  
     
    Adam
    In an era when artistic practice is often celebrated for how it diverges from traditions, the prints and drawings of Adam Rake remain committed to aesthetic formalism.  Whether by way of detailed renderings of the human form, or in abstractions that probe the elusive realms of memory and place, Rake strives towards a permanence that he knows will never come.  Over the past decade, Adam has shown extensively throughout the United States in gallery and juried exhibitions, as well as internationally.  His works are included in the numerous collections including Temple University and Guanlan Print Art Museum, as well as many private collections.  He received a BFA in Printmaking from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA in 2002 and moved soon after to Iowa City, Iowa to work at the Lasansky Gallery & Studio.

    Amadeo
    "I grew up in a family of artists, surrounded by art, but it wasn't until I looked through the lens of a camera, that I discovered my own medium, and a way of seeing the world. I love capturing, in one shot, the essence of a person, scene or landscape. We each see the world in a unique way, and my photographs present my particular vision,” Amadeo Lasansky says. That vision has been honed by traveling to over 35 countries and documenting what he saw and experienced. The result is a body of work that spans the world and yet also brings the world into focus, so to speak. In his own words Amadeo says “I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. My dad is a printmaker, and my mom is a writer. I like to think that I am continuing their tradition by taking these photographs. I have traveled and photographed throughout the world and have lived in NYC, Cuernavaca and Beijing. I currently live with my wife in Nashville, Tennessee."
  • Exhibit Dates:
    August 29 - November 12, 2022
    Reception:
    September 9th, 5:00-7:30pm
    Rare Earth by John Preston & Ellen Wagener
    Main Floor

    Preston
    Preston's paintings primarily depict the dramatic climate of the Midwest, as well as its expansive skies and rolling fields. They often represent particular locations against a backdrop of weather events from observation, memory and where necessary, imagination. Simple, visual attraction is the central motivation, and he enjoys finding an idea in an image, rather than finding an image for an idea. Preston has exhibited nationally and is in many public and private collections, including Iowa State University, John Deere and the Chicago Federal Reserve.

    Wagener
    Wagener's landscapes demonstrate her awareness of the great tradition of landscape painting, from which she invents her own conceptual and stylistic approach. The Hudson River School, American Luminism, the French Barbizon School, Impressionism, and 20th-century Iowa artists such as Grant Wood and Marvin Cone are the landscape painters that inspire her. Her tour-de-force, F5Tornado, 2003, in the Figge Art Museum permanent collection, demonstrates her ability to work within her own alphabet of realistic landscape imagery to create symbolic, abstract works.  Stormy clouds, burning fields, dust storms, and tornadoes move across her formerly pristine, carefully groomed landscapes, demonstrating the powerful force of nature.
    Connections by Laura Young
    Second Floor
    ​
    "I am an artist and a teacher. I was educated at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY (BA), Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, NJ (MA), and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (MFA).​

    I often think of the work of the 19th century American landscape painter, George Inness, who lived and worked in Montclair, NJ where I lived for many years when my children were growing up. His dark fields and forests with a minimal, yet powerful light leaking through the trees and brush somewhere in the middle ground creates a yearning for something beyond the horizon, something intangible. The light pulls one forward. I think of the powerful series called “wall of light” by the contemporary Irish artist Sean Scully, examples of which can be found in museums all over the world. These two artists among many others have been inspirations to me."
  • Exhibit Dates:
    November 21, 2022 - February 11, 2023
    Reception (Zeran):
    December 2nd, 5:00-7:30pm
    Cocktail Party (Jewelry):
    December 9th, 5:00-8:00pm
    The Ancient Healing Properties of Clay, Paper, Plastic, and Wood
    by Mary Zeran
    Main Exhibit
    Mary 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.
    Jewelry Cocktail Party
    RSVP event
    First Floor

    Leave your jewels and gems at home! Gilded Pear Gallery is opening up the cases for you to explore our incredible selection of contemporary jewelry. With over 300 pieces of jewelry from incredible local and international artists and designers, you'll be sure to find something to suit a unique style, whether it’s for yourself or a special someone. Our Jewelry Cocktail party has become a festive tradition, join us for some holiday spirits!

    Link to RSVP available in early November.
    Holiday Shop
    artwork $500 and under
    Second Floor

    Our second floor gallery showcases amazing artworks available $500 and under. We also curate an online Shop for you to browse even more offerings from the convenience of your couch.

    On view starting November 14th. Link for the online shop available in early November.

Picture
Crit Streed: On the Verge
Picture
Kristina Fjellman: Fiber Optics
Picture
Selections from the Lasansky Workshop
Picture
John Preston, Ellen Wagener: Rare Earth
Picture
Laura Young: Connections
Picture
Mary Zeran: The Ancient Healing Properties of Clay, Paper, Plastic, and Wood
Picture
Holiday Jewelry Cocktail Party

2021

2021- 10th Anniversary
  • Picking up the Pieces by Kimberlee Rocca
    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 artworks
    ​Reception: 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 Party
    Date: April 1st, 2020
    A 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 Murdza
    Exhibit 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 exhibition
    Exhibit Dates: July 2 - August 14, 2021
    Reception: July 16, 5:00-7:30pm
    To 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 Easker
    Exhibit Dates: August 20 - October 2, 2021
    Reception: September 17, 5:00-7:30pm
    Fred'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, 2021
    Biography​
    "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 Kleckner
    Exhibit Dates: October 15- November 27, 2021
    Reception: October 22nd, 5:00-7:30pm
    Through 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 Zeran
    Exhibit Dates: December 3, 2021 - January 29, 2022
    Reception: December 3rd, 5:00-7:30pm
    Mary 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

    Thursday, December 9th  5:30pm
    Check back for the RSVP in early November!
Picture
Kimberlee Rocca: Picking Up the Pieces
Picture
Ann Royer: Rhythm in Bloom
Picture
Satomi Kawai, Jillian Moore: Polyphonous 2021 Mimetic Lives II
Picture
Thérèse Murdza: any way new
Picture
Gilded Pear Gallery Staff: The Gilded Girls
Picture
Fred Easker: Meditations on Moments in the Landscape
Picture
Stephen Metcalf: The Promise of Life
Picture
Ellen Kleckner: Juncture
Picture
Mary Zeran: Dance Party
Picture
Holiday Jewelry Cocktail Party

2020

2020
  • Making Arrangements: Ataraxia by Crit Streed
    ​January 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 Showcase
    ​Reception: February 21st, 5:00-7:30pm
    Exhibit Dates: February 18 - April 4, 2020
    ​Select 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 Beckelman
    Reception: [updated] May 22nd, 5:00-6:00pm
    Exhibit Dates: April 17 - June 13, 2020
    Due 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 Reality
    Exhibit 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 details
    Due 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 Wegman
    Exhibit 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 Kupferman
    Due 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, 5:30pmCST
    ​Julia 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 Zeran
    Exhibit Dates: December 11, 2020 - January 23, 2021
    Virtual Reception with Mary Zeran: December 11th, 5:30pm CST
    Mary 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.
Picture
Video: Crit Streed | Making Arrangements
Picture
Collector Showcase: Group
Picture
John Beckelman: Stillness and Occurrence
Picture
Mary Koenen Clausen, Jillian Moore: Peculiar Reality
Picture
Marcia Wegman: Vision- Inner and Outer
Picture
Julia Kottal, David Kupferman: Endless Planes
Picture
Mary Zeran: Mission Happiness

2019

2019
  • Carnaval de Craft
    Curated group exhibit. Participating artists ​Jill Allan, Judy Bales, Michael Bauermeister, Mimi Damrauer, Kristina Fjellman, Ellen Kleckner, John Krizan, and Steve Sinner & Joe Meirhaeghe
    ​This 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
  • True Maps by ​Thérèse Murdza
    Reception: April 5th, 2019 5-7pm
    Exhibit Dates: April 5th-June 7th, 2019
    ​A 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.’
  • Cedar River Artisans
    Reception: June 14th, 2019  5-7pm
    Exhibit Dates: June 14th-August 16th, 2019
    Cedar 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.
  • a line goes for a walk by Priscilla Steele
    Reception: September 6th, 2019 5-7pm
    Exhibit Dates: August 30th-October 4th, 2019
    Priscilla 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.
  • Open Air
    by David Gordinier and Kristin Stoeffler
    Reception: October 18th, 2019 5-7pm
    Exhibit Dates: October 11th-November 29th, 2019
    This 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.
  • Keeping the Bubble Happy by Mary Zeran
    Reception: December 6th, 2019 5-7pm
    Exhibit Dates: December 6th, 2019-January 17th, 2020
    Mary 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.

  • ​Holiday Jewelry Cocktail Party

    December 11th, 5-7pm
    Please join us for select custom crafted, holiday inspired cocktails to celebrate our 3rd Annual Cocktail Party showcasing our selection of Contemporary Jewelry
    • This event is RSVP Only
    • Must be 21+ years of age
    Link to RSVP available in mid November