Artlink Contemporary Gallery is pleased to present Midwest Regional Exhibition, juried this year by Joey Quiñones.

Juror Statement

It was an honor to select these works for Artlink Contemporary Gallery’s Midwest

Exhibition. Overall, as someone who has adopted the Midwest as their home, it was delightful to see in so many entries what I have always known – that the Midwest is a sophisticated and fertile ground for creative expression. The sixty-eight works selected for this show range from paintings, drawings, fiber art, sculpture, video, photography, and ceramics. Besides highlighting the technical expertise in a wide range of materials and mediums, I selected these works because of how readily they seemed to capture the zeitgeist of our present cultural and historical moment.

There is a quietness and emotional depth to many of the works here. In depictions of ordinary scenes or familiar faces, there is the sense of how extraordinary these moments are for the artists. The everyday is often rendered unfamiliar and strange, as if emerging from a global pandemic and years of uncertainty has asked all of us to take a closer look at what is around us.

Many of the works are playful, tongue-in-cheek commentaries and mirrors for society at large, addressing issues as diverse as climate change and pop culture. The works which utilize text highlight the absurdity and challenge of communicating with one another when we are often shouting and not listening.

These works ask us to listen – to the warnings, the joy, the things gone unspoken, and to the hope for a better world art asks of us. It is my hope this exhibition can provide the viewer with a starting place for meaningful dialogue. Please join me in congratulating these very wonderful Midwest artists. - Joey Quiñones

Please join us for the opening reception on Thursday, January 4th from 5-8 pm!

Exhibiting Artists

Mary Amador, Sara AumanSmith, Heidi Bailey, Janet Ballweg, Allyn Boley, Beth Bynum, Dana Caldera, Cathleen Cramer, Ian Cross, Pat DaRif, Luiza Helena de Araujo Caetano, Erin Fairhead, Timothy Fisher, Joel Fremion, Jennifer Gareiss, Helen Geglio, Leslie Getz, Jessica Gondek, Seth Green, Tatsuki Hakoyama, Amanda Hamblin, Emily Hayden, Caroline Hays, David Hile, Jay Holladay, Mike Huffman, Karly Jean Kainz, Donna June Katz, Mike Kelly, Jungyun Kim, Hannah Kirk, Dawn Kramlich, Sarah Lemmon, Kaleigh Middelkoop, Christine B. Miller, George J. Miller, Alyssa Parr, Aaron Pickens, Thurman Pursley, Chloe Rice, Kathryn Rodrigues, Kelly Roth, Jodi Sargent, Jennifer Scheuer, Constance Scopelitis, David Sebberson, Tom Sherbondy, Katie Shulman, Jarrid Spicer, Gregory Steel, Kailey Stockburger, Peter Van Ael, Jamie Weinfurter, Ani Weitzel, Emily Whisman, GH Wood, Tory Wright Lee and Isabel Zeng.

About the Juror

Joey Quiñones is a fiber artist and ceramicist who creates mixed media figurative work in order to explore Afro-Puerto Rican identity. They were selected an Emerging Artist of 2020 by Ceramics Monthly, was a Manifest Gallery Annual Prize Finalist, and received an Honorable Mention for the James Renwick Alliance Chrysalis Award. Their work has been shown at venues such as the Belger Arts Center in Kansas City, the Akron Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, and the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery in Detroit. They have had residencies at Vermont Studio Center, the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, and the Arts/Industry residency in Foundry at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. They have an MFA in Studio Art from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Iowa. They are currently the Artist-in-Residence, Head of Fiber at Cranbrook Academy of Art.