Joachim Knill | “National Treasure,” art installation
Cheryl Eve Acosta | Palomino Scarf Necklace, copper and fused enamel glass
Andrew Batcheller | “Franklin Finds Forgiveness in the Stars,” oil
Sukanya Mani with her “Vessels of Light,” paper cut Tyvek®, installed at DOT ZACK, St. Louis
Meet our Missouri Featured Artists for December
Each month we highlight a new group of four individual artists from all around Missouri. Here’s our quartet for December!
Find more of all these artists’ works on their own websites—just follow the links we’ve set on their artwork and profiles.
We started our Missouri Featured Artists Program in December 2020. So we’ve now completed a full year—and all our artists are still highlighted and linked on this page. Check them out to enjoy a full spectrum of Missouri creativity!
Sukanya Mani | “Spirituality of Flight,” paper cut Tyvek®
Installation at Department of Parks and Recreation, City of Ellisville, Missouri
interdisciplinary artist | Ballwin
By mixing science and art, observation and imagination, I hope to find a bridge between the two, mimicking the breathtaking complexity that exists at every level of scale in the cosmos.
My practice is rooted in research as to how artistic inquiry can expand new thought and a new understanding of science. My artworks are abstractions of paper cut Tyvek® informed by materials, location, and the installation process. I studied science in college and adopted my science education to fuel my arts education through research and experimentation. By cutting out negative shapes and leaving positive space, I control how much and where light can pass through paper. I roll, stretch, and twist this two-dimensional material to make it into a three- dimensional sculpture. I then install the sculpture from the ceiling to allow gravity to give the sculpture a specific shape. So, I use light, space and gravity as conceptual and physical forces in my installations. My interdisciplinary practice is an attempt to invite viewers to see the interconnectivity between artistic and scientific thought.
installation artist | Hannibal
I can’t help myself from reinventing and redesigning every detail to fit the worlds I create.
I sprouted from a creative family in Switzerland, drawing, painting, and inventing creatures, vehicles, and environments to populate my imaginary worlds. At the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, I advanced my skills to build and depict my ideas, produced art films, and gained an appreciation for creating an audience experience. I also built a 20”x30” Polaroid camera and started photographing small surreal landscape installations. To make ends meet, I did house renovations, animation for commercials, industrial robot construction, and art department equipment repairs. Until I discovered outdoor arts festivals. They felt like the fine art equivalent to film screenings. My installations grew larger, culminating in “National Treasure,” a shipping crate containing a historic portrait room with paintings from a fictional civilization of stuffed toy animals. Now I create the paintings for an audience to acquire and plot and construct upcoming art installations such as “Seedlab,” a techno-bioengineering lab containing sculptural seedpods.
Cheryl Eve Acosta | from the “Armada” collection of sculptural body wear, copper
“’Armada” or ‘armed’ is inspired by the armored metalwork worn by Spanish conquistadores who took over the island of Puerto Rico while enslaving women. Each piece in the collection is associated with a natural element, celebrating their femininity and existence.”
metalsmith, sculptor, jeweler | Kansas City
I highlight the impermanence and fragility of natural forms with the delicateness of my designs and materials.
My art lives between the realms of sculptural décor, jewelry, and fashion. I am inspired by marine ecology and the “Cycle of Life.” This connection for coastal living is influenced by my French/ Caribbean background, shaping the story behind my creations. I am known for my textured copper edging collection called “Mer de Verre,” made with fused enamel glass, as well as for my copper fabric one-of-a-kind adornments and art installations. In 2018, I was the featured artist of the ArtsKC–Regional Arts Council Awards luncheon. That same year, my art was exhibited at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Arts’ “Women to Watch–Heavy Metal” exhibition, which was later presented by the Kansas City Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. In 2015, I was selected to elaborate a custom brooch on behalf of the Women’s Council of Greater KC to be gifted to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. You can find me at my KC Crossroads studio where I create my art and open for the First Friday of the month.
oil painter | Joplin
My paintings are always preplanned with a story in mind, perhaps of a person I have met, current events, politics and, on occasion, a dream.
I am a Kansas City native, but have called Joplin my home for the last decade. The quiet and slower pace of a smaller town was an instant match for me, and I decided to build my studio here. When asked, I prefer to classify my work as “Portraiture,” using birds as stand-ins, or analogies for the human condition. I always strive to strike an emotional chord in my paintings, to evoke a thoughtful contemplation of our own human drama. I always begin a painting with a title, as it tends to keep me focused on the narrative I am weaving. I find that, with the vast array of bird species on this planet, there is always one that can narrate the story I am telling, providing facial expressions and poses that translate in a human way. Since the earliest memory, I have always been drawn to birds, and to this day, it’s impossible not to include them in my work. Second only to painting, my coop of white homing pigeons brings me the greatest joy.
Dana Forrester
watercolor painter
Independence
Marco Rosichelli
conceptual artist
Kansas City
Candice Ivory
musician, vocalist, composer, visual artist
St. Louis
Janey Seamans Hale
painter
West Plains
Poet t.l. sanders
language artist, author, actor, educator, consultant, filmmaker
Kansas City
Priscilla Block
visual artist
St. Louis
Andy Thomas
painter
Carthage
Brie Duey
painter, magical realist
Bucklin
Denise Thimes
songstress, motivational speaker
St. Louis
Malcolm “Airbrush Assassin” McCrae
artist, author, speaker, entrepreneur
Southeast Missouri
Genevieve Flynn
silversmith, artist, educator
Kansas City
David Spear
muralist, illustrator, graphic/exhibit designer
Columbia
Mollie Chounard
painter
St. Ann
Eric Ordway
ceramic artist, potter, teacher
Columbia
Russell Nelson
designer, illustrator, watercolor artist, educator
Kirksville
Glyneisha Johnson
poly disciplinary artist, educator, community care taker
Kansas City
Allison L. Norfleet Bruenger
mixed media jewelry and assemblage artist
St. Louis
Kyle Selley
firework artist, visual artist, art educator
Kansas City
Lisa Bartlett
mixed media artist, painter
Columbia
Ray Cardwell
singer songwriter from the Ozarks
Jefferson City
Azaria Rianne Hogans
choreographer, dancer, educator
Springfield
Greg Holden
artist, photographer, inquisitive observer, thankful human being
Eureka
Patrick Rafferty
guitarist, teacher
Affton
Barb Byrne
fused glass artist
Pleasant Hill
Gary Cadwallader
painter of acrylics and watercolor
Warrensburg
Byron von Rosenberg
poet, illustrator, storyteller
Byrnes Mill
Regina Willard
contemporary impressionist
West Plains
Hyejin Cho
concert pianist, educator
Kirksville
Grant Kniffen
painter
Dardenne Prairie
Laura Bigger
artist, printmaker
Kirksville
Ralph Hepola
musician
Springfield
Jen Everett
interdisciplinary artist
St. Louis
James Douglas Cox
metal artist
Republic
Natalie Wiseman
visual artist
Joplin
Kevin Umaña
painter, ceramics sculptor
Kansas City
Nartana Premachandra
dancer, writer, storyteller
St. Louis
Wanda K. Tyner
glass artist
Lee’s Summit
F.C. Shultz
author, poet, reader
Webb City
Lindsey Dunnagan
visual artist
Kirksville
Brian Owens
soul musician/vocalist
St. Louis
Anand Prahlad
literary author, musician/songwriter, filmmaker, teaching artist
Columbia
Brenda Beck Fisher
painter, watercolorist, interpreter of the beauty in the world
Hannibal
Anne Garney
landscape painter, fauve, expressionist
Kansas City
Jeffrey Noonan
musician: performer, teacher, scholar
St. Louis
Whitney Manney
fashion and textile designer
Kansas City
Justin Hamm
poet, photographer, citizen of the American Middle West
Mexico
Robin Van Hoozer
artist, painter, maker of unusual things
St. Joseph
Bobby Norfolk
storyteller, author, teaching artist
St. Louis
What is the program’s goal?
The Featured Artists program promotes and supports individual artists and demonstrates the variety of creative Missouri talent.
How does the program work?
We feature four artists each month. We highlight and promote each month’s artists via the homepage of the Missouri Arts Council website, the Featured Artists page on the website, monthly email, social media, and links to the artists’ websites. Artists receive a $300 stipend/license fee to feature their work online. Artists are paid directly by the Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Who is eligible?
Individual Missouri-resident artists of any medium with online work that they have ownership to license. (Groups are not eligible.) Mediums may include (but are not limited to) visual art, literature, music, video, dance, theater, storytelling, and traditional arts.
May artists participate if they don’t have a website?
No; an effective website is an essential part of this program. Without it, there is nothing to promote, neither your work NOR a place to send people to benefit you. An artist’s website is an important tool to promote your creative work. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. can supplement with social engagement, but do not effectively allow an artist’s work to be as easily accessed as does a website.
How do artists apply?
Propose your work for consideration via this online form. Support your application with links to your website and other online platforms where your work is located. No work may be sent as an attachment. Work that cannot be accessed online may not be considered. Artists retain full ownership and rights to their work. Artists will allow with their consideration a limited use right to feature their work on the Missouri Art Council website and other platforms. There is no fee to apply.
How are Featured Artists selected?
The Missouri Arts Council staff selects artists with diverse demographics and locations throughout the state who are producing quality original work in a variety of art mediums and genres.
How will artists know if they are selected?
Artists will be contacted directly if they have been selected. If you are not contacted, do not despair! All applicants will continue to be considered as the program continues monthly.
How often should artists apply?
Artists need apply for this program only once. Applications will be kept on file for future consideration.
How long will this program last?
We will continue this program through June 30, 2021. If funding allows, this program may continue.
