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The 2009-10 AiR Invitational Exhibit
January 7th - February 11th, 2010

For the 2009-2010 A.i.R. Invitational Exhibit, Artists-in-Residence Claudia Dishon, Esteban del Valle, Gregory Bae, and Jameelah Lang were each asked to invite visual artists from around the country to exhibit their work at the Showroom.  Twelve artists participated in the show, sending work from nine states, and many of the participating artists have exhibited work nationally and internationally.  The exhibit features a wide-range of styles and mediums, including film, mixed media, sculpture, and painting. 

Aaron Storck lives and works in Lawrence, Kansas, and is a co-founder of the Fresh Produce Art Collective and DotDotDot Gallery.   In his work, make-believe and magical elements are synthesized with technology and atheism; symbols of wealth and cultural prowess are matched with a sense of degeneration and humor; and, moralistic perspectives are brought into a space of uncertainty.

Amanda Sweet proudly resides in Western North Carolina, near the Great Smoky Mountains and Blackstock, South Carolina—the land of her ancestors.  In the Carolinas, she finds herself amongst the broken ridgelines of peaking Montserrat sunsets, rolling mountain blues of withered dead furs, eroded burnt umber hills with rattled roots, and the infinite spectrum of hues passing through the betweens of a tree and its neighbor—the embodiments of her paintings.

Anne Flowers is an MFA student in printmaking at Northern Illinois University.  Her work has been shown in New York, Indiana and Wisconsin, as well as in various other venues across the country.  She creates imaginary worlds filled with real fears and emotions grounded in her past and present experiences. 

Art Johnson is an artist currently based out of Providence, Rhode Island, where he is an MFA student at the Rhode Island School of Design.  Johnson’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently in Amsterdam (Netherlands), New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco.  Through the use of diverse material strategies including clay, video, and performance, Johnson’s work explores the construction of identity and cultural mythology.

Aubrey Longley-Cook was born in Hartford, Connecticut and now resides in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys making cassette mix tapes and collects needlepoint artwork from thrift stores.  His artistic philosophy is “conquest, war, famine, death: it's a party and we're all invited.”

Clarke Curtis received his MFA from Clemson University and his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art.  His interest lies in objects from American culture that are relevant to his individual history. Through the use of collage, appropriation, and re-contextualization of printed work, he seeks to establish a personal position while engaging in a dialogue with American culture at large.

Duane Slick is a multi-media artist and lecturer.  He is a Professor of Painting and Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design.  He has shown work both nationally and internationally and has received numerous awards and honors over the course of a long, prolific artistic career. 

Esteban Pulido was born in Caracas, Venezuela.   He attended the School of Visual Arts in New York and recently received his BFA in Photography from the University of Oklahoma.  His work was featured on CNN and was selected for the Curator's Choice Award at 2009 Momentum Tulsa.  He is interested in photographing people in moments of honesty.

Johnny Adimando, who received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, has exhibited across the United States and internationally, and he belongs to several private and permanent collections.  He believes his art to be neither here, nor there; an ancient document and a prophetic speculation, caught in the confusion of the ever-fleeting moments of the present.

Rbt Sps was born Robert Henry Spees in Paducah, Kentucky in 1984. He is receiving his BFA in Printmaking from Murray State University in Kentucky.  His design elements are intentionally neutral, with strong minimalist undercurrents that allow for the objects he uses to be iconized.

Rubens Ghenov was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1975, immigrated to the United States in 1989. He received his BFA in painting at Tyler School of Art and is currently receiving his MFA at Rhode Island School of Design.  His work is concerned with assimilation, spirituality, personal narrative, self-made folklore, and the aesthetics of repurpose.

Yuri Zupancic is a twenty-nine-year-old, self-taught artist from Kansas who has been making and exhibiting paintings and other visual art internationally for ten years.  Mixing classical and contemporary influences and materials, Yuri creates art with an eerie but graceful elegance.  His goal is to find the timeless threads in timely issues, with considerable inspiration drawn from chaos theorists.

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