Past Exhibitions | Washington Pavilion

February 7 - July 12, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Jerstad Gallery

Trained as a printmaker in Havana, Cuba and at the Rhode Island School of Design, Rodriguez-Warner has developed a manner of painting that is informed by woodblock printing and characterized by trompe l’oeil, collage and art historical references. He enhances the trompe l’oeil by carving into and staining the plywood panels on which he works. Painted shadows and subtly carved ones confuse the eye. This sensation—that of the possibility of depth—is amplified by the layering of forms, figures and patterns that twist around, melt into and overlap one another. Some of these fragments, those cribbed from works by ukiyo-e master Yoshitoshi, Henri Matisse and George Grosz, among others, appear familiar, while others elude identification, even as simple shapes.

Diego Rodriguez-Warner was born in Managua, Nicaragua in 1986 and moved to Denver, Colorado in 1990. He holds fine arts degrees from Hampshire College and the Rhode Island School of Design and he has studied under the Cuban Minister of Fine Arts, Lesbia Dumois, in Havana. At RISD, he was a recipient of the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship. His work has been shown around the US, in Cuba and in Germany.

February 24 - June 21, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Bates Trimble Gallery

Ancient Alchemy is an exhibition born out of the idea to see what is happening in contemporary ceramic practice in South Dakota and surrounding area. Through the creation of a single plinth and strict perimeters of a two-foot by two-foot floor print. Each piece is offering a different approach and understanding to the ancient practice of ceramics.

Some works may be traditional in nature and others may stretch the limitations of what people can and have understood as ceramic work all are bound by ancient alchemical material tradition.

February 28 - April 12, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Young Artists Gallery

Canis Latrans is an exhibition designed to showcase the works of five Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. The work represents a wide variety of subject matter and material exploration. The exhibition includes artist Jonathan Purdy, Hunter Smith, Joe Schaeffer, Yazmin Moktan and Julie Ellingson.

December 12, 2019 - June 8, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Contemporary Gallery

David Hamlow holds a BA in Studio Art from Gustavus Adolphus College and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Minnesota. He has received two Minnesota State Arts Board Grants and shows work regionally, nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include Cashing Out at the Kala Institute, Berkley CA, Hedge Magic at the Soap Factory in Minneapolis and You Complete Me with Liz Miller at the HFA Gallery, University of Minnesota, Morris.

"My work addresses quotidian activity, its energies and by-products. Work, habitation, transportation and leisure consume--but also create--massive energy and matter, willfully ignored or rendered transparent by its mundanity. My work reaffirms this energy and matter as objects and activity, challenging the viewer to address the potential--positive, negative or ambiguous--of the way we live today." - David Hamlow

March 13 - May 3, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Egger Gallery

Jerry Fogg invites all South Dakotans into their shared history. An artist who is not afraid to tell the complicated stories of this land, he brings the past into the present through his art. In connecting his own feelings and those who engage with his art, he helps us imagine a preferred future together. This mixed media approach includes historical pieces, Native American craft, traditional art techniques and a touch of humor. He asks: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

Artist Bio
Yankton Sioux Oyate artist Jerry Fogg is an actively working native artist in the Sioux Falls South South Dakota Area. He is an advocate for Blood Run, Hiawatha Indian Insane Asylum and Pé Sla and a multi-mentor at Hawthorne Elementary in Sioux Falls. Fogg is a graduate of Flandreau Indian School and an enrolled member of Ihankton Nakota Oyate.

Awards and Exhibitions:
Artist of the Year: Flandreau Indian School
Best of Show (mixed-media): United Tribes Art Expo
Best of Show: Yankton County Open Art Competition
Award Winner (Textile): Northern Plains Tribal Arts
Patron Award: Luverne, Minnesota Open Arts
People’s Choice Award: Artists of the Plains
Best of Show: Artists of the Plains
Nominee for Mayor’s Award for the Arts: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

September 20, 2019 - February 16, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Bates Trimble Gallery

This exhibition looks at South Dakota photography through the lens of several South Dakota-based artists. The vast space of the state exposed as a land mass, a home, an endless sky, bringing a sense of the sublime. A void by which only the last vestige great open space can display. Each artist exemplifying different components of this plentiful and endless landscape.

Artists featured: Greg Latza, Angela Zonunpari, Anna Reich, Cheryl Halsey and Cristen Roghair.

From the permanent collection: Ten photographers from the SDSU class of 1990: Joyce Roeder, Beth Tallon, Simon Spicer, John Wiggs, Tony Ramirez, Kevin Johnson, Ron Johns, Mark Hennies, John Bansiak and James Everheart.

Paul Schiller from his 1998 Acts of Nature series

February 16, 2019 - March 15, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Egger Gallery

Our newest acquisition joins familiar favorites in this exhibition of artwork by Northern Plains Tribal artists from the Permanent Collection of the Visual Arts Center. See works by some of South Dakota’s preeminent artists, including Oscar Howe and Arthur Amiotte, alongside our newest addition to the Collection, Tatanka Sakowin by Wade Patton, awarded second place in Pencil, Charcoal, Ink, Crayon, Pastel, Chalk and Scratch Board at the juried art show of the 2018 Northern Plains Indian Art Market.

Wade Patton, an Oglala Lakota tribal member, was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He received his BFA from Black Hills State University and later pursued artistic opportunities on the East Coast. In 2015, he returned to the Black Hills, where he is an active member of the thriving Native arts scene in Rapid City. Patton’s work is included in public and private collections throughout the United States.

October 11, 2019 - February 23, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Shultz Gallery

Experience Travis Hinton’s works in Necessary Roughness (A Historical Blueprint of Wonder) that vary in function and purpose from the daily usage of a cup to an ornamental vase. Each telling a story with its individual composition, intended to communicate a sense of wonder, discovery and balance through form and surface treatment.

About the Artist

Travis Hinton was raised in Sioux Falls, SD. He attended the University of South Dakota in Vermillion and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Art Education in 1999. After his graduation from USD, Travis was accepted into the master's degree program in ceramics at the University of Kansas. He received his MFA in Ceramics in 2003. After graduation he began teaching at the Lawrence, KS Art Center and was a visiting artist at Emporia University. In 2004 he moved back to Sioux Falls and continued his teaching profession with the Sioux Falls School District. In addition to his teaching career he has been working as a studio potter, exhibiting his work at studio tours, galleries and museums across the United States. In 2017 Travis relocated his studio in Sioux Falls and he continues to balance his time as a teacher and artist.

October 26, 2019 - January 19, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Everist Gallery

The South Dakota Governor’s Biennial is designed “to recognize and encourage South Dakota artists, to promote the artistic identity of South Dakota, to celebrate the cultural and artistic heritage and future of South Dakota and to encourage a larger sense of community and connection across separate artistic communities within the state.”

The 8th Biennial began at the South Dakota Art Museum (January 25, 2019 - April 20, 2019) and then traveled to the Dahl Arts Center, Rapid City (May 3, 2019 - August 17, 2019), the John A. Day Gallery, Vermilion (August 30, 2019 - October 11, 2019) and the Washington Pavilion, Sioux Falls (October 26, 2019 - January 19, 2020).

Featured Artists:

August 31, 2019 – January 5, 2020

Visual Arts Center | Jerstad Gallery

Painting with Paper offers a view into nostalgia and Americana. Through evoking images of the past, this exhibition offers a glimpse into the future. Nate’s work is both technically proficient and inviting, allowing viewers the opportunity to project their own personal histories to the object presented while creating a base narrative dialogue from a generation.

“The past is never a static thing. Interpretation of past events is as wide as the vast range of human experience. Now more than ever, it’s essential that we look to the past to trace the present back towards its cultural roots—not so we can dwell there—but rather to reconsider what it means to live in the present and create the future.” – Nate Stromberg excerpt from Back to Go Forward exhibition.

About the Artist:
Nate Stromberg was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He received his bachelor’s degree at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He then went on to get his MFA at The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Nate has had solo exhibitions, including Circulus Retro I/III: Nathan Stromberg—Back To Go Forward, Thompson Gallery, The Cambridge School of Weston, Weston, MA; Another Man’s Treasure, Robbin Gallery, Robbinsdale, MN; Significant Stuff: New Object Collages, ARTISTRY/Bloomington Theater and Arts Center, Bloomington, MN; Chrome Remnants, The Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI; American Iconic: New Paintings by Nathan Stromberg, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hopkins, MN and countless group exhibitions dating back to 2000. In this exhibition, Painting with Paper, Nate has truly demonstrated his excellent craft and amazing production capacity.

July 27 - December 30, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Everist Gallery

Through an extraordinary visual arts exhibition, come experience the story of Sioux Falls’ newest monumental sculpture. Spanning the Big Sioux River between 6th and 8th Streets in downtown Sioux Falls, the Arc of Dreams represents the leaps of faith we all take to achieve our dreams. See how sculptor Dale Lamphere, South Dakota’s Artist Laureate, brought the dream of this sculpture to life.

Dale Lamphere’s work includes more than 60 public monumental sculptures installed throughout the United States. In South Dakota, he is well-known for Dignity, a 50-foot, 12-ton stainless steel sculpture honoring the Indigenous nations of South Dakota, located near Chamberlain. In 2015, South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard named Lamphere the South Dakota Artist Laureate, a position that had been vacant since the 1983 death of Oscar Howe, who was given the honor in 1954. Lamphere was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 1987, and resides in Sturgis, SD.

August 3 - December 8, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Contemporary Gallery

Jana Anderson’s abstract assemblages reference technology, connection and strength. Her photographic sources come from microscopic and medical images of her own body, as well as references to cosmic or macroscopic events. Cellular structures are juxtaposed with star charts, and the architecture of the body meets the architecture of the universe.

Jana Anderson was born in Los Angeles, CA, but spent most of her formative years in Sioux Falls, SD. She received her bachelor’s degree in studio art from Hamline University (St. Paul, MN) in 2011, and her MFA in painting from Indiana University, Bloomington in 2019. She has shown her work in Sioux Falls, across the Midwest, as well as nationally. She has completed internships at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Bohemia Galleries in York, England, as well as received numerous awards for achievements in the arts.

August 23 - November 22, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Entrance Gallery

Learn more about the history and art of puppetry in the Entrance Gallery of our Visual Arts Center.

Puppetry is a form of artistic expression that involves a person, called a puppeteer, who acts out or performs a story through puppets. Puppetry developed independently in many parts of the world, with distinctive types still alive today in Japan, China, Germany, Indonesia and the United States, among others. Today, certain puppets and puppet shows have become well-known in the age of television, including Howdy Doody, Lamb Chop, Jim Henson’s Muppets and Sesame Street.

The history and present day function of puppetry is ever expanding and inspiring. This masterful artistry allows us to express our stories with a suspension of disbelief found in theater while colliding with an appreciation of object making and craftsmanship.

All puppets and props courtesy of Brenda Paulsen and Paulsen Puppeteers.

August 2 - October 15, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Permanent Collection Gallery

Throughout the course of art history, self-portraiture and the portrait of another have remained a tried-and-true practice among leading artists. Transcending technique and style, self-portrayals are prevalent in every major movement, from the inspired Italian Renaissance to the Postmodern and Contemporary period. This exhibition asks us to look back into those faces presented by art history and hopefully find ourselves present in the work. Our humanity binds us to the practice of reproducing the thing we are most familiar with: ourselves. To illustrate the prevalence of these depictions, we have compiled a collection of works from our permanent collection illustrating just that.

March 2 – September 15, 2019

Visual Arts Center | South Dakota Gallery

Presented in collaboration with the Great Plains Watercolor Society, Watercolor on the Plains celebrates some of South Dakota’s most skilled watercolorists. Works by Jon Crane, Bill Feterl, Bonnie Halsey-Dutton, Janet Judson, Daniel Parsons, James Pollock, Stephen H. Randall, Mary Selvig, Barbara Sparks, BJ Stych and Judy Thompson join works by well-loved Sioux Falls artist Marian Henjum for an exploration of the art of watercolor, and a tribute to Henjum’s memory. Experience bright washes of color and detailed natural scenes, and learn more about how artists create watercolor magic.

Founded in 2017, the Great Plains Watercolor Society educates and elevates the skills of members, and promotes public appreciation of the art of watercolor in our local and regional communities.

May 18 - August 25, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Jerstad Gallery

Iowa-based artist T.J. Dedeaux-Norris grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and moved away to pursue her career, leaving her detached from her family. Her feelings of isolation only intensified after Hurricane Katrina hit the region. The artworks in to be seen and not heard are Dedeaux-Norris’s way of connecting her past with her present as she approaches portraiture through the lens of distance and longing.

About the Artist

T.J. Dedeaux-Norris (f.k.a. Tameka Jenean Norris) was born in Guam and received her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Los Angeles and her MFA from Yale University School of Art. Dedeaux-Norris has recently participated in numerous exhibitions and festivals including at Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; Prospect.3 Biennial, New Orleans, LA; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands and Mission Creek Festival, Iowa City, IA, among many others. Dedeaux-Norris has participated in many residencies including at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and the Grant Wood Art Colony Fellowship. She is the 2017 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a 2018 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa.

June 22 - October 6, 2019 | Entrance Gallery

Visual Arts Center | Shultz Gallery

In Everything I See, local retired architect and painter Paul Boerboom explores light, shadow and built objects in nature. Boats bob back and forth in shimmering waves, patio chairs sit in sand and snow, and the sun is always shining. As an architect, Boerboom understands and enjoys human-made objects and how they interact with the land.

Paul Boerboom received his BA in Architecture and Environmental Design from the University of Minnesota. After a forty-year career in architecture, Boerboom returned to one of his first artistic interests: painting. Boerboom was awarded Best of Show at the 2018 Dakota MasterWorks Art Show, and his work has been displayed at the Sioux Falls Design Center and Eastbank Art Gallery, where Boerboom is a member artist. Boerboom’s work was also selected for the 2018 and 2019 juried Arts Night exhibitions at the Visual Arts Center. Paul Boerboom resides in South Dakota at Wall Lake.

Sponsored by:

Jim & Kara Mathis and Michele & Roger Weber

February 23 - June 16, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Shultz Gallery

Local poet and artist Angelica Mercado inhabits the borderlands in between two cultures, two countries and two identities. Mercado was born in Jalisco, Mexico, grew up in Fremont, NE, and now resides here in Sioux Falls, SD. In Cuerpo Extranjero: Foreign Body, Mercado explores a way out of the in-between through poetry and mixed media artworks both playful and powerful.

Mercado earned her BA in Fine Arts from Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, IA. Both Mercado’s artwork and poetry have been used as educational tools to draw awareness to topics such as immigration, feminism, diversity and cultural awareness.

Sponsored by:

Jennifer and Henry Carlson III

Meet the Artist!

Free First Friday Gallery Talk: March 1 at 6 p.m.

April 20 - June 2, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Everist Gallery

Emily’s Hope: Paint the Skies is a celebration of artist Emily Groth’s work, featuring artworks by Emily, and her sister, Abby. Emily died of fentanyl poisoning during the opioid epidemic on May 16, 2018 at twenty-one years old. Alongside Emily and Abby’s artwork, conversation-starting features educate visitors on the severity of the opioid crisis, and the number of lives lost to opioid overdoses.

With her vibrant, original artistic ideas, Emily won first place in the state for her artwork from the South Dakota High School Activities Association, and received a Scholastic Art scholarship to the University of South Dakota. Since Emily’s death, her mother, local news anchor and investigative reporter Angela Kennecke, has turned heartbreak into action through Emily’s Hope, a non-profit created to educate people on substance use disorder, stop stigma and remove financial barriers to treatment.

January 12 - May 12, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Jerstad Gallery

Explore South Dakota’s state parks with local artist Laura Jewell. Jewell received a grant from the South Dakota Arts Council to research and visit each of our state parks, resulting in more than fifty abstract landscape paintings inspired by the natural wonders of South Dakota. In Jewell’s signature style, layers of paint create subtle shifts in color as Jewell captures quiet moments of beauty—the glitter of frosty air over a lake, the faint dots of flying geese and the changing seasons.

Raised in the small town of Holton, KS, Laura Jewell received her BFA from the University of South Dakota. Her work is included in private collections throughout the United States, and also in Australia and Canada. Jewell’s work has been recognized by the South Dakota Arts Council with an Artist Career Development Grant (2016) and a 2018 Project Grant. Jewell lives in Sioux Falls, SD.

December 8, 2018 - April 7, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Contemporary Gallery

Enjoy a rare showing of South Dakota artist Dorothy Morgan’s paintings in her home state. To anyone who’s driven through rural southeastern South Dakota, Morgan’s paintings feel instantly familiar. In thick, satisfying paint, she captures the expanse of the sky, the shine on creeks and ditch puddles, and the texture of sparse trees and snow-covered fields.

Dorothy Morgan, a South Dakota native, studied art at South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD. Since 1987, Morgan has been represented by the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, CA, where her paintings were sought after by art collectors from around the country. Morgan’s work has been featured in many publications, including South Dakota Magazine, Midwest Living and American Art Collector. Dorothy Morgan resides near Brookings, SD.

February 2 - April 7, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Everist Gallery

Arts Night 2019: Celebrate, showcases artists who positively impact the local art scene and the Visual Arts Center. This juried exhibition features diverse media and artists from near and far, and culminates in a gala and auction on April 13, 2019. To purchase tickets for the 2019 Arts Night Experience, click here or call 605.731.2377.

September 15, 2018 - February 24, 2019

Visual Arts Center | South Dakota Gallery

“I pledge loyalty and support to the flag and state of South Dakota, land of sunshine, land of infinite variety.”
-Official Pledge to the State Flag

From the wide open plains to the Badlands, this exhibition celebrates the infinite variety of landscapes and wildlife in South Dakota. In the newly opened South Dakota Gallery, artworks by Russ Duerksen, Jim Green, Mary Groth, Karen Kinder, Areca Roe, Joshua Spies and Tory Stolen find inspiration in both the majestic and the everyday. Hay bales and telephone lines join wild birds and buffalo in an exploration of South Dakota’s beauty, quirks, and the spirit that inspires people to call this state home.

October 27, 2018 - February 17, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Shultz Gallery

Discover and explore different printmaking techniques in The Black Arts Tarot, an exhibition of hand-pulled prints by artists with ties to South Dakota and beyond. The Black Arts is an old term describing the discipline of printmaking, because of the technical ability to create very rich, deep blacks. Originally used for gambling and storytelling, tarot cards are 15th century precursors to contemporary playing cards. Some of the oldest playing cards were created by unknown engraving masters such as Master ES, who worked in Germany around 1450-1467. By the 18th century, variations of these decks were used largely for divination.

Building on the tradition of artist-made playing and tarot cards, each of the twenty-two artists in this exhibition created a contemporary interpretation of one of the cards from the Major Arcana, or one of the twenty-two picture cards in a tarot deck, using their printmaking method of choice.

Organized by Joshua Butler (Grand Junction, CO), Matthew Hanson-Weller (Durango, CO) and J. Charles Cox (Fergus Falls, MN), who received his MFA from the University of South Dakota, the prints in The Black Arts Tarot are the result of a printmaking exchange. A printmaking exchange is coordinated between artists who agree to create, edition and exchange an image related to a specific theme.

October 20, 2018 - January 20, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Everist Gallery

Explore a wonderland of optical illusions in this exhibition of fifty of Dick Termes’ spherical paintings, known as Termespheres®, in a celebration of Termes’ fifty years of artistic innovation. Since 1968, Termes has painted more than 400 major spherical surfaces. These suspended, rotating globes capture an inside-out view of an entire three-dimensional landscape. Termes, who acknowledges the influence of M.C. Escher and Buckminster Fuller in his work, researches the connections between math, science and art. He developed what he calls six-point perspective in order to capture the up, down and all-around visual world from one revolving point in space.

Termes' work has been recognized and exhibited internationally. His painting The Big Bang was featured on the cover of the French edition of "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. Termes received his MA from the University of Wyoming and his MFA from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. He lives in Spearfish, SD.

October 6, 2018 - February 3, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Egger Gallery

In this exhibition of recent monotypes by Oglala Lakota artist Roger Broer, enigmatic images connected by the repeated forms of animals and mysterious eyes invite us to search for our own connections to the work as we explore color, form and the histories that live in our memories and DNA.

Roger Broer grew up in rural Randolph, NE. He received his BA in art from Eastern Montana College, now Montana State University Billings, and completed additional graduate-level coursework in fine art at Central Washington University. A full-time artist since 1979, Broer has exhibited his work in more than thirty-five solo exhibitions and more than one hundred group shows throughout the United States. He has received awards from the Native People of the Plains Show, Rapid City, SD; the Northern Plains Indian Art Market, Sioux Falls, SD; the Red Cloud Indian Art Show, Pine Ridge, SD; and the Santa Fe Indian Market, Santa Fe, NM.

Broer serves on the art acquisition boards of the Akta Lakota Museum in Chamberlain, SD, and Crazy Horse Memorial’s Indian Museum of North America in the Black Hills of South Dakota. His work is included in many collections at institutions including the Washington Pavilion Visual Arts Center, Sioux Falls, SD; the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, Chamberlain, SD; and the Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, NE. Broer resides in Hill City, SD.

Free First Friday Gallery Talk: October 5, 2018 at 6 p.m.

November 21, 2018 - January 20, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Entrance Gallery

Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. was an American production company, known for its seasonal television specials, particularly its work in stop motion animation.

Rankin/Bass stop-motion features are recognizable by their visual style of doll-like characters with spheroid body parts, and ubiquitous powdery snow using an animation technique called "Animagic."

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964 and became one of the most popular and longest-running Christmas specials in television history.

Toys have been provided by Child’s Play Toys and can be purchased at www.ChildsPlayToysSF.com or at 233 S. Phillips Ave. Sioux Falls, SD.

August 18, 2018 - January 13, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Corner Gallery

In this video artwork by Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker, an imperceptible message is spoken into an empty plastic water bottle and set adrift on the currents of runoff that form during a tropical downpour in Panama City. Swept away by the waters of chance and circumstance, the bottled message wanders and careens its way through a fleeting urban aquascape towards an unknown ear. Informed by the circular and episodic structure of Homer’s Odyssey, The Voice Adrift is a tale of alienation and communion, hope and despair and the frailty and resilience of human existence in the face of political, social and environmental crisis.

While they also maintain individual practices, Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker have collaborated since 2006. Their videos playfully explore the intrinsic properties of found objects to generate incisive and poetic social criticism.

Conlon and Harker have exhibited their collaborations widely in solo shows at venues including Kadist, San Francisco (2018); The Spanish Cultural Center, Panama (2017); Diablo Rosso Gallery, Panama (2015); and El Nuevo Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Guatemala (2014); as well as group shows at venues including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY (2014); Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (2012); and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2009).

In 2010, Conlon and Harker received a production grant from the Harpo Foundation. Their collaborations are included in public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; the Tate Modern, London; the Kadist Art Foundation, Paris/San Francisco; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; and the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection at the Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru.

October 13, 2018 - January 6, 2019

Visual Arts Center | Jerstad Gallery

BAM! It’s a Picture Book: The Art Behind Graphic Novels presents eighty-one original works by some of the leading artists working in the arena of contemporary graphic novels. See works from such iconic books as "Baby Mouse," "Big Nate," "Lunch Lady," "Brody’s Ghost" and "Smile."

Graphic novels have gained immense popularity in recent years and have been the subject of scholarly studies, topics of museum exhibitions, and even the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. According to the American Library Association, they are among the fastest growing categories in publishing and bookselling.

Showcasing artwork by Mark Crilley, Matthew Holm, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Lincoln Peirce and Raina Telgemeier, BAM! It’s a Picture Book: The Art Behind Graphic Novels celebrates the art and literature of graphic novels.

The exhibition is organized by the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature in Abilene, Texas.

September 20 - November 18, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Entrance Gallery

Movers & Shakers: The Influencers of Comic Book Culture presents exciting original comic book art by some of the best artists in the business. See in-process sketches of your favorite characters from the Justice League and beyond, including Captain America, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Learn more about how comic books get made, and the artists behind iconic characters and scenes, including Barry Windsor-Smith, John Byrne, Doug Mahnke and many other significant comic book artists. Come celebrate super heroes, the pursuit of truth and justice, and the storylines and imagery that inspire us all.

August 4 - December 2, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Contemporary Gallery

Become immersed in art that moves. Lisa Walcott’s work grapples with and makes light of the perils of daily life using installation, drawing, photography and kinetic sculpture. In this exhibition, the ubiquitous, relaxing action of a curtain blowing is uncannily controlled by a motor and strings. The curtain becomes a puppet, the implied breeze animatronic. The eerie, but beautiful effect of the mechanized wind surrounding the viewer creates a slow, meditative viewing experience.

Lisa Walcott received her MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2010, and has since exhibited her work nationally at venues including Land of Tomorrow in Louisville, KY, ACRE Projects in Chicago, IL and the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum in East Lansing, MI. Lisa Walcott resides in Holland, MI.

Meet the Artist!

Free First Friday Celebration: August 3, 2018

June 16 - September 16, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Entrance Gallery

Pose for a portrait in front of a dazzling butterfly backdrop composed of thousands of meticulously collaged photographs of butterfly and moth eyespots, and put on an eyespot temporary tattoo to complete your disguise. Termed 'deimatic' camouflage, this strategy of startling bullseyes of color and form is thought to protect winged insects by frightening or confusing predators. These colored marks also confuse the digital gaze — just as butterflies' spots confuse predators — and disrupt facial-recognition software, creating a new type of camouflage for the modern, digital world of privacy loss and online tracking. Through participation, seductive beauty and an awakening of the senses, Jenny Kendler asks us to allow ourselves to be bewildered by nature.

Jenny Kendler is an interdisciplinary artist, environmental activist and naturalist who lives in Chicago. Kendler holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art.

June 30 - October 21, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Shultz Gallery

For this exhibition, local luthier Josh Rieck created a guitar with materials sourced from throughout South Dakota. Lutherie is the art of making stringed musical instruments. See and hear Rieck’s guitar alongside photographs of the raw materials in their natural surroundings by photographer Alix Kyrie, as Rieck and Kyrie weave a visual story of the source of the sounds of this guitar.

Josh Rieck received his master’s degree in music performance from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, SD, and his bachelor’s degree in music performance from Northern State University in Aberdeen, SD. He also completed his associate’s degree in stringed musical instrument repair at Minnesota State College Southeast in Red Wing, MN. Since beginning in lutherie, Rieck has built more than 50 instruments and repaired thousands. Based in Sioux Falls, Rieck repairs and builds instruments at his business J. Rieck Lutherie, plays with The Union Grove Pickers, is co-founder of Different Folk Records and is a member of the Guild of American Luthiers and the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii.

Alix Kyrie, based in Sioux Falls, is a freelance photographer whose work has been featured in local galleries and exhibitions, including Rug & Relic, Artists Against Hunger exhibitions and Black Sheep Coffee. Kyrie studied Landscape Architecture at South Dakota State University and studied photography alongside fellow Sioux Falls artists. Kyrie’s photography has been used for promotional material for the record labels Facedown, Different Folk and TeePee Records. Her work can also be found in 605 Magazine, Argus Leader’s The Link and Metal Underground Magazine and digitally on South Dakota Public Radio, Blues GR, Des Moines Musician Coalition, Statusfear Media and others. Kyrie’s work is included in private collections in Sioux Falls, California, Delaware and Colorado.

May 19 - October 7, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Jerstad Gallery

Celebrating our local K-12 art teachers, this exhibition reminds us that art educators are artists, too. From public and private schools ranging from the Sioux Falls Metro Area to Luverne, and working in media ranging from paint to ceramics, the talent behind our local K-12 art programs is stunning.

Free First Friday celebration: September 7, 2018

April 21 - August 12, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Corner Gallery

Detailed trompe l’oeil paintings and stop motion video of handmade doilies from Lindsay Arnold’s Tediumseries explore myths of perfection and domesticity. In her paintings, Arnold reproduces every snag, tear, stain and thread of the doilies she sources from garage sales, neighbors and her own family. Tedium honors the difficult experiences which leave us worn, and acknowledges thankless repetitive labor. Table Dance, a stop-motion video, is a celebration of the handwork produced by women during the mid- to late-20th century. Over 160 doilies take to the dance floor, throwing off their matronly reputations to prove age is no barrier to having a good time.

Lindsay Arnold is an American-Canadian born in Rugby, ND and raised in North Portal, Saskatchewan. A self-taught artist, Arnold’s work has been exhibited at venues in Ottawa, Chicago, and Novi Sad, Serbia. She still lives in North Portal, population 123, with her husband and daughter.

April 7 - July 29, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Contemporary Gallery

See animals in a new light, and try your hand at the ultimate memory card game.

In So Long, Farewell, artworks both playful and sobering invite us to consider our relationship with animals and our environment. The exhibition takes its name from Daisy Patton’s So Long, Farewell: Extinction in the Anthropocene Era, a playable memory card game consisting of animals from North and South America labeled as extinct in the wild or critically endangered. With over 600 cards total, So Long, Farewell is unwieldy and virtually unplayable without deep concentration and focus—something desperately needed now to stave off calamity. Complementing the game, works by Lori Larusso, Areca Roe and Sandra Williams explore the conflicting meanings we give animals: as food, companions, shapes for candies and decorations, and captive entertainment. Transforming trash to art, Calder Kamin’s whimsical portraits of animals made with plastic bags examine how items made for our convenience impact our environment.

May 12 - July 29, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Everist Gallery

Installation artist Liz Miller transforms the Visual Arts Center’s largest gallery into a landscape of draping textiles. Miller creates elaborate, abstract fictions that incorporate fragments of reality. The elegant, lacy silhouettes of imagery from sources such as firearms, killer bees, and deadly plants are spliced with imagined forms to create sculptural interludes that are absurd, menacing, and poetic. Liz Miller received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the University of Minnesota. Miller’s large-scale, mixed-media installations and works on paper have been featured in solo and group exhibitions regionally, nationally and internationally. Miller’s awards include a 2013 McKnight Professional Development Grant from Forecast Public Art and a 2011 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant. Miller lives and works in Good Thunder, MN. She is a Professor of Installation and Drawing at Minnesota State University-Mankato.

April 5 - June 10, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Entrance Gallery

Bria, now 11, has donated over $13,550 to support endangered species and conservation. She is a founding member of the of the Endangered Species Coalition’s Endangered Species Youth Activists (ESYA) Network. A proud recipient of the Points of Lights award, a 2017 Young Eco-Hero Award winner, a member of the Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots Program and the winner of IFAW’s Animal Hero Award in 2016. She has won many art awards such as Doodle for Google, SD Jr. Duck Stamp, State Fish, Celebrating Art and the Get to Know Art Contest. She has painted over 200 species and supports the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Wolf Conservation Center in New York, Dr. Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots Programs and the Wildlife Warriors in Australia with the proceeds of her paintings.
She has published two coloring story books, one that helps fund the care of endangered species at The Great Plains Zoo. She is also passionate about shelter pets and has funded over $1,600 from the sale of her art to the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society. Bria has collaborated ideas and art with schools in Australia, New York and South Dakota. She has an active media site on Facebook, named “Faces of the Endangered” and a website pigtailsart.com where she sells her art to followers in 48 countries. Bria is excited to share her art and passion with the world. “All kids can change the world. We just need to work together and believe we can do great things.”

March 24 - June 24, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Shultz Gallery

Two and a half years ago, moving from the East Coast to South Dakota inspired Dana Southerland to begin a new series of self-portraits. As an African American woman in a predominantly white society, her self-awareness has been heightened, and her blackness has become increasingly salient. In the intimate space of the Shultz Gallery, Southerland’s photographs begin a conversation with the viewer about self-expression, our existence within a community, and cultivating connections. Dana Southerland is a lifestyle and fine art photographer based in Vermillion, SD. She studied photography, receiving her BFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design and her MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

February 17 - August 12, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Egger Gallery

Familiar favorites join new acquisitions in this exhibition of artwork by Northern Plains Tribal artists from the Permanent Collection of the Visual Arts Center. See works by some of South Dakota’s preeminent artists, including Oscar Howe and Arthur Amiotte, alongside our newest addition to the Collection, Otter Bag by Emil Her Many Horses, awarded first place in Traditional Style Beadwork at the juried art show of the 2017 Northern Plains Indian Art Market. Emil Her Many Horses was born and raised on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Today, he is a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C., and an accomplished artist in contemporary beadwork.

February 3 - May 13, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Jerstad Gallery

Tropical settings, paintings of Che Guevara on crumbling walls and scenes of vibrant everyday life appear in Kimble A. Bromley’s colorful paintings and prints of Havana and the Cuban landscape. This series, created after Bromley attended the 1994 Havana Biennial, gives us a glimpse of life in Cuba in the 1990s, before the country was opened to American visitors. Bromley, a Professor of Art at North Dakota State University, resides near Pelican Rapids, MN.

January 27 - April 22, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Everist Gallery

Arts Night 2018: A Ripple Effect showcases artists who positively impact the local art scene and the Visual Arts Center. This juried exhibition features diverse media and artists from near and far, and culminates in a live auction and gala on April 28, 2018.

January 20 - July 8, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Permanent Collection Gallery

In this exhibition of abstract artwork from the Permanent Collection of the Visual Arts Center, abstract artworks invite us to invent meaning from splashes of color and drips and dots of paint. See artwork by well-known South Dakotan artists, including Jeff Freeman and Signe Stuart, and participate in Art Vibes, an interactive look at abstract art. Different people see different things in the same artworks, and we want to know what you see. Tell us how the artworks in the exhibition make you feel, and see how your reaction compares to the impressions of previous visitors.

January 13 - April 15, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Corner Gallery

Through a re-imagining of the initial sequence of the film “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), the fantasy world of cinema and the reality of Judy Garland’s complex life collide. Instead of taking Dorothy to Oz, the twister transports a young, hopeful Garland into the future where she encounters her disillusioned adult self. Formed in Sydney in 2002 and based in New York since 2012, Soda_Jerk is a 2-person art collective that approaches sampling as a form of rogue historiography. They have held solo exhibitions at international institutions including Videotage, Hong Kong; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC; Anthology Film Archives, New York and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

December 9, 2017 - March 31, 2018

Visual Arts Center | Contemporary Gallery

Lakota storytelling from South Dakota’s pre-eminent ledger artist. The works of noted Oglala Lakota ledger artist Donald F. Montileaux are a journey through the complex art forms and storytelling of the Lakota people. Warriors, horses, buffalo and tipis in reds, blues, greens, yellows and oranges are blended, rubbed and polished on antique ledger pages. Donald Montileaux was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2014; he lives and works in Rapid City, SD.

Dec. 2, 2017 - Mar. 18, 2018 | Shultz Gallery: Featuring Local Artists

Free First Friday Celebration: December 1, 2017

Espresso. Sugar. Friendship. For more than two decades, Connie Herring has been visiting with friends and loved ones over plates of tiramisu, and recording the experience in her journals. For this exhibition, Herring transforms her memories into a room-sized installation. Handmade books and pools of ribbon reminiscent of whipped cream will line the Shultz Gallery walls, inviting us to remember our own dinners with friends. Herring earned her MFA from the University of South Dakota; she works in her studio near Sioux Falls, SD.

Sept. 30, 2017 - Jan. 15, 2018 | Everist Gallery

Free First Friday Celebration: October 6, 2017

South Dakota’s finest art. This juried exhibition is the premier showcase for artists currently living and working in South Dakota. Celebrating the artistic innovations of South Dakotan artists, this travelling biennial exhibition and its catalog serve as historical records, documenting the work of the state’s most important and innovative contemporary artists.

Aug. 12 - Dec. 3, 2017 | Contemporary Gallery

Free First Friday Celebration: September 1, 2017

Midwestern Living. Using painting, printmaking and digital imaging, Emily Stokes presents goodnatured satirical images of country life from the viewpoint of someone new to the joys and challenges of rural life. She holds a BA from Wellesley College and received her MFA in printmaking from Arizona State University. Emily Stokes lives and works in Orange City, IA, where she teaches as an Assistant Professor of Art at Northwestern College.

Aug. 5 - Nov. 26, 2017 | Shultz Gallery: Featuring Local Artists

Free First Friday Celebration: August 4, 2017

The Vermeer of Sioux Falls. Nationally recognized and collected, local artist Anna Youngers explores the time-honored artistic themes of the human figure and the still life in a series of richly detailed oil paintings, revealing beauty in both the common and the extraordinary. With her classical atelier training, Youngers’ paintings allude to the work of the Renaissance and Baroque masters. Anna Youngers lives and works in Sioux Falls, SD.

July 29, 2017 - Jan. 8, 2018 | Corner Gallery

World-class video art. Internationally acclaimed artists Ann Hamilton and William Kentridge explore the mindfulness that accompanies monotony in video artworks on loan from the prestigious Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas. In these timebased artworks, a miniature camera explores the intricacy of the repetitive motion of sewing and animated charcoal drawings capture the intersection of writing and drawing.

July 15, 2017 - TBD | Egger Gallery

Inspiring action. Today’s Northern Plains Tribal artists use art to explore and comment on our nation’s history and current events. In this exhibition, works from the Permanent Collection of the Visual Arts Center by nationally prominent Northern Plains Tribal artists such as David Paul Bradley and Oscar Howe join artwork by select contemporary Native artists for a visual conversation on the capacity of art to inspire action.

July 8, 2017 - Jan. 7, 2018 | Permanent Collection Gallery

From the artist to the museum. A provenance is the story of the ownership of an artwork. Join us as we share the surprising stories behind some of the artworks in our Permanent Collection, as well as the stories of works by Harvey Dunn on loan from collectors with roots in Sioux Falls. See how art makes its way from artists to collectors and museums!

July 1 - Oct. 15, 2017 | Jerstad Gallery

Free First Friday Celebration: July 7 , 2017

Farmer. Teacher. Artist. Paul Peterson’s dreamlike landscapes reimagine traditional landscape painting through the lens of Peterson’s experience as an artist and farmer in South Dakota. Peterson’s work has been featured at the South Dakota Art Museum, as well as in the South Dakota Governor’s Biennial. Peterson has taught art at Freeman Academy and Black Hills State University; he currently lives and works in western South Dakota

Experience Origami

May 5 - June 11, 2017 | Everist Gallery - East

Free First Friday Celebration: June 2, 2017

Become an origami artist! Join local Japanese-American artist Reina Okawa, the artist behind the famous origami cranes installation in the lobby of the Washington Pavilion, to learn more about origami and add your artistic voice to a collaborative origami mural in our Everist Gallery.

Above the Fold

June 24 - Sept. 16, 2017 | Everist Gallery

The international traveling exhibition of the world’s best origami. Above the Fold is the first traveling exhibition to bring origami installations from around the world to North American audiences. In this exhibition, nine international artists push the boundaries of paper as a medium to create bold, provocative works. Paper is transformed into breathtaking sculpture, large-scale installations and conceptual works that express contemporary social, political and aesthetic ideas.

Above the Fold is curated by Meher McArthur and tour organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.

Apr. 22 - July 30, 2017 | Shultz Gallery: Featuring Local Artists

Free First Friday Celebration: June 2, 2017

Drawing connections. J. Charles Cox’s large-scale drawings invite us to explore how we navigate the social connections created by our relationships and travels—both in our physical lives and in our digital personas. Layered lines evoke the traffic of daily commutes and the never-ending stream of digital communication that is part of twenty-first century life. Cox earned his MFA from the University of South Dakota and is currently an Instructor of Visual Arts at Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls, Minnesota.

Apr. 15 - Aug. 6, 2017 | Contemporary Gallery

Free First Friday Celebration: May 5, 2017

Paint splashes brilliantly across large canvases. In these delicate and dense paintings, Teresa Dunn explores the profound change in her world view and the way she makes paintings since becoming a mother. More aware of the ephemeral nature of life and experience, her paintings tap into shifts in light, time and perceptions. Dunn received her MFA from Indiana University Bloomington, and is currently an Associate Professor of Painting at Michigan State University.

Feb. 25 - June 25, 2017 | Jerstad Gallery

Free First Friday Celebration: March 3, 2017

Painting outside the rectangle. Brian Frink’s brightly colored shaped canvases reflect the magical qualities he observes in the land of rural Minnesota. Poured and splattered paint alludes to natural forces such as rain, wind and gravity. Repeated speckles and lines evoke the texture of mist, soil and plants. Frink completed his MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is currently Chairperson of the Department of Art at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Feb. 11 - June 11, 2017 | Everist Gallery—West

Free First Friday Celebration: March 3, 2017

Super 2nd Saturday Printmaking Demonstration: Feb. 11, 2017

Inside every artist is a collector. Encounter the work of Carl Grupp, one of South Dakota’s preeminent artists, in the context of the artwork he collects from other artists. In this exhibition, Grupp’s playful printmaking joins the paintings, prints and sculptures with which he surrounds himself in his home for a new look at a wellknown artist. Grupp completed his MFA at Indiana University Bloomington, and is professor emeritus of art at Augustana University, where he taught art from 1969-2004.

Feb. 4 - July 21, 2017 | Corner Gallery

Free First Friday Celebration: Feb. 3, 2017

Walk inside a work of art. Marie Bannerot McInerney materializes the shifting nature of memory through a site-specific installation built around light. As you walk through a forest of hanging lightbulbs, your movement causes the light to change and reflect off of a Mylar-covered ceiling. McInerney earned her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Fiber Department at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Feb. 4 - Apr. 23, 2017 | Everist Gallery - East

Free First Friday Celebration: Feb. 3, 2017

Sioux Falls’ Premier Art Auction and Fundraiser. The 2017 Arts Night exhibition, REPRESENT, pays homage to the participating artists who positively impact the local art scene and the Visual Arts Center, culminating in a live art auction and gala on April 29, 2017. This juried exhibition features diverse media and styles. See landscapes, portraits and abstract artworks, as well as paintings, sculptures and photography from local artists and artists supporting the Visual Arts Center from across the miles.

Jan. 14 - July 2, 2017 | Permanent Collection Gallery

Super 2nd Saturday | Hipster Fashion Show: March 11, 2017

Visit this exhibition before it’s cool. Today’s hipsters are known for beards, flannel and following their own paths. The spirit of twenty-first century hipsterism, however, is not new. We combed our collection for art that breaks the mold and resonates with the contemporary hipster mindset. From early twentieth century paintings by L. Lova Jones to mid-century prints by Adolf Dehn, see the original hipsters in action.

Dec. 31, 2016 - July 9, 2017 | Egger Gallery

Reception: Friday, April 7, 2017

Welcome the new artists in our collection! Our collection of artwork by contemporary Northern Plains Tribal artists is growing! In this exhibition, recent acquisitions of artworks by James Star Comes Out, Todd Bordeaux, Henry Payer, Keith BraveHeart and Donald Montileaux join select paintings, beadwork and garments by the artists. See new works from some of the region’s most dynamic emerging and established artists in the context of the Visual Arts Center’s Collection of Northern Plains Tribal Art.

Dec. 12, 2015 - April 10, 2016 | Contemporary Gallery

Reception: Friday, December 11, 2015

Consisting of approximately 300 individual ceramic pieces, this installment of Ned Day’s Loopapalooza is the largest incarnation of the project yet. Day’s loops have traveled around the U.S., most recently appearing in Providence, Rhode Island. Ned Day, a ceramicist and sculptor, received his MFA from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and teaches at the Great Plains Art Institute at Sinte Gleska University.

Dec. 12, 2015 - March 6, 2016 | Shultz Gallery

Reception: Friday, December 11, 2015

In vibrant watercolors, Barbara Sparks depicts the reflections she sees in the everyday sights of Sioux Falls—motorcycles, downtown storefronts, her garden—as well as in imagery from her sailboat, where she spends five months of each year in the Caribbean. Sparks moved to Sioux Falls from Colorado. Before studying watercolors, she worked in pottery and pursued a successful career in executive management.

Jan. 16 - July 10, 2016 | Permanent Collection Gallery

Using pieces from the Permanent Collection of the Visual Arts Center, this exhibition creates a visual representation of Badger Clark’s poem, “The Free Wind,” through artists including Bob Aldern, Sheila Agee and Mary Groth. Badger Clark was appointed the first Poet Laureate of South Dakota in 1937. Clark’s cowboy poetry is known for its rhythmic cadence and vivid depiction of life in the American West

Feb. 6 - June 12, 2016 | Jerstad Gallery

Reception: February 5, 2016, 5-7 p.m. | Concert: 7:30pm, Belbas Theater

In Echo Lines, Bruce Preheim explores new territory in a series of abstracted and nonrepresentational works juxtaposed with the figurative pieces for which he is most known. Preheim’s gestural mark-making yields paintings with a strong sense of rhythm. A seasoned musician as well as a painter, Preheim received his MA from West Virginia University and completed further graduate work at the University of South Dakota.

Feb. 13 - July 31 | Aug. 6 - Jan. 15, 2016 | Egger Gallery

View a selection of artwork created by contemporary Northern Plains Tribal artists. The Egger Gallery features two rotating exhibitions of Northern Plains Tribal Art in 2016, drawing inspiration from the Permanent Collection of the VAC and featuring artwork on loan from local collectors and other institutions. See favorites from the Permanent Collection including works by Oscar Howe and Arthur Amiotte in dialogue with contemporary and historical artworks.

Feb. 20 - May 22 | Everist & Corner Galleries

Reception: March 4, 2016

The VAC, in partnership with Argus Leader Media, presents this feature exhibition exploring the art of photojournalism. Featured photographers Joe Ahlquist, Elisha Page, Jay Pickthorn and Emily Spartz Weerheim convey the stories of our community through photography. Experience photos of everyday life in Sioux Falls, as well as photos of pivotal moments in the news alongside commentary from the photographers who captured these funny, tragic, beautiful, and emotional images.

Feb. 27 - May 1 | Everist Gallery

Reception: Friday March 4, 2016

The 2016 Arts Night exhibition, In the Making: Sustaining the Arts for 55 Years, pays homage to the participating artists and community that have continually supported the Visual Arts Center over the years. This juried exhibition features diverse media and artists from near and far, and culminates in a live auction and gala on May 7, 2016.

March 12 - June 5 | Shultz Gallery

Reception: Friday April 1, 2016

Nostalgia and childhood fun permeate Lamont Hunt’s fanciful character illustrations. Hunt depicts imagination in action; in his illustrations, children embody their pop culture heroes. View Hunt’s animation reel alongside his illustrations, and go behind the scenes of the process of turning sketches into illustrations and animation. A South Dakota native, Lamont Hunt now works as an illustrator and animator in the Los Angeles area.

April 16 - Aug. 7 | Contemporary Gallery

Reception: Friday, May 6, 2016

Our Natures consists of two large printmaking and fiber installations that explore the interaction between human knowledge and the natural world. Visitors are invited to meander through these installations, and become encompassed by botanical imagery and layered audio features, including QR codes. Lena Ellis-Boatman, a printmaker residing in Howell, Michigan, received her MFA from Michigan State University.

May 28 - Aug. 28 | Everist Gallery

Reception: Friday, June 3, 2016

This exhibition includes 19 large-format portraits of some of the most fascinating celebrity members of the influential baby boom generation captured by renowned American photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Experience a scent station and a touch-screen with behind-the-scenes videos of the photo shoots. This exhibition comes to the VAC on loan from the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

May 28 - Sept. 10 | Corner Gallery

Reception: Friday, June 3, 2016 | Gallery Talk: Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016

In Spatial Play, Steven Stradley’s paintings activate the periphery of the gallery—the edges, the ceiling, the floor. Through a site-specific installation, Stradley highlights architectural features that often go unnoticed, such as light switches and vents. Stradley received his MFA from Michigan State University and currently teaches at Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts and Dixie State University in St. George, Utah.

June 11 - Sept. 4 | Shultz Gallery

Reception: Friday, July 1, 2016

See familiar buildings and scenes of Sioux Falls rendered with a draftsman’s eye for detail and a sensitivity to the play of light in this exhibition of Jim Sturdevant’s oil and watercolor paintings. Sturdevant’s landscapes and architectural portraits lovingly depict the landmarks and neighborhoods of Sioux Falls. A native of Sioux Falls, Jim Sturdevant still calls this city home.

June 18 - Oct. 16 | Jerstad Gallery

Reception: Friday, July 1, 2016

Anna Reich works at the intersection of documentary and fine art photography. In No One Asked Us, Reich presents her photographs of Post-Soviet Lithuania and Latvia as physical documents of cultural and collective memory. Anna Reich received her MFA from the Milton Avery School of Art at Bard College and teaches as an Assistant Professor of art photography and art education at Augustana University.

July 16 - Jan. 8 | Permanent Collection Gallery

Visit the Permanent Collection Gallery for an experience that engages the imagination and the senses. Artworks selected from the Permanent Collection of the VAC will appeal to the sense of touch through real and implied texture, as well as the senses of sight, taste, and smell through colorful abstract works that evoke the experiences of life. Customized sound elements complete the exhibition experience, and invite viewers to consider what sounds static artworks would make if they could speak. The artists featured in this exhibition include Mel Spinar and Carl Grupp.

Aug. 13 - Dec. 4 | Contemporary Gallery

Reception: Friday, October 7, 2016

Local collectors Jerome and Mary Freeman have been collecting the work of regional artists for over 30 years. The Freeman Collection contains sculptures and paintings, as well as a substantial collection of bolo ties created by silversmiths, artisans, Native artists, and local artists who recognized Jerome’s inclination to wear bolo ties. The Freemans live near Brandon, South Dakota.

Sept. 10 - Jan. 29 | Everist Gallery

Reception: Friday, October 7, 2016

Walk among sculptural sea creatures as Steve Bormes transforms the largest gallery of the VAC into an over 4,000-square-foot aquarium. Bormes constructs his assemblage sculptures from found objects like vintage boat motors, potato ricers and Turkish butter churns. Lighting elements bring Bormes’s sea creatures to brilliant life. Steve Bormes received his BS in Biology and Math from the University of South Dakota, and lives and works in Sioux Falls.

Sept. 10 - Dec. 11 | Shultz Gallery

Reception: Friday, October 7, 2016

Terry Mulkey’s subtle abstract paintings create dialogue between shapes and marks, suggesting vulnerability, motion and change. Mulkey received his BA degree from the University of Sioux Falls, and his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He was an Assistant Professor of Art and the Art Department Chair at the University of Sioux Falls for four years. Terry Mulkey resides in Arizona and maintains close ties with the Sioux Falls art community.

Sept. 24 - Jan. 22 | Corner Gallery

Reception: Friday, October 7, 2016

In this video installation, Walter Portz reflects on the process of ushering a loved one into the afterlife. Layering imagery, audio and original poetry drawn from memories of losing his father to a long illness, Portz’s large-scale video projections evoke the otherworldliness of memory and loss. He received his BA in photography from the University of Minnesota and now lives and works in Sioux Falls. Walter Portz has been working in professional photography for twelve years

Oct. 22 - Feb. 19 | Jerstad Gallery

Reception: Friday, November 4, 2016

Drawing from literary sources and the history of the Great Plains and the American West, T.L. Solien creates colorful mixed media collages and paintings. A native of Fargo-Moorhead, Solien received his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and currently teaches as a Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Earlier in his career, Solien worked in a studio on Phillips Avenue in downtown Sioux Falls.

Dec. 10 - April 9 | Contemporary Gallery

Reception: Friday, February 3, 2017

Inspired by Ceca Cooper’s travels and studies of nature, the paintings in Elsewhere and Here explore a range of artistic styles, from the design sensibilities of ancient Arabic works in Marrakech, to the works of the Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudí. Ceca Cooper received her MFA from the University of South Dakota, and currently teaches as an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Sioux Falls.

Dec. 4 - March 6 | Entrance Gallery

Reception: Friday, December 4, 2015

PostSecret: The Pop-Up Exhibition gives viewers a close look at PostSecret, the internationally recognized public art project in which people confess their secrets on postcards, anonymously. The postcards displayed in the Visual Arts Center represent the broad range of funny, unsettling, and devastating secrets shared by contributors to PostSecret. The content of this exhibition is best suited for mature audiences.