The Visual Arts Center has been host to exhibitions ranging from noted South Dakota artists to Andy Warhol and Rodin. Here are some of the past exhibitions that have visited one of our eight galleries.
February 9 - July 14, 2019
Visual Arts Center | Everist Gallery
The USD Art Faculty Exhibition showcases the recent work of thirteen studio art & design faculty members from the University of South Dakota Department of Art. Recognized nationally and internationally, the University of South Dakota studio art and design faculty members’ creative research is exhibited in venues all over the world. Collectively, they have received recognition and support from the ADDY Awards, the International Design Awards, the South Dakota Arts Council, the Bush Foundation and more. Representing a broad range of media and contemporary art and design approaches, this exhibition highlights the faculty’s dedication to actively pursuing creative research.
June 8 - July 14, 2019
Visual Arts Center | Everist Gallery
Collecting the Pavilion: 20 Years of Art Acquisitions celebrates 20 years of collecting with 20 artworks, one for each year since the Washington Pavilion opened on June 1, 1999. Formerly Washington High School, the Washington Pavilion became the innovative multi-disciplinary organization it is today after several years of transformation and renovation. From internationally known artist Roy Lichtenstein to accomplished and beloved local artist Carl Grupp, this exhibition celebrates the past two decades of innovation and fun at the Washington Pavilion, and looks forward to many more years of bringing art to our community.
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.