“Silk Road Aviary” by Ann Kim

The “90s Kids: Still Wild and Crazy” art exhibit will be open to the public from July 27 – September 25, Room 912, located at 912 East Main Street in Richmond.

The exhibit features regional mixed artists Ann Kim, Rebecca Sargent, Joe Thompson, and Joe Swanson. A closing reception for the artists will be held at 5 p.m. on September 18 at IU East’s Room 912.

Rebecca Sargent is a visual artist, educator and non-profit arts administrator at K12 Gallery and TEJAS.  She received her M.F.A. in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania and her B.F.A. in 2006 from Wright State University. She is passionate about teaching art and making an impact on the community. Sargent is a painter with 14 years of experience mentoring creative young artists. She currently coordinates teen and adult programs, including exhibitions, community outreach projects, art classes and events at K12 Gallery and TEJAS.

Sargent also teaches K12’s Artist in Training, a teen after school art program that mentors urban youths in Dayton three evenings a week. In her own artwork, Sargent brings new life to urban dilapidated spaces by painting them in juxtaposed, abstract environments. She has exhibited her work nationally, including at the Roger Lapelle Gallery in Philadelphia and at the Michael Steinberg Gallery in New York City. Sargent also teaches studio art and art appreciation classes at Wright State University and Sinclair Community College.

Ann Kim is a mixed-media artist with a soft spot for animals, fuzziness, and translucencies. She has a B.F.A. in Art Practice and B.A. in Art History from University of California, Berkeley and an M.F.A. in Studio Art from Mills College. Ever since she can remember, her work has been concerned with “fusions, clashes, and assimilations” of opposing elements, and her current work is focused on aforementioned themes with a focus on myths and collective memories.

Kim’s work has been exhibited nationally and has received numerous grants, fellowships, and awards including the Murphy & Cadogan Fellowship from San Francisco Arts Commission, Sarah Lewis Painting Fellowship, and IU New Frontiers Exploratory Travel Grant. She has recently completed an artist residency program at the Rensing Center in South Carolina, and is currently an assistant professor of Fine Arts at IU East. She lives in Dayton, Ohio with her husband and two cats.

Joe Swanson lives and paints in Richmond. He received his B.A. in Fine Arts from IU East. His work combines gestural painting with automatic writing, Pop Culture references, and line work. Many of his paintings are created with a variety of media such as spray paint, acrylic, latex, gesso, permanent markers, and paint markers.

Joe Thompson is a mixed-media artist and sculptor from Richmond. He studied sculpture and printmaking at Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis from 2001-2007. He is currently creating imagery using collage and drawing on paper to explore human relationships, domesticity, and psychological disorders.

Visitors are welcome to view the exhibit during gallery hours, 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, closed weekends. For more information, call Ed Thornburg at (765) 973-8605 or visit iue.edu/gallery.