Resilience at Restoration
Resilience and Restoration by Pat Kerns
The month of June brings a unique opportunity for Hannibal and the surrounding communities. The Alliance Art Gallery is honored to present several works by artist Preston Jackson, a world renown painter and sculptor. Jackson’s work explores themes of the human condition through the lens of histories and ecologies. His work is energetic, engaging and rich with meaning. The gallery exhibit will feature large canvases paintings of African animals, showcasing their strength, power and beauty as a metaphor for that continent and its people.
Originally from Decatur, Illinois, Jackson now maintains a studio and gallery in Peoria and his works have found homes around the world. He was a professor of sculpture at the School of the Art Institution in Chicago, and served as chairman of that department. Jackson is the recipient of five state public art commissions through the state of Illinois Capital Development Board. He also teaches children’s art, painting, sculpture and tai chi at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria where he is currently exhibiting paintings and fifteen new bronze sculptures.
The Alliance Art Gallery is proud to present Jackson’s work in celebration of Juneteenth and in collaboration with Jim’s Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center in the presentation of “A Nation Takes Place: Central Mississippi River Convening being held on Saturday June 7.
The collaboration between gallery artists Veronica Sandercock and Adriana Brown also continues in June. Inspired by Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, Sandercock and Brown have focused on the themes of healing, resilience and restoration. This month the spotlight turns to the Brown’s paintings, work that embraces the quiet beauty and layered textures that emerge through time, age and lived experience. Just as the marks made in Sandercock’s Kintsugi ceramic pieces create beauty in what was considered broken, Brown’s paintings reframe traditional ideas of what is beautiful. “I honor weathered surfaces and layered textures as marks of life and depth.”
Brown is a Hannibal artist originally from the Kansas City area who attended the University of Missouri Kansas City where she studied art and psychology. Her previous work in the mental health field enlivened her passion and understanding about the power of art in the healing process.
An opening reception will be held on Saturday, June 14 from 4:00 until 7:00. There will be an artist talk at 6:00 and a free drawing for a painting by Brown at 6:30. This event is free and open to the public.
