Yoonmi Nam is an artist born in Seoul, South Korea, and has studied in Korea, Canada, US, and Japan. Yoonmi is interested in the observation and depiction of everyday objects and occurrences, especially when they subtly suggest contradictions – a perception of time that feels both temporary and lasting and a sense of place that feels both familiar and foreign. Growing up as an only child with working parents, she often engaged in quiet observations of things around her. Experiences of living in disparate cultures with different people and their histories allowed her to notice what often is unobserved in one’s own familiar spaces. She works in traditional printmaking processes such as mokuhanga (Japanese-style water-based woodblock printing) and lithography to make imagery as well as explore other materials such as clay, glass, and paper to make three-dimensional still lifes.

Yoonmi received her MFA degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and BFA degree from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea. She was awarded residencies at Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory in Japan three times (2004, 2012, 2019) to study traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques and is the recipient of the Keiko Kadota Award for Advancement of Mokuhanga. She has participated in artist residencies at Brandywine Workshop and Archives in Philadelphia, Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium, Kala Art Institute in California, Vermont Studio Center, and a 3-year studio residency at Studios Inc. in Kansas City. Her work is in the collections of the RISD Museum, RI; Spencer Museum of Art, KS; and the Hawai’i State Art Museum, HI; among others, and has shown her work in over 20 solo exhibitions and 180 group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Yoonmi is a professor of printmaking at the University of Kansas.

Exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in KC | October 2022

During the residency, Yoonmi Nam will be making cast ceramic pieces made using various vacuum-formed packaging forms as molds. A collection of these objects will be exhibited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City in a group exhibition scheduled to open in October 2022. Like many people during the COVID lockdown, Yoonmi and her husband stayed in their small house and relied on deliveries to sustain them. The daily deliveries, consumptions, and disposals of the packaging became a routine and the act of unboxing and recycling became a ritual. Yoonmi’s work has always dealt with the idea of impermanence, material culture, and the everyday. This new body of works continues that exploration while also investigating the formal elements of these objects and their materiality.

Alexander Landerman utilizes letterpress printing and drawing mediums to explore relationships between humans and animals. Landerman completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2-Dimensional Art at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, and his Masters of Fine Art in Printmaking at Indiana University. His work is represented throughout the United States and internationally; he has participated in numerous residency programs such as the Jentel Artist Foundation and the Petrified Forest National Park AiR program. He is currently faculty at Indiana University where he runs the Letterpress Studio and continues to create work combining traditional drawing techniques with emerging digital practices and letterpress printing.

This summer Alexander Landerman will be creating new work in our print studio, and teach a printmaking workshop about combining imagery & text. During his project-based-residency, Alexander will continue to explore the relationships between drawn images and handset letterpress printed type. He will be creating a body of work highlighting his relationship with animals and plants native to the region. The subjects of these illustrations will be those perceived as threatening, disgusting, or simply other and beneath notice with the purpose of highlighting their importance to local ecosystems.

Tonja Torgerson is an artist, printmaking and professor currently working at Indiana University. Torgerson received her BFA from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Printmaking at Syracuse University. Her artwork is regularly exhibited nationally and internationally; and is included in private and museum collections, including the Weisman Art Museum and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. Her work deals with illness, death, and the impermanent nature of the body.

Tonja Torgerson was the Lawrence Arts Center 2014/15 Printmaking Artist in Residence and Print Studio Manager from 2016 until 2018.

Succumb  |  on exhibit June 2021

Reflections on vulnerability, death, and the impermanence of the body. Torgerson uses prints, cut paper, and collage to create a fallen Garden of Eden in which life-size figures grapple with the recognition of their mortality. These works provide an intimate pause in which to consider the frailty of the body; allowing us to dwell on uncomfortable truths.

Ruben Bryan Castillo is a visual artist and educator born in Dallas and currently working in Kansas City, MO. His work investigates themes of intimacy, queerness, place, and the body using a range of media including print, drawing, sculpture/installation, and video. He currently teaches printmaking and drawing at the Kansas City Art Institute and Johnson County Community College.

One Week In Spring  |  on exhibit July 2021

One Week from Spring explores memory, records, observation, and narratives around what author Kathleen Stewart calls “ordinary affects” through the production of a new suite of intaglio prints and drawings. The imagery will circulate around softness and domestic intimacy to produce a space addressing collective desire and connection.

Tristian Griffin, a native of Kansas City, MO, graduated from Texas Christian University, in 2014, receiving his BFA in Ballet with an English minor. Following graduation, he joined and danced for Garth Fagan Dance Company for 3 years. More recently, he was given the opportunity to perform with the Metropolitan Opera House, Company E, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Springboard Montreal, Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company, and Owen/Cox Dance Group. He was selected for tenure for the Charlotte Street Foundation’s 2018-2020 Artist-in-Residency program. As a choreographer, Tristian has been commissioned to set work on University of Kansas, Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Co., and Malashock Dance Company.  Tristian has a dance company TGDC (Tristian Griffin Dance Company) which has made guest appearances at KC Streetcar, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Charlotte Street Foundation, Lawrence Arts Center, KC Fringe Festival, International Dance Festival, and DanceSTL.