Visual Art

“We want this to be a nice opening like you’d find in New York or up in Chicago,” enthuses local artist Andrew Woolbright, describing the debut exhibit this Friday (11.11.11) of The Pharmacy, a collective studio and gallery for Springfield artists. “Café Andiamo is going to cater the entire event, and there’s going to be […]

From time to time world events force people of faith to choose between bending to the will of a despotic ruler or living out the core values of their faith. Some choose the risky path of faith. In the early 1940s when European nations crumbled under the weight of economic depression and the invading armies […]

Paris, Florence, Berlin, Rome, New York, Athens – when famed art-related cities of the world come up in conversation, Springfield, Ill., is not generally on the list. That’s not likely to change soon, but recently a fresh movement in the local art scene awakened a dormant spirit of cooperation and inspiration for area visual artists […]

Fred Jarosz is a talker. To meet him, the executive director of the Hoogland Center for the Arts, and ask him about the health of the arts in Springfield is to be taken on a whirlwind aural tour of board meetings, donor outreach and Hoogland performances and workshops. With great exuberance, Jarosz peppers his tales […]

During the Middle Ages, the church used art in its cathedrals to draw the eyes of worshippers toward the heavens. Today, art is at the center of an effort to resurrect a blighted urban area once known as the “Jewel of Springfield.” “The Springfield Art Association is one of the anchors of the Enos Park […]

Springfield artist and mural painter Mike Mayosky is always working on and promoting something. Our colorful local artist has something very big that he is promoting right now. He has entered the ArtPrize 2010 competition in Grand Rapids, Mich., and he is hoping to win the grand prize of $250,000. Second or third place would […]

L. Brent Kington, professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, is widely regarded as the father of blacksmithing as an art form. The Illinois State Museum is hosting a retrospective of the 76-year-old artist, and it is well worth a visit. When Kington and his wife, Diana, moved to Carbondale in 1961 to head […]

“I’ve caught a lot of flak for it,” says Springfield resident Chris Ward, author of the nonfiction comic book Barack Obama. “It’s just divisive by nature. I get people saying, ‘Wait a minute, are you making fun of the president?’ But other people are like, ‘I hope you’re making fun of him enough.’ I tried […]

Though war, poverty and tough economic times have some of us living in a state of despair, the journey to peace and solace can begin with Springfield’s biennial Liturgical Arts Festival. Held May 1 to May 4 at various locations throughout the city, the multi-faith interdenominational festival features a variety of programs designed to promote […]

The Rev. Howard Finster produced more than 46,000 pieces of art before he died at age 84 in 2001. He was a man possessed, not by demons, but by the need to create art. He was a self-proclaimed “man of visions” who put his visions into his colorful folk art. Born in rural Alabama in […]

The eminent nature photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum has been photographing the Alaskan landscape for nearly 40 years and has become one of the most foremost photographers championing the environment. Audubon magazine listed him among the 100 people “who shaped the environmental movement of the 20th century.” So it is a special occasion indeed for the […]

Seen through a camera lens is a world of extremes. Extreme poverty, disease and death. And then there’s the love, hope and courage it takes to remedy them. These are displayed through the images of Josh Hester — Springfield photographer and videographer. Hester’s work is on display at the Robert Morris Gallery, with an opening […]