Critic and artist Paul Krainak has written an insightful article on the work of Sarah Smelser, published this week in The Community Word.
Link to the article here.
Pictured above: Sarah Smelser: To Lay Out (Kala), 2017. Monotype, 20″ x 16″.
For more than twenty years, working primarily in the medium of monotype, Sarah Smelser has produced abstract works which have been exhibited widely. She is the co-founder of Manneken Press and Professor of Art at Illinois State University in Normal, IL. Smelser’s work can be viewed on the Manneken Press website and on Artsy.
Paul Krainak founded the Inland Visual Studies Center at Bradley University with the goal of “drawing attention to the significance of Illinois and the Midwest as a critical hub of American art that has been under-identified in the broader art culture”. His monthly columns for The Community Word focus on Midwestern artists, artworks and subjects evaluated from the context of Midwestern visual narratives. His arguments are comparative and show that current Midwestern art is vivid, intelligent and progressive, and he highlight ways that the day-to-day experience of living and working in Illinois influences the meaning of our visual culture.
