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INLAND SYSTEMS:

2010 RIVER CITY BIENNALE

The River City Biennale is an art exhibit and cultural event with the goal of bringing serious attention to artists in Wichita, Kansas. It endeavors to exhibit the most engaged and critically-viable contemporary art in the metro area to a national audience of critics, curators, gallery and museum professionals and collectors.

The exhibitions will be hosted by several venues and will include panel discussions and distinguished speakers on topics related to contemporary art. A concerted effort is being made to connect what’s going on here with what’s going on elsewhere, and artists in Wichita will have the opportunity to present their work to a serious, informed audience of art professionals, critics and collectors.

The Board of Directors of the River City Biennale (RCB) is pleased to announce the results of the studio visits by curator Hesse McGraw. Eight artists with Wichita ties have been chosen to participate in the 2010 Biennale, and will receive stipends of $225 each, from Wichita’s Arts Council.

The artists chosen are: Sarah Kephart, Joey Capadona, Larry Schwarm, Monika Meler, Derrick Stanley, Kristin Beal-DeGrandmont, Lisa Rundstrom and Marc Durfee.

In keeping with the Biennale’s focus on contemporary art, there is an emphasis on work that actively engages the viewer. It is anticipated that the work of the eight artists chosen will spark lively conversation, and even debate. Kephart, Capadona and Rundstrom work in a sociological vein, whereas Meler and Schwarm are more personal, engaging one’s sense of place. Others, such as as Durfee, Stanley and Beal-DeGrandmont, grapple with the artistic process itself.

The RCB (River City Biennale) is a bi-yearly exhibition of Wichita-based contemporary art as seen and curated by experts from outside the Wichita area, to expose Wichita art to the wider art world and vice-versa. Last held in Wichita in 2008, this years event will be held from April 30 to June 18, in several venues across Wichita, including Project, Fisch Haus and the Kansas African American Museum.

Corollary to the display of visual art, RCB will also be hosting various events throughout the duration of the exhibition. A Curator’s Talk, lecture by art historian Jake Euker, a community dinner with the artists, curator, patrons and invited regional critics, and the Critic’s Throw Down symposium, are among the planned activities.

In addition, RCB is pleased to announce the creation of a blog, written by acclaimed local author Nathan Filbert. Nathan has interviewed each artist in depth, and has offered the community a fortnightly insight into their creative process and related topics. This blog is available under the above heading ’2010 Artists’.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Hesse McGraw is a curator, writer and artist. Prior to joining the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska, he worked as the assistant director of Max Protetch gallery in New York City. He was the founding director of Paragraph, a contemporary art gallery operating under the non-profit Urban Culture Project in downtown Kansas City, MO, where he also served as senior editor of Review magazine. McGraw’s writing is frequently published internationally in catalogue essays and magazines. We’re very excited to introduce Hesse to our Wichita art scene, and anticipate the formation of many advantageous connections with both the RCB artists, as well as with the community itself.

DONORS

Cindy and Charlie ClaycombToni and Bud Gates