Defining Place: Art in the Mountain Plains States

The second iteration of the Salina Biennial continues to affirm the power of art making in the Mountain Plains region. The Biennial was established in 2018, in part as a continuation of the regional invitational, an exhibition held at the Art Center from 1979 until 2002, but also to highlight artists that are balancing the traditions and history of our region with a larger, global contemporary practice. 

This year over 230 artists submitted over 600 works to the Biennial call, which included the states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. We are honored to have Ksenya Gurshtein, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Ulrich Museum of Art, serve as juror. 

The exhibition Gurshtein has assembled advances the mission of the Art Center and continues our tradition of exhibitions that pose important questions and encourage meaningful interactions. The 63 artists selected represent a geographic area covering seven states: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Texas. Looking closely at the individual pieces we find a variety of mediums and approaches, from traditional landscape photography to contemporary video. Taking a step back we can see the larger themes emerge from the diverse field of work. Issues of identity, the environment, and materiality come forward. Gurshtein’s selection of works sets the stage and invites the audience into the conversation.

In her essay Gurshtein asks us to consider what is, exactly, contemporary art. I think this exhibition also challenges us to define regional art. Isn’t all art regional? Aren’t all artists responding to their immediate surroundings? Are artists from the Mountain Plains any different? Many of the artists allude to the shared history and landscape of the west. Some, like Sophie Newell and Josephine Langbehn use nostalgia and familiarity to pull these histories from the viewer. Others, like Lilly McElroy, confront the narrative of the “American West, urging us to consider the role of women’s voices in that story. The landscape appears in several works, a visual record of the particular place where we live, but these landscapes also tell us about the passage of time, our ever-evolving culture, and some events we might rather forget. In the end, as Gurshtein contemplates, the map is not the territory. The artists of the Mountain-Plains are equally defined by their place while also defining it, and continuing to redefine it. 

Thank you Ksenya Gershtein for her thoughtful and thorough examination of all the works that were submitted. With the number of high-quality submissions this was not an easy task! A sincere thank you to all of the artists that submitted, and for your continued exploration of and dedication to the Mountains Plains region. Thanks to Marc Durfee, Salina Art Center staff, Board of Directors, and Exhibitions Committee for all of their hard work behind the scenes. Thank you to the National Endowment for the Arts, Salina Art Center Endowment Foundation, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Salina Downtown, a Lighthouse Property, and Bennington State Bank for making this exhibition possible. 

- Gretchen Boyum, Interim CuratorSalina Art Center