Past Exhibitions

The Indy Art Center Faculty Biennial 2025 showcases recent work from our talented Faculty, offering a glimpse into the creative practices shaping our studios and inspiring our students.

Image: Coral Flotsam, Kimberly Conrad

Churchman-Fehsenfeld Gallery

The JoeWill Series: Perpetual Panorama is a two person exhibition of artworks by twin brothers Joe and Will Lawrance. Through diverse media, themes, and subjects this series tells the stories of two burgeoning Indianapolis-born artists whose lives tragically ended as young adults. Joe and Will Lawrance, born in 1985, were identical twin brothers that shared a deep, powerful bond to one another. The two were so interconnected and inseparable that their names morphed into the compound name, JoeWill, as a means of referring to their collective identity.

Within this collection of paintings and drawings by JoeWill, you will find the artists’ exploration of place- marked in still life works, landscape paintings, and imagined or abstracted spaces. The

works in this gallery are all direct products of the lived experiences of JoeWill. These works map the spaces- literal and psychological- that Joe and Will each traversed.

The works featured in this exhibition stand as powerful testament to the deep connections between physical environments and the internal, emotional landscapes of the artists themselves. Far more than mere depictions of nature, these paintings and drawings provide rare glimpses into the multifaceted experiences and perspectives that shaped Joe and Will’s creative visions. Through paint, ink, and various media, the artists have woven together the tangible and the intangible, inviting viewers to contemplate not just the scenes before them, but the very essence of how we, as humans, interpret, respond to, and are transformed by the spaces we inhabit. These landscapes serve as vivid, affecting records of two lives fully lived and explored.

Image: Joe Lawrance, Metropolitan Montage, Detail

Frank Basile Creative Wellness Gallery

This show explores the symbolic and metaphorical ideas that Sam Dienst has around eggs.

Eggs represent untapped potential to the artist and innately allude to the future. Sam turned 30 last year, which is by no means old, and yet as a woman it felt consequential. She hopes very much to have a family of her own, and the proverbial ticking clock feels very real in both body and mind. Dienst also hopes to own a home some day, but currently her financial standing is nowhere near that goal. All of this feels in part because she has chosen the uncertain path of being an artist. This is not a show about regrets however, it is simply an exploration of the existential questions Sam faces about how she is living her life and how money, time, and artistic goals are intertwined in planning for the future. Eggs, to the artist, are the perfect symbol of fertility, potential, time, and money.

Eggs being particularly expensive as of late feels perfectly in line with the artist’s own biological eggs (and their potential to become children) also feeling limited by money and resources. The balancing of where Sam puts her energy is difficult to weigh. This show is about both the beauty of the process of art making juxtaposed with the artist’s ambivalent feelings around the journey of being an artist and a woman in her particular socio-economic position. Dienst encourages viewers to find their own symbolic and metaphorical interpretations of the works.

Image: No Place

The 2025 College Invitational exhibition is a diverse, expansive, and sometimes challenging collection of artworks. With students from over 25 universities across 20 states represented, this exhibition is a survey of art school ecosystems from all across the United States. Art school offers makers a unique environment to explore, play, make mistakes, and receive critical feedback. This is the formative time in an artist’s career in which they hone their visual identity. Art students are often granted studio spaces by their university to make these investigations and discoveries. This dedicated space affords freedom to the students to work at large scale and in cumbersome or particular media that may not be suitable in a home-studio environment.

It’s also important to consider the landscape of higher education in America as you move through the galleries and examine the pieces made in these academic environments. The cost to attend college is higher than ever, often leaving students burdened with massive student loans. The economic reality of the creative-job market upon graduating can often feel bleak. And yet, students continue to enroll, continue to pursue art degrees, and continue to make truly amazing artworks. This perseverance is a signal of hope for the future. The commitment to an arts education is a testament of resilience and strength innate to artists. Artists, and art, will persist.

Image: Jennie Cao, Seventh Heaven

Highlighting exceptional works by Anne Harrigan, Sharla Jean Hoskin, Khaila King, and Susan Olden-Stahl.

This collection of works is a sample of various jewelry-making and metalsmithing processes from a variety of levels of courses offered at Herron School of Art + Design. You will find works that explore texture and materials and push the idea of what wearable or functional metalsmithing can be. The artists included in this show are a premonition of a future-art world with unique and clever voices expressing themselves through metals. Thank you to Professor Sarah Spomer for her help in organizing this exhibition.

Featuring a collection of artworks created by the 2024 ArtTroop cohort alongside military-connected artists from Indiana.

Over the past ten months, this year’s ArtTroop cohort has explored various artistic mediums, including collage, ink wash painting, ceramics, glassblowing, and more. This exhibition highlights both individual and collaborative works, showcasing the unique perspectives and creative processes of our artists.

In addition, Military Community Creations features a wide array of artworks from military-connected artists, including pieces in needle felting, assemblage, stained glass, and beyond. This section of the exhibition represents the diverse experiences of artists from the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.

Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate the creativity of our military-connected community!

Image: Fish Nerd by Laurie Hardin

In 2024, the Indy Art Center had the privilege of hosting the National Sculpture Society’s 91st Annual Awards Exhibition. It was the first time in the organization’s 131-year history that this exhibition was displayed in Indiana. The 2024 iteration of the exhibition was a testament to the breadth and power inherent in the technical mastery of ceramics, steel, stone, and other sculptural staples. This competitively juried exhibition featured the figurative works of 37 distinct contemporary sculptors, offering a sampling of the state of contemporary American sculpture. The exhibition highlighted an eclectic range of themes and materials employed by NSS members, reflecting their varied artistic approaches, origins, and specialties.

Allen W. Clowes Gallery and Sarah M. Hurt Gallery

Image: Apparition by Diane Collins (left), Fire Within by Maris Battista (right)

Construction Ahead is an exhibition of artworks in various media created by students and faculty inside the Indy Art Center’s sculpture studios. The collection of artworks exhibited are examples of artists of all backgrounds and all skill levels- from beginning to professional artists. These artists utilize the resources available in the Indy Art Center’s sculpture studio including MIG welders, TIG welder, plasma cutter, and importantly, a robust, energetic community of artists.

Student Gallery and ARTSPARK

Image: Samuel the Snail by Dana Guild

Ignite is an exhibition of artworks created by students enrolled in the Indy Art Center’s glass studio classes. Artworks range in process from flameworking, fused glass, blown glass, and more with artists ranging from youth to professional level artists.

Image: Parker Winters, Red/Orange Bottle, Black Bottle, Colorful Bottle

“Welcome to Healing HeARTS, a testament to the power of art in fostering healing and growth. This exhibit showcases the work of more than a dozen individuals who have been impacted by gun violence. Through a transformative program facilitated by the Indy Art Center and Brooke’s Place, in partnership with the Indy Peace, participants have embarked on a ten-week journey of artistic exploration and peer support.

During the program, participants expressed their feelings using various art techniques. With the help of instructors and grief support leaders, they found comfort and strength in creating art together. This experience became a safe space where they could share their emotions and connect with others who understood their journey.”

Image: Collection of ceramic mugs made by program participants

The objects we adorn our bodies with are central to signaling identity, status, and even social belonging. Artists have always played a vital role in defining, challenging, and redefining trends in fashion- intimately influencing the very fabric of these concepts of identity. Artists featured in Garbled Guise explore various themes including gender, race, and class through wearable art. Some works explore the fantastical transformation of identity through costuming while others are honed examples of traditional craftsmanship. Viewers are invited to consider their biases and preconceptions that are often unconsciously tied to external signifiers like clothing.

What kind of person would wear the objects displayed here? Does the object aid a specific activity or function? In turn, what does the clothing you currently wear say about you? After all, we’re all born naked, the rest is an actively constructed form of identity.

Image: Patti Barker, Sea Crone

“A hand on the shoulder to offer comfort, an elegant gesture reminiscent of old masterwork paintings, body language that reveals pent-up frustration or anxiety—Collective Gestures addresses the ways we communicate with each other visually, through body language.  Studies show the majority of our more honest communication is non-verbal. With so much of our dialogue today being through digital means, face-to-face connections are diminishing and our more authentic feelings are being overlooked. My pieces point out various gestures or postures and their associated meanings, in the hope viewers will realize the importance of how our bodies speak for us. Although my work may have a machined look, every part, down to the screws and rivets, are made entirely by hand. Each is a one-of-a-kind piece that is carefully designed, hand fabricated and formed, soldered and/or cold connected, using traditional jewelry and metalsmithing techniques. An old proverb rightfully claims, “actions speak louder than words.” Through this exhibition, I invite the viewer to ponder the reasons and implications of our seemingly casual gestures.” -Jennifer Crupi

Image: Jennifer Crupi, Tools for Contact