Nancy Newman Rice was born in New York City and was educated at Cornell University and at Washington University, where she earned a BFA with honors and an MFA. She has received awards that include a National Endowment for the Arts/MMA Fellowship for painting, and nominations for a Tiffany Award and an AVA Award in the Visual Arts. Rice has exhibited her work internationally and her work is included in private collections in the U.S. and abroad.

Using Euclidian geometry as the skeleton of the experience is an approach rooted in Art History; Poussin and Cezanne both seized upon this method of pictorial organization through subtle designs and simplified spatial effects. The Sacred Space oil paintings began as an attempt to define the interiors of identifiable architectural structures by inventing elaborate geometric scaffolding to map the space within the confines of each edifice. As the oil paintings evolved the walls disappeared, seemingly erased by time, and what remained was the skeleton of intangible space, in essence, geometry as a sacred artifact.

I consider these objects to be what is real, what we can hold onto in life, but in the reflections, there remains what we do not know, the mysterious, that which is unsettling and perhaps chaotic. I’ve always thought that my best work was right on the edge of disorder. I think it’s as much about disorder as it is about harmony and balance.

– Jeanette Pasin Sloan

Jeanette Pasin Sloan takes visible reality as a starting point for her paintings, drawings, and prints. She auditions primarily domestic objects; silvered cups or bowls, with curved reflective surfaces, to be the actors on her up-close fantastically patterned stage sets. With close cropping and careful manipulation, Pasin Sloan’s complicated compositions subtly pull the viewer in and add to both the sense of reality and abstraction in her tour de force works of art. Originally from Chicago, Pasin Sloan now lives in Santa Fe, NM and the cactus and flowers of the desert have become perfectly integrated with the cool reflections and pattern in her newest work.

Jeanette Pasin Sloan is also a prolific printmaker who has published numerous editioned works with Landfall Press over the past 35 years. Pasin Sloan’s work can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Federal Reserve Board, Washington, D.C., Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, Kansas City Art Institute, School of Design, Kansas City, Missouri, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin , Minneapolis Institute of Arts , National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. , New York Public Library , David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago , Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana , Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut , to name a few.

My work in ceramics revolves primarily around issues of family and my Asian-American background. Cultural marginality and blending, tradition vs. Westernization, language and translation are key elements in my work. Since the birth of my son in 1987, I have been drawing inspiration from major events in my family’s history, the day-to-day challenges of parenting, and my own childhood memories of being raised in a minority culture in the United States. I use the image of a child as a symbol of innocence, potential and vulnerability. Often, I include references to water – swimming, drinking, spilling, drowning – as an element which can be at once healing and hazardous.

Much of my work is unified by the idea of being comfortable with being uncomfortable. This neither/nor state reflects my personal ethnic marginality – part American girl, part Good Chinese daughter. I have learned to be comfortable by choosing not to fit into mainstream cultures of either the US or of China. I have sought a hybrid aesthetic that represents a blending of cultures that is becoming more and more common as the boundaries between countries around the globe are blurred. I am combining the brush work of calligraphy with line work of cartooning, juxtaposing images of American t‑shirts and Chinese qi pao dresses, and tackling the issues of adoption and immigration.

– Beth Lo

Beth Lo was born on October 11, 1949 in Lafayette, Indiana, to parents who had recently emigrated from China. Much of Beth’s ceramic and mixed media artwork draws from themes of childhood, family, Asian culture, and language. She received a Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Michigan in 1971, and then studied Ceramics with Rudy Autio at the University of Montana receiving her MFA in 1974. She assumed his job as Professor of Ceramics there when he retired in 1985, and has been twice honored with the University of Montana Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Award, 2006 and 2010.

Beth Lo has exhibited her work internationally. She was invited to make a new work for the Main Exhibition of the 7th Gyeonggi International Ceramics Biennale in Korea, 2013. She has received numerous honors including the $50,000 United States Artists Hoi Fellowship in 2009, a $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist Fellowship Grant in 1994, a Montana Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship in 1989 and an American Craft Museum Design Award in 1986. Her figurative sculpture and pottery have been acquired by the Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA, Microsoft Corporation, Cheney Cowles Museum of Art, the University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, the Permanent Collection, Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, MT, and the Hallmark Card Corporation Ceramics Collection

The Studios Inc Residency Program presents Riding the Rail, over 200 posters, ephemera and album covers by Peregrine Honig. Curated by Sean Kelly and assistant curator Emily Loubser, Riding the Rails displays bodies of work borrowed from New Discretions ( New York, NY ), prints produced by Landfall Press.

( 1970- 2020 ) and Other Criteria ( London, UK ) and The Nelson- Atkins Museum of Art archive. This historical timeline spans twenty seven years of innovative mark-making, intuitive design and accessible editions. From band shirts and bumper stickers to reality television and museum collections, Honig’s career rides the rail between fine art and public discourse, museums and dive bars.

Riding the Rail will be on view at Studios Inc. gallery from November 1 — December 21, 2024. Exhibition hours are Wednesday thru Friday 10am-4pm and Saturday 12 – 4pm.

Studios Inc and Harold Smith present Dr. Blackenstein’s Black Shack of Arts and Sciences, a multidisciplinary exhibition opening on November 1st, 2024. The artist will host special programming throughout the exhibition: Stay tuned to the Studios Inc and Harold Smith instagram, facebook, and websites for details.

From the Artist:

I came of age as a black kid from a blue collar home in the 70’s.

It was an incredible and unforgettable ride.

I recall the sizzling sound of the hot comb from the kitchen on Saturday nights.

I remember chilly Saturday afternoons bicycling down 13th, turning left at Holmes Market, speeding by Salem Baptist and Morning Star Baptist Churches, turning right at 10th Street and skipping into Johnny’s Fish Market at 10th and Walker for some of that legendary fried fish.

Whether it was whiting or catfish, it was still hot, crispy, seasoned to perfection and wrapped in brown paper.

Don’t forget the sides.

I recall the sweet smell of Afro Sheen wafting in the air at Johnson’s Barber Shop on 13th and Quindaro.

Who can forget the mingled aromas of Old Spice, English Leather, and Skin Bracer when dad finally left the bathroom on his way out?

Or dancing in front of the mirror in the basement, trying out the dances we saw on Soul Train?

Remember the Cameo theater on Minnesota Avenue?

I remember taking a few dollars up there and staying all Saturday afternoon to watch Cleopatra Jones, Willie Dynamite, Foxy Brown, Superfly and so many other classics.

And, yes, I sure did have a pair of bell bottom pants and Florsheim shoes from KG’s Men’s store at Indian Springs Mall.

Leon Lincoln and his crew took me to a handful of house parties (with the blue light of course).

I was a wallflower so I didn’t dance but I did enjoy listening to Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, and Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes.

Then again, I listened to Parliament Funkadelic every single day.

I still do.

That being said, I invite you to join us at Dr. Blackenstein’s Blacktacular Black Shack of Arts and Sciences from Nov-December at Studios Inc. 

“You can bet your last money, it’s all gonna be a stone gas honey.” — Don Cornelius (host of Soul Train)

Launched to serve mid-career artists, Studios Inc is Kansas City’s only nonprofit arts organization offering pivotal three-year residencies to mid-career artists who are poised to significantly expand their careers. Studios Inc offers a unique immersion experience for resident artists, who use their studio and exhibition space to produce and exhibit work, network and learn from one another, and attract and cultivate relationships with art patrons, collectors, and arts professionals.

Dr. Blackenstein’s Black Shack of Arts and Sciences will be on view in the Studios Inc Exhibition Hall through December 21st, 2024. Exhibition hours are Wednesday thru Friday 10am-4pm and Saturday 12 – 4pm.