Art Events

Attend the Opening Reception for Melissa Weber’s exhibit ODE TO COMMON THINGS on Thursday, May 22, from 6:00-9:00 pm.

Melissa Weber’s ODE TO COMMON THINGS invites viewers to reimagine the ordinary, by drawing inspiration from everyday objects. Weber references Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's collection of poems by the same title, in which he expressed profound affection and admiration for everyday objects, highlighting their intrinsic value and the roles they play in our lives.

Weber's sculptures transform familiar objects, such as brick remnants, rocks and cardboard packing materials into subjects of reflection, emphasizing their intrinsic beauty and the narratives they embody. Working primarily with clay, Weber explores the transformation from wet mass to fragile form through fire, creating ceramic arrangements, visual systems and topographies that engage with history and spatial relationships.

Situated within the undercroft of the historic former Church of the Epiphany, an 1885 Richardson Romanesque church, now a vibrant cultural hub—the exhibition integrates the building’s stone walls and wood beams as important components of the artistic narrative. In this context, space itself becomes an object, engaging in dialogue with the sculptures and challenging traditional distinctions between subject and environment. In this setting, Weber explores how themes of transformation and the passage of time mirror the metamorphosis of raw materials into refined forms, encouraging deeper contemplation of material transformation and the ephemeral nature of perception. By elevating the mundane to the revered, ODE TO COMMON THINGS encourages a renewed appreciation for the simple elements of daily life, fostering a deeper connection between the observer and the often-overlooked details that shape our existence.

Make sure to RSVP for this amazing event!

Golden Hour at Epiphany:

Stop by Epiphany for Golden Hour beforehand for free live music, drinks and lite bites in the Café Bar! Doors open at 5pm with 1/2 priced bottles of wine and other specials until 7:00pm

Golden Hour Menu + Music Schedule

Please note that outside food or beverages are not permitted in the venue.

Attend the opening reception for Marianne Lovink’s exhibit COUNTERWEIGHT on Thursday, May 22, 6:00-9:00pm.

In her latest series of work, Marianne Lovink explores the dynamic relationship between sculptural form and its embellishment. She is fascinated by the visual language of mark making and the limitless expressive potential found in repetitive motifs, which has evolved over millennia. This investigation is deeply influenced by the interplay of positive and negative space, and the tension that arises when a motif both conforms to and resists the sculptural form. This tension engages the viewer and activates the eye, inviting further contemplation. While Lovink’s meticulous craftsmanship, restrained palette, and use of tactile materials remain a consistent element of her practice, she has recently expanded her use of color to provide further visual complexity and enrich the overall composition.

Make sure to RSVP for this amazing event!

Golden Hour at Epiphany:
Stop by Epiphany for Golden Hour beforehand for free live music, drinks and lite bites in the Café Bar! Doors open at 5pm with 1/2 priced bottles of wine and other specials until 7:00pm

Golden Hour Menu + Music Schedule

Please note that outside food or beverages are not permitted in the venue.

Attend the opening reception for George Tonyi’s TUNES IN ART on Friday, May 23, from 6:00-9:00pm.

Inspired by the universal language of music, George Tonyi’s exhibit TUNES IN ART is a visual symphony of rhythms, patterns, and colors that reflect his emotions, experiences, cultural beliefs and traditions. Through his art and music themes, Tonyi aims to transcend boundaries, inviting viewers to feel connected, while weaving together the diverse threads of human experience.

Make sure to RSVP for this amazing event!

Golden Hour at Epiphany:

Stop by Epiphany for Golden Hour beforehand for free live music, drinks and lite bites in the Café Bar! Doors open at 5pm with 1/2 priced bottles of wine and other specials until 7:00pm

Golden Hour Menu + Music Schedule
Please note that outside food or beverages are not permitted in the venue.

Attend the opening reception for DROWN-PROOFING on Friday, May 23, from 6:00-9:00pm.

To drown-proof is to survive. It is a technique—a learned resilience—that allows one to stay afloat when rescue is uncertain. Taught by the community, it is not just a physical skill but a mindset, a method of endurance that depends on the ability to remain calm in unstable waters.

This exhibition explores the art of holding on and letting go, of adapting to unfamiliar territories, and the ways we sustain ourselves without stability. Drown-Proofing brings together artists from the SAIC community, including staff, graduate, and undergraduate students. The artists navigate shifting cultural, political, and personal landscapes, examining what it means to stay afloat amid adversity. Their works address survival tactics, resistance, and transformation, confronting systems of power that threaten to pull communities under.

How do we teach people to breathe when there is no air? How do we connect past and present, tradition and innovation, homeland and new ground? Through acts of creation, artists in this exhibition reclaim agency, revealing the struggles and triumphs of those who refuse to be submerged.

Drown-Proofing is not just about survival—it is about finding strength in the community, learning to adapt, and discovering new ways to rise. We create not only the means to stay afloat, but also the possibilities of a new way forward.

Make sure to RSVP for this amazing event!

Golden Hour at Epiphany:

Stop by Epiphany for Golden Hour beforehand for free live music, drinks and lite bites in the Café Bar! Doors open at 5pm with 1/2 priced bottles of wine and other specials until 7:00pm

Golden Hour Menu + Music Schedule

Please note that outside food or beverages are not permitted in the venue.

Attend the opening reception for Bethany Cordero’s WEAVING AMBIGUITY on Friday, July 11, from 6:00-9:00pm.

Weaving Ambiguity, a new solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Bethany Cordero, traces the evolving contours of identity through a material-based inquiry into impermanence. Cordero’s practice centers on the ambiguity and tension found within transitional relationships, particularly those shaped by intergenerational dynamics. Her sculptural works and drawings explore how power, dependence, and autonomy shift over time, influenced by age, care, expectation, and inevitability. Through the lens of existential reflection, she examines how these relational structures evolve, dissolve, and re-form—revealing the fluid, impermanent nature of being. Working with materials such as bronze, clay, steel, and fiber, Cordero chooses processes that embody transformation: casting, welding, and weaving serve not only as techniques but as metaphors for becoming, unraveling, and adaptation. These materials are pushed to reflect the emotional and physical realities of time—resilient yet susceptible, enduring yet mutable. In this way, the work engages in a conversation between form and meaning, where materiality echoes the fragile balance between what is solid and what slips away. The sculptures and drawings in this exhibition function as studies in impermanence—marking the quiet, continual shifts we experience as we move through different phases of identity, responsibility, and relational connection. Each piece is a meditation on the slow choreography of change: how roles reverse, how the body alters, how power is given and taken back, how memory and experience shape perception. There is a constant negotiation between holding on and letting go. Ultimately, Cordero’s work contemplates the inevitability of change as a fundamental condition of existence—one that reshapes our identities, relationships, and sense of self over time. Through material and form, she invites reflection on the passage of time, the complexity of care, and the universal transience that defines what it means to be in relation with oneself and others.

Make sure to RSVP for this amazing event!

Golden Hour at Epiphany:

Stop by Epiphany for Golden Hour beforehand for free live music, drinks and lite bites in the Café Bar! Doors open at 5pm with 1/2 priced bottles of wine and other specials until 7:00pm

Golden Hour Menu + Music Schedule

Please note that outside food or beverages are not permitted in the venue.

Attend the opening reception for Renee Robbins’ WUNDERKAMMER on Friday, July 11, from 6:00-9:00pm.

Renowned artist Renee Robbins presents WUNDERKAMMER, a captivating series of paintings that explore the awe-inspiring connections between the natural world, the cosmos, and our imaginations. Drawing inspiration from both the subatomic and the astronomical, Robbins invites viewers on a journey into a universe of discovery, where the boundaries between the real and the imagined blur.

WUNDERKAMMER, meaning "cabinet of curiosities," features a collection of works that evoke wonder and fascination, much like the eclectic curiosities of an early naturalist’s cabinet. Through a range of vivid imagery—spanning from hybrid flora and fauna to celestial bodies and deep-sea creatures —Robbins creates a luminous, abstract world filled with organic forms, dots, circles, and hieroglyphic-like marks. Her works span a diverse range of subjects, including cells, flowering botanicals, aquatic species, and constellations. All of these subjects are woven together in a dynamic circular format which echoes the shape of a cell, planet, or target.

Each painting in the WUNDERKAMMER series offers a fresh perspective on the complexity and beauty of the natural world, while leaving space for personal interpretation and reflection. Robbins combines the tangible with the imagined, expanding our awareness of nature's wonders and encouraging a sense of magic that resides both in the observable and in the realm of the fantastical.

Presented in Epiphany’s intimate Sacristy Gallery - sacred space for the historic former church, the exhibition promises to be a thought-provoking exploration of the unseen connections that bind humanity, nature, and the cosmos, offering visitors an opportunity to reflect on the diverse forms and mysteries that shape our universe.

Make sure to RSVP for this amazing event!

Golden Hour at Epiphany:

Stop by Epiphany for Golden Hour beforehand for free live music, drinks and lite bites in the Café Bar! Doors open at 5pm with 1/2 priced bottles of wine and other specials until 7:00pm

Golden Hour Menu + Music Schedule

Please note that outside food or beverages are not permitted in the venue.

Attend the opening reception for the American Tapestry Biennial XV on Friday, August 1, from 6:00-9:00pm.

Since 1996, ATA has sponsored a biennial, juried exhibition known as the American Tapestry Biennial. This juried exhibition highlights the best of contemporary hand-woven tapestry featuring work by artists from across the U.S. exploring the many artistic possibilities of the medium. Work in the exhibition includes not only artists who work within more traditional definitions of tapestry but also those artists whose work expands upon the core principles of the medium as it explores new techniques and processes.

The exhibition is accompanied by the Teitelbaum Award which recognizes two outstanding contributions to the field. Lialia Kuchma, a Chicago artist living and working in Ukrainian Village, was awarded first place for her work titled, Ukraine War #4, which reflects upon her home-country’s struggle. Dance Doyle received second place for her work, Tempest, which breaks from the traditional rectangular format of the woven structure and materials as it contains various objects including necklaces, feathers, and other materials.

About the Jurors

The jurors for the exhibition are Crystal Gregory, Associate Professor of Fibers at the School of Art and Visual Studies, University of Kentucky, and Poppy Delta Dawn, Assistant Professor of Fibers at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Crystal Gregory is a sculptor whose work investigates the intersections between textile and architecture. Poppy Delta Dawn is an artist, writer, and teacher making work about her world and the communication between modernity and cultural and traditional making - primarily with textiles and fiber.

About the Artists
Selected artists include: Ellen Athens, Ashley Bradley, Bonni Brooks, Elizabeth Buckley, Barbara Burns, Martha Christian, Jodi Colella, Deborah Corsini, Nancy Crampton, Deborah Davis, Dance Doyle, Alex Friedman, Janette Gross, Barbara Heller, Susan Iverson, Judit Eszter Kárpáti, Lialia Kuchma, Annie Landry, Mary Lane, Danielle Lopez, Rebecca Mezoff, Janet Moore, Bennie Pabst, Eve Pearce, Pamela Penney, Ellen Ramsey, Helena Richardson, Jennifer Sargent, Tommye Scanlin, Rowen Schussheim-Anderson, Kathy Spoering, Vicki Stone, Annemarie Suglio, David van Buskirk, Katie Vota, Sue Weil, and Adrienne Weiss.

Make sure to RSVP for this amazing event!

Golden Hour at Epiphany:

Stop by Epiphany for Golden Hour beforehand for free live music, drinks and lite bites in the Café Bar! Doors open at 5pm with 1/2 priced bottles of wine and other specials until 7:00pm

Golden Hour Menu + Music Schedule

Please note that outside food or beverages are not permitted in the venue.