Paul Henry’s Art Gallery will present an opening reception for Mental Maps, taking place at 416 Sibley Street on June 9th from 11am – 5pm featuring artists Sara Peak Convery (Chicago, IL) and Kerri Mommer (Munster, IN) This exhibition will remain installed through July 28. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am – 5:30 pm.

Sara Peak Convery is an award-winning Chicago artist, curator and filmmaker who exhibits widely in the region. Included in this exhibition are some of her recent self-portraits after cancer treatments that are brave, poignant, and beautiful. Convery is also known for creating large mixed-media pieces on painting drop cloths. Recently she has created a series of works using U.S. flags that are altered or combined in order to make politically charged artworks.

Kerri Mommer is an award-winning Indiana artist who works in Chicago. Her watercolor paintings use bright, vivid colors and exhibit a loose, free style. Some of her recent works are abstract paintings that combine watercolor and acrylic paint on synthetic paper.

These two artists interpret the theme of “Mental Maps” in diverse and fascinating ways. Maps are static and unmoving whereas the mind is always moving. Mommer plays with this juxtaposition by creating paintings on actual, static maps. The background maps represent calm, logic, and order. The paintings created over them are throbbing with intensity, movement, and bright, hot colors. Her paintings are glimpses into different parts of the mind, sometimes happy and uplifting, other times confusing or potentially treacherous. In this body of work, Mommer expresses a colorful view of the mind, with overlapping pathways, different levels, seductive traps, and sweet spots. Convery plays with representations of the photographic silhouette of her head in some multimedia pieces using a variety of materials, providing fascinating insights into her personal mental state. She also takes the static ordered nature of maps and reinterprets it in a series of geometric paintings.

Paul Henry’s Art Gallery is pleased to be able to include a representative selection of work by the late artist Mary Ann Gradisher (d. 2017), originally slated to be a participant in the show. A collaboration with Jennifer Fisher Jones (Decorah, Iowa), an artist known for her whimsical paintings featuring merfolk, is also included.

Paul Henry’s Art Gallery, 416 Sibley Street, Hammond, IN 219-678-5015

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Tags: Hammond, Jennifer Fisher Jones, Kerri Mommer, Mary Ann Gradisher, Paul Henry's Art Gallery, Sara Peak Convery