Art Gallery

Quad City Arts presents Art at the Airport featuring photography by Brad Perkins and Mark Weller with ceramic sculpture by Laura Vincent-Arnold.

From July 3 to August 26, 2024, Quad City Arts presents Art at the Airport featuring photography by Brad Perkins and Mark Weller with ceramic sculpture by Laura Vincent-Arnold.

Chicago-based photographer Brad Perkins, in his series “Lost Paradise,” examines the impact of tourism on the Dominican Republic and what happens once vacationers lose their interest in one tropical destination for another. Instead of brochure-ready resorts, Perkins focuses on abandoned hotels, waterparks, and beaches. These locales are no longer lucrative and are no longer maintained. Perkins asks us to consider, “has Paradise been lost?”

Local artist Laura Vincent-Arnold is inspired by the natural world. Her Wallflower Exhibit represents her growing collection of wall relief sculptures created by sculpting clay using ceramic tools and her fingers in a spontaneous, intuitive method.  Vincent-Arnold explains that “It’s like meditative three-dimensional finger painting. I’m inspired by shapes found in plants and sea organisms, both visible with the eye and microscopic. The resulting textures are reminiscent of foliage, flowers, fungi, and underwater vegetation.  Accompanying the wall reliefs are abstract vessels built using a combination of slab, coil, and pinch pot techniques.

Mark Weller of Wisconsin is a photographer specializing in time stacking. With this technique, Weller takes over 100 photos at measured intervals of time and layers them in post-production. Weller “weaves a delicate tapestry of two overarching motifs—the preciousness of water and the exquisiteness of time. Time, the elusive fourth dimension, intertwines seamlessly with the essence of my lens-based art, transcending the confines of three-dimensional captures found in traditional photographs.” Weller delights in portraying the Upper Midwest’s unique aesthetic, capturing the whimsical texture of the atmosphere.

All three artists find inspiration in the awesomeness and power of nature to create, alter and destroy.

In addition to the airport gallery, the artist’s works can be seen and purchased online: https://www.shopquadcityarts.com/airport-gallery.

Quad City Arts’ Art at the Airport Gallery

Art at the Airport in The Quad Cities International Airport is easy to find. It is across from the gift shop and restaurant and right before the security checkpoint. The gallery never closes, and you will pay just a dollar for the first hour of parking.

Quad City Arts is a nonprofit local arts agency dedicated to enriching the quality of life in the Quad City region through the arts. Support for art exhibitions is provided by the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Quad City Arts Gallery is located at 1715 Second Avenue in the Arts and Entertainment District of Rock Island. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m.–5 p.m. For more information, contact Dawn Wohlford-Metallo 309-793-1213 X108, or by email.

www.quadcityarts.com