Indianapolis Art Center's Summer Exhibit Opens

If you braved the heat a month ago at the 42nd Broad Ripple Art Fair, you probably remember cooling off indoors and wandering around one of the Indianapolis Art Center’s spacious, white-walled galleries. This month through August 5, you need not be hard-pressed for a reason to come back.

Wanderlust seemed to kick in last weekend for me at the new summer exhibition’s opening night on June 15 when, as a former intern and Art Fair staffer, I returned to check out the newly installed show. The Indianapolis Art Center staff worked hard this past week up until the opening to prepare for exhibiting works of artists Michael Amis, Ana M. Lopez, Rob Millard-Mendez, and father-and-son duo Tom and Tyler Meuninck.

>> SEE pieces from the Art Center’s exhibition here.

Millard-Mendez’s Water-Craft show was the highlight of my viewing. Millard-Mendez greeted visitors as they got up close to see the finely crafted, quirky architecture of his boat-inspired sculptures. The boating industry that he’s a part of and a childhood spent on the dock both show up in his pieces, contrasted by the lack of that industry in a landlocked, remote Midwest.

Paintings and drawings by Tyler Meuninck hang in an adjacent hallway. Tom Meuninck’s ceramic armadillos and other rustic creatures are on display alongside his son’s pieces in their collective An Indeterminate State exhibit. Vibrant, surreal glasswork by Michael Amis (Comfortable Jargon) and intricate metalwork and drawings (Interpersonal Alchemy) by Ana M. Lopez, located in the Clowes and Hurt galleries, respectively, are the kinds of thematic works you could study for hours.

The exhibits are free to the public through August 5.

The Indianapolis Art Center offers two special classes this weekend led by two of the current show’s visiting artists:

Artist Talk and Demo with Tom Meuninck, June 23, 12–3 p.m. Free for members, $15 for non-members

Marionette Making with Rob Millard-Mendez,  June 23, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., and June 24, 12–6 p.m. $233.75 for members, $275 for non-members.

Photos by Meredith Cohen