INTELLIGENT WORLDS

Artist Statement

Alejandro Arauz is an artist and educator whose research-based studio practice investigates displacement, identity, and resistance within the Latin American diaspora. Working across printmaking, digital imaging, performance, and installation, his work examines how migration reshapes the body, memory, and material culture. Arauz situates printmaking as a "fugitive" methodology—a performative and relational process that resists fixity and mirrors the instability of diasporic subjectivity. By utilizing the body as a printmaking matrix and employing hybrid analog–digital workflows, he exposes how identities are constructed and circulated through institutional systems. Furthermore, his work interrogates the role of print in surveillance, repurposing tools of classification as sites of refusal and counter-inscription. Collaboration remains integral to his practice, emphasizing collective labor and distributed authorship.

Artist Bio

Alejandro Arauz is an artist and educator who currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Queen’s University. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Windsor.

His research-driven practice explores displacement, identity, and resistance within the Latin American diaspora. Working across collaborative and community-based printmaking initiatives, digital imaging, performance, and installation, he examines how migration reshapes the body, memory, and material culture through expanded print practices, while interrogating how print technologies document, classify, and regulate bodies. 

His work has been exhibited throughout North America and in Europe, and is cited in The Aesthetics of Resistance in Latin American Art in Canada by Dr. Tamara Toledo.

Artist Statement

I’m a papermaking artist who uses foraged natural materials to craft spacious sculptures, pulp paintings, and installations shaped by place. I begin by immersing myself in resonant shorelines, rivers, and forests, where I gather abundant plants, color, and sediment.

As a mixed-race artist of Taiwanese-Chinese descent, my work is a search for belonging. I relate to plants and seaweeds arriving from other places. I slow down to listen as plants tell the stories of the entangled ecologies at distressed sites.

In the studio, I dissolve plant fibers and reconstitute them into paper pulp forms. It is a collaborative process guided by material, water, time, and a spiritual expansion of self, where natural materials become emanations of place. The dominant culture divides humans from nature into a false hierarchy, and my work and hand papermaking process renarrates this dynamic.

My work invites people to slow into deep communication with the land, plants, and waters, giving opportunities for reconnection, calm, and nourishment in a crisis-filled world.

Artist Bio

May Babcock is an eco-centric artist who uses foraged plants for papermaking, giving voice to waterways, plants, and place. She transforms site materials into expansive installations, organic sculptures, and textured pulp paintings and prints. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and printmaking and earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Babcock has exhibited nationally and internationally at the Boston Athenaeum, RISD Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, The Center for Book Arts, and National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute. Forthcoming in 2026 is a solo exhibition at the New Bedford Whaling Museum and an outdoor installation for the Trustees. Her work has been collected by RISD Museum, Boston Athenaeum, and private collections. Babcock has installed public art at Brown University, Illinois State Museum, Rhode Island State House, and T.F. Green International Airport. 

As an educator, Babcock has taught courses at the Rhode Island School of Design, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and Louisiana State University. She has taught workshops at Penland School of Craft, Women's Studio Workshop, and Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, and been a visiting artist at Brown University. She has also mentored graduate students from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Rhode Island School of Design.

Awards and grants include a Creative Community Fellowship from National Arts Strategies, and the Citizen’s Citation for Environmental Education from the mayor of Providence. The artist was the keynote speaker for the Rhode Island Environmental Education Association Annual Summit, and in 2026 will speak at the Annual Cronin Lecture at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Her work has been featured in the Boston Globe, Art New England, Hand Papermaking, and Providence Monthly. Babcock has been artist-in-residence at the White Mountain National Forest, Cape Cod National Seashore, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park. She is the guest editor for the 'Ecology and Paper' issue of Hand Papermaking magazine, founder of Paperslurry.com, and is a certified invasive plant manager and master gardener.

Carmon Colangelo is Ralph J. Nagel Dean Emeritus and E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, Washington University in St. Louis

From 2006 to 2026, Carmon Colangelo served as the first dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, overseeing the school’s academic units — the College of Art, Graduate School of Art, College of Architecture, and Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design — and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. Colangelo was installed as the Ralph J. Nagel Dean in November 2016 and served as a member of the University Council and as the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Collaboration in the Arts, a role he continues to hold.

A widely exhibited artist, Colangelo combines digital and traditional processes to create large, colorful, mixed-media prints that explore various ideas about the human experience and contemporary condition, from violent weather patterns and climate to the anxieties and instability experienced around the world. More recent works extend this inquiry into technological change. While some pieces engage language-based AI models as conceptual prompts, the newest paintings return decisively to analog processes—drawing, watercolor, and layered surface work that reaffirm Colangelo's enduring commitment to traditional printmaking mediums and the handmade. Together, these works explore the interplay between human and machine intelligence, between fascination and unease, at a moment of rapid transformation.

Born in Toronto, Canada, his work has been featured in more than 40 solo shows and 150 group exhibitions across the United States and in Argentina, Canada, England, Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and South Korea. His work has been collected by many of the nation’s leading museums, including the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C.), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, and the Saint Louis Art Museum. He is represented by Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis. 

Artist Statement

Connections amongst us can be forged as thin as filaments and as thick as blood. The hooks that keep them bound can be just as tenuous and frail.

Fragile Japanese papers are often contrasted with dense German etching cotton rag papers, paired with layers of transparent ink and contrasted with bold gesticular marks to create my printed media. Digital and hand-drawn forms are uncovered, ranging from the biological to the everyday and child-like. These objects and anthropomorphs are distorted as they move through waves and ripples of color and texture, and are juxtaposed with static architecture and human-made entities as monuments to the Feminine and the Familiar. The space between these objects has the potential to contain; their absence forms the kinetic idea of holding and enclosure. Vessels exist in many iterations, and the duality of precious artifacts and mundane items evokes nostalgia and connections with time, care, and bodies.

Through this work, I extract the unlikely beauty from the evolution and decay of physical forms. Delicate and detailed anatomical images are joined with abstracted forms made of motion, reflecting the ethereal versus the permanent. 

Artist Bio

Jessie Hornbrook is a printmaker, multidisciplinary artist, and educator. Her imagery balances layers of intaglio, lithography, serigraphy, and experimental techniques to achieve a depth of media and message. Hornbrook’s visual vocabulary oscillates between simplicity and complex mark-making; from abstraction to photographic representation; and ranges from realms of intricate biological systems to the mundane coffee cup. Hornbrook earned her BFA from Central Michigan University and her MFA in Studio Art (Printmaking) from Louisiana State University. As the Assistant Professor of Printmaking at the University of Central Arkansas, she teaches five levels of Printmaking, Drawing, Foundations, and BFA Professional Practice courses as the BFA Program Coordinator. She is an avid member of multiple national printmaking councils and has shown work internationally in Alberta and Quebec, Rome, South America, France, and Spain. Hornbrook completed a residency in La Gran Canaria, Spain, to master the art of electronic etching and has studied mokulito extensively. Her passion is working with the tactile qualities of printmaking, and to pass on the alchemic knowledge that is embedded in the traditional techniques of print through a contemporary approach.

Artist Statement

These works are part of an ongoing project, We live through time, a collection of drawings, collages, and prints by Ryan O’Malley and Cassie Normandy White. This phrase precedes each title, inviting the works to be read through shifting lenses; to intertwine contemplations of time from a cosmic, geological or genealogical scale to a moment, or a breath. It alludes toward the creative process and our collective lived experience.

Artist Bio

Ryan O’Malley is Professor of Art and Head of Printmaking at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, where he also serves as Graduate Coordinator. He earned a BFA from the University of South Dakota (2002) and an MFA from Louisiana State University (2005). With nearly 30 years as a printmaker and 20 as an educator, his work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, publications, and collections worldwide, including shows throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He is a frequent visiting artist at national and international institutions and is cited in Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials and Process (2nd ed.) by Fick and Grabowski.

Artist Statement

In addition to my individual creative endeavors, I maintain an ongoing collaborative practice with fellow artist Mariah Doren. The work we create combines photography and traditional printmaking methods. Over the past fifteen years, our mixed-media prints have evolved through the development of collaborative strategies. We bring together our individual strengths to form a distinct artistic voice. Our work explores structures and systems in nature, such as mechanisms of seed dispersal, wayfinding, and plant hybridization. These concepts serve as metaphors for the connection between humans and the natural world.

Artist Bio

I received my BFA from the University of Michigan and my MFA from Louisiana State University. I am a Professor of Art at Central Michigan University, where I teach printmaking and contribute to a vibrant studio art program. I was honored to receive a 2025 Teaching Excellence Award. My dedication to artmaking and teaching is grounded in cultivating meaningful relationships. 

I have participated in artist residencies at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts (TN), Can Serrat (Spain), and Prairie Ronde (MI). My artwork has been exhibited nationally at institutions such as the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art (Novato, CA), Attleboro Arts Museum (Attleboro, MA), and the New Britain Museum of American Art (New Britain, CT). My pieces are included in collections such as the Michaelis School of Fine Art (Cape Town, South Africa) and the University of Northern Arizona Art Museum (Flagstaff, AZ).

Artist Statement

Ben’s images depict an autobiographical narrative critiquing relationships between people and personal identity. More specifically, as a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Questioning (LGBTQIA+) community, he uses personal experience to raise awareness and speak about issues affecting under-represented and marginalized people. Each piece is an expression of intimacy and is intended to have numerous readings beyond the initial view. The artwork is designed to communicate and help others by providing new insight into universal experiences, contributing to a wider dialog and forming a stronger sense of community and family. 

The personal memories he incorporates directly relate to family, relationships, children, and parenting. He attempts to raise questions about love, insecurities, social injustices, and values in contemporary society. Raising two children with his male counterpart affords Ben the opportunity to revisit his childhood, acknowledge his evolving identity, and determine his role going forward in society. He directs the viewer’s experience with tactile, visual, emotional, and psychological responses. Bitter and sweet colors bring the audience into playful surroundings while dense layers emulate a thick skin suggesting strength and resilience.

Artist Bio

Benjamin D. Rinehart is an artist and educator that specializes in multimedia images with a dedicated focus in printmaking, book arts, pop-ups, and movables. He is intrigued how pop-ups and movables keep the viewer physically engaged by providing a tactile and psychological experience when interacting with the various elements. His socially charged work is currently a part of over 83 public collections and has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, IN and a Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. Ben is currently a Professor of Printmaking and Artist Books at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. 

Artist Statement

Miscommunication and intentional obfuscation of reality lead to a misunderstanding of the world around us. I enjoy the contrast of labored, repetitive processes such as printmaking, hand quilting, and crochet with the immediacy of the human desire for convenience in travel, information, and entertainment. Combined with appliqué and quilting techniques, the multiple possibilities of the print allow for endless creation, destruction, and reconfiguration. Scraps from my process are repurposed into my “Footprints,” crocheted low-relief sculptures that combine exploration into feminist and family body politics with an investigation into environmental and social catastrophes. The ubiquitous shapes of clouds, smoke, spill, or ghost is a physical embodiment of the aforementioned miscommunication and fogging of the world around us, often lost in translation in a digitally mediated and fast-paced world.

Artist Bio

Hannah March Sanders received their BFA at Tulane University and an MFA in printmaking from Louisiana State University. Along with their partner, Blake, Hannah operates http://orangebarrelindustries.com/, an artist collaborative that organizes portfolio exchanges, exhibitions and other art events. They are currently the Coordinator of the BA in Art as well as Area Head of Printmaking & Fibers, and a Professor of Art in the Department of Art + Design at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO.

In their free time, Hannah likes to worry about what they should be doing with their free time, sketchbook, and go hiking. They also enjoy rainstorms, ink pens, and the smell of books.

Artist Statement

By examining my personal history of homes, I reconstruct locations as reimagined spaces. My images allude to the simplification of memories. Prominent experiences inform previous places I have lived. I include visible preliminary lines or underdrawings to depict an altered perception relating to the building’s structure. The imagery is made by combining drawings, photo documentation and 3D modeling that reflects a personal narrative. Materials for the handmade paper include recycled cotton and locally sourced plants native to the area depicted in the print.

The understanding I have of my surroundings are incorporated through landscape, implied narrative, structures and materials. I am working to acknowledge the fluidity of memories while reflecting both real and imagined spaces merging into new constructions of home.

Artist Bio

M. Robyn Wall is an interdisciplinary Canadian American artist. Currently residing in Jonesboro, Arkansas, she serves as an Assistant Professor of Printmaking at Arkansas State University (A-State). In this role, she organizes the university’s annual Print Symposium. Prior to her tenure at A-State, she held the position of Associate Professor of Printmaking at Delta State University in Mississippi.

Wall’s academic foundation includes a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors from the University of Manitoba in Canada. She continued her studies at the University of New Mexico before earning her Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University.

Wall’s work has been featured in over one hundred exhibitions globally, including the United States, Canada, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Australia, Italy, and Japan. She recently completed a Pentaculum Residency at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

Her commitment to the printmaking community is further evidenced by her service as a board member for the Mid America Print Council from 2022 to 2024.

Michael Whitehead is a printmaker, artist, and arts educator originally from rural central Ohio. He established his academic foundation at Ohio University, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Printmaking, and later received his Master of Fine Arts from Louisiana State University.

Whitehead’s work primarily consists of prints and drawings that explore the dualities of the American industrial landscape, capturing both its surreal horror and its sublime beauty. His technical approach is defined by a commitment to meticulous detail that creates immersive, dreamlike architectural spaces for the viewer; he seeks to encourage curiosity regarding the visual language of the factories and machinery that sustain contemporary life.

Central to Whitehead's practice is a provocative exploration of the built environment. He contends that the massive, interconnected network of machines spanning the United States will ultimately serve as the primary and lasting architectural legacy of a declining empire.