Cerbera Gallery Presents: "Winter Salon V"

“Winter Salon V” Selected Works by Melanie Sherman, Genevieve Flynn, Katherine Bello, and Lori Keenan December, 2020 – February 2021

(Please Note: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and CDC guidelines for group gatherings, this exhibition will primarily be featured online. In-person viewing will be allowed via appointment only. Stay tuned in to Cerbera Gallery’s social media and website for updates regarding “Winter Salon V”.)

Enjoy an exciting line-up of renowned artists during Cerbera Gallery’s “Winter Salon V”. Original paintings and local hand-made, one-of-a-kind jewelry, ceramics, tableware, and decor – all making great gift ideas for the holiday season and beyond. Our intimate showcase features works by four established Kansas City artists: Melanie Sherman, Genevieve Flynn, Katherine Bello, and Lori Keenan.

Melanie Sherman is a ceramic artist, born in Germany and currently residing and working in Kansas City, Missouri. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute. Her background is in graphic design, where she developed an eye for pattern and decoration. In her ceramics she combines her love for ornamentation and her fascination with the history of ceramics, referencing 18th century European porcelain. Sherman has traveled to Asia and Europe to explore ancient and contemporary porcelain production of the East and the instilled taste for prestigious white and translucent table-wares of the West. She has been a resident at the International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary where she studied with the renowned Latvian ceramic artist Ilona Romule and deepened her love for designing with plaster and detailed china-painting. As a resident at The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China she developed her own designs with skilled local craftsman into a new body of work, exploring the relationship between the cultures, and how they continue to connect and influence each other through the ceramic arts. Sherman has been a resident at The Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado and Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri. Sherman has exhibited her work internationally, including Hungary, Canada, and America. She was awarded the 2014 Regina Brown Undergraduate Fellowship from the National Council for Education of the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and the 2014 Windgate Fellowship Award by The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design.

Award winning silversmith, Genevieve Flynn, has been working in precious metals for 44 years creating hollow-ware and art jewelry family heirlooms. Flynn has been invited to create various private commissions, including an intricate chased and engraved hand mirror that was presented to music industry personality, Paula Abdul and a commemorative 1985 World Series pin for the late Ewing Kauffman, then owner of the Kansas City Royals and Marion Laboratories.   Flynn perfected her construction skills while working as a bench jeweler for seven years after receiving degrees in jewelry design, jewelry repair and hand engraving. Considered a master at pierced metal, Flynn soon launched into an exploration in hollow-ware design studying under Heikki Seppa, the modern father of form emphasis through anticlastic and synclastic raising. Flynn went on to study the chasing and repoussé art form working under the Italian master instructor, Fabrizio Acquafresca and Valentin Yotkov. Flynn has dedicated a large portion of her career to teaching students the technical skills of working with the precious metals of silver, gold and platinum. One of her greatest accomplishments as an instructor is in the creation of her Metal Arts Visiting Master’s Program where she hosts national and international master level instructors in jewelry, and hollow-ware, drawing students to her teaching studio from all over the country. Her program gives students and artists the rare opportunity to study under a highly specialized master instructor in an intimate setting.

Katherine Bello’s goal as an artist is to capture a sense of place, a moment of time, or a feeling – to evoke a sense of wonder. Bello loves paint and paint brushes; bold, gestural mark-making and the interplay of color. She is influenced by light and landscape, poetry, history and science. Formerly educated in Chemical Engineering and Interior Design, Bello is drawn to the process of creating Something out of Nothing. For Bello, art is a point of view, not only of the artist who creates the work, but also of the viewer who examines, interprets and lives with the art. As an Abstract painter, Bello strives to push formal boundaries – Always questioning, always curious, forever exploring. Spontaneity, intuition, and memory guide Bello as she continually embarks on re-contextualizing personal nostalgia through her abstract paintings. Bello received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Kansas University in 1988. Bello’s desire to paint came to fruition later in her career. Subsequently, Bello studied Fine Art and Design at JCCC from 2006-2015. During this time, she developed her recognizable abstract style and attention to colorways. Bello later went onto study Fine Art at KCAI from 2014-2018 through their renowned continuing education program.

Lori Keenan paints for pleasure. Keenan is drawn to finding beauty in simplicity through still life’s, interiors and landscapes. In her practice, Keenan goes through a process of opening herself up to abstraction to discover new ideas of expression and composition. Keenan’s works usually develop from quick collage sketches of still life objects or patterns. Keenan enjoys working patterns and especially colors that she sees in other images into her paintings. She is not afraid of mistakes and often allows accidents to inform her work from new patterns, shapes and colors. Keenan received a BFA from the University of Kansas. Prior to developing her abstract painting style, Keenan was an artist at Hallmark Cards. She lives in Leawood, Kansas with her husband, Matt.     Please join Cerbera Gallery in celebrating “Winter Salon V”: December 2020 – February 2021     For all press inquires and group visits regarding Cerbera Gallery’s “Winter Salon V”, contact Philipp Eirich or Kennedy Burgess at info@cerberagallery.com. No First Friday for December, 2020.Tue.-Sat. 11-5pm by appointment only (844.202.9303)