Paintings by world-renowned painter, sculptor to be on display at Alliance Art Gallery in June

HANNIBAL, Mo. — The Alliance Art Gallery is presenting in June several works by artist Preston Jackson, a world-renowned painter and sculptor. Jackson’s work explores themes of the human condition through the lens of histories and ecologies.

The gallery exhibit will feature large canvases paintings of African animals, showcasing their strength, power and beauty as a metaphor for that continent and its people.

Originally from Decatur, Ill., Jackson now maintains a studio and gallery in Peoria. Ill., and his works have found homes around the world. He was a professor of sculpture at the School of the Art Institution in Chicago and served as chairman of that department. Jackson is the recipient of five state public art commissions through the state of Illinois Capital Development Board. He also teaches children’s art, painting, sculpture and tai chi at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, where he is exhibiting paintings and 15 new bronze sculptures.

The collaboration between gallery artists Veronica Sandercock and Adriana Brown also continues in June. Inspired by Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, Sandercock and Brown have focused on the themes of healing, resilience and restoration.

This month the spotlight turns to the Brown’s paintings, work that embraces the quiet beauty and layered textures that emerge through time, age and lived experience. Just as the marks made in Sandercock’s Kintsugi ceramic pieces create beauty in what was considered broken, Brown’s paintings reframe traditional ideas of what is beautiful.

“I honor weathered surfaces and layered textures as marks of life and depth,” said Brown in a press release.

Brown is a Hannibal artist originally from the Kansas City area who attended the University of Missouri Kansas City, where she studied art and psychology. Her previous work in the mental health field enlivened her passion and understanding about the power of art in the healing process.