NEW SEMANTICS GALLERY
Improvisational Motifs: Drawings by Mark Donham & Sculpture by Brandon Smith
March 29 – June 15, 2025
- Exhibit Open: Tuesday – Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm & Sunday 1:00 to 5:00 pm
- Gallery Admission – Free
GATHER AT THE GALLERIES – EXHIBIT OPENING RECEPTION
Saturday, March 29 | 5:00 to 7:00 pm
Admission $10.00 | Cedarhurst Members – Free
- Open bar and appetizers | 5 to 6 pm
- Shrode Fine Art & Craft Competition Awards Announcement | 6 pm
- Gallery hop to see the art and meet the artists | 5 to 7 pm
- Shuttle rides to Shrode Art Center | 6 to 7 pm
Programming
Art Chat
Saturday, April 27 | 3:00 to 4:00 pm
New Semantics Gallery | Free Admission
- Open bar and appetizers | 5 to 6 pm
- High School Competition Awards Announcement | 6 pm
- Gallery hop to see the art and meet the artists | 5 to 7 pm
- Shuttle rides to Shrode Art Center | 6 to 7 pm
Gallery Sponsor:
About the Exhibit
Improvisational Motifs compares the work of two regional artists who have earned success with artistic sales that may appear difficult or unconventional.
Artists Mark Donham and Brandon Smith challenge viewers with their respective arts of drawing and sculpture. Independently, they each explore and push past the boundaries of tradition. Both artists practice spontaneous composition – modes which extend their creation-process over time and is intentional and goal-directed. Their drawings and sculptures are culturally complex and visually stimulating.
About the Artist
Mark Donham
from Brookport, IL is a self-taught visual artist, an accomplished musician, and longtime environmentalist with an admirable record of filing legal petitions to stop the harvesting of the Shawnee National Forest.
Donham’s art style is an offbeat, unconventional use of line drawing. Guided by his own volition, his bold style does not follow art world norms, but celebrate with bravado, an unexpected technique that explores serious content.
Mark Donham won Best of 2D art in the 2018 Shrode Fine Art & Craft Competition with his painting titled Friends.
Brandon Smith with his sculpture Untitled that is sited at NFE Realty, Carmi, IL
About the Artist
Brandon Smith
has been a coal miner for over 20 years, volunteers as a high school wrestling coach, and finds time to work on his art everyday. Brandon, his wife Cassie, and their son Triston live in Carmi, IL.
“My work unites the natural grace of wood with the raw intensity of metal, creating sculptures that are as dynamic and multifaceted as my own moods. I embrace an intuitive creative process that includes rigid plans in favor of spontaneity. Ultimately, my work reflects an abstract spirit, capturing both deliberate craftsmanship and the beautiful unpredictability of artistic exploration.”
