REGENHARDT GALLERY AT SHRODE ART CENTER

A Paradigm of Pixels: Mixed media work by Alex Paradowski

June 27  – September 21, 2025

• Exhibit Open: Tuesday – Saturday 10 am to 5 pm & Sunday 1 to 5 pm
• Gallery Admission – Free

GATHER AT THE GALLERIES – EXHIBIT OPENING RECEPTION

Friday, June 27 | 5:00 to 7:00 pm
Admission $10.00 | Cedarhurst Members – Free

  • Open bar and appetizers | 5 to 6 pm
  • Biennial Art Competition Exhibit 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

ART CHAT

  • Thursday, July 31 | 6:15 pm * during Thursday Night Live
  • Regenhardt Gallery at Shrode Art Center with artist Alex Paradowski and Carrie Stover, Shrode Art Center director
  • Free admission– everyone welcome

Gallery Sponsors:

Exhibit Sponsors:

Kevin & Cheryl Settle

ARTIST STATEMENT

Now retired from solving marketing problems and the constraints of client considerations, I relish exploring a variety of mixed media to satisfy my own personal aesthetic. I believe it’s clear that my design background is telegraphed throughout my work and continues to inform my choices and decisions. Despite the endless possibilities of creating an image, I work primarily in four ways:
1. I work on wood, (often yardsticks), combining acrylic, enamel, canvas and other materials.
2. Although I don’t consider myself a fiber artist, I also work with fabric, handmade paper and varnished crochet thread to create a variety of images.
3. My current concentration, paper mosaics, combines the time honored techniques of paper making and mosaic with today’s technology of digital photography to create pixelated images on handmade paper cubes. These mosaics seem to have two realities — a colorful abstract when viewed up close and more photographic reality when viewed from a distance.
4. Finally, in contrast to the labor intensive mosaic process, I also create more abstract images, collages, by combining layers of tissue with a matte varnish on a painted black ground. These are usually black and white with only the occasional introduction of limited color.
Regardless of technique my goal is always to evoke an emotional response from the viewer.

Alex Paradowski, Self-Portrait, paper mosaic

ALEX PARADOWSKI – BIO

I began my career as a graphic designer at a small ad agency during undergraduate school at Southwest Missouri State College, now Missouri State University, Springfield. After graduation, I returned to my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri to continue applying design acumen to solving marketing and communications problems for agencies representing a diverse group of clients. After starting my own graphic design firm in 1977 with no employees, I retired in 2012 having grown the company to full-service creative agency with a 50 person team recognized with over 500 local, regional and national awards of excellence.
During that time I was accepted at Syracuse University in a graduate studies program designed for industry professionals and served as an adjunct faculty instructor at Saint Louis University, St. Louis Community College and Webster University. I also served on the boards of a handful of local organizations.
Although I began producing art in 2008, it wasn’t until my 2012 retirement that I began pursuing a fine arts career in earnest. My work has been accepted in numerous juried shows at Art St. Louis, the Saint Louis Artist’s Guild, The Evansville Museum in Indiana, The Jones Gallery in Kansas City, Springfield Art Association, Gallery 510 in Decatur Illinois, The Foundry Art Center in St. Charles Missouri and of course, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts. I have been honored with several Best of Show and First Place Awards as well as the People’s Choice plus several Honorable Mentions.
My solo shows include exhibits at Row House Gallery, Craft Alliance Guild, Houska Galley, The Quad cities Airport, the Saint Louis Artist’s Guild and now the Shrode Art Center at Cedarhurst. I am currently represented by The Houska Gallery and Union Studio in St. Louis and State of the Arts Gallery in Sarasota, Florida