Rachel Adams

Rachel Adams is the Chief Curator and Director of Programs at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Adams holds an MA in Exhibition and Museum Studies from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her areas of research are varied but include a focus on the crossover between contemporary art and architecture, performance and video and new media practices. Recently, she curated Jillian Mayer: Timeshare, Ernesto Burgos: Implications, the group exhibition Light, Line, Color, Space and co-curated Introducing Tony Conrad: A Retrospective, the first exhibition of Tony Conrad’s work after the artist’s death at the UB Art Galleries with the Albright Knox Art Gallery.

Zoë Schneider

Born 1985 in Medicine Hat, Canada. Lives and works in Saskatchewan, Canada.

2018 MFA, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

"Zoë Schneider’s work stood out because of its mixture of playful and grotesque. Her palette, materials and compositions allow for a somewhat humorous yet uncomfortable entry point into her critical examination of what she calls “fat identity.” In a world that is forever judging bodies, this work brings a critical eye to how hurtful and tumultuous that judgement is."

Artwork Image: Gallstones, 2018. Plaster, foam, macrame rope, powdered tempera.

Kate MacNeil

Born 1989 in Charleston, SC. Lives and works in Buffalo, NY.

2018 MFA, SUNY Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.

"Kate MacNeil intertwines a variety of media in order to examine themes including trauma, memory and loss. Through her performative mark-making, Kate imprints onto surfaces, using her body in ways to speak through the messiness of life. While recently working through confronting the silencing of traumatic events and mental health issues, Kate’s work is a powerful reminder that abstraction is an artistic tool that can speak volumes."

Artwork Image: Vicious Cycle, 2018. Performance with multi-media.

Cory Imig

Born 1986 in Kansas City, MO. Lives and works in Kansas City, MO.

2018 MFA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL.

"Cory Imig’s work dynamically treads the line between two and three dimensions. Using simple, yet colorful materials including masking tape, ribbon, and ratchet straps, her work plays with architecture, form and how bodies respond to their environments. Through interventions she deems “site-sensitive,” she aims to alter her viewers’ perception and experience of space by creating new relationships that change over the time of their installation as they eventually respond to gravity."

Artwork Image: Orange Stick II (41.8441 N, 41.4382 W), 2017. Masking tape, found sticks. 144 x 432 x 16 in.