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Current Exhibit

From July 9 through August 29th, Quad City Arts @ the Airport will showcase recent sculptures by Andrew Casto and large abstract paintings by Julie Kottal.

Andrew Casto, from Iowa City, creates painted sculptural ceramic forms made from multiple castings of sculpted or found natural objects. “The architecture of nature and human interaction in natural processes inspire my current body of work,” he states.  “Just as natural form repeats itself, creating fractal lattice structures into infinity; our scientific advancements lead us down paths of shared permanence.” Casto recently received his Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Iowa.

Julie Kottal, from Cedar Rapids, is a gestural and large scale abstract painter of strong color with a fluent, confident palette knife. She enjoys the juicy aspects of oil paint and the physical act of painting. Her work combines tension and calm, order and storm, and seeing and memory.  Her paintings are spontaneous, energetic, and immediately suggest the lush forms of Iowa landscapes. We sense the presence of the artist in her work.  Kottal states, “My work begins with a feeling of a landscape but progresses to a color exploration and a falling apart of the composition, letting go the prescribed visual references to a landscape and allowing me (and the viewer) to wander and explore. I use a palette knife to apply the oils to give a tactile quality and enhance the painterly and gesture activity. I am attracted to the energy and resulting voyage painting emits. I love the buttery quality of the paint’s texture. It allows me to enjoy the overlapping partnerships between the paint, the composition and the painter’s trance. Oil painting for me is a solitary journey that ignites my curiosity and draws me in to ask, what if?”

These two artists reflect the two hemispheres of the brain, one analytic and scientific, working in the lengthy planned process of ceramics; and the other in the abstract, intuitive, and spontaneous media of evocative paint.

One hour of free parking in the airport parking lot, allows plenty of time to browse the exhibit.

Quad City Arts @ the Airport will showcase the history of aviation in the Quad Cities, through  photographs reproduced from the archives of the Quad City International Airport. Many of the photos originated from the photographic journals of Pat  Miller and Gabe Mosenfelder, two local legends whose families donated their scrapbooks to the airport collection. The photos  were selected, reproduced and prepared by local businessman and Quad City Arts volunteer, Chris Rayburn.

Quad City Arts is a nonprofit local arts agency dedicated to the growth and vitality of the Quad City region through the presentation, development, and celebration of the arts and humanities. All Quad City Arts programs are funded in part by Festival of Trees, Quad City Arts Partners and operating grants from the Illinois Arts Council (a state agency) and the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs. This gallery and exhibit is generously sponsored by the Quad City International Airport.