EXHIBITING ARTISTS [1] [2]:

David Boatwright   Charleston, SC

David Boatwright grew up in rural South Carolina, studied Architecture at Clemson University, lived for a time in New York City, and then moved to the West Coast in the late 1960’s. He received a BFA in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and became the school’s Skowhegan Fellow. He is a painter, filmmaker, writer, musician, and architect. Boatwright’s affinity for the sideshow began when he was a young lad and got separated from his family at the state fair.  He is interested in the backstories of the performers and the implied narratives of banners.

Sarina Brewer   Minneapolis, MN

Artist and naturalist Sarina Brewer transforms the natural into the unnatural. Holding a B.F.A. from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, she is a painter/sculptor-turned-licensed-taxidermist who specializes in creating outlandish fictional composite taxidermy mounts. She utilizes animals that are roadkill, discarded livestock, destroyed nuisance animals, casualties of the pet trade, or died of natural causes.  Her eccentric taxidermy sculptures have appeared in numerous publications in the U.S. and abroad including: The Weekly World News, The Sun, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, Bizarre magazine, and Maxim magazine. A self-proclaimed science nerd, she has created dozens of sideshow-themed taxidermy sculptures, including her rendition of P.T. Barnum’s famed Feejee Mermaids; the miniature aquatic humanoid of the south seas known as a Jenny Haniver; El Chupacabra mummies (the infamous “goat sucker” of Spanish folklore); and a cornucopia of freak barnyard favorites such as a 2-headed chick and a 5-legged 2-faced goat. [www.customcreaturetaxidermy.com/]

Kevin House   Vancouver, BC

Kevin House is both a painter and a musician. He was born in England, and raised in Canada and the U.S. He started his painting career in New York City, when down to a few dollars in his pocket, he found a roll of canvas and literally painted to cover rent, selling his work on the street.  House is schooled in the school of the unschooled and trained by no one in particular.  His work has been shown throughout Canada and the U.S and has been featured in national publications such as Canada’s National Post and Bark magazine.  House views his banner work as being part of the sideshow painting tradition. While working within this form, House also makes banners of boxers, animals, and dead French poets. As a musician and songwriter, he utilizes everything from the guitar and theremin, to animal samples and a moaning saw for live shows. [www.kevinhouse.ca/]

Leigh Magar   Charleston, SC

Leigh Magar embraces the classic craft of millinery.  After exploring painting and sculpture she moved to New York City to study millinery at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She makes all of her hats and headgear by hand and “from scratch” in her studio.  Her hats are sold and exhibited internationally, and are available at Barney’s-New York, Isetan-Japan, and at The Hat Shop in Soho, New York City.  Magar is attracted to the pageantry and costumes of the circus as well as the sideshow, frequently incorporating their styles into her work.  She is inspired by the theatricality of tiaras and crowns that might adorn the heads of whimsical sideshow characters. [www.magarhatworks.com]

J.D. Wilkes   Paducah, KY

Colonel J.D. Wilkes is best known as the frontman for the band Th' Legendary Shack* Shakers, but he has also received notice as a sideshow banner painter and as an artist of satirical comic books. J.D. graduated from Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky with a BA in Studio Art in 1995.  His work is regularly featured in exhibits at Nashville's folk-oriented TAG Art Gallery.

Th' Legendary Shack Shakers have been called "The best damn band in America" by Hank Williams III, and the Colonel has been dubbed "the last great rock'n roll frontman" by Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys. [www.theshackshakers.com/]

Kreg Yingst    Pensacola, FL

Kreg Yingst received his BA from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX and his MA in Painting from Eastern Illinois University.  He continues to balance his time between both his paintings and blockprints. During his youth he caught the tail end of the circus/sideshow era.  Through this work, he presents his own sideshow in linocuts based on real and imaginary people and events.  His visual influences are the old block print or ink illustrations of catalogues and magic books. 

[members.cox.net/kregyingstart/magicgalleryindex.html]

Kurt Webb  Chicago, IL

Kurt Webb received his BS, BFA, and MFA in Ceramics from Illinois State University in Normal. He received an M Ed. in Story Arts from East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee.  He recently had a solo exhibition at the University of Illinois at Chicago; and recent group exhibitions include A Tale to Tell: Contemporary Narratives in Clay at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Paper Politics at Seattle Print Arts, Seattle, Washington. Webb’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Library of Australia, Canberra; and the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Webb’s sideshow imagery consists of wood block prints, large carved wood-fired clay jars based on anomalies and curiosities, and small figurative clay mechanical marionettes based on real twentieth century circus sideshow characters.