A Conversation with Karen McCoy and Jarrett Mellenbruch
Online
Meet artists and environmental activists Karen McCoy and Jarrett Mellenbruch as they provide insight on their contributions to the exhibition Unconventional: The Legacy of Joseph Beuys. This talk is the second of two conversations that provides participating artists with a platform to introduce their work and reflect upon the continuing influence of German sculptor and performer Joseph Beuys. Moderated by Rebecca Dubay, Associate Professor at the Kansas City Art Institute, the discussion will conclude with a short Q & A session.
The conversation will take place live on Zoom, Friday November 5th at 12:00 pm CDT. Registration is required; please use the link below.
Jarrett Mellenbruch is a transdisciplinary artist with a public and socially engaged focus. His work spans a variety of mediums with an emphasis on public sculpture and research intensive socially engaged projects. Integrating divergent approaches into a conceptually elastic framework, he explores ways to cross-pollinate work between fields, in particular between his lifelong passions for art, science and ecology. Mellenbruch is a native of Kansas City. After finishing his undergraduate studies at The Rhode Island School of Design he lived and worked for twelve years in New York City and later earned his MFA at the Maine College of Art in Portland Maine. He now maintains a full time art practice and teaches sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Karen McCoy is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and environmental activist whose work focuses on the ecological plight of our planet. McCoy received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has taught at Colby College, Williams College, and the Kansas City Art Institute. Her artwork has been exhibited worldwide and featured in a number of publications, including John Beardsley’s Earthworks and Beyond (1998) and Paul Cooper’s Gardens without Boundaries (2003), among others. Most recently, she created a site-specific installation with the European Culture Centre for the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. Entitled the Floating Garden for Venice, the sculpture takes the form of an earthworm, woven from hazelnut branches and planted with salt tolerant edible plants. This work, along with an accompanying workshop series about making from plant materials, composting and gardening at home, encourages us to attend more carefully to all that is taking place around us, and our role in it.
Rebecca Dubay is an art historian specializing in art from 1945 to the present. She is an associate professor in the Liberal Arts Department at the Kansas City Art Institute. In 2018, she was honored with KCAI’s Excellence in Teaching Award. She earned a B.A. degree in art history and business management from the University of South Florida (summa cum laude), an M.A. degree in art history from Tufts University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the history of art from Bryn Mawr College.
