Painting
Explorations in Color
Resident Faculty: Shawn Powell
Visiting Artists: Sarah Slappey & Leslie Smith III
June 2-15, 2025
Non-credit Tuition Option - $1,250
Undergraduate and Graduate Credit: Undergraduate (3 credits); Graduate (3-4 credits). Standard tuition rates apply. More info available on admissions page.
Visiting Artists
Sarah Slappey
Sarah Slappey (b. 1984, Columbia, South Carolina) is a painter based in Brooklyn, NY. Slappey received her MFA from Hunter College in 2016. She has had solo exhibitions at Maria Bernheim Gallery (Zurich, Switzerland) and Sargent’s Daughters (New York, NY). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Pace Gallery (Hong Kong, China); the Pond Society (Shanghai, China); the Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, OH); ICA Miami (Miami, FL); Perrotin (Paris, France); Schlossmuseum (Linz, Austria); Marinaro (New York, NY); Musée D’Art Moderne et Contemporain (Geneva, Switzerland); Venus Over Manhattan (New York, NY); Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art (Suzhou, China); White Cube (Paris, France); Tick Tack (Antwerp, Belgium); The Pit (Los Angeles, CA); and Andrew Edlin Gallery (New York, NY). 
Slappey’s work is included in the permanent collections of Hirshhorn Museum (Washington D.C), The Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria), Pérez Art Museum (Miami, FL), Institute Contemporary Art (Miami, FL), Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, OH), Musée D’Art Moderne et Contemporain (Geneva, Switzerland), Orange County Museum of Art (Costa Mesa, CA), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), The Pond Society (Shanghai, China), The Vanhaerents Art Collection (Brussels, Belgium), The Zabludowicz Collection (London, England), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art (Suzhou, China). Slappey’s work has been reviewed by Artforum, The New Yorker, The Art Newspaper, Artnet, Artsy, ArtSpace, Harper’s Bazaar Japan, Vogue Italia, Flash Art, and Time Out London among others. She is represented by Bernheim Gallery, Zürich/London.
Leslie Smith III
Leslie Smith III is an abstract painter. His recent works explore the inherent personal and political properties of abstraction as they pertain to expanding notions of Black representation. Smith earned a B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Art. He exhibits both nationally and internationally, and his work is included in the permanent collections of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the FRAC Auvergne in France, among others. Smith is a Professor of Art and Chair of the Art Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Resident Faculty
Shawn Powell
Shawn Powell has presented solo exhibitions at 106 Green, Brooklyn, NY; Chapter NY, New York, NY; Abattoir Gallery, Cleveland, OH; Marrow Gallery, San Francisco, CA; and at The Journal Gallery, New York, NY.  His work has been included in group exhibitions and presentations at venues such as the Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; NADA Miami, and NADA New York.  Powell has been featured in print or online in Vanity Fair, Brooklyn Magazine, Hyperallergic, Artmaze Mag, Juxtapoz Magazine, New American Paintings, Newcity Art, the Midwest Art Quarterly, and with the Wassaic Project.  He has been the recipient of three Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award grants and has participated in artist residencies in Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy and Düsseldorf, Germany.  His work is included in the Akron Art Museum permanent collection, Fidelity Art Collection, and the Cleveland Clinic Collection.  Powell received his BFA in Painting and Art History from the Kansas City Art Institute, an MFA in Painting from Hunter College, and he currently lives and works in Kent, Ohio where he is an Associate Professor in Painting at ºÚÁÏÍø.