We’re excited to once again sponsor ArtPrize, as well as be featured as an official venue for multiple art installations this year!

Three incredible artists will be featuring their work in the Grand Rapids taproom for the full duration of ArtPrize (September 16-October 3), so make sure to stop by the taproom to enjoy amazing art while you sip a pint or two.

Tyler Saylor

ArtPrize Entry: Remembering The Old Normal

Tyler will be creating live on the sidewalk in front of the taproom September 18 & 19, 25 & 26, and October 3, as well as various times in between. His entry, “Remembering The Old Normal”, can be seen (and played!) in the taproom all throughout ArtPrize.

We’ve all felt interruptions over the past year to our lives on both a personal and professional level. One way I decided to manage that interruption was by finding a way to focus the extra time and energy I now found myself with. Spending time with both my best friend, and wife, along with my daughters to work with my hands to build functional engaging items that could be enjoyed by my family is what brought me to create this entry. As we’ve all learned to connect virtually, we’ve missed out on many of the face to face interactions we’d normally have with friends and family. One way we can all fill some of those gaps is by spending time outside with loved ones collaborating together. Throughout ArtPrize I’ll be meeting with attendees and showing how anyone can create functional items your entire family can enjoy and provide an opportunity for attendees sit down, chat with a friend and even enjoy a game chess or checkers while we slowly work our way back to the old normal.

L Lee Ligocki

ArtPrize Entry: TIC TAC TOE

Artwork located in the Brassworks Bar area.

TIC TAC TOE represents the challenges of relationships during 2020; whereas, as human beings our lives were disrupted, fragmented, and isolated. People were dealing with chaos, hopeless strategy with minimal resources, forming a cohesive lifestyle, relearning to live with restrictions, and in confinement. The concept of TIC TAC TOE is understanding the basic game is about strategy and observation. Using Tic Tac Toe games played during isolation orchestrated this concept. I have represented 4 games into social stages; planning, compromising, agitation, and hate vs love. The Xs and the Os represent human interaction during isolation. The use of red, yellow, black, and blue represents the physicality of the moment and the symbolic visual language depicts specific emotions within each color. TIC TAC TOE consists of four 40″x40″drawings executed in primary colors and black. The drawings are stacked and reshuffled to create new color phenomena, abstraction, and emotional statement.

Ethan Wright

ArtPrize Entry: Unbecoming

Artwork located in the Brassworks Bar area.

This is a series of works that will be shown together as a small collection. It came about as a direct result of the pandemic. Unable to draw in person, artists all around the world looked for other outlets to continue practicing. Networks evolved on social media that allowed us to virtually gather and continue to create. These communities have grown tighter and still carry on, even after the restrictions have been lifted. Covid changed everything (mostly for the worse), but in this case it created a supportive and energetic global community of life drawing artists. This is a portion of some works I created during that time and some new ones that will happen between now and September. The final assembly will contain 5-7 small pieces, each around 15×15. The work is a mix of medias on canvas.